William Thornton

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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

[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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I wouldn’t expect all to admit to it, frankly. This is the strangest of strange occurrences: government guaranteed loans paying the salaries of pastors and other church and church related workers. If you’re applying or have received the loan and want to explain your church’s thinking, feel free. I doubt that there will be a […]

Our flagship conference center, Ridgecrest, is for sale trustees have decided. Just 21 months ago I wrote on this site What’s the reason for the Ridgecrest renaissance?  I’ve always been relatively close to Ridgecrest while living and serving in South Carolina and Georgia. I would estimate I’ve stayed there a couple of dozen times. My kids […]