William Thornton

That would be American presidential campaigns and elections. There are others that have more drama, complete with blood in the streets, but short of that ours is quite a spectacle. And, at long last, we actually had some voting (caucusing in Iowa, to be accurate, complete with random winners selected by the tossing of coins). Here's where we are, according to one irreverent retired reverend: Donald Trump: How exactly are my evangelical friends, not a few from here, feeling about the frontrunner whose campaign included a public pronouncement that "they can go **** themselves"? What would … [Read more...] about The greatest show on earth

I would like to see a serious effort by Southern Baptists to elect someone other than a megachurch pastor as president of the convention. While I have no particular complaint about current president Ronnie Floyd, I think he has done a good job, my view is that we lose something valuable by relying on a parade of pastors whose environment is that of the two hundred or so megachurches in the SBC. There are no job demands, no responsibilities, no tasks of the president of the SBC that qualify only megachurch pastors for election. Although the SBC president has to have some level of visibility, … [Read more...] about Time to try out the new paradigm for an SBC presidential election?

Cooperative Program receipts at the SBC level (after state conventions take their cut and not counting money sent directly that by-passes the states) was UP in the last fiscal year about eight million dollars. One legacy state convention, Florida, has voted to keep less than 50% of CP receipts. This is quite a change from the practice of most legacy state conventions which are accustomed to keeping somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-65 percent of a CP dollar. These state conventions added more members by transfer (or other means) than baptism: Alabama, Alaska, Dakota, Mississippi, BGC … [Read more...] about Some SBC numbers (and one NCAA number)

Is it a sin to fail to register to vote, to vote, to be involved in the political processes of our country? Is it a sin to vote for the wrong candidate?         … [Read more...] about Is not voting a sin?

[Update: I erred in not reading the footnote that said that the Florida state convention included numbers from their partnership with Haiti. This means that FBC's figures are not comparable to the other states. My mistake.]   Baptisms are the currency of the Southern Baptist Convention. Baptize many and you will be praised, honored, and feted. You will almost certainly be in line for a larger church and higher pay. You will doubtlessly get asked more often for advice and will receive more invitations to speak at conferences and events. Generally, you will be looked to as what a … [Read more...] about Top state conventions in baptisms

In no particular order: "...while shared ministries are supported at all levels of Southern Baptist life, the phrase itself and the concept in general are no longer communicating the allocation of funds clearly, [Alabama Baptist State Convention Executive Director Rick] Lance explained. So going forward, the budget language in Alabama will only deal with state and national percentages."   So, instead of the ABSC making a statement like, "we divide Cooperative Program receipts equally with SBC entities," a technically correct statement, since the division was 45% state convention, 45% SBC … [Read more...] about Seven interesting SBC items of 2015 that you might have missed

SBC Life, Winter 2015 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget, Oct 1, 2014 - Sep 30, 2015 (in millions of dollars) (this shows the CP gifts received by the Executive Committee, not total CP received by the states; as most of us know, state conventions keep about 62% of CP gifts given by churches) 1. Alabama              17.4 2. Georgia               16.5 3. SBC Texas          15.7 4. Tennessee          14.3 5. Florida                11.9 6. Mississippi         11.7 7. South Carolina   11.4 8. BGC Texas          10.8 9. North Carolina  10.7 10. Oklahoma         … [Read more...] about Top Ten Cooperative Giving State Conventions

These lists are for the year 2014 as calculated by yours truly with LifeWay's "SBC Statistics By State Convention. _______________________________ Top Ten Richest State Conventions, as measured by total receipts (in millions of dollars) LifeWay footnotes their chart and says, in effect, 'don't pay a lot of attention here because of incomplete data', which means that the states on top will brag and those who aren't as high as they think they should be will sniff 'bad data'. Baptist General Convention of Texas            1,674 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention       … [Read more...] about SBC Numerology: Some top ten financial lists for SBC state conventions

RNS has a story on the top religious news stories for 2015. To the chagrin of many among us who see our beloved Southern Baptist Convention as the center of the religious universe, only one SBC event made RNS's top 25. See if you can guess what that one is...shouldn't be hard. Here is my personal list of top SBC stories for 2015. I'm presuming, of course, that nothing much will happen between now and December 31st. It shouldn't, since most SBC pastors get past the Christmas church events and skate for the rest of the year. 1. The International Mission Board announces mandatory reductions … [Read more...] about Top 2015 SBC news stories