One of the questions that the folks at SBC This Week asked, in January of 2017, was, "Will we start to see leadership transitions in southern states?" The answer for that year was, "no" but this year the answer will be "yes." The 14 "southern" states with 16 of the SBC's 42 state conventions make up most of the SBC's giving and other stats, 90% or more of some. These are SBC Virginia BGA Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana BGC Texas SB Texas C Oklahoma Missouri Arkansas Kentucky … [Read more...] about What will leadership changes bring in the southern, legacy state conventions?
Let’s take a look at “The 10-3-10-50 Plan for Southern Baptist Cooperation”
This article is an evaluation of and reaction to a suggested giving plan for Southern Baptist individuals, churches, state conventions, and Executive Committee made by Rick Patrick on his site. He calls it "The 10-3-10-50 Plan for Southern Baptist Cooperation" a rather unwieldy but descriptive title. Here...but pay no attention to the other nonsense there.) The numbers are percentages: 10%, an individual's tithe to their local church; 3%, the percentage of the local church's undesignated giving to their local association; 10%, the percentage of the local church's undesignated … [Read more...] about Let’s take a look at “The 10-3-10-50 Plan for Southern Baptist Cooperation”
What will the rest of 2018 bring for Southern Baptists?
I'm a little late, so sue me. Being retired, I'm not on anyone's time deadline. Will the average church Cooperative Program percentage crash through the 5% barrier? The average church gives 5.16% of their undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program, as reported by the SBC Executive Committee for the latest available period, 2015-2016. The old 10% goal, the church's "tithe" to the CP, is a relic of the distant past. Whatever entity leaders are saying about increasing the CP percentage, I suspect that they're not looking in the rearview mirror at 10% but rather on the road ahead on … [Read more...] about What will the rest of 2018 bring for Southern Baptists?
Here’s the list showing the long line of Calvinistic SBC presidents
It's looking, sadly, like some in the SBC will be consumed by a hot denominational war over the SBC presidency. A few colleagues have objected to the martial terminology. While I think it is a good fit, in consideration of the sensitivities of the most militant participants, I'll call it a clerical collar ecclesiastical conflict. That's the kind where folks in suits smile at you and offer syrupy Christian fellowship platitudes from behind their howitzers. Since, according to some, our denomination faces a critical moment, a crucial election, the first such of year-after-year-after-year … [Read more...] about Here’s the list showing the long line of Calvinistic SBC presidents
Quotes of interest to Southern Baptists
Russell Moore, "I think gun control proponents are misguided in trying to persuade others of their position in the way they usually go about it,” Moore wrote in an email. “There are not two sides here about whether shootings should be stopped, laws enforced, and criminality punished, but rather two sides about whether gun control is a prudent way to carry out those common goals.” Source. Russell Moore: “We live in a fallen world where things are not as they are supposed to be. I turn directly to the cross to show that God is not distant from this evil. He took that upon himself. Jesus also … [Read more...] about Quotes of interest to Southern Baptists
How about telling what your church pays you?
About 14,000 SBC staff did so in the 2016 LifeWay/GuideStone Compensation Study. Take a look at the summary chart. If you as a full time senior pastor had an annual pay package less than $76,492 you were below the SBC average. But don't get depressed about that. You're not in it for the money right? My opinion after following this biennial study (it's done in even-numbered years) is that it yields numbers that are probably a bit higher than the actual SBC-wide averages and this because most responding churches are larger. Every time I write a piece on the Compensation Study commenters … [Read more...] about How about telling what your church pays you?
Why the SBC is unlikely to follow the pattern shown in the Olympic doctor sex abuse scandal
The widespread publicity surrounding this scandal cost the leader of Michigan State University her job as well as that of various other MSU and Olympic officials. It is a sad, sordid tale of sex abuse, enabling, cover-ups, and girls victimized by a child sex predator. One of the victims, Rachel Denhollander, is an authentic hero in all this and some were surprised when she said, It is with deep regret that I say the church is one of the worst places to go for help. That’s a hard thing to say, because I am a very conservative evangelical, but that is the truth. There are very, very few who … [Read more...] about Why the SBC is unlikely to follow the pattern shown in the Olympic doctor sex abuse scandal
The 21st Century IMB
I've been to IMB headquarters in Richmond just once, some years ago for a couple of days. I came away with the view that all of the people there were highly committed and very fine servants of SBC churches but also that the organization had a distinct subculture, somewhat mysterious with more than a modicum of inscrutibility. Individual IMB workers have always been congenial and helpful but over the decades I had the impression that the organization was not much for openness and transparency although not so in any deliberate, recalcitrant, or nefarious manner. It stands to reason that the … [Read more...] about The 21st Century IMB
A disturbance in the SBC alternate universe
J. D. Greear, to the surprise of no sentient person, will be nominated for SBC president this June in clammy Dallas. What I thought was a great moment in 2016 between Steve Gaines and him has already been recounted here and still appreciated by most of us I believe even if it has been discounted if not forgotten by those who populate the SBC's alternate universe. Greear's candidacy has predictably created a disturbance in that universe. It was expected, especially after the declaration of, ahem, "non-war" war in the form of another Conservative Resurgence-like protracted, … [Read more...] about A disturbance in the SBC alternate universe
Five years since the SBC Resolution “On the Sexual Abuse of Children” and earlier SBC level actions
Five years ago, the SBC in their annual session passed a resolution "On the Sexual Abuse of Children." The resolution was offered by a blogger, Peter Lumpkins, and an amendment was added which was offered by a frequent blog commenter, Bob Cleveland. It is my observation that the issue of sexual abuse in churches is more widely reported and discussed on blogs than in any other arena. The 2013 resolution aimed at not just sexual abuse of children in general but noted that " instances of sexual abuse have been perpetrated within Southern Baptist congregations, churches of other denominations, … [Read more...] about Five years since the SBC Resolution “On the Sexual Abuse of Children” and earlier SBC level actions