SBC Issues

At my church, we work pretty hard to promote the Lottie Moon offering.  Being in a new work state, I have about 2-3% of my members who have a Southern Baptist background.  Until they joined SHBC, they had no idea who Lottie Moon was.  We promote the offering pretty hard and our people are pretty generous - for folks who have no SBC denominational heritage. The Lottie Moon videos that the IMB sends out have been a great help in this.  We used to show them at the beginning of the service, but our folks are notoriously late arrivers, so now we use them instead at the offering time during the … [Read more...] about Recommendation: Use the Excellent Lottie Moon Videos to Promote the LMCOIM

(This is part 3 in a series and is based on what has gone before. Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here.) A Shocking "Exegesis" of Scripture I apologize for what I am about to tell you – in advance.  I used to have a book in my library that was written in the early 1900's by a Baptist preacher from the South.  It was an exposition of the Scriptures that demonstrated that God meant for black people to be slaves.  He went right back to the Creation narratives and found evidence that God intended for the white man to rule the black man.  My jaw dropped as I read it. His “exegesis” focused on … [Read more...] about A “Helper” Suitable for Him: Gender Issues in Genesis 2

NOTE: My new book, Surviving Sexual Brokenness: What Grace Can Do has been published by WestBow Press, a Division of Thomas Nelson.  I know it's unusual to tout ones own book so openly, but I truly believe this is a book that could help Southern Baptist Churches grapple with the issue of how to help members who struggle with sexual issues, including homosexuality, pornography and heterosexual adultery.  I hope it will offer encouragement to you and members of your family in the pursuit of wholeness. I am posting the Introduction here, as well as an endorsement by Bob Stith, SBC's National … [Read more...] about Surviving Sexual Brokenness: What Grace Can Do

There seems to be a lot of that going around - not just here but on other sites as well.  I'd tell you I was "working on the problem" except I know nothing about websites or programming or troubleshooting.  My hope is just that the difficulties will disappear and all will be back to normal. If you have had comments disappear, you are not alone.  And I apologize for the inconvenience.  Know that you are not being moderated unless I have informed you by email that you are being moderated. Just thought I'd let you know. … [Read more...] about If You’ve Been Having Problems with the Site…

Bart has just posted an article called, " A Bloated Baptist Bureaucracy We Could Do Without." Wow!  You may love it like I did.  You might get mad at it, as I am sure some will.  But you ought to read it without question. I'm not going to have comments open here - follow the link to Bart's site and read what he has written and comment there if you so desire.  But read it! A couple of quotes: If the Southern Baptist Convention's leaders are really serious about getting more resources out to reach the most lost areas of the world, they ought to reject entirely the notion of widespread … [Read more...] about Bart Barber on Church Planting: A MUST-READ Blogpost!

I appreciate Dave Miller giving me the opportunity to weigh in on this topic for SBC Voices. This post is intended as a response to Dave’s interesting post “Be It Resolved: Resolutions Are a Waste of Time! Or Are they?” Dave concludes: At the current time, here’s my stance.  I see a little value in the resolution process, but not much.  It is prone to silliness and to being co-opted by issue-obsessed individuals who waste all our time while they ride their hobby-horses.  I guess at this point I do not see the benefits outweighing the risks. Though I’m sympathetic to some of his concerns, I … [Read more...] about RESOLVED: THE CASE FOR RESOLUTIONS By Nathan Finn

Denny Burk put up links today to an important review that appeared in the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW) . Millard Erickson has written an important new book called "Who's Tampering with the Trinity?  An Assessment of the Subordination Debate" which deals with the issues in the nature of the Trinity that form the theological basis of disputes about gender and gender roles today.  Erickson abandons the current Egalitarian/Eternal Subordination nomenclature and replaces it with "Equivalence" and 'Gradation" - terms I think have some usefulness. Burk links to a review in … [Read more...] about Via Denny Burk – Review of “Who’s Tampering with the Trinity?”

In our discussion of state convention meetings, we devoted quite a bit of time to the South Carolina resolution of copper theft.  While some explained the context and import of that resolution, it is fair to say that many of us saw this as another in a long line of vapid resolutions at state conventions and the SBC annual meeting. Toward the end 0f the discussion, Dr. Nathan Finn responded to a series of comments related to a post he made at "Between the Times" and some subsequent events.  After addressing Aaron Weaver, he asked this question to me, and to all of us in the discussion. Why … [Read more...] about Be It Resolved: Resolutions Are a Waste of Time! Or Are they?