SBC Voices

So the NAMB announcement was reported by SBC This Week. NAMB President Kevin Ezell announced today that this year's AAEO was the highest on record at a whopping $59.6 million. This total eclipses the previous record of $59,463,281 given in 2007 as well as the 2016 amount of $58,860,553. This is one thing happening around the SBC. I would have predicted a slight decline. All SBC entities have their critics but this offering is a measure of support for NAMB's work. Glad to see it. _____ (not to distract from other topics here) … [Read more...] about Record Annie Armstrong offering

We arranged with Jews for Jesus to have a full seder at our church on the Wednesday night before Easter and they sent a man named Avi Snyder to lead us. Sometimes you hit it off with another and that is what happened that night. He showed up early and we talked. We arranged to go out for breakfast again in the morning and spent some more time fellowshipping together. He demonstrated that he is a man of wisdom and insight - we agreed on so many things! He told me he had a book coming out soon and promised to send it to me. I promised him I'd write a review of the book here. I am only about 12 … [Read more...] about A Great Book that Shouldn’t Need to Be Written!

In a sense a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. –Martyn LloydJones (Spiritual Depression) I’ve labored over this quote for quite some time. I battle depression. So when I read statements like this from a pastor I revere it causes me to be a bit unsettled. Even more so when he says things like, “such people are very poor representatives of the Christian faith”. Now it’s possible that what Lloyd-Jones means by “depression” is different than what I mean by depression. It is a bit difficult to pin down exactly what he means by … [Read more...] about Are Unhappy Christians a Poor Witness?

Pia Desideria. By Philipp Jacob Spener. Leipzig: Karl Franz Köhler, 1841. 211 pages. Philipp Jacob Spener was a Lutheran parish minister in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany. He was born near Strasburg in 1635. Devout from childhood, Spener devoured Puritan classics and lived a careful and strict life. He pursued an extensive education culminating in a Doctorate of Theology. His pastoral career was unanticipated: he had intended to teach. He is the father of German Pietism, and Pia Desideria is the chief exemplar of his spiritual program. Seventeenth-century Protestantism was a turbulent … [Read more...] about What Became of Luther’s German Church (A Book Review of Philipp Jacob Spener, Pia Desideria)

Would that it was not so, but controversy drives SBC blogs. We try to write on a variety of topics here. I am doing a series of posts on the Holy Spirit, which is not exactly breaking records - but I forge ahead! We write devotional posts, theological posts, political posts. We write about sports (if the Yankees come back against Houston, just wait to see how I blast Barber and Blosser. If it keeps going bad, sports will be banned). But when there is some kind of denominational brouhaha, our traffic explodes. We set records earlier this year due to some of the controversies going on in the … [Read more...] about Talk Amongst Yourselves: What Is Going on in the SBC?

Guarranteed to stir the clergy masses into paroxisms of righteous indignation would be if congress, as a part of a comprehensive tax reform, attempted to make changes to our Sacred Clergy Tax Break, the minister's housing allowance. It's a little early to speculate but, as pundits are want to do, there is speculation afoot: Tax Breaks Could Kill Tax Reform There are special tax breaks for ministers and veterans and life insurance companies and blind people and gamblers. If you're robbed or you have huge medical bills or you're in a shipwreck or you ride your bike to work, you get a tax … [Read more...] about Will (should) tax reform reform the clergy housing allowance?

Evidently, it's nearly 500 years since old Martin defaced the door at Wittenberg.  A lot of Baptists are celebrating this anniversary of the Reformation. There have been conferences and symposiums (symposia?) honoring and studying and analyzing every aspect of the work of Luther, Calvin, and the rest of the bunch. From my social media feeds, I can tell you that Sola Sermon series are all the rage in Baptist pulpits across the land - five-week series of five-point messages, I would assume. (with tulips decorating the pulpit?). On the other hand, several have been questioning the … [Read more...] about Are You Celebrating the Reformation?

There are others who know more. I'll link their stuff as I see it. Basic facts: The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing over this question: The question in this case is whether Congress may give a subset of religious employees an income tax exemption for which no one else qualifies. At issue is the constitutionality of  26 U.S.C. § 107(2), which excludes from the gross income of a “minister of the gospel” a “rental allowance paid to him as part of his compensation.” The suit is aimed at the "cash" housing allowance. That is, those who receive part of their paycheck designated as … [Read more...] about Simple evaluation of the ruling that the housing allowance is unconstitutional