Scatter shooting, while wondering if leisure suits will make a comeback. (asking for a friend) We need to pray for my friend, classmate, and former pastor Steve Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. He’s been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The disease must be advanced because he will consult with doctors at the M D Anderson Clinic in Houston. My career as a football pundit was short-lived. After Alabama lost to Texas in week 2, I wrote them off. They’ve won every game since, including an amazing win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Alabama won the game on a last-second … [Read more...] about Scatter Shooting, Part 10
Senegal Bound – and Asking for Prayer
When this posts, if all goes well, and God blesses, I will be on the Omaha to Atlanta leg of my trip fourteenth trip to Senegal, West Africa. In January of 2015, I traveled there for the first time with Bart Barber and felt conflicting emotions. I wanted to leave and go home almost every moment I was there. I was filled with fear, stress, and anxiety in so many ways. I also sensed that God was drawing me to be involved in that ministry on a long-term basis. I've been there twice almost every year (there was that little COVID thing), ministering to an unengaged, unreached people group, working … [Read more...] about Senegal Bound – and Asking for Prayer
Reasons Complementarian Believers Can Support Women Teaching in Certain Mixed-Gender Church Contexts
There are plenty of reasons to not be on Twitter these days. But here's something you may have missed this weekend that is worth your time. Andrew Hébert posted an excellent essay arguing for supporting women teaching in some mixed-gender settings in the church. Two reasons I thought this was worth highlighting as a post for our readers: First, this is a pressing question for the SBC right now as a vocal group seems intent on limiting women's leadership roles severely. Second, my interest is in commending women to use their gifts freely and without fear within a biblical framework, which I … [Read more...] about Reasons Complementarian Believers Can Support Women Teaching in Certain Mixed-Gender Church Contexts
I Am Thankful for the Southern Baptist Convention
I have been attending a Southern Baptist Church since 9 months before I was born, and I've been a member of one since I was baptized in February of 1964, holding membership at churches in Iowa, Georgia, Taiwan, Florida, Texas, and now Nebraska. When my ministry in Sioux City ended I immediately began preaching at a Nebraska church that was loosely affiliated with the American Baptist Churches (we were guests at the convention last year, not messengers - it felt weird!), but was exploring affiliation with the SBC. The same day they voted to seek affiliation with the SBC, Jenni and I … [Read more...] about I Am Thankful for the Southern Baptist Convention
Which Is Your Favorite Devotional Book?
Some years ago, while serving with the IMB in the Philippines, the IMB’s Regional Leader, Bill Wakefield, came for a visit. Our mission administrator asked me to serve as his driver and translator. So, I drove him where he wanted to go, and I interpreted for him in Cebuano as necessary. As we drove along, I asked what I could do to keep my daily devotional time fresh. Bill advised me to read a different daily devotional book each year. He meant that I should read a book with a daily devotional thought and Scripture reading. That seemed like a good idea to me, and I began to do that. I’m glad … [Read more...] about Which Is Your Favorite Devotional Book?
“I seek the white whale:” NAMB’s strident critics and Moby Dick
"Death to Moby Dick! Death to Moby Dick!" The grog-fueled, semi-ecstatic chant of Daggoo, the west African harpooneer of the doomed ship Pequod. A little Melville goes a long way in today's SBC. Our venerable North American Mission Board is the SBC Moby Dick, the enormous spermaceti whale and object of the crazed, morbid, and ultimately fatal quest for vengeance by Captain Ahab and willing crew. NAMB trains planters, plants churches, supports plants and has received record and near record offerings for years, indicative of the support of Southern Baptist crossroad churches and … [Read more...] about “I seek the white whale:” NAMB’s strident critics and Moby Dick
Sober view on the amici controversy
Jonathan Whitehead is unlikely to win a popularity vote among SBCV people but his words on the current controversy over a brief filed by lawyers for the SBC, SBCEC, Lifeway, and SBTS regarding a Kentucky case should be read. I've always found his writing to be incisive and well informed. Excerpts from his American Reformer article: Many Baptists have understood the SBC abuse reform effort in terms of brochures, websites, and trainings about how churches can prevent grooming and abuse. But the brief brouhaha highlights the area of “caring well” or “responding to abuse victims,” which can … [Read more...] about Sober view on the amici controversy
Statement from Leaders, Advisors, and Advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention
The following statement was released to media outlets earlier today and is reposted here. _____ Statement from Leaders, Advisors and Advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention. As individuals who have worked alongside the Southern Baptist Convention in abuse reform or held positions of past or current leadership in the Convention related to abuse reform, we come together to express our deep grief at the Amicus Brief filed on behalf of the Convention, Lifeway Publishing, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the SBC Executive Committee, opposing the application of sexual … [Read more...] about Statement from Leaders, Advisors, and Advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivors Joint Statement 2023
The following statement was released by Megan Lively, Jules Woodson and Tiffany Thigpen and is reposted here unedited with permission. As survivors who have chosen to continue in a role actively engaged with members of the EC, ARITF, and others within the SBC, with the goal of reform, we are sickened and saddened to be burned yet again by the actions of the SBC against survivors. We are releasing this joint statement to stand against the continued measures of destruction chosen by those in leadership to actively detonate any and all measures of justice that are rightfully ours as victims of … [Read more...] about SBC Sexual Abuse Survivors Joint Statement 2023
The Cooperation Group/Lifeway survey on the Cooperative Program: Anything of value to come from it?
Jared Wellman and the SBC Cooperation Group is doing a survey. Lifeway Research is collaborating in this and all SBC churches with an email address receive the survey. [As an aside, I get a malware notice from my security software on Windows but not on my iPad.] Here is the survey and how I would have answered as pastor of the church from which I retired. The survey asks for answers on a scale from "strongly disagree" to "don't know". I'm not a survey expert and don't know why the choice was negatives first followed by the positives. _____ The Cooperative Program supports SBC … [Read more...] about The Cooperation Group/Lifeway survey on the Cooperative Program: Anything of value to come from it?