(Editor: I often browse the blogs of people who comment here at SBC Voices. I browsed Tom's blog - The View from Osprey - yesterday and came to one conclusion - he doesn't write often enough. He has a brilliant post which I got permission to copy here. Thought you might enjoy it.) Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in among any of the evangelical groups? I’m not a Calvinist, but I am uncomfortable at my fellow non-Cals painting Calvinists as the evil spawn of a new fascism with a desire to take over the SBC. I am not a Calvinist, but Al Mohler’s idea that Reformed theology … [Read more...] about Not Sure Where I Fit In…(by Tom Bryant)
SBC Issues
Church or Super Bowl? An Old-School View
So, are you having church Sunday night (if you normally do)? Services cancelled? A Super Bowl party on the church's big screen? At Southern Hills Baptist Church, we will be having our regularly scheduled service at our regularly scheduled time. Are we the last church in America that carries on as normal on Super Bowl Sunday night? I would love it if the only voice in my head was the still small voice of the Lord leading and guiding me. But I have another voice there. It's the voice of Lew Miller. I grew up in a preacher's home - one who had some pretty strong beliefs about some … [Read more...] about Church or Super Bowl? An Old-School View
A Moral Dilemma: Can I Cheer for Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers in the Super Bowl?
(This was originally posted Wednesday at sbcIMPACT. Thought it might be a good Super Bowl Week discussion starter) I’ve been a Steeler’s fan since my high school years, when Terry Bradshaw had hair and was rifling passes to Lynn Swann and John Stallworth; since Jack Hamm, Jack Lambert and Mean Joe Greene erected a Steel Curtain that brought even the most powerful offenses to their knees. Four times I cheered passionately as they crushed their Super Bowl foes in the 70's. My passion for the Steelers waned a bit in recent years. I still cheered for them, but as I got to know the life … [Read more...] about A Moral Dilemma: Can I Cheer for Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers in the Super Bowl?
Still the Best Church Ad EVER!
I saw this some time ago and was deeply impressed. Frankly, I think a lot of church advertisement lacks biblical quality. This is the "Grace Community Church" in San Antonio. I don't know anything about the church. It is not, I believe, Southern Baptist, but it does use the London Baptist Confession as a doctrinal basis for church life. Their website has this video that is exactly what church ads should be. Its not about how hip, happening and cool the people of the church are. In fact, it is a confession of their sinfulness. It is about the saving and transforming power of Christ. … [Read more...] about Still the Best Church Ad EVER!
Ezell’s Strategy for NAMB Begins to Unfold
Kevin Ezell has begun to share his new vision for NAMB and Baptist Press is reporting it. He is planning to divide NAMB into 5 regions, each of which will have a VP who will report directly to him. He has named the VPs for the Midwest and Canadian regions. Here is the map of the regions that NAMB has published in BP: He claims that each of the regional supervisors will work with the state convention executives in partnership. There has been a persistent fear (long before Ezell took the helm) that NAMB has been wanting to move away from partnerships and wants to work directly with … [Read more...] about Ezell’s Strategy for NAMB Begins to Unfold
The Day I Learned I Could Do More
The other day I wrote a short article wishing I could do more to end abortion. (Link here.) I said that my voice “just seems so small and insignificant” compared to the need. A friend who has been a long-time pro-life advocate and is well connected in the pro-life movement saw my post and challenged me: I could, in fact, do more. This morning I went with him to a local abortion clinic. We did not picket, we did not carry signs, we did not jeer at, malign, or otherwise harass the women who went in to end the lives of their babies. We stayed the legal distance away and never once … [Read more...] about The Day I Learned I Could Do More
Aspire 2011! A Different Kind of Pastor’s Conference
ASPIRE 2011 from Hope Baptist Church, Las Vegas on Vimeo. Pastors (and everyone else), check out this video. It looks like the 2011 Pastor's Conference will be well worth the time. You will hear more as time goes on, but for now, check out the video. Here is the Pastor's Conference website. Here is a link to the list of speakers. Also, check out their goals - especially the one to raise $100,000 to "take the gospel to an unreached people group in the Arabian Peninsula through a translation project and humanitarian relief." Novel concept - actually making the Pastor's Conference … [Read more...] about Aspire 2011! A Different Kind of Pastor’s Conference
SWBTS vs. TBA: Silence Is Deafening & Defining
What's that you hear? Crickets. As in, no sound at all. As in "no comment." The sounds of silence -- emanating from the normally loquacious, but apparently public relations challenged leaders at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas -- are positively deafening. And, perhaps defining. Since the news of Southwestern's legal "threat" to take back property that the seminary had previously leased -- and then deeded -- to Tarrant Baptist Association, officials at Southwestern have been quiet. Mum's apparently the word. Perhaps on the advice of legal counsel, no one … [Read more...] about SWBTS vs. TBA: Silence Is Deafening & Defining
The Eternal Subordination of the Son Is the Historic Doctrine of the Church
I see this old post is circulating anew today. I don't delete posts generally but I am no longer certain of my position on this topic. Dishonest, brethren-attacking Baptists use some of my older posts against me and others. The simple thing would be to delete this, but I see these posts and comment streams as a record of modern denominational history. A remarkable claim has been made by some egalitarian scholars, which has been parroted on this site in discussions of gender roles in the Bible. It has been said that the doctrine of the Eternal Subordination of the Son … [Read more...] about The Eternal Subordination of the Son Is the Historic Doctrine of the Church
The GCR: A Car Without Gas?
(Mike Leake blogs at "Borrowed Light", a blog worth your perusal. Here is his article originally published at that site.) The 2010 messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention voted on moving towards a Great Commission Resurgence. I happily voted for the GCR because I am passionate about seeing the gospel spread to the nations. (Although, I am certain that my passion should/could increase all the more). As excited as I am to see a Great Commission Resurgence I wonder if maybe we should call it something else—or perhaps change it’s emphasis. Biblically, I see something else … [Read more...] about The GCR: A Car Without Gas?