Our largest and most important entity, The International Mission Board, has a five year plan, announced by President Paul Chitwood at the recent IMB trustee meeting. The plan calls for a number of things but, most importantly, it calls for an additional 500 overseas field personnel. I assume that means a 500 net increase by […]
On the road on Sunday morning during the worship hour
I am painfully literal here. Churches I’m around designate 11 am to noon as “the worship hour.” Difficulty may arise if the beloved pastor attempts to expand the worship hour to the worship hour plus five or ten minutes. While in my stage of life, senior and getting no less so, the 9:30 am service […]
In high weeds: The Executive Committee’s proposed mission, ministry changes
New leadership is expected, one presumes, to make staffing changes and to make adjustments to legal documents, including mission and ministry statements. Thus, Ronnie Floyd has proposed the rewriting of the SBC Executive Committee’s mission statement and ministry assignments. This will be taken up at the EC’s meeting next month {I can’t find the actual […]
JD speaks for JD, but he is the SBC President
From the Houston Chronicle: SBC President cautions churches about hosting disgraced leader Paige Patterson “Trustees terminated Paige Patterson for cause, publicly disclosing that his conduct was ‘antithetical to the core values of our faith,’ ” Greear told the Chronicle. “I advise any Southern Baptist church to consider this severe action before having Dr. Patterson preach […]
What’s this inconsistent use of autonomy, anyway?
The complaint was that “the SBC” (scare quotes are essential in the present context; if an explanation is needed, just ask) uses autonomy as an excuse for inaction on abuse in churches and by “SBC” (same for the quotes around “SBC” but I’ll not take the time to do so for the rest of this […]
He’s baaaaack! Peter Lumpkins and those pesky discernment blogs
Back in the day, The Age of Blogs, there were a handful of sites that were SBC go-to blogs: SBC Today in its first or second iteration, SBC Outpost, SBC Voices, a few personal sites. If you read a dozen you probably had all the SBC news worth reading, and from different points of view. […]
Randy Adams’ good idea for the SBC: transparency and openness in all entity matters
Here’s the way he puts it: 5. Operate in the Light – The SBC should be the toughest place to hide corruption, abuse, and poor stewardship, operating at the highest level of integrity and accountability. We must eliminate organizational tools, structures and processes that help hide wrongdoing and abuse. The SBC and its entities should […]
Randy Adams’ bad idea for the SBC: remote access to SBC annual meeting voting
Randy Adams is the second person to be a declared candidate for SBC president. Baptist Press had a story on him on January 15th. I’m pleased there is more than one candidate (Al Mohler) and there are some things Adams has written that I like. The idea of remote voting for the SBC Annual Meeting […]
Has “the SBC” ever blacklisted ministers?
The continuing rancor triggered by Paige Patterson’s invitation to speak at a church in Florida makes me ask this question: Has the SBC while in annual session, the SBC Executive Committee, any of the 41 state conventions affiliated with the SBC, or any of the 1,146 local associations of Southern Baptist churches ever blacklisted an […]
Behold, the lowly parsonage…
…that can’t get any respect. I can’t think of the last time I heard a pastor say anything positive about the fact that he lived in the parsonage. Maybe never. I don’t see data on it but church-owned housing seems to have been declining for a long time. Younger pastors are aghast at the idea […]
Already? 2020 and it looks like a very interesting year for the SBC
Here are a few reasons why: We’ll elect a new SBC President in sultry Orlando in June. It was announced back in November that Al Mohler will be nominated for SBC prez. The early timing of the announcement was an eyebrow raiser. Mohler quickly responded that he would accept the nomination. Hey, I’m just glad […]
Bowl Games (This is not about the SEC), and how about giving a ticket’s worth of money to Lottie Moon?
Football games are trivial, non-consequential events, the gladiator contests without (much) blood and not ending in executions. I’m far too spiritual to give much time and attention to such things, and, knowing the disdain that my friends have for certain college conferences, I’ll not waste much time on that. But… Most clergy take time off […]