SBC Issues

My wife and I served for many years as IMB missionaries in the Philippines. Christmas there begins in mid-October and continues through the Feast of the Three Kings in mid-January. We arrived in Davao City in the southern Philippines in 1976. Like all new missionaries, we had to learn the language (Cebuano) and the culture. Christmas brought with it a whole set of customs for us to learn. Of course, we had to learn a new climate (tropical), too. On our first Christmas in Davao, friends invited us for a picnic on the beach. We enjoyed the day, but the whole idea seemed strange. One of my … [Read more...] about Christmas Memories from the Philippines

Scatter shooting, while wondering if leisure suits will make a comeback. (asking for a friend) We need to pray for my friend, classmate, and former pastor Steve Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. He’s been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The disease must be advanced because he will consult with doctors at the M D Anderson Clinic in Houston. My career as a football pundit was short-lived. After Alabama lost to Texas in week 2, I wrote them off. They’ve won every game since, including an amazing win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Alabama won the game on a last-second … [Read more...] about Scatter Shooting, Part 10

When this posts, if all goes well, and God blesses, I will be on the Omaha to Atlanta leg of my trip fourteenth trip to Senegal, West Africa. In January of 2015, I traveled there for the first time with Bart Barber and felt conflicting emotions. I wanted to leave and go home almost every moment I was there. I was filled with fear, stress, and anxiety in so many ways. I also sensed that God was drawing me to be involved in that ministry on a long-term basis. I've been there twice almost every year (there was that little COVID thing), ministering to an unengaged, unreached people group, working … [Read more...] about Senegal Bound – and Asking for Prayer

I have been attending a Southern Baptist Church since 9 months before I was born, and I've been a member of one since I was baptized in February of 1964, holding membership at churches in Iowa, Georgia, Taiwan, Florida, Texas, and now Nebraska. When my ministry in Sioux City ended I immediately began preaching at a Nebraska church that was loosely affiliated with the American Baptist Churches (we were guests at the convention last year, not messengers - it felt weird!), but was exploring affiliation with the SBC. The same day they voted to seek affiliation with the SBC, Jenni and I … [Read more...] about I Am Thankful for the Southern Baptist Convention

Some years ago, while serving with the IMB in the Philippines, the IMB’s Regional Leader, Bill Wakefield, came for a visit. Our mission administrator asked me to serve as his driver and translator. So, I drove him where he wanted to go, and I interpreted for him in Cebuano as necessary. As we drove along, I asked what I could do to keep my daily devotional time fresh. Bill advised me to read a different daily devotional book each year.  He meant that I should read a book with a daily devotional thought and Scripture reading. That seemed like a good idea to me, and I began to do that. I’m glad … [Read more...] about Which Is Your Favorite Devotional Book?

"Death to Moby Dick! Death to Moby Dick!" The grog-fueled, semi-ecstatic chant of Daggoo, the west African harpooneer of the doomed ship Pequod. A little Melville goes a long way in today's SBC. Our venerable North American Mission Board is the SBC Moby Dick, the enormous spermaceti whale and object of the crazed, morbid, and ultimately fatal quest for vengeance by Captain Ahab and willing crew. NAMB trains planters, plants churches, supports plants and has received record and near record offerings for years, indicative of the support of Southern Baptist crossroad churches and … [Read more...] about “I seek the white whale:” NAMB’s strident critics and Moby Dick

The following statement was released to media outlets earlier today and is reposted here. _____ Statement from Leaders, Advisors and Advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention. As individuals who have worked alongside the Southern Baptist Convention in abuse reform or held positions of past or current leadership in the Convention related to abuse reform, we come together to express our deep grief at the Amicus Brief filed on behalf of the Convention, Lifeway Publishing, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the SBC Executive Committee, opposing the application of sexual … [Read more...] about Statement from Leaders, Advisors, and Advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention

The following statement was released by Megan Lively, Jules Woodson and Tiffany Thigpen and is reposted here unedited with permission. As survivors who have chosen to continue in a role actively engaged with members of the EC, ARITF, and others within the SBC, with the goal of reform, we are sickened and saddened to be burned yet again by the actions of the SBC against survivors. We are releasing this joint statement to stand against the continued measures of destruction chosen by those in leadership to actively detonate any and all measures of justice that are rightfully ours as victims of … [Read more...] about SBC Sexual Abuse Survivors Joint Statement 2023