This is a totally parochial article, pertains to the state of Georgia. Each state gets to put two statues in the Capitol Rotunda. The last time I was in the place, I gazed absentmindedly at our state’s statue of Alexander Hamilton Stephens while some group’s tour guide blathered on about the statues. Stephens was the […]
So, wear a stinkin’ mask…
…if that doesn’t exert you too much. Here I am in my blogging sanctum sanctorum, my basement of course, all masked up but only for illustrative purposes. I don’t quite get it when I see people in their car alone with a mask. I stay pretty close to home these days but venture out to […]
“Woke” won’t work here
“Woke” is a dog whistle, a red flag signal; a brainless, thoughtless, mindless, vapid bit of freshman frat boy drivel. If the word is snarled out in a comment it’s a lead pipe cinch that the comment is a flash of drive-by nonsense. There are good arguments for and against renaming SBTS buildings. “Woke” or lack […]
Some of our entities funded by the Paycheck Protection Plan
Retirement plus quarantine may provide too much time. Thus, the huge Small Business Administration database listing some of the recipients of the Paycheck Protection Plan loans. I make no moral judgment about those who chose or declined to choose to apply and receive these government backed loans. Generally, all the SBC leaders gave advice about […]
Humble advice for the passive pastor in the parsonage
I’m retired now but served three churches as pastor. For most of that thirty-year period my family and I lived in homes owned by the church, the parsonage. An article earlier this year on the subject, Behold, the lowly parsonage, covers much of the details on this. Comments were generally positive towards living in a […]
Is the small, single full time clergy staff church a luxury churches can no longer afford?
The adjectives in the title have meaning. I’m referring to the thousands of small churches, somewhere around the SBC median of about 70 in average weekly attendance, that have a single clergy staff, the pastor, who is fulltime and not bivocational. My first church, it was in rural South Carolina, was an example of this: […]
Cooperative Program, under considerable stress these days
I love an optimist and Baptist Press “staff” reports on our beloved Cooperative Program are invariably positive and optimistic. “Staff” should get a raise. Latest CP story headline: Cooperative Program giving highest in three months, down only 1.47% for year This is the Executive Committee portion of the CP, funding mostly for the mission boards […]
God bless America
This is the closest church to my house if you don’t count the bird house church in my backyard, a little box with a steeple that someone gave me. The church pictured isn’t my church but it’s Southern Baptist. I know the pastor who is a good guy. Good church. Good pastor. God bless them. […]
On the pastor having a good reputation in the community
Jay Adkins, occasional contributor here, was honored with an award as Citizen of the Year in his lovely town, Westwego, Louisiana. Well-deserved. Jay is the goateed guy on the left. Some of the pastors I looked up to were of the school where the pastor was not only to represent God in the community but, […]
The future SBC is more ethnic minority and less white
I don’t know if any SBC leader would dispute the title here and I appreciate the timely article from Baptist Press on the subject. I’ve been looking for it: Southern Baptists report growth among ethnic minorities despite declines in broader SBC Minority ethnic fellowships comprised 22.3 percent of the 51,538 Southern Baptist congregations included in […]
Have a meeting. Show up in person. Vote.
I’ll be glad when we are back to having mass meetings, as in the SBC Annual Meeting. I like the idea of having a real meeting rather than an online one. The moderator or chair ought to have to face real faces. Holding the SBC Annual Meeting either online as a virtual meeting or at […]
The Almighty’s hearty laugh at the American political church
It has always sounded so sensible and proper: Bible believing Christians should organize and work to elect likeminded political leaders who will implement, or preserve, our values and vision for our secular society. One major expression of that has been that ‘our’ president would nominate and the Senate would confirm Supreme Court justices who would […]