SBC Issues

The most practical classes you can take in seminary are biblical languages. Most seminaries are reducing their required language classes. Pastors make fun of having to learn the silent shewa in Hebrew class. Many times, students have to take elementary classes that don’t count towards their degree. Even though trends move the other direction, here are 2 reasons Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic are the most practical classes you can take in seminary Original Languages Will Save You Hours Every Week of Your Ministry. I loved every class in seminary. I found so much to learn and so many areas … [Read more...] about The Most Practical Classes I Took in Seminary (Joe Radosevich)

I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that it’s absolutely draining to keep tabs on political news. The constant barrage of outrage demands our every waking moment. At times, it feels like the strategy is meant to fatigue us so that we no longer care anymore. Is the SBC operating by the same playbook? A recent piece from our friends at Baptist News Global (link here:  https://baptistnews.com/article/as-god-is-my-witness-mohler-has-changed-his-tune-on-erlc/) asserts that at least two influential Southern Baptists are planting seeds to bring yet another motion to defund the Ethics and … [Read more...] about Our political climate is exhausting. Must our Convention also be? (Matt Johnson)

One stated purpose for SBC Voices is to give Southern Baptists a forum for sharing their opinions. A friend once quipped. “If you gather four Southern Baptists into a room, they’ll express five opinions.” Well, this post provides you with an opportunity to share YOUR opinion. You’ll find below five matters that I’ve been contemplating, and I would like to know what you think. For several years I served as the Teaching Pastor at Central Baptist Church in Crandall, Texas. Our beloved senior pastor, Charlie Wilson, often said, “Now, in my humble but accurate opinion.” So, let’s hear your humble, … [Read more...] about Your Opinion, Please

Surprising results from a recent Lifeway Research survey: 94% of pastors think their church will survive the next 10 years.  Well, that's comforting. No, it's not. The idea that we are in a place where church survival is at risk enough to survey the matter means that 100% of protestant pastors are thinking about survival, some seriously, but most think they and their church has the right stuff to make it another decade. The churches I pastored are now 220 years old, 130 years old, and 125 years old. They are all doing well, although one had to engineer a merger to survive. So … [Read more...] about More dignity and solemnity; less frivolity and nonsense

My wife and I were appointed as missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB) in April of 1975. If you do the math, you’ll see we’ve been associated with the IMB for 50 years. When we married in 1971, we wrote the FMB to tell them we were called to missionary service. The Personnel Department wrote back and said, “Wonderful, go to seminary.” So, off to Southwestern Baptist Seminary we went. In those years, 55 percent of the FMB’s appointees had studied at SWBTS. We were appointed by the FMB in April of 1975, and I graduated from seminary in May. (I’ve often wondered what the FMB would … [Read more...] about My 50 Years with the International Mission Board

Think of this as food porn, a "glamorized visual presentation of cooking or eating." No need to get triggered. It takes no genius to point out the most obvious and relevant point about the SBC's recent forays into doctrinal purity and the sanitizing of the denomination as it relates to women serving in churches. What is presented as a return to doctrinal fidelity and New Testament ecclesiology is actually complementarian porn, the reality on the ground being far removed from the idealized presentations we hear represented by proponents. I have a distaste for even using the term … [Read more...] about Complementarian porn

Recently, I’ve been thinking about our Southern Baptist seminaries. The SBC owns six: Southern in Louisville, Southeastern in Wake Forest, NC, New Orleans, Southwestern in Fort Worth, Midwestern in Kansas City, and Gateway (formerly Golden Gate) in Ontario, California. There is a seventh Southern Baptist seminary, Mid-America, in Memphis. Mid-America is thoroughly Southern Baptist, but it is not owned by the SBC, nor does it receive any money from the Cooperative Program. The six seminaries together receive 21 percent of the Cooperative Program budget. That money is divided among the six … [Read more...] about Thoughts on SBC Seminaries (Mark Terry)

When you get older, your hands can no longer open cans or bags or much of anything. When you get older, you spend time sorting your medications into pill caddies. When you get older, it becomes almost impossible to stand up without grunting. When you get older, using closed captions when watching TV becomes increasingly necessary. When you get older, driving at night becomes more of an adventure. When you get older, taking a nap becomes one of life’s greatest joys. When you get older, hopes and dreams become reflections, regrets, and satisfactions. When you get older, the … [Read more...] about When You Get Older…