William Thornton

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

Before I attended seminary and pastored for three decades I was a zoning administrator for a mid-sized city/county planning agency. As a twentysomething bureaucrat in his first post-college job, part of my responsibility was to inform property owners, real estate developers, and other interested citizens what could and could not be done with a particular piece of property. "No, Donald Trump, you cannot build a towering condo on that property." Actually, Trump was interested in Manhattan not Athens, Georgia, so we never had such a conversation. It was more like, "No, ma'am. I'm sorry, but … [Read more...] about Angels and demons, churches, and zoning laws

A Syrian refugee family was recently settled in the Atlanta area according to a local paper article: Bryant Wright, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and now the pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, confirmed Monday that his large Marietta church is helping resettle a Syrian refugee family that arrived in Georgia last week. A family that attends Johnson Ferry let [the couple] and their four-year-old son stay in their home until the church found them an apartment in the Atlanta region, said Wright, who is known for his “Right from the Heart” ministry broadcast on … [Read more...] about Syrian family resettled in my area

There is no circumstance under which I would vote for Donald Trump. Trump represents or exhibits most of the things that run counter to the Christian values, morals, virtues, and principles I have spent half a lifetime attempting to model, preach, and teach. Am I to classify these as mere trivialities such that in the interest of political expediency I would be willing to reject them all in order to have a Republican president for our country? Nope. Not now. Not ever. His personal morality is not atypical for our times but hardly represents anything in the neighborhood of Christian … [Read more...] about Trump? Nope. Never.

I don't know. I don't know if our International Mission Board has a projection that goes along with their $175 million goal. In past years, they have used real estate sales and reserves to spend as if the goal were met. With considerable reductions in personnel (I am unaware of any hard numbers released by IMB just yet) I would assume they are planning to live within their operating income for 2016. Southern Baptists have given considerable sums the past two years to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, a record $154 million in 2013 and the second highest ever, … [Read more...] about So, what will Lottie do this year?