William Thornton

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: around 70 in attendance and I was the only staff member. I was fulltime and not bivocational. Seventy is the median church size in the SBC. LifeWay's latest Compensation Study, 2018, showed churches in the 50-100 attendance range as paying their senior pastor a package … [Read more...] about Is the small, single full time clergy staff church a luxury churches can no longer afford?

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 and seminaries, not the whole thing. State conventions still keep around 60% of every CP dollar from the churches and a progress report that combines all of the states isn't issued monthly like the SBC portion. Numbers: CP at the national … [Read more...] about Cooperative Program, under considerable stress these days

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. Like many churches in the area they decorate the property with American flags around Independence Day. One of the largest SBC churches in my area must have a hundred or more medium sized flags lining their property, along the driveway and parking areas. Very colorful. I don't have any issue with any of … [Read more...] about God bless America

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, seemingly, was to make himself odious in the community, since the world is going to Hell and he, alone, is there to fight sin and the devil. Others preferred to be ensconced in their paneled study, alone with the Almighty like Moses, and without the time to mix and mingle with ordinary … [Read more...] about On the pastor having a good reputation in the community

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 the report regarding 2018, the most recent year studied, using data from LifeWay Research and the North American Mission Board (NAMB). This isn't news in a sense. NAMB has long been active and aggressive in this area, as have many state … [Read more...] about The future SBC is more ethnic minority and less white

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 various satellite locations is not an option under the SBC's governing documents. May it ever be so. Although annual meetings have been live-streamed for years, the SBC's governing documents require all business conducted at the Annual Meeting be done by "messengers present and voting in person." The COVID-19 … [Read more...] about Have a meeting. Show up in person. Vote.

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 make the ‘right’ decisions. I’m a retired SBC pastor who bought into this with the Reagan tide of 1980. At a modest level I put out voter guides, preached an occasional sermon that might address the latest outrage du jour, and engaged in a bit … [Read more...] about The Almighty’s hearty laugh at the American political church

I'm taking a stroll, golf cart ride actually, through our small town. The route always takes me through our historic cemetery. By an odd coincidence, call it providential if you want to be spiritual, I was called to pastor the Baptist church in this town where a couple of relatives of mine had married (the second marriage for one, third and fourth for another), lived a short while, died and were buried. The picture is of the grave of my great-great-grandfather. The color accent is the Confederate flag. The first year the flag appeared was a surprise. I quickly discerned that it had to do … [Read more...] about The strange war on statues and monuments

I have posted several times over the past three months, sharing how our church has coped during the pandemic. I this post I’ll share what we’ve done in regard to reopening the church. We began holding in person worship services on May 24th. This was in accordance with the recommendations of our state government (Texas) and state Baptist convention. We taped off every other pew and encouraged our folks to distance themselves on the occupied pews. We left most of the interior doors open. We did not pass the offering plates, and we did not have a greeting time. We placed Palm+ hand sanitizer … [Read more...] about COVID-19 Church Update [By Mark Terry]

There would be a lot of sweating going on, profuse by some of the more portly Reverends. There would surely be protests, multiple protests I believe. The abuse victims and advocates would be there (with both JDG and Cedarville featured on their placards and signs; the latter, BTW, I recall having a major exhibit hall presence the last year or two). BLM would be there. Will there ever be an SBC annual meeting without protests? The usual backslapping everywhere, an indication in most cases of genuine joy over seeing old friends. Watch the eyes though. If the look is over your shoulder … [Read more...] about If we were meeting in Orlando this week this is what would be happening