Mark Terry

My apologies! I posted this for Mark Terry and forgot to change the author from Dave to Mark! You can color me surprised. Last Sunday, by the order of the governor of Texas, we had to cancel our public worship service. We did have our men’s prayer meeting at 8:00 a.m., assuming we would not have more than ten guys. We had seven, so we did not violate the governor’s ban against meetings of more than ten people. Usually, when we emerge from our prayer meeting, I see our church hallways filled with people who are talking, laughing, shaking hands, hugging necks, and catching up on each other’s … [Read more...] about Color Me Surprised (Mark Terry)

Last week William Thornton and J D Greear published articles about the low baptism statistics in the SBC. Between them they mentioned most of the pertinent factors. J D Greear led by lamenting the low level of spiritual fervency in our churches. For sure, he is not the only one to mention that. In the comments on William’s post, Bob Cleveland wrote this: “When I read the account, in Acts, of the day of Pentecost, which resulted in 3,000 people being saved and baptized, I must ask what they had that we don’t have today. Because, whatever it is, it’s missing now.” Bob’s comment inspired me to … [Read more...] about Can We Experience the Book of Acts Today?

At our church, our staff has discussed what to do about the Sunday evening service. Since I’ve been a member here, we’ve not succeeded in attracting many attenders to the evening service. Our church is a traditional, small-town church in Texas. The church has always held a Sunday night service. Last summer our church staff decided to give the evening service one more try. So, we’ve had Sunday evening services from 5:00-6:00 p.m. I serve as the teaching pastor, and I’ve preached a series of sermons on What Baptists Believe. What more could people want? Nevertheless, we only draw 50-60 people. … [Read more...] about What about Sunday Night Services?

In recent years our SBC evangelism statistics have declined significantly. Dr. Jeff Iorg, the President of Gateway Seminary (formerly Golden Gate Baptist Seminary) spoke about this in his convocation message in the fall semester of 2019: “Southern Baptists have a declining effectiveness in sharing the Gospel with non-Christians and leading them to profess faith in Jesus," he said. "Since baptism is the first act of public obedience for a new believer, baptismal rates are one important measure of evangelistic effectiveness. By that key indicator, our effectiveness in leading people to faith … [Read more...] about Why Is It Harder to Evangelize?

For most of my fifty years in ministry, I’ve served as a foreign missionary or seminary professor. However, in my senior years, I’ve been called to serve as the Teaching Pastor of our church. This new responsibility has prompted me to think about the calling of pastors. For sure, it is a high calling, and it is a challenging one, too. The Pastor’s Challenge To describe the indescribable—" Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15, NKJV) I thought about this the other day. We are expected to stand before our churches and describe the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ to … [Read more...] about The Pastor’s High Calling

We often declare that all Southern Baptist churches strive to be true New Testament churches. I don’t disagree with that aspiration, but I wonder if we give sufficient thought to what that means. It seems to me that we often idealize the New Testament church. That is, when we speak of the “New Testament Church,” we have a perfect, first-century congregation in mind. A careful reading of the New Testament reveals churches that struggled mightily, much like the imperfect churches we serve today. Note the problems in these churches mentioned in the New Testament. Jerusalem. The members … [Read more...] about So You Want Your Church to Be a New Testament Church?

Last week I posted an essay on Baptist church autonomy. As I did the research for that essay, I found some interesting material in Howard Forshee’s Broadman Church Manual. This manual is quite helpful, and I’ve given copies to several new pastors. In his book Forshee quotes from Lee McCoy’s book, Understanding Baptist Polity, sharing the principles of New Testament polity. The word “polity” pertains to governance. My comments are in parenthesis. God is the sovereign ruler of all mankind. Christ is the head and divine teacher of the church. (Eph 5:23) The Holy Spirit is our guide and … [Read more...] about Ten New Testament Principles on Polity

In the past months, writers and commenters here at Voices have used the word autonomy often. The word basically means “self-ruled.” For example, some nations have regions that are semi-autonomous, meaning the region has a measure of independence. What does this word mean in the context of the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches? To answer this question, I consulted the Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists. I assumed it would include an article on church autonomy, but to my surprise, it did not. I did find an article entitled “Authority of the Southern Baptist Convention.” Here is an … [Read more...] about What Does Autonomy Mean for the SBC?

In recent weeks we’ve commented extensively on the need to revoke the ordination of pastors who have been convicted of child/sexual abuse. I’m confident our Voices writers and readers agree on that. We have not discussed how that can be done. That thought prompted me to do some research on revoking ordination. I checked the Broadman Minister’s Manual by Franklin Segler, a longtime professor of practical theology at SWBTS. His chapter on ordination is detailed and helpful, but he does not mention revocation. I also consulted W. A. Criswell’s Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors. His chapter … [Read more...] about Revoking Ordination