*******’s mother told the AJC they had attempted suicide two years ago and had battled depression for most of their life. This line from a story in my local paper about a sad case, and this is the media phrase for it, of “suicide by cop.” An individual was in a confrontation with campus police […]
Crowing about escrowing, monument madness, CP, and disaster relief
Cooperative Program escrowing is rare, but evidently highly leveraged. Earlier in the year a prominent megapastor and megachurch announced that they were escrowing CP gifts over statements coming out of the ERLC. This was resolved but while the Executive Committee’s attention was on the matter, they voted to do a study. It was implied that numerous […]
Our IMB and conservative fiscal management
The IMB’s report of their recent trustee meeting included information about their budget for the coming fiscal year, October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. The total budget is $262 million. The Board’s budget is by far the largest of all Southern Baptist entities and is slightly more than the combined totals of all six […]
A post-Labor Day SBC smorgasbord
My church had a big anniversary celebration this past Sunday. In what was likely the SBC culinary outrage of the year, there was not a single piece of fried chicken available but there was plenty of bbq. Here’s a smorgasbord of SBC items of interest: Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is going full bore in response […]
Baptist associations and the struggle with irrelevance
Did you read the Baptist Press story on the survey of local Baptist associations? Survey Weighs Value of Baptist Associations. Perhaps the most salient quote coming out of this recent study might be this one, “When asked to describe the most exciting aspect of their local Baptist association, the most popular answer among church leaders […]
Eclipse report from William “Totality” Thornton
I’m about 45 minutes from the edge of totality so I had a strategy for prime viewing. Rather than get mixed up in a million or so of America’s worst and most aggressive drivers, the metro Atlanta crowd, I took some familiar secondary roads to make a push deep into the totality zone, at least […]
Confederate Monument Mayhem
In the early 21st Century a paroxysm of rage and indignation arose against the symbols and statues of the Confederacy that was expressed by the defacing of graves, widespread destruction and vandalism of Confederate monuments on both public and private property, in parks, on battlefields and even in museums. The time came to be known […]
Nostalgia, celebration, and those troublesome Confederate reminders
Most southerners my generation go back four or five generations to get to their ancestors who served in the Civil War. With a half century of genealogy as a hobby, I can say with some confidence that most Americans would be at a loss to name even a single great-great grandparent much less convey any […]
Cooperative Program Dog Days of Summer Round-Up
Here are a few items that have accumulated regarding our venerable Cooperative Program. CP receipts by the Executive Committee through July are up. About $1.9 million more than for the same period last fiscal year. With two months to go in the fiscal year it’s almost certain that the Executive Committee will be able to […]
“Here’s your pay package, pastor. We will divide it any way you want.”
GuideStone, our chief purveyor of advice on ministerial compensation, hates the compensation system expressed by the two sentences above. Better said, the professionals there and in our state conventions and LifeWay prefer a different approach to ministerial compensation that most SBC churches are using. While I think that my denominational staffers advocate for the better […]
“…because churches are too trusting.”
That would be the brusque answer to the question, “Why do so many churches have money embezzled from them?” The fuller answer would be that most churches are small, depend on volunteers for financial matters, and are far too relaxed about the handling of contributions and disbursements by the people who serve as treasurers and […]
Most weddings not in a church these days…
…so how’s that working out for the few, the called, the already beleaguered pastors? Getting married? Chances are it won’t be in a church is a splendid article in the Wichita Eagle by Katherine Burgess. Bobby Ross, Jr. the excellent Get Religion writer (who really ‘gets’ Southern Baptists) calls it a “fascinating trend piece.” It […]