SBC Issues

It was an easy task.  At least it should have been. Yet, if you ask my wife why our garbage disposal leaks she can quickly point the finger to the time that I took the whole thing apart, breaking the seals, and everything to “fix it”.  No need for a professional or an expert.  I’m a husband AND I’ve stayed at a Holiday Inn.   Even though I have no idea how a garbage disposal works I’m pretty certain that its not a big deal and I’ll figure it out as I go along.  After all how hard can it really be to get my garbage disposal to stop sounding like a pterodactyl giving birth? Had it been … [Read more...] about Grace for the Little Things

Todd Littleton blogs at The Edge of the Inside. He wrote a four part series reflecting on the 2012 SBC Annual Meeting through the lens of offering his first ever motion on the floor of the SBC and its demise as Ruled Out of Order. While the nexus of his thoughts turn on a singular incident, Todd finds it illustrative for what ails us. Rather than post these in series form, Todd offers them as stand alone posts. His first post on the subject ran here at Voices and Part 2 here. Maybe what he offers is a Minority Report or as his chosen website title indicates, a perspective from the Edge. I … [Read more...] about Needed: Conviction Above Procedure

A few years ago, I preached a sermon with this title. Lately, I have been thinking more about this. I have been reading a lot of blogs discussing what is wrong with the modern church and what we can do to fix it, and I think one of the problems that is the most troubling is the phenomena of inoculated Christians. Let me explain what I mean by the term so we have something to work with. The type of inoculation I am speaking of is a reference to the process of "immunizing" against a more serious threat. The dictionary definition is something like this: to introduce immunologically active … [Read more...] about Innoculated Christianity

By now, most of us are familiar with the overall situation that has occurred at Penn State University. To sum up, a sexual predator was found out, covered up, and enabled across quite a few years. This was done in an effort to protect the overall reputation of the institution and of specific individuals related to the school. Money, power, and entertainment were also a factor. Now that has all unraveled and legacies have been tarnished, one criminal is headed to prison, additional trials await, and the school and community are a wreck. Added to all of this has come the next blow: the NCAA, … [Read more...] about Outdone by the World

One of my new ventures is in the area of church planting.  Here in Iowa, we have a lot of rural communities that are low population density, but have a lot of corn or soybeans or a combination of both.  The question then arises, how do we plant a church where there are more cows than people and little land that isn't used for farming?  Doesn't seem real practical to buy land and build a building.  Once I started thinking about it, who's idea is the "buy and land and build a building" model anyway? Now don't hear what I am not saying (cause that never happens).  There is a TON of value in … [Read more...] about How Much Does Culture Sour the Mix?

Let me say, first of all, what this post is not intended to be: a discussion of the biblical or theological merits of egalitarianism. I'm sure some of that discussion will come in here - it is almost unavoidable. But the SBC and most of the commenters here are complementarians. Let me state my views clearly. I am a complementarian because that is what the Bible teaches - from Genesis to Revelation. I have written several posts here exegeting passages on the topic. Egalitarianism is a compendium of bad hermeneutical practices - if you want to know how NOT to do exegesis, look at the … [Read more...] about What to Do with Egalitiarians?

Just thought I'd check in and say a little hello to everyone. We've had a great week of ministry here in Taiwan. I preached 13 times in 8 days. Wish I'd prepared in advance, but my procrastination was in evidence. We have a couple of days of R&R in the south, and we are then headed home on Thursday. Hope the SBC Voices team has been treated you guys well. Ignore Rick Patrick. Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes. … [Read more...] about Hello from Taiwan

Greeting all my blogging friends. I have missed you all.  I have been away for a while and made some serious changed.  I resigned my position of Associate Pastor, working to start a non-profit, and trying to do more writing.  You can see by my lack of blogs that the last one hasn't been going to well.  I have left the church with a desire to reach out to those who are not coming to church.  I have spent much of my ministry in front line ministry, on high school and college campus doing outreach and evangelism.  That is where I feel led to go back, and with this in mind, I woke up to … [Read more...] about The Fights that Need Fighting

Todd Littleton blogs at The Edge of the Inside. He wrote a four part series reflecting on the 2012 SBC Annual Meeting through the lens of offering his first ever motion on the floor of the SBC. While the nexus of his thoughts turn on a singular incident, Todd finds it illustrative for what ails us. Rather than post these in series form. Todd offers them as stand alone posts. His first post on the subject ran recently here at Voices. Southern Baptists pride themselves as literalists. The tendency is to employ a rabid love for the meaning of words until it does not suit the purpose. Southern … [Read more...] about Needed: Prophets Not Protectors (by Todd Littleton)

The LORD will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations.  (Zephaniah 2:11) In the Lord’s war to dethrone idols and capture the heart of his bride there are few idols that are more alluring in our culture than sinful sex and pornography.  In fact pornography/adultery/lust is so ensnaring and so deadly that whole chapters of Proverbs are dedicated to it.  The typical advice isn’t “gird up yourself and fight this thing” it is usually “run away” (run towards Jesus). To help us wage war in … [Read more...] about Quick Review of Two Books to Help Fight Pornography