I’m not running for anything so it doesn’t trouble me to write that my default posture on all things SBC is cold eyed, astringent skepticism. Maybe that is unfair to the hundreds, thousands of highly committed, loyal, servants who are employed by our entities or who serve as trustees of them. Still, I think I come […]
My DNA is better than your DNA
Many thanks to Elizabeth Warren for the recent attention drawn to DNA testing. While I have no interest in the political debate over all that, my interest in genealogy led me to explore this some years ago. If Senator Warren is between 1/64 and 1/1024 Native American good for her. That’s anywhere from a third […]
Plagiarism for a New Day
My sermon prep and sermon delivery professor, a former large church pastor, would tell the young Spurgeons on the first day of class that any outline or sermon submitted if found to be copied would result in immediate failure of the class. While that was to be expected (and who should expect graduate academic credit […]
How bright is the future for our beloved Cooperative Program?
October is Cooperative Program month. While serving as a pastor, I didn’t often have a special CP Sunday or emphasis although I regularly attempted to educate the congregation on our main channel of mission support. Of all our denominational efforts and enterprises, the CP is the one that needs the most explanation, education, and promotion. […]
Lottie Moon up by about $6 million
Final total for 2017-2018: $158.9 million. That’s not a record. The record is $165.8 million in the year after the missionary personnel drawdown. This year’s is second highest. An increase of about $6 million but with a change in counting. IMB aligned their tally with the SBC fiscal year, October 1 to September 30, so […]
What’s in a Name [Mark Terry]
[This article was written by Mark Terry.] I’ve always been interested in church names. Some churches are named for a place, like Fisherville Baptist Church in Kentucky. Others are named for a road, like Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Some are named for people, like Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, which is […]
Let’s call the CP up for the year just ended
The national Cooperative Program just ended a fiscal year and Baptist Press reports that the total received by the Executive Committee for distribution to the mission boards, seminaries, ERLC and a couple of other national entities was slightly less than the last fiscal year. National CP ends fiscal year 2.63% over goal The SBC received […]
What the record Annie Armstrong Easter Offering tells us
We Southern Baptist have two mammoth special offerings and when we can, we like to brag about them. The largest is the Lottie Moon offering which goes to our flagship entity, The International Mission Board. The other is this one which goes to our second largest entity, the North American Mission Board whose trustees were […]
Irascible, unrepentant, and contrarian…deal with it.
Only a few…I have to pace myself these days. And would you dour Calvinists kindly force yourselves to allow for sardonic humor? Coffee is coffee. You effete javasseurs who sip the expensive lattes, frappes, and cappuexcretas are nothing more than affluent, status-seeking wannabes. Note that the decline of the country’s moral tenor tracks inversely with […]
Four suggestions for using the LifeWay/GuideStone Compensation Study
LifeWay and GuideStone conduct this study of SBC compensation in even numbered years. The latest report came out just a month or so ago. It is helpful and useful. Here are some suggestions for pastors, staff, and church leaders on how it can be profitably used. Find the LifeWay/Guidestone 2018 Compensation Study and get familiar […]
Ten good news SBC items…
Doesn’t hurt to talk about it. Cooperative Program will probably be up for the fiscal year. The eleven month report from the Executive Committee earlier this month showed CP was above projection and slightly above last year’s same period results. Let’s be optimistic that the full year will be above last year. This is national […]
Implementing MinistrySafe child protection system in my local church
Churches I pastored, starting around 1997 or so, had written child protection policies. Before that, there were unwritted rules and expectations of those who served the church in positions that involved preschoolers, children, and students. I’m not a part of a church staff at my present church unless you count some volunteer responsibilities that get […]