Easter Weekend will never be the same for me again. Last Good Friday was like any other. I went to work all day. I drove home. My wife and I headed to our church to sing and pray and remember Jesus’ death for us together as a body. We pulled a dinner audible afterwards and […]
Jedi Council: Advice for Church Funding Requests
After recently taking my 9 year-old cousin to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 3D for his birthday, I’ve decided to pretend that our SBC Voices comment club is our own version of the Jedi Council and to do a few posts asking for wise, sage, and Yoda-like counsel. To quote Yoda himself, “Up to you […]
Surprising Global Opportunities
In a town across the waters live members of one of the world’s largest unreached people groups. In the past 20 years, their population in this city has grown from about 8,000 to around 60,000. While their home country’s political situation is tumultuous, in this new city there is stability and religious/political freedom, including the […]
The Aroma of Christ
The other night we got home late after eating dinner at the home of one of my coworkers. It was well past our dog Caleb’s 6 o’clock dinner time and I was certain that he would be starving as we got home at about 10:30. He did his customary run of freedom around the couch […]
A solution to weekly worship woes…
Should you preach ignorantly, half-heartedly, “going through the motions” or with the wrong motives? Should you listen to preaching ignorantly, half-heartedly, “going through the motions” or with the wrong motives? Should you worship in song ignorantly, half-heartedly, “going through the motions” or with the wrong motives? Should you give financially ignorantly, half-heartedly, “going through the […]
The Pastor’s Family and Church Involvement…
One of the scariest things for me as a young person in ministry is the issues related to a pastor (or staff member, etc.) and his family’s involvement in the life of the local church. I’ve known quite a few different situations and I often wonder what the best approach is for a pastor and […]
Readers and Do-ers…
Hey everyone. It’s been a crazy couple weeks in the SBC blogosphere between the convention and other “discussions”. I personally am taking a brief hiatus from the blogosphere for the month of July (and maybe August). The hardest part won’t be skipping writing and commenting, but keeping myself from reading everything going on out there […]
Assignment for Orlando…
I wish I could go to the SBC. Alas, Orlando is a 3-week wagon journey from where I live and fording the rivers is tough this time of year. It would be fun to meet many of you who interact on this blog and authors of other blogs I check out through the awesome meta-feed […]
Dr. Morris Chapman weighs in on GCR Report
Over at Baptist Press, soon-to-retire SBC Executive Committee President and C.E.O. Dr. Morris Chapman has posted a lengthy almost 9,000 word response to the final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. I highly encourage people to read it as it provides the perspective of someone who knows the ins-and-outs of SBC convention life […]
When Preaching “Jumps the Shark”…
“Jumping the shark” is a phrased often used in the television industry to refer to the moment it’s realized that a once-good program has begun a downward descent into mediocrity and eventually obscurity. It refers to a classic set of episodes from the program “Happy Days” where the character Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli (you may know […]
“Perspectives on the World Christian Movement”
Since its initial publication in 1981, the missions anthology Perspectives on the World Christian Movement has been read (or skimmed) by countless seminary and college students, missionaries, and interested lay people. In my case, I got to read it in both undergrad and graduate classes (with detailed quizzes to ensure I hadn’t skimmed!). As my […]
Book Review: “Radical” by David Platt
Book Review- “Radical” by David Platt Following blogs and the general “word” on the ‘Net around the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, I kept hearing one surprising piece of information that didn’t involve convention motions or politics. The general buzz concerned a sermon at the Pastor’s Conference by a pastor from Alabama named David […]