SBC Voices

Headed to Senegal and a Welcome to Joe Radosevic

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I am sitting at JFK waiting to board a Delta jet for 10 days in the Casamance.  I've lost count - it's either my 17th or 18th trip. Pray for spiritual fruit...and no pulmonary embolisms this time! I am posting this to welcome Joe Radosevich to the Voices team. He has posted several guest posts and has gotten his official Voices drivers license.  Welcome aboard.   … [Read more...] about Headed to Senegal and a Welcome to Joe Radosevic

Remembering with Joy: A Tribute to Jennifer Lyell

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I have hesitated to write my own tribute to Jennifer Lyell, and instead have found comfort in reposting the writings of others who were close to her. Though I call Jennifer my friend, and she was, we didn’t share the kind of friendship marked by intimate times of fellowship and joyful shared experiences. In fact, all of our interactions over the past few years have been through online messages or by phone. We never met in person again after she disclosed her abuse—the timing was never right—and I didn’t want to impose on her and add weight to an already heavy load. It was enough for me to care … [Read more...] about Remembering with Joy: A Tribute to Jennifer Lyell

Jeff Iorg Is “God’s Man” “For Such a Time As This”

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Sorry guys. The title is an inside joke to the Voices team. We laugh at the frequency at which people use these two phrases when nominating people for positions in the SBC. I don't drink, but if I were hardcore Reformed enough to imbibe, this would make a great drinking game at the SBC (smile folks, I'm joking!). I am not at the SBC, and to be honest, I haven't paid attention to what is happening until this afternoon, when I tuned in while the elections were taking place (strange format, not sure what I think about that!). Then, there was a report from the EC and Dr. Iorg's presentation. I … [Read more...] about Jeff Iorg Is “God’s Man” “For Such a Time As This”

Second VP Report

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Second VP Election 10,541 registered messengers, 6668 voting Christopher Rhodes   806 votes (12.09%) Tommy Mann  2057 votes (30.85%) Craig Carlisle  3765 (56.46%)   Craig Carlisle is elected   Anyone have opinions on this new election process? Seems to me it works well in this year with no highly contested elections. Might get more messy if there were a lot of tight elections...like next year. … [Read more...] about Second VP Report

First Vice President Election

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Reporting from my office here in Tekamah, Nebraska, I have an observation. This may be the first time in convention history that more people voted in the First Vice President election than in the President election. First Vice President Election  10,511 messengers registered, 6158 voting (6009 voted for president) Daniel Richie  5409 votes (87.84%) Larry Helms 722 votes (11.72%) … [Read more...] about First Vice President Election

Collective Amnesia and the Priority Allocation: Why the Guidepost Investigation Was Necessary and We Must Pay Our Bills

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As Southern Baptists prepare to meet in Dallas, many are understandably frustrated that messengers will be asked to approve a $3 million priority allocation of Cooperative Program funds to cover anticipated legal expenses. It’s important for us to remind ourselves how we got where we are. The Original Motion At the 2021 SBC annual meeting, pastor and messenger Grant Gaines moved the creation of a task force to oversee a third-party investigation into the actions of the SBC Executive Committee regarding sexual abuse in the SBC.[1] Below is the full text of the motion:[2] I move that … [Read more...] about Collective Amnesia and the Priority Allocation: Why the Guidepost Investigation Was Necessary and We Must Pay Our Bills

I’m still all in on our cooperative work

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I’m still all in on our cooperative work as Southern Baptists. Things are not perfect in the SBC. That’s no secret. We have our issues. We always have. We always will. Until Jesus returns. But I am still committed to cooperating with other like-minded churches for the sake of the gospel. I attended my first Southern Baptist Convention in 2013 in Houston. Fred Luter was the president. He was re-elected for his second term at that meeting. Some guy in an ugly lime green suit was the second vice president. Sorry, Dave! The Calvinism task force presented their report. It was Russell … [Read more...] about I’m still all in on our cooperative work

The myth of the world’s largest deliberative body (or, when it comes to women, how the SBC loses its mind)

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One of the brag points about our Grand Old Convention, back when we were doing well enough to think about bragging and strutting, was that the SBC in annual session was The World's Largest Deliberative Body. Everyone has a vote and can speak and stuff like that. Now we excel at doing stupid stuff like passing motions that led to incredible, wasteful and perhaps endless squandering of assets, all of that for no discernible benefit at this time. Add to that the recent announcement that the SBC is "losing members at a rate that we have never experienced in modern American Christianity.” (Ryan … [Read more...] about The myth of the world’s largest deliberative body (or, when it comes to women, how the SBC loses its mind)

Varied and Vacuous Observations and Opinions, Part FIVE

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The Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting will soon be upon us. One item of particular interest will be the probable effort to defund the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Al Mohler (surprisingly) and Jack Graham (unsurprisingly) have publicly supported defunding, while ten former SBC presidents have advocated keeping the ERLC. Richard Land published an impassioned plea to Southern Baptists to preserve it. As for me, I support maintaining the ERLC. The letter from the former presidents mentions improving the Commission rather than abolishing it. That makes sense to me. If it needs … [Read more...] about Varied and Vacuous Observations and Opinions, Part FIVE