SBC Issues

Well, one hopes that anything like the current COVID-19 crisis is to be encountered only once in a lifetime. Never has so much happened so soon that affects churches. The World Trade Center attack, Shuttle disasters, JFK/MLK/RFK assassinations, Pearl Harbor, and other singular events didn't impact the Sunday-to-Sunday existence of churches as has the virus. I don't recall what churches did during the flu epidemic a century ago. I'm immune in a number of ways. Not being an active pastor there are no church decisions to be made or leadership to be asserted. I don't have to be concerned … [Read more...] about A once in a lifetime opportunity for churches?

There was a state convention staff guy who liked to tell churches that they could count on a certain percentage offering loss per inch of snow. The only reason churches I pastored ever cancelled services was because of snow and here in the south it only takes a little snow to create considerable chaos. Once in South Carolina we had two snow Sundays consecutively, no services for three weeks. State convention guys like to throw out figures because it helps them convince pastors and churches that they are doing useful things. Here in Georgia the governor has declared an emergency and has … [Read more...] about No church services means revenues will be lower

Like many of us, I have been watching closely the coronavirus.  Further, I have seen all the memes and social media posts stating that this is something that China has engineered to take America out or something Democrats have cooked up to undermine Trump’s presidency.  We have been told this is simply the flu by Facebook experts and have been reminded that only the “old and vulnerable” are the ones that are going to be threatened with death.  As a pastor, I have sat back all week watching schools close, events cancel, and even NCAA sports cancelled. Further, many states are calling for … [Read more...] about Coronavirus and the Art of Judgment (Adam Wyatt)

         *barring further developments!  **Further developments happened. In discussing this with the missionary in Senegal, he thought it best if we postpone. Go ahead, call me stupid. That will be one of the nicest things I've been called on social media recently! I am scheduled to leave for Senegal next Saturday, March 21, long before the sun comes up, for my 10th trip to minister to a UUPG - the Essing - in the Casamance. I have been especially excited for the opportunity to speak this time at a regional men's conference in which as many as 150 men are expected to gather. God … [Read more...] about This Hardheaded Old Codger Is STILL [NOT] Going to Africa*

Presiding at a funeral last week, I followed the usual protocol of leading a short procession from the hearse to the gravesite. The hearse parked close to a tent that had been erected. The body had been cremated and there was no stand for a casket nor a big pile of dirt thoughtfully covered by a dignified piece of funeral home carpet. "That's the spot," I thought to myself. I headed in that direction leading the lone urn-bearing funeral home employee. There were no pall bearers. Fortunately, I glanced behind after a few steps. I was headed to the tent. The urn was headed in another … [Read more...] about The rise of cremations and the demise of funerals with caskets and bodies.

Before the Houston Chronicle did their series on sex abuse, long before the metoo movement, before Christa Brown, Dee Parsons, or any of the others started writing on the subject, and way back when neither Baptist Press nor any of the state Southern Baptist newspapers and news would report on abuse in SBC churches, reporter Bob Allen was reporting early and often on sex abuse in Baptist churches. I first saw his stories on Associated Baptist Press and then on Baptist News Global. He has hundreds, hundreds of stories of abuse of children and women in Baptist and other churches. He is leaving … [Read more...] about Bob Allen, top reporter on abuse in Baptist churches leaves Baptist New Global

Sometimes you get fed up. Sometimes you get bored. Sometimes you just feel that it's time to move on. Sometimes you recognize that this just isn't the place for you. I'm not talking about the SBC, about blogging, about Voices, or about my current church but I'd guess that there are many parallels in the experiences with all these. When I retired a few years ago, I expected to take interim jobs, maybe fill in a modest number of Sundays but not be as tied to the church as I had been as pastor. For all the decades that I served fulltime churches I could count on being tied up on Sundays and … [Read more...] about I’m at the point of dropping out, I’m afraid.

Much has been said regarding Resolution 9, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality (CRT/I) since Birmingham. Some are in agreement and some are in disagreement, but from my interactions with others actually aware of the debate, most are indifferent and confused. This is something I understand because I’m just as confused about all the nuances of CRT/I as the next guy. So upfront, the argument of this piece is not to air my opinions of CRT/I because I’m far from an expert on the matter (I’ll make my appeal in a moment). I’ve read as much of the dialogue regarding these issues as my brain … [Read more...] about Resolution 9, CRT/I, and an Appeal to Trust (Kris Sinclair)