William Thornton

COVID-19 and churches. Need anything more be said? The seminary president’s statement on CRT/I blows up. This is ongoing as I write. Messy. Alaska Baptist state convention votes to destroy the Cooperative Program. Very poor move by one of our smallest state conventions. As Ronnie Floyd said in response, "It's the CP program, not the CP cafeteria." Undermining the CP because you are mad at NAMB is not a good approach. Six state convention leaders issue joint complaint to the SBC Executive Committee about NAMB. Back in the sultry days of August, six smaller conventions sent a letter to … [Read more...] about Top SBC news of 2020 (Part One, maybe)

No. I’m not having a pagan party to celebrate but might indulge in a swig of ridiculously sweet egg nog, sans hard likker, to celebrate. I mean, we’re only getting 9 hours and 53 minutes of daylight here. That’s not enough for civilized people. After 5:02 this morning we get a little more sun each day. Southern Baptists could use some additional sunshine. It’s been a bleak year mostly with the virus (I haven’t been to indoor church since March 15th). The two gummit checks (second one coming soon) haven’t assuaged my mild moroseness over the whole thing. I’ve got friends who have … [Read more...] about Winter solstice today, thank God

Seems there's some sort of dust up over the proper title of Jill Biden, wife of the PRESIDENT ELECT, Joe Biden. Some business about "Dr. Biden" being the proper designation rather than just Jill or Ms. Biden or whatever. I confess that I thought she was an M.D. rather than an Ed.D. She has a doctorate in education, not medicine, not a PhD. Doesn't matter to me. It's a free country. She can insist on whatever title she wants. I'll not quibble about it. But nothing is more inflated in church life than this business of titles. Well, maybe egos are more inflated, but I'm writing about the … [Read more...] about Jill, don’t worry about that doctorate…at least from SBCers

For many reasons it appears so, and has for some time. Check the graph recently compiled by the SBC Executive Committee comparing various congregation types over the 1990-2018 period. You may find this and other data in Ronnie Floyd's recent excellent and informative article: A statistical analysis of growth in SBC congregations by race and ethnicity from 1990-2018.  To wit: Compare anglo growth, around 11 percent over the period, to non-anglo growth (African American + Hispanic + Asian American + Other ethnic) whose growth rate was over 30 percent. Anglo churches still make up … [Read more...] about Does the future growth of the SBC depend on non-anglo congregations?

It's "bombs away" on Pearl Harbor Day in America in the two Georgia senatorial runoff races. I'm being bombed by political mail. To date, I have received a single, lonely Christmas card and a dozen or more giant, colorful postcards about the Republican candidates, David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler. So far the Democrats have AI that determines that I am not to be one on which to waste their postage. I've received not a single Dem mailout. There's no party voter registration in Georgia but the Dems have ways of finding stuff out. Repubs also. "Urgent notice: your absentee ballot needs your … [Read more...] about Report from ground zero in the existential struggle to save America

Here's what ya do: Get the checkbook out. Sit down. Write a big check for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The 2020 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® goal is $175 million. That number is significant because 2020 marks the 175 th anniversary of Southern Baptists sending workers to the nations. The annual offering makes up almost 60% of the International Mission Board’s revenue and helps to support 3,535 missionaries and their families. I'm not a shoebox kind of guy, even though the church I attend does the boxes. Cold cash, or whatever cyber equivalent you choose, is the way to go. It's … [Read more...] about Lottie Moon! Eschew the shoeboxes. Money puts people on the mission fields.

The news on this is that the state convention for which Randy Adams is CEO, Northwest Baptist Convention (Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho - around 500 churches) had a "virtual participation Annual Meeting" last week. As he describes it in his blog (Virtual participation at the 2020 Northwest Baptist Annual Meeting) Messengers voted remotely on six items "in real-time through an on-line polling system" and the results were announced during the meeting. Participants could "chat" and ask questions that were read and answered. I gather this was like many FaceBook meetings. Adams has … [Read more...] about Why Randy Adams is still wrong about virtual SBC annual meetings and remote voting

...and I’ll raise a toast to that. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. ALASKA chose the worst possible way by trashing the entire concept of the Cooperative Program. How Alaska Baptists would destroy the Cooperative Program and blame it on NAMB, was my article of a month ago. The somber Alaska Baptists actually voted to excise NAMB from the CP. They will keep that money in-state. Bad leadership. Bad decision. Deplorable reaction to NAMB which has spent more per capita in Alaska than any other state. Maybe brains will thaw and that action will be reversed. Until then, Alaska … [Read more...] about State conventions are making opportunity cost decisions about the Cooperative Program…