William

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

Right before our non-convention comes the release of the SBC Annual Statistical Report. For some years it has been lamentable; thus, my personal descriptor of it as the "annual SBC statistical weepfest." General reaction from denominational leaders usually ranges from despair to depression and calls for SBCers to do better are noised about widely, the thought being if we just worked harder, prayed more, witnessed more, and had more money and programs we would be seeing mid-twentieth century rocket ship numbers. Baptist Press story: Southern Baptist Convention continues statistical decline, … [Read more...] about Here it is. The annual SBC statistical weepfest…and Ronnie Floyd is right

[To be clear, they’re not asking churches for offerings.] All of our entities have suffered. Jobs have been cut and budgets reduced. Financial outlooks have been tempered by the virus crisis. I thought that our International Mission Board was looking at a record Lottie Moon offering prior to the crisis. Surely, a significant reduction is in store now. IMB receives just under 60% of it's annual budget in Lottie Moon offering receipts. A five or ten percent reduction in this would be $7 million to $15 million. Significant sums. The IMB receives about 37% of it's operating revenue from … [Read more...] about IMB is asking for mid-year donations

The short answers are (a) anyone, (b) no one. There is, as all of my informed clergy colleagues know, no such thing as "an SBC" minister. There is no "SBC" ordination. That degree from one of the six SBC seminaries? That expensive sheepskin doesn't formally recategorize the newly erudite brother as anything other than having obtained a degree. (It's a good thing to be an educated pastor, though.) It used to be routine for the annuals of SBC associations to have a page for ordained ministers not serving in a church. This would be anyone a church listed. They could be retired pastors. They … [Read more...] about Who is an approved, certified, qualified, recommended, ordained SBC minister?

LifeWay Research is meddling again with a survey on sermon length. Great work guys. Now it's confirmed that most pew-sitters prefer a sermon of 20-40 minutes. Personally, I have sat in churches and listened to sermons both short and long that robbed me of 20-40 good minutes. That string of jokes, stories, and guffaw-bait probably didn't even qualify for being called a "sermon." Adrian Rogers would preach over forty minutes and it was was too short. I have preached twenty minute sermons that were probably fifteen minutes too long. My informal survey reveals that most pastors are … [Read more...] about Revival may indeed break out…pastors are preaching shorter sermons.

I was informed, breathlessly, that my county had seen a huge jump in virus cases just last week. Are we experiencing an exponential  expansion of the illness here that requires even more stringent measures by the population? No. Seems the National Guard had been asked to test everyone in a large nursing home. About sixty percent of the residents tested positive. Add to that staff who were positive and the single location accounts for about half of the county's entire virus count. In percentages, the county's infection rate is about one-tenth of one percent. It's difficult to arrive at … [Read more...] about COVID, my county, and implications for the next novel virus

You figure it was coming - some guidance, explanation, advice about how to count attendance during this time of cancelled physical services. My church's last in-the-building service was March 15th. Since then we have had some variety of online services each Sunday and two drive-in services. Our plan is to have drive-in services each Sunday this month, except for on Memorial Day weekend, and then have inside services starting in June, the latter if nothing changes with the current situation and governmental orders. Southern Baptists are gonna count. Around three-fourths of them are gonna … [Read more...] about Counting attendance in the age of COVID-19