SBC Issues

I have to say this at the very beginning of a post like this. I am an inerrantist and about as conservative as a person can be. In my church, the primary offices are reserved for men. I am not sure of the terminology but I believe the Bible teaches a complementarian relationship between men and women. Equal at the cross and in value to God, we have different roles and responsibilities at home. I am comfortable with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 statement on the doctrine. I am sick and tired of complementarianism, paternalism, egalitarianism, and such matters dominating the discussion … [Read more...] about Is Anyone Else Tired of Complementarian Food Fights?

NOTE: we are nearing 300 comments and the food fight has gotten ridiculous. It has been days since anyone has come CLOSE to commenting on what I wrote so I am exercising author's prerogative to shut this food fight down. Please do not take it to another comment stream and force me to shut THAT down.    I realize that many people are not involved in social media conflagrations, but one is taking place in the SBC world that cannot be ignored. NOW is the time to lead. It would be great if our entity leaders and others would step up and take leadership in this time, but history … [Read more...] about NOW Is the Time to Lead! (Food Fight comment section CLOSED)

As a convinctional complementarian, how should it make me feel that a woman, albeit a scholar and professor at SWBTS, made a point that taught me, challenged me, and convicted me. Katie McCoy (er...Dr. McCoy) made a simple point that I found insightful. The angry Twitter bros make a LOT of 1 Timothy 2 and its injunction against women teaching men. I know there are competing interpretations and applications of that verse, and I am not here to argue those. I happen to agree that authoritative proclamation in pulpits should be a male role in churches, though I recognize that people who love Jesus … [Read more...] about A Powerful Point from Katie McCoy

The average attendance at the main weekly worship service for a cooperating Southern Baptist church is around 100. LifeWay gave me a figure of 70 a few years ago along with a median size of 125. There are different ways to calculate it but, regardless of the method, the Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of small churches.  But only a fraction of churches get the attention, provide the high-profile leadership positions and, for better or worse, provide the public with what an SBC church looks like. Sometimes this is positive. Sometimes it is negative. Average sized SBC … [Read more...] about Lost in the clamor of clergy abuse, CRT/I, and any other controversy: the SBC is and always has been a convention of small churches

I'm at a place where I am free to worship where I wish and I wished yesterday to worship at the church of a friend who is in a new pastorate nearby. The church is quite old and has quite a history, mostly not so good in recent decades. The building is new, courtesy of the Almighty (a lightning strike to the steeple) and the insurance company. It's a traditional looking Southern Baptist church. I make no criticism of the church where I have been a member for a few years and in which I have had modest staff responsibilities. It is new and non-traditional in every way. The pastor is an … [Read more...] about A red brick church, a piano, an organ, hymns, pews, and an old guy preaching behind a real pulpit: Hallelujah!

And, he's getting older. The Barna research on the aging of American pastors is getting a little old itself. The most recent was 2017. It was a typical state-of-the-church handwringer. Pastors are aging, as in the average age of a senior pastor is increasing (54 in that study). Really old pastors are increasing, 6% in 1992, nearly tripled by 2017. Probably significantly higher in 2021. Only one in seven pastors was under 40 in 2017. Half of pastors are over 55. More pastors over 65 than are under 40. (The research is about senior pastors.) So, what about the only … [Read more...] about “Tell me about your pastor.” “Well, he’s an old guy…”

The 2021 Presidential election of the Southern Baptist Convention looks to be one of the most contested in recent history.  But I think we all would do well to remember the history of the position, how elections were handled, and why it mattered. The SBC President is the man who represents, in some part, the SBC to the country at large.  He serves as an unofficial face for the SBC and is often asked to preach at various events as part of that role. But the President is more than ceremonial. In their book  SBC FAQs by Keith Harper and Amy Whitfield they answer the question, “What does the … [Read more...] about A Brief History of SBC Presidents