William Thornton

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.

Easter came about a month after I arrived at my first church, an  average sized congregation in rural South Carolina. Our  church was the only one of several SBC  churches in that part of the county that had a full-time, if modestly paid minister. My church and three others traditionally joined for an Easter sunrise service at the side of a small farm pond owned by one of the members. A cross was erected by the water, evidently without thought of the crucifixion actually occurring 'on a hill far away' as the inspired old hymn goes. The service was a classic cooperative venture with the four … [Read more...] about Easter sunrise services and how Armand made my deacon hall-of-fame

...wherein your humble, hacker and plodder blogger, a non-golfer, gets to smugly drop the info that he has been to the Masters several times. Yes, indeed. The world's premier golf tournament, under way right now, and the world's most famous golf course is 110.5 miles from where I type and everyone around here has been, at least to the practice rounds. This is where I casually mention that I was chatting with Gary Player on the 12th tee a while back...blah...blah...blah. Player is always friendly with spectators. I did play a couple of rounds of golf (not at AN) but quit after the condos … [Read more...] about Five things your church could learn from Augusta National Golf Club…

Churches do some strange things and high among the head-scratchers is how many churches have an affection for promoting personality inventories in their congregation. The most well-known of these is, of course, that one with a hyphenated name which doesn't include the term "personality" at all. I pass on dropping the name because I don't want the headaches of dealing with the True Believers of the thing. Some years ago an SBC numbers, stat kind of guy, said offhand in a meeting about demographics that the personality typing tool lacked a solid basis in research.  His casual remark piqued my … [Read more...] about So, you like to play those personality and spiritual gift inventory games at your church?

"Billy died," my father said over the telephone. "I thought you would want to know." It was unusual for me to receive a call from my dad, so I expected something serious. "I think he took his own life." Billy was a close childhood friend from years past. I was surprised and saddend to hear of his death even though our paths had diverged years earlier. Our childhood friendship had been close in that playful childhood manner of roaming the neighborhood, fields, and woods near where we lived and occasional sleepovers and the like. I suppose I would say that for a good stretch he and I were … [Read more...] about A childhood friend takes his life

That Ronnie Floyd was the Executive Committee's nominee for CEO was the worst kept secret in the entire Southern Baptist Convention. If you didn't know, consider yourself dangerously (or, delightfully) unconnected. Chuck Kelley looks bad because of statements he is said to have made about race and the NOBTS' presidential search. Multiple, credible, anonymous sources related his statement. The IMB search process included an agreement to hire a longtime IMB worker as executive staff for the new IMB CEO. The agreement, perhaps tacit rather than formal, bounced around the SBC even before … [Read more...] about The SBC’s worst kept secret and how if this were the real Army, SBCers would be in the hoosegow

Congratulations to Ronnie Floyd on being elected our day-to-day, SBC leader. And congratulations on having a job that has exactly zero power over the 47,000 SBC churches and their often unruly clergy and members. SBC Voices has a leader, Dave Miller (who has a nice article from two days ago about RF) and several others, moi included, who make up a loosely connected team. I think it would be fair to say that I was more positive and optimistic about the SBC's worst kept secret that the rest. May I offer a few suggestions about what we should and shouldn't do as Southern Baptist in regard … [Read more...] about Let’s be optimistic about Ronnie Floyd and the future of the SBC