Mark Terry

The Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting will soon be upon us. One item of particular interest will be the probable effort to defund the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Al Mohler (surprisingly) and Jack Graham (unsurprisingly) have publicly supported defunding, while ten former SBC presidents have advocated keeping the ERLC. Richard Land published an impassioned plea to Southern Baptists to preserve it. As for me, I support maintaining the ERLC. The letter from the former presidents mentions improving the Commission rather than abolishing it. That makes sense to me. If it needs … [Read more...] about Varied and Vacuous Observations and Opinions, Part FIVE

One stated purpose for SBC Voices is to give Southern Baptists a forum for sharing their opinions. A friend once quipped. “If you gather four Southern Baptists into a room, they’ll express five opinions.” Well, this post provides you with an opportunity to share YOUR opinion. You’ll find below five matters that I’ve been contemplating, and I would like to know what you think. For several years I served as the Teaching Pastor at Central Baptist Church in Crandall, Texas. Our beloved senior pastor, Charlie Wilson, often said, “Now, in my humble but accurate opinion.” So, let’s hear your humble, … [Read more...] about Your Opinion, Please

My wife and I were appointed as missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB) in April of 1975. If you do the math, you’ll see we’ve been associated with the IMB for 50 years. When we married in 1971, we wrote the FMB to tell them we were called to missionary service. The Personnel Department wrote back and said, “Wonderful, go to seminary.” So, off to Southwestern Baptist Seminary we went. In those years, 55 percent of the FMB’s appointees had studied at SWBTS. We were appointed by the FMB in April of 1975, and I graduated from seminary in May. (I’ve often wondered what the FMB would … [Read more...] about My 50 Years with the International Mission Board

Recently, I’ve been thinking about our Southern Baptist seminaries. The SBC owns six: Southern in Louisville, Southeastern in Wake Forest, NC, New Orleans, Southwestern in Fort Worth, Midwestern in Kansas City, and Gateway (formerly Golden Gate) in Ontario, California. There is a seventh Southern Baptist seminary, Mid-America, in Memphis. Mid-America is thoroughly Southern Baptist, but it is not owned by the SBC, nor does it receive any money from the Cooperative Program. The six seminaries together receive 21 percent of the Cooperative Program budget. That money is divided among the six … [Read more...] about Thoughts on SBC Seminaries (Mark Terry)

From Dave - in my advanced senility, I neglected to changed the author designation from my name to Dr. Terry's. My apologies. In this third part I’ll focus on three aspects of SBC life from sixty years ago. Again, these are my memories and experiences. My memory may fail me at times, and your experience might have been different. I should emphasize that I’m not contending that the past was great and the present is terrible. No, some contemporary things are better; but, then again, just because something is old does not mean it’s bad. Some things are just different. Local Church … [Read more...] about This Is Not Your Grandfather’s SBC, Part 3 (Mark Terry)

In Part 2 I’ll discuss changes in the SBC that I’ve observed in my lifetime (75 years). I’m not suggesting these are negative things, but they are significant things, at least in my opinion. One big change is the rise of Calvinism in the SBC. In the 1950s Calvinism was barely a blip on the SBC’s radar. I studied for my Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Seminary from 1972-1975. The only time I remember Calvinism being mentioned in class was in my church history class. We spent lots more time in class discussing dispensationalism and the Charismatic Movement, which was roaring at that … [Read more...] about This Is NOT Your Grandfather’s SBC, Part 2

In this two-part series, I hope to point out how the Southern Baptist Convention has changed during my lifetime. I’m 75 years old, and I’m a lifelong Southern Baptist. My father was a Southern Baptist pastor, so I’ve been attending SBC churches since before I was born. Now, I’m not suggesting that all the changes I’ll mention are negative. No, many of the changes were needed, and some were inevitable. Still, they are observable changes from 1955 until 2025. This first installment will discuss diversity in the SBC, and Part 2 will list other changes that I’ve observed. My wife and I are … [Read more...] about This Is Not Your Grandfather’s SBC, part 1

I serve as the Wednesday evening Bible teacher at our church. We’ve studied Psalms this fall. This past Wednesday, I asked the folks to tell something they are thankful for. One woman said she is thankful to serve as an advocate/counselor for sexual abuse victims. A father told the group he’s thankful to see his children growing in their faith. Both of those impressed me. My little grandson, age four, attends the preschool at First Baptist Church of Keller, Texas. They did a Thanksgiving craft this week, and he said he was thankful for McDonalds. That made me smile, but I can testify that he … [Read more...] about The Great SBC Voices Thank-Off

Hymns played an important part in worship during my formative years. I’ve written here on Voices that my earliest memory of worship is standing beside my mother at the First Baptist Church of Fairfield, Texas, while the congregation sang, “Bringing in the Sheaves.” I thought they sang “bringing in the leaves,” and that seemed strange to me. Why would people bring in leaves? Still, hymns were the staple of congregational worship for several hundred years. Old timers like me grew up singing them, and we miss singing the familiar hymns of yesterday. I teach the old folks’ Sunday school class … [Read more...] about The Great SBC Voices Hymn Survey

Two weeks ago, we published a survey on preaching. One of our commenters, JND, suggested that we post a survey on Sunday School. So, here is your chance to express your opinions about Sunday School. In many denominations Sunday School is just a program for children; however, in the SBC we provide classes for all ages. Chuck Kelly in his book on evangelism in the SBC (How They Did It) posits that evangelism through the Sunday School was a key factor in the growth of the SBC. I certainly agree with that. Sadly, it seems fewer churches emphasize Sunday School these days, and fewer still use … [Read more...] about The SBC Voices Sunday School Survey