I think alliteration is silly…except when I use it.
The lawsuit against LifeWay over Glorieta (the sale of which was over four years ago) continues to hang by a thread. It’s like the wierd uncle that won’t go away. The underlying issue is a complaint about compensation of one couple who had a house on camp property, a land lease renewed annually. For those who complain about fair market value not being offered to the few dozen who were in this situation, exactly what would the fair market value of your house be if you did not own the land it sits on? Not a whole lot if the landowner could order you off of their property.
The above hasn’t stopped one SBC blog from touting the lawsuit. The latest is an “open letter” from the plaintiff, one in which he repeatedly refers to himself in the third person. Odd.
And while in the neighborhood, what’s with the same blog and the rambling, disjointed conspiratorial 6,000 word novella about…well, something really seriously doggone bad going on in the SBC? Like I said, there’s always a market for anti-SBC stuff especially if it involves Calvinists. My friends over there must have exhausted their supply of tinfoil hats by now. Time to reorder from goofball.com in time for next year’s nonsense.
Needless to say, the Pressler civil lawsuit should be in the top ten stories of the year. Baptist Press reported on it.
The Johnson Amendment stays, I read. Nothing in the tax bill removing the restriction on 501(c)3 exempt organizations, most churches, from engaging in political activity. Not that such is a good idea but some of the brethren think the country can be saved by politics.
Did you miss it? The article, “Try this weird trick and your dead church will take off like a rocket?” Yeah, I missed it too but seems like that title would fit many of the latest and greatest, top-down church growth articles coming from various denominational organizations.
I suppose the reporting on the Blue Ribbon Evangelism Task Force, composed of 19 Southern Baptist men, all experts in the field, is about right. OK, I’m open to it being explained how things can be fixed. Witness more? Set baptism goals? Try this weird evangelism trick?
Georgia Baptists have a sparkling HQ building that is debt free and worth, as one leader put it, $40-50 million. Now that Golden Gate sold their land overlooking the Pacific, no SBC entity has a surplus asset that is as valuable (unless IMB is still sitting on real estate in Hong Kong or Bangkok or somewhere). The GBMB has declared an intent to sell. What will my colleagues do with $50 million cash? I don’t know but we’ve got a committee thinking about it. The Florida Convention gave half of the proceeds from the sale of their building to the Cooperative Program. I’ll bet Georgia pecans (that’s ‘pea-CAHNS’ not ‘PEA-cans’) that we will not give $25 million away. A huge pool of money. A lot of financially hungry entities. Instant conflict.
A guy here referred to the Georgia Bulldogs as being big and slow. Come on bro’, you loose all street cred with that kind of nonsense. Everyone knows that the Big Ten is the conference with the lumbering tubs of lard, not the SEC. Nonetheless, I’m wary of the Sooners. They’re pretty good.
What brilliant, forward-looking, hipster pastor has cancelled their worship on Sunday, December 24th, Christmas Eve? That’s a big family or travel day, right? I don’t know of any but I’d bet you could find one. Odd how that last year, some wore the cancellation of worship on Sunday, Christmas Day, as a badge of honor. Try this weird trick: On the Lord’s Day gather and worship.
Who is the smartest person in any room with a bunch of SBC pastors and denominational folks? The guy who keeps his mouth shut until others are finished with their incessant verbal hemmorhages. Try that weird trick, brethren.
Got a ‘Merry Christmas” text message from a state convention staffer yesterday. I might be retired but not forgotten. Thanks.
Take the rest of the week off, brethren. Have a nice Christmas.
