It’s a foregone conclusion that the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) is more than “just another network.” Its own Steering Council members say so. Jim Gregory,[1] went as far as to say, “Get out of our way or get run over.”[2] The reason many are confused is because the CBN’s messaging is often double-minded. For example, CBN Steering Council member Rod Martin in an interview with The Alabama Baptist described the organization as just “a group of Baptists acting together to advance the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.”[3] In other comments, however, Steering Council members said the … [Read more...] about How the Conservative Baptist Network Took Control of the Executive Committee
The SBC’s New Castle and the Wall
It’s been 31 years since Joel Gregory’s famous “The Castle and the Wall” sermon at the 1988 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). As the illustration goes, Lord Londonderry owned a castle in Ireland with fine stones that the local villagers began pilfering in order to rebuild broken roads and buildings. Prior to an extended trip, Londonderry gave orders to his agent to enclose the castle with a well-coped wall, six-feet in height. Londonderry arrived several years later to find his castle had disappeared. In its place was a large wall enclosing nothing. Londonderry sent for his agent to learn … [Read more...] about The SBC’s New Castle and the Wall
The Handwriting on the Wall: What We Can All Learn From the Paige Patterson Scandal
In many ways, I am a son of Paige Patterson. Some would describe me as a son of the Conservative Resurgence, the movement he helped spearhead. Over the course of my fifteen-year ministry, I’ve been able to serve in conservative churches and on conservative boards because of a conservative convention, and I have Paige Patterson to thank for it. Not personally. It’s not like he pulled any strings for me. We don’t have that kind of relationship. But he did spearhead a movement from which I’ve benefitted. However, like many, I’ve been disheartened and demoralized by the recent scandal … [Read more...] about The Handwriting on the Wall: What We Can All Learn From the Paige Patterson Scandal
What it Means to be Someone’s Pastor
I was in my thirties before I understood what it meant that I was someone's pastor. This is saying a lot, because I’ve pastored since I was twenty years old, and I’m now thirty-three. I understood pastoring in an intellectual sense, but it took a decade before I understood the fundamental nature of the calling, which is that the pastor is the living, breathing example of the gospel to God’s people. This is well illustrated in Titus 1:5-9. Titus was called to serve as a pastor on the island of Crete. His charge was to “set right what was left undone,” which is a phrase with medical … [Read more...] about What it Means to be Someone’s Pastor
Casting the CP Under the Swine of ERLC Differences
I wasn’t raised Southern Baptist, but I became one when I was seventeen years old. I pastored my first Southern Baptist Church when I was twenty, and have since had the privilege of pastoring in the denomination for thirteen years. I also have the honor of serving on both the Southern Baptists of Texas Executive Board (SBTC), as well as the Southern Baptists Executive Committee. I am a deeply invested Southern Baptist, and deliberately so. I relate to the man in the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, and feel the Cooperative Program is like a treasure buried in a field we call the Southern … [Read more...] about Casting the CP Under the Swine of ERLC Differences
Yellow Dog Christianity
In sixth grade I donned a “chili-bowl” haircut, named such because it looked like someone put a chili bowl on my head and cut off the excess hair. I thought it was the coolest haircut imaginable, but it wasn’t. In Spanish class my teacher used it as an illustration to teach us a new Spanish word, specifically how unique my haircut was. I felt like Chewbacca at a Beauty Salon Convention. I got a haircut the next day. Sometimes things happen that challenge what we’ve always believed. A heart attack can make us realize we need to change our diet, or maybe we’re being used as an illustration in … [Read more...] about Yellow Dog Christianity
Is it time to reconsider church-sponsored Super Bowl fellowships?
I was in fifth grade when I first witnessed a tragic football accident. I remember seeing a boy lying motionless on the 50-yard line, surrounded by the coaches, his parents, and eventually paramedics, who would carry him off on a stretcher. He would live, but for now he was lifeless. The boy had collided with another kid and hadn’t moved since the accident. The event is something that I have never forgotten. I personally played football until eighth grade but quit in high school because of how much bigger, faster and stronger everyone was than me. I’m competitive like that. At the time I felt … [Read more...] about Is it time to reconsider church-sponsored Super Bowl fellowships?
WHY THE IMB’S DECISION TO BRING HOME 600-800 MISSIONARIES IS A WELCOME WAKE-UP CALL FOR THE CHURCH
Several years ago I pastored a small church in East Texas. Our annual budget was slim, and we barely scraped enough together each week to pay the light bill. A stout conviction of our fellowship, however, was giving to missions. We designated 10% of our annual budget to it. The experience was difficult, one that made me wonder if our tiny church with our even tinier budget really made a scratch on the proverbial surface of the lost world. One summer I found myself in Nazareth Village in Israel. I was on a tour of the country alongside several other pastors. While walking into a bookstore, one … [Read more...] about WHY THE IMB’S DECISION TO BRING HOME 600-800 MISSIONARIES IS A WELCOME WAKE-UP CALL FOR THE CHURCH
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service: Analyzing the Alleged Hatefulness of Intolerance
The other day I walked into a local restaurant without a shirt or shoes on, and, can you believe it, they refused to serve me. They said that my lack of clothing was uncouth and inappropriate. Feeling dejected, I decided that I wanted to do something nice for someone in need, so I visited one of the local hospitals. I figured that, of all the good things I could do at a hospital, the greatest is to perform heart surgery on someone. People can die with bad hearts, and so I thought that helping someone stay alive was a good thing. But I couldn’t find anyone who would let me perform heart … [Read more...] about No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service: Analyzing the Alleged Hatefulness of Intolerance
The Politically Incorrect Truth ISIS Teaches Us About Islam
In a recent contribution in The Atlantic, Graeme Wood published a piece entitled, “What ISIS Really Wants.” It’s an enriching read, offering a crystalline examination of ISIS. Personally, it wasn’t until I read this particular piece that I truly understood the difference between ISIS and other Islamic terroristic organizations, like Al-Qaeda or Hamas. Before today I lumped such groups into the same radicalistic category, but Wood helped me see that this is like comparing poisonous apples to explosive-laced oranges. Both are dangerous, but one is objectively more terrible. (It’s the … [Read more...] about The Politically Incorrect Truth ISIS Teaches Us About Islam