William Thornton

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

I think it started with the best of intentions. A preacher I held in great esteem drank deeply from the cup of alliteration. If it was beneficial for him, why not me? Slowly, I began with simple sermonic points (rich, real, relevant) but the thing began to grip me and I spiraled down into secondary alliterative points (the route he chose, the result he gained, the reason he perished) and then, I'm ashamed to admit it, total depravity in the form of double alliteration (His life of luxury, his lament of languor, his lash of lambaste). I'm not proud of spending more time searching for … [Read more...] about Hello. My name is William and I’m an alliteraholic

I love the change. Presume we'll see it a lot of it in Birmingham.           The old one: complex, busy, cluttered. The new one: simple, clean, historic. May not be the most important change on campus but it's a good one.     … [Read more...] about Adam Greenway – bringing REAL change to the Southwestern seal

LifeWay put itself in the news by announcing the closure of all of its stores..so have some more attention, brethren and sistren: Future Plans — The future of LifeWay Worship Resources is more exciting than ever. In 2017, we partnered with the LifeWay Christian Stores Division to better coordinate the development and promotion of church supplies, music, and DVDs in our stores. This partnership has already begun to blossom and will provide more access to biblically sound resources for church and individual customers in LifeWay Christian Stores. We are currently experimenting with some … [Read more...] about Ten things you may or may not have known about LifeWay

The Spring Equinox today at 5:58 pm, Eastern Daylight Time. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing...the Doxology, either that or the Sevenfold Amen, except for in Nashville where something about tears and beer have to be worked into every song. The Executive Committee has a guy, the celebrated God's Man, who will be announced March 31st and voted upon two days later at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Grand Hyatt. Plaudits to the EC leadership for not scheduling the vote on April Fool's Day. That shows some insight and careful planning. And, what's it cost to get the 80 … [Read more...] about It’s Springtime in the Southern Baptist Convention

Some unexpected things have already happened. Speculation is rampant, but then, we are SBCers and we always speculate about things. It doesn't cost a thing. Here you go...from the hacking and plodding SBC hinterlands: J. D. Greear can stir the pot, as we have seen. Any more surprises, JD? Here, take this giant Baptist spoon and stir some more, bro. I'll help you. Executive committee leader and other CEO searches. IMB: check. SWBTS: check. NOBTS, LifeWay, and the Executive Committee: not yet. The EC sayeth that they have "God's man" and it's the worst kept secret in SBC history. It might … [Read more...] about Any more surprises in store for SBCers this year?