SBC Issues

This may come as a shock to most of you, but I am often not up to date on your whippersnapper, hipster lingo. I am thankful for the Google because I can go on the interwebs and look up stuff you guys talk about, appearing as if I was in the know all the time. Recently, I saw a word that intrigued me, another one of those acronyms that are so popular today. I've shared it with several friends, most of whom do not seem to have heard of it. The word is DARVO. Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD, a professor from the University of Oregon, wrote a paper entitled, "What is DARVO?" which gives a succinct … [Read more...] about Have You Met DARVO?

I'm retired now but served three churches as pastor. For most of that thirty-year period my family and I lived in homes owned by the church, the parsonage. An article earlier this year on the subject, Behold, the lowly parsonage, covers much of the details on this. Comments were generally positive towards living in a church-owned home which was a bit of a surprise to me. I appreciate that my clergy colleagues prefer to see the cup half full on the parsonage. But, what can the beloved brother pastor do to improve his situation and plan for a future where no one will provide him a "free" … [Read more...] about Humble advice for the passive pastor in the parsonage

The adjectives in the title have meaning. I'm referring to the thousands of small churches, somewhere around the SBC median of about 70 in average weekly attendance, that have a single clergy staff, the pastor, who is fulltime and not bivocational. My first church, it was in rural South Carolina, was an example of this: around 70 in attendance and I was the only staff member. I was fulltime and not bivocational. Seventy is the median church size in the SBC. LifeWay's latest Compensation Study, 2018, showed churches in the 50-100 attendance range as paying their senior pastor a package … [Read more...] about Is the small, single full time clergy staff church a luxury churches can no longer afford?

I love an optimist and Baptist Press "staff" reports on our beloved Cooperative Program are invariably positive and optimistic. "Staff" should get a raise. Latest CP story headline: Cooperative Program giving highest in three months, down only 1.47% for year This is the Executive Committee portion of the CP, funding mostly for the mission boards and seminaries, not the whole thing. State conventions still keep around 60% of every CP dollar from the churches and a progress report that combines all of the states isn't issued monthly like the SBC portion. Numbers: CP at the national … [Read more...] about Cooperative Program, under considerable stress these days

This is the closest church to my house if you don't count the bird house church in my backyard, a little box with a steeple that someone gave me. The church pictured isn't my church but it's Southern Baptist. I know the pastor who is a good guy. Good church. Good pastor. God bless them. Like many churches in the area they decorate the property with American flags around Independence Day. One of the largest SBC churches in my area must have a hundred or more medium sized flags lining their property, along the driveway and parking areas. Very colorful. I don't have any issue with any of … [Read more...] about God bless America

No, this one isn't about topical sermons vs expositional or that sort of thing. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but during the shutdown, I've fallen into a new pattern for preaching that I hope to continue now that the slow march toward normalcy has begun. I used to preach from handwritten notes. If you saw my handwriting, you'd know why that can be a total disaster. I've been using my computer to study and prepare notes for a long time. Since I moved here to Sioux City, I have been relying more and more on presentation software (still using old faithful - Powerpoint) for … [Read more...] about How Do You Preach?

Our church has recently started up live services and I am glad. Sunday, we celebrated the Lord's Supper together for the first time since late February, a great moment. Things are not horrible, but something doesn't feel right either. I had a conversation with several friends last week about ministry during a pandemic and it helped me put some thoughts into words. It feels like I am living in a make-believe world, marking time until the world goes back to normal, and wondering if it ever will. Attendance at church has been decent, maybe 60% of normal, but offerings are slowly dwindling as … [Read more...] about Loneliness, Isolation, and Ministry in a Pandemic

Some of our recent posts on Voices have proven controversial. Folks have strong opinions about SBC politics, racial reconciliation, and especially President Trump. I thought I would write a post that would be noncontroversial. In the old days, when William Thornton and I were young, pastors would ask their congregations to recite their favorite Bible verses. This was usually done during the Sunday night service. (You must be really old to remember those.) One by one the members would stand and recite their favorite verse and explain why they chose that verse. So, I thought we might do that. … [Read more...] about Your Favorite Bible Verse