Luke Holmes

If you travel through the country side of Oklahoma, and prob other places too, there is one thing you can be certain to see. They go by different names depending on where you live. I've seen them called stone cribs, corner posts, or the ever descriptive "rock piles."  Every so often at the corner of a property there is a pile of rocks, 4 or 5 feet tall, with fencing wrapped around them to hold them together.  Some of these rock corner posts have been there for generations.  It was easier to stack rocks than dig holes in the ground, and provided a good place to pile up the rocks that littered … [Read more...] about Fences Aren’t For Sitting

It would be understandable if E.W. Perry was nervous as a silence fell over the hushed crowd. He had stood before large congregations of all sizes for most of his life. But never before had someone like him stood before a group like this. The seasoned preacher did what he always did. He opened his Bible and began to expound God's word. Over the next hour, those attending the mostly-white Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Oklahoma City in 1949 sat spellbound as his heart poured out the Gospel. The son of former slaves preached before the convention founded so that slaveholders could be … [Read more...] about Baptists You Should Know: EW Perry

Over the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, there have been many gifted preachers. Those men have been used by God to provide timely and prophetic sermons that have guided, shaped, and corrected the course of individuals, churches, and the SBC. In this series, we will look at some of those sermons. Even though most of these men will be dead, the message that they preached lives on because of the truth of the ever-living Word of God. Lasting just over a decade, the Conservative Resurgence took control of the SBC and her entities from those that were deemed as liberals. It … [Read more...] about Famous Baptist Sermons: Whether We Live or Die WA Criswell

When the SBC was formed in 1845, it started with two main entities, the "Board of Domestic Missions"  and the Foreign Mission Board, later to become NAMB and the IMB.  Over time the entity list has grown to include 6 seminaries, Guidestone, Lifeway, and the ERLC. Most of these institutions have easily understood purposes, such as the seminaries to train pastors.  Recent events in the SBC show that many misunderstand the reasons behind the formation of the ERLC and what role it plays in the SBC today.  The following is a brief history about the work of the ERLC, their purposes, and their … [Read more...] about A brief history of the ERLC

As a young boy I read a book about the race horse "Man of War." As a small child growing up in the big city, I didn't know anything about horses, and as a baptist I especially didn't know about horse racing.  But the book told me all I needed to know about the infamous horse.  He was incredibly tall at over 16 hands, weighed over 1100 pounds, and ate over 12 quarts of oats everyday.  He was more than just his looks though, as he dominated almost every race he was in.  He won 20 out of 21 races and was named "Athlete of the Year" in 1920, sharing the honor with Babe Ruth.  When he retired to … [Read more...] about In Praise of Plow Horses

In 1887 the famous missionary Lottie Moon was struggling on the mission field in China.  She knew that the harvest was great and she was doing her best to reap the harvest. But she also knew that more workers were needed.  In that year Moon wrote a letter requesting funds for help on the field.  That Christmas an offering was taken that eventually bore her name and continues to make a lasting impact on the work of Southern Baptists around that world. But that wasn’t the only big event in world missions that year. Across the world in the small town of Cowpens, SC a baby girl was born to John … [Read more...] about Baptists You Should Know: Bertha Smith

Over the history of the Southern Baptist Convention there have been many gifted preachers. Those men have been used by God to provide timely and prophetic sermons that have guided, shaped, and corrected the course of individuals, churches, and the SBC. In this series we will look at some of those sermons. Even though most of these men will be dead, the message that they preached lives on because of the truth of the ever living Word of God.   When RG Lee was a young pastor in SC, a deacon came up to him after a prayer meeting where he had given a devotion.  The deacon told the young … [Read more...] about Famous Baptist Sermons: Payday Someday by RG Lee

The history of the SBC includes thousands of missionaries, pastors, workers, and others who often get lost to history.  My goal is to highlight a few of those people in order that we can be encouraged and inspired by their lives and sacrifice.  Milledge Theron Rankin was born on July 28, 1894, in Newberry, South Carolina as the fourth child and third son of his parents.  His father was Milledge Whitfield Rankin, a Baptist preacher who served small and medium-sized churches through a long ministry in South Carolina. Like most ministers of that time, MW Rankin made a modest living for a family … [Read more...] about Baptists You Should Know, M. Theron Rankin