SBC Issues

Easter came about a month after I arrived at my first church, an  average sized congregation in rural South Carolina. Our  church was the only one of several SBC  churches in that part of the county that had a full-time, if modestly paid minister. My church and three others traditionally joined for an Easter sunrise service at the side of a small farm pond owned by one of the members. A cross was erected by the water, evidently without thought of the crucifixion actually occurring 'on a hill far away' as the inspired old hymn goes. The service was a classic cooperative venture with the four … [Read more...] about Easter sunrise services and how Armand made my deacon hall-of-fame

I coached at Isaac Newton Christian Academy in Cedar Rapids for about 13 years, before I moved to Sioux City, both soccer (we were the dominant program in Eastern Iowa among Christian middle schools) and basketball. I kept track of stats and analyzed them. I still have the files. Numbers and statistics fascinated me. SBC Voices is coming up on a strange confluence of significant statistical milestones. Wordpress has analytics and I monitor them and noticed that several statistical boxes are about to be checked. This is in a time when we have been having a lot of discussions about the future … [Read more...] about Milestones at SBC Voices

Over the last few years, a stunning shift has taken place in church culture.  Successful, influential, and powerful pastors are being dismissed from their churches.  Not for the typical moral failures or money scandals but for unhealthy leadership practices.  Why has this become such an issue? Understanding the problem The simplified version is that decades ago as the church began to lose new generations and influence in the culture the church began to adopt a more complex strategy to compete with society.  Basically, everything the culture offered people, the church tried to make a … [Read more...] about The Christian Effectiveness Officer (C.E.O.) (Clayton Pruett)

Baptist Press is reporting that Pennsylvania pastor K. Marshall Williams has announced that he will nominate J.D. Greear, of Summit Church in Raleigh, for a second term as president of Southern Baptist Convention. There is much solid information in the BP article. We have been thrilled with J.D. Greear's diverse appointments, his leadership on the sexual abuse issue, his promotion of evangelism, and leadership of the convention.   … [Read more...] about K. Marshall Williams to Nominate J.D. Greear for Second Term

Baptist Press carried an article about the trustee meeting at Southwestern Seminary this week, in with its new President, Dr. Adam Greenway, spoke of his desire to lead the seminary to "recalibrate and to reposition" itself in "every way to strengthen the core of what we do." Greenway said, At the end of the day, our core of strength is what we do right here on Seminary Hill. It is the experience that happens here in the classroom and on this campus. Theological education in the context of a vibrant, worshiping, learning, living together community -- that is of first importance. He added … [Read more...] about Southwestern Seminary: Painful Recalibration

...wherein your humble, hacker and plodder blogger, a non-golfer, gets to smugly drop the info that he has been to the Masters several times. Yes, indeed. The world's premier golf tournament, under way right now, and the world's most famous golf course is 110.5 miles from where I type and everyone around here has been, at least to the practice rounds. This is where I casually mention that I was chatting with Gary Player on the 12th tee a while back...blah...blah...blah. Player is always friendly with spectators. I did play a couple of rounds of golf (not at AN) but quit after the condos … [Read more...] about Five things your church could learn from Augusta National Golf Club…

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?

I called to talk to Julie a moment ago to see if I could come by and see her father again. "Dad passed away this morning." It left me with a feeling of guilt that I've experienced often before. On Monday, my supposed day off, I got a call from the father of a man who used to attend our church. His wife's uncle (great uncle?) was sick and he asked me if I would go over and "lead him to Jesus." I tried to explain that it was a little tougher than just showing up and automatically leading a guy to Jesus but I said I'd go. I did. Early Monday afternoon I met with Jim in his room at the … [Read more...] about The Never-ending Struggle of Ministry

"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