I’m not the best person here to explain or opine on this, since I’m not an active pastor and don’t have a payroll to meet. I know that many pastors are considering this. The Payroll Protection Act is a part of the CARES Act, the multi-trillion government response to the COVID-19 crisis. Here’s how Baptist […]
The government bailout of your church…possibly…but hopefully you won’t need it.
Hearty credit to GuideStone for their fast action, research, and simple explanation of how the COVID-19 Pandemic Phase III Stimulus Package might affect you and your church or ministry. Great work also by Baptist Press (which carried GuideStone’s Q&A Friday and a FB live event yesterday with Jonathan Howe asking questions of GuideStone Chief Legal […]
On releasing my inner misanthrope
Social distancing? Hey, I got this. I was born for this, brethren and sistren (“Hey doc, back off a bit would you? You’re in my space”). Six feet, you say. How about sixty? I DNA tested at four percent Neanderthal. Is it necessary to point out that the socially obtuse Neanderthals died out. This requires […]
My drive-in church this morning
Been a while since I’ve been to a drive-in theatre and I’ve never been to one in the daytime but we had drive-in worship this morning. It was novel. Pretty good. I commend my pastor and staff for setting up this addition to live streaming a sermon. The design of our building is such that […]
In times like these…folks get generous.
I gather that some people are hoarding items. My stash of frozen Mrs. Callendar’s Chicken Pot Pies is down to just a couple (my wife says they are inedible anyway, so they are mine! All mine! I like the KFC chicken pie, heavy on bread, fat, and salt but I’m not all that keen on […]
Does it really matter that the Annual Meeting is put off until 2021?
My simple opinion: “No.” Seems like just last year we were agonizing over the fact that no one wanted to attend the annual meeting any more. Attendance was down. Interest was flagging. God has a sense of humor and the SBC provides plenty of occasions for a good laugh. We’ve had this covered for 175 […]
I’m going to church online today…
…if you don’t mind a very loose use of the word “church.” I’m not going anywhere and watching a streamed service isn’t church, since I’m an unapologetic recalcitrant ecclesiastic who will never believe that church can be done without assembly of the saints. But, by necessity and for a few weeks, I’ll listen in and […]
BREAKING USELESS INFO: Hunkered down in my survival domicile…watching stuff.
I know one guy who has an actual survival bunker – underground with a year’s supply of food and water. I don’t think he has made the transition yet. I know a couple of people who have been big on accumulating guns and ammo, like dozens of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo. If […]
A once in a lifetime opportunity for churches?
Well, one hopes that anything like the current COVID-19 crisis is to be encountered only once in a lifetime. Never has so much happened so soon that affects churches. The World Trade Center attack, Shuttle disasters, JFK/MLK/RFK assassinations, Pearl Harbor, and other singular events didn’t impact the Sunday-to-Sunday existence of churches as has the virus. […]
No church services means revenues will be lower
There was a state convention staff guy who liked to tell churches that they could count on a certain percentage offering loss per inch of snow. The only reason churches I pastored ever cancelled services was because of snow and here in the south it only takes a little snow to create considerable chaos. Once […]
The rise of cremations and the demise of funerals with caskets and bodies.
Presiding at a funeral last week, I followed the usual protocol of leading a short procession from the hearse to the gravesite. The hearse parked close to a tent that had been erected. The body had been cremated and there was no stand for a casket nor a big pile of dirt thoughtfully covered by […]
Conservative Baptist Network to the six SBC seminaries: Drop dead!
I’ve been waiting since 1975 to find a good use for this headline in SBC life. Thank you, Conservative Baptist Network for the opportunity. Before they even went public with their mysterious new group, the CBN arranged a partnership with my old and beloved alma mater, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, TN. MABTS is […]