William Thornton

The average church percentage of undesignated gifts to the Cooperative Program is well under five percent, headed towards four and a half soon. Averages have limited value and don’t measure some important things, like the fact that a good number of churches give very high percentages, above ten, more than double the average. These churches, […]

When men, mostly clergy, start opining on sex abuse in churches, almost always the discussion goes in a straight line to false accusations, presumably because we have all had friends or colleagues who were supposedly falsely accused and they suffered because of it. This flips the matter on it’s head and presumes the low single […]

Let’s start with “woke.” Stumble across this and you can guarantee that you’re in a conversation beyond reclamation. Used by hipster wannabe crotchety old codgers blogging in their basements or some Twitter idiot who thinks he’s an enfant terrible. I’ll update my opinion on this to note that one on the SBCV team has explained […]

I knew I would be in for some interesting, and probably fruitless, conversations when a deacon strolled into church one Sunday morning with a hefty book under his arm. It wasn’t God’s Holy Word, large print with a thick, full grain leather cover. “Ah, Ayn Rand,” I said, “that depressing objectivist with a dystopian vision […]

Some years ago when I arrived at a new pastorate, I was handed a health care “bill” by the financial secretary. She didn’t know what it was and left it to me to figure out. Seems my predecessor made some kind of arrangement with one of the lay members to enroll the member in a […]

No suspense about why the SEC is the leading college football conference: money. The lowest paid head coach in the conference still makes more than $2 million annually. Some SEC assistant coaches make that much. My team, Georgia, will have no less than four assistant coaches making over one million dollars for the year if […]

By the grace of God and the tolerance of Dave Miller, I occupy the lofty heights of the SBC Voices Distinguished Chair of SBC Realism. Alas the chair is not endowed but I’m receptive to any offers. Here are a few questions for the SBC hoi polloi: Revitalization Church revitalization has been a buzzword and […]

There is nothing profound about this. You have a church and a pulpit. Use it to God’s glory. Sometimes events occur that demand your attention from the pulpit. The congregation looks to their pastor and church for a word from God in the midst of such events. I’m reading how every pulpit in the nation […]

My first writings here on SBC Voices was a matched pair of articles on Calvinists in the SBC: What I like about Calvinists and Why I’m wary of Calvinists. Those were in the summer of 2011 and, as I recall, each had hundreds of comments. What made me wary then was (1) Calvinists can be, […]

With that succinct sentence a church member issued a severe indictment of the man who was their pastor and preacher. I’d heard it before. The line is a standard complaint of some church members who aren’t enamored with their current pastor. I may signify something more serious, that  members have arrived at the conclusion that […]