William Thornton

STORE CLOSING! EVERYTHING ON SALE! EVERYTHING MUST GO! I hate the street-walking placard-bearers but they must work because even my LifeWay store uses some. When I first moved back to Georgia in 1997, the closest LifeWay was inside the Atlanta perimeter. If I wanted to visit the store I'd have to have a plan for assaulting the gates of highway and traffic hell to get to the store. I'd just as soon stick a shard of glass in my eye as drive inside Atlanta. Then they opened a new store in the Atlanta exurbs, near the largest mall in the state. It was much easier to get to the store and I … [Read more...] about Alas, my closest LifeWay store is indeed closing

It's less than a month to the convention in Birmingham. Southern Baptists will show up by the thousands and mix and mingle with all the construction crews tearing up downtown. One hopes that there is no reverend road rage. These guys are just working stiffs, doing their job. Here's a list of SBC meetings for the past 52 years, courtesy of the Baptist Courier (I added the 2018 figure). This is for registered messengers, not guests, press, or Secret Service personnel. 1967 Miami Beach – 14,794 1968 Houston – 15,071 1969 New Orleans – 16,678 1970 Denver – 13,692 1971 St. Louis – … [Read more...] about What will attendance be at the SBC Annual Meeting in beautiful, if messy, Birmingham?

A small church down the road from me had a tent revival (they called it a "crusade") this week. I intended to go but, well, missed it. The church that hosted it is a very small SBC church. I think the tent evangelist was an independent Baptist. The tent is bright yellow and screams 'Waffle House'. Advertisements said they would have 'concessions' every night which I took to mean that they were selling hot dogs and the like. Waffle House caters. That would have been a better fit, though expensive. The church next door (I didn't put it in the picture) is about as strong a contrast to the … [Read more...] about Ye Olde Waffle House Tent Revival

Savvy Southern Baptists, and that includes all who read, comment, or post here at Voices, know about Great Commission Giving, the new metric created by the Great Commission Resurgence group nine years ago. GCG is supposed to be giving by a church "to any Baptist association, state convention, and to the causes of the Southern Baptist Convention." It should include Cooperative Program, Lottie and Annie, all state convention special offerings, whatever the church gives to their association, and anything else given to SBC entities and causes of the SBC. Offering for The Gideons, Samaritan's … [Read more...] about Our new Executive Committee leader and Great Commission Giving

I think all major state conventions have a foundation that does estate planning, manages funds, makes church loans and offers investment options. The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma would be happy to have your money even if you are not in Oklahoma. They've even launched a new brand, WatersEdge Ministry Services to be more appealing to folks outside Oklahoma. "Waters" and "Edge?" I have no idea about the name but they do use a baptism picture in their slick, full page ad in SBCLife. I'm all for competition but it's a brave, new Baptist world I suppose. Let's see what kind of swag they're giving … [Read more...] about The Oklahoma Baptist Foundation wants your money…and other interesting SBC news you may not have heard

No surprise about that; nothing new, nothing different. Latest CP figures released by the Executive Committee have this as a headline: Nat'l CP 2.67% over YTD budget projection Savvy CP watchers will appreciate that the 2018-2019 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget was a conservative budget and that the Executive Committee has sufficient revenues to meet the budgetary expectations of the mission boards, seminaries, and other national CP recipients. The national CP is roughly 40% of all CP revenues. State conventions keep the bulk of it, always have, though less now than in earlier years. … [Read more...] about The Cooperative Program is in a long time funk

When Evelyn showed up at church one Sunday morning, I didn't have to ask the regular members about the new lady whose appearance was striking and a bit bizarre. "Oh, that's just Evelyn," I was told. "She's a country music star." Evelyn turned heads. You almost couldn't look away. She was dressed outlandishly, rather gaudily. Her makeup was quite heavy. The hair was far darker than her age would permit and coiffed vertically. And there were sprinkles of glitter and clouds of perfume everywhere. The congregation was polite and cordial and most members seemed to be accustomed to her. She … [Read more...] about The country music star

Recent comments by some SBC leaders have acknowledged that "competent" and "godly" women would be acceptable for leadership in some areas. The particular quotes mentioned LifeWay and the SBC presidency. One might consider that it has always been maintained that most church attendees are women and that most church workers are women. I'm speculating that at our oldest and most important entity, the International Mission Board, most personnel are women (most workers are couples and most single personnel are female, thus, most overall are women). It seems odd that we need to be signalled that … [Read more...] about Wanted: competent, godly, SBC women

Do you millenials know what is meant by a clock "ticking" anyway? Heres the countdown clock for the SBC annual meeting in Birmingham. Don't worry, it's digital. Wouldn't want to stump the whippersnappers with an analog clock. Go ahead and get a copy of SBC FAQs: A Ready Reference by Keith Harper and Amy Whitfield. You will have a chance of knowing what you are talking about concerning convention business if you have this and read it. When all of J. D. Greear's appointments are considered as a whole, there will be no SBC president who has ever appointed a more diverse group - laypeople, … [Read more...] about Some assorted SBC news and the countdown clock to Birmingham is ticking.