William Thornton

This is a change that diminishes the ability of members of cooperating churches from knowing about the entities that they pay for. Better take a look at this.   Current Business and Financial Plan, (In the SBC Annual this sentence is in Article XIV. On SBCNet, which I have linked, the sentence is not in a numbered article but is on page 9 of the BFP.) Members of cooperating Southern Baptist churches shall have access to information from the records of Southern Baptist Convention entities regarding income, expenditures, debts, reserves, operating balances, and salary … [Read more...] about Why does the updated Business and Financial Plan make it harder for SBC members to get entity financial information?

This isn't a sleeper item, it's been publicized by Baptist Press: Rewritten Business & Financial Plan awaits adoption by SBC messengers. It is a snoozer, though. Not one messenger in 100 will read it. Not one Southern Baptist in a thousand will care one whit about it, but it is an important item. The various entities are required to report certain things to the SBC Executive Committee so that the ultimate, though indirect, decision makers, individual Southern Baptist messengers attending an annual meeting, may be informed. The process is a mess, seems to me. Entities report a lot … [Read more...] about Perhaps the most important item in Nashville: updated Business & Financial Plan

In one of the great naval battles of history, the HMS Hood, pride of the British Navy, for years the largest, most powerful ship of its day, was sunk on May 24, 1941 by the giant and famous German battleship, the Bismarck. The Hood, launched in 1918,  was getting a bit long in the tooth but along with British battleship Prince of Wales engaged with the Bismarck and  German heavy cruiser Prince Eugen in the battle of Denmark. The Hood was hit by several German shells and sank in three minutes. There were only three British survivors among the Hood's crew of around 1,500 souls. Over 46,000 … [Read more...] about This day eighty years ago the ‘Mighty” HMS Hood was sunk; will the SBC follow?

This is the time of the year, just prior to the SBC Annual Meeting, when Lifeway Christian Resources releases the dreaded Annual Church Profile data collected for the previous year. Baptist Press story: Southern Baptists grow in number of churches, plant 588 new congregations amid COVID-19 pandemic. I'm in favor of emphasizing the positive so long as we're given all the data, not just the headline worthy stuff. Last year was a statistical mess with the pandemic; churches weren't meeting for much of the year, much less having intimate events like baptisms where hugs and close contact … [Read more...] about 2020 SBC Covid year statistics, not all that bad

One of the most common questions I've fielded over the past few decades is about the ordination of Southern Baptist clergy. The most common misconception in regard to ordination is that seminaries confer ordination after the individual graduates, along with the degree earned. Nah. Seminaries confer a lot of stuff but not the thing that lets the pastor or prospective pastor be properly addressed as "The Reverend," "Rev" in rural South Carolina, as in "Hey, Rev...". Here are a few facts and opinions on Southern Baptist ordination: There is no Southern Baptist theology of ordination, or … [Read more...] about Southern Baptist don’t have a theology of ordination, do they?

I recall one of the moderate candidates, Winifred Moore, back in the day of the original Conservative Resurgence having a campaign that included airport stops with news interviews. The idea was, one supposes, to get on television news or in print. Moore was quite the avuncular preacher with homespun stories but rather unsuited for this type of campaigning. He looked like he'd rather be doing anything but what he was doing but then running against Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley was an unenviable task. My youthful observations back in that day were that, Adrian Rogers didn't need to … [Read more...] about Is this the most aggressive, most contested SBC presidential contest in history?

Seminary professors Malcolm Yarnell and Keith Whitfield wrote an article put here on February 16, 2019, Addressing Abuse in the SBC: A Proposal. Keith Whitfield is Professor of Systematic Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Malcolm Yarnell is Research Professor of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is the only concrete proposal I have seen from any in the SBC that goes beyond providing resources and educating SBC pastors and churches. For some time now, SBC seminaries have been requiring students to take some level of training in the area of … [Read more...] about ICYMI, Yarnell and Whitfield proposal for addressing abuse in the SBC

Somewhere it is inscribed in stone, as if by the finger of God, that there must be SBC state conventions and that they must receive the lion's share of Cooperative Program revenues. Such is not inscribed by the finger of the Almighty but by the finger of respected but not omnipotent denominational bureaucrats. Our venerable Cooperative Program is almost a century old. It is not vigorous in it's old age and even though it is rather weak of eye and has been in declining health for generations, still transfers $467 million dollars from church offering plates to a variety of destinations. … [Read more...] about Does the Cooperative Program make state conventions lazy and inefficient?

I’m the guy who will actually bend over and pick up a penny in a parking lot. In a restaurant parking lot at the beach eagle-eye Plodder spotted a bill behind the car parked next to mine. Nope, not an old school Gospel tract fake currency, guaranteed to alienate restaurant servers who think they have a big tip, but a real bill. Guys fold a $100 bill I twice and stick it behind their insurance card. Some dude dropped his. I found it. What should I have done? What should I do? _________ I’m also the guy who has never found anything of value, until now. … [Read more...] about OK, so I found a hundred dollar bill

The average attendance at the main weekly worship service for a cooperating Southern Baptist church is around 100. LifeWay gave me a figure of 70 a few years ago along with a median size of 125. There are different ways to calculate it but, regardless of the method, the Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of small churches.  But only a fraction of churches get the attention, provide the high-profile leadership positions and, for better or worse, provide the public with what an SBC church looks like. Sometimes this is positive. Sometimes it is negative. Average sized SBC … [Read more...] about Lost in the clamor of clergy abuse, CRT/I, and any other controversy: the SBC is and always has been a convention of small churches