The SBC Annual Meeting in 2021 is one that will be remembered in history as an important one for some time. While it’s easy to get lost in the respective highs and lows of the meeting, it’s also important to remember that the actions of the SBC when it gathers can have lasting actions. One […]
Elders: Are They Baptistic?
Elders are the subject of arguments raised by some Southern Baptists on social media who are opposed to a plurality of elders. Here are some of their points of contention: Churches with a plurality of elders are more Presbyterian than Southern Baptist. Pastors who believe in a plurality of elders are playing semantic games with […]
Ed Litton, speaking for himself
Jonathan Howe interviews Ed Litton on SBC This Week. You can hear Litton’s answers. An interview with Ed Litton This will take about 23 minutes of your time. I appreciated SBCTW addressing what is happening. We don’t usually do things this way.
How should the Ed Litton borrowing sermons situation be handled?
I believe there are significant concerns that have been raised regarding Ed Litton’s use of JD Greear’s sermons. I don’t like the way the concerns first came to light. None of us should be prowling the internet seeking someone to devour. I’ve been guilty of doing that before. It wasn’t right then. And it isn’t […]
The Southern Baptist Convention: What’s in a Name?
I remember during the 2012 Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting being somewhat perplexed. A motion came forward to change the name of the SBC. As my memory serves me, the thought process behind the motion was to help Southern Baptists who plant churches in the northern states and in other parts of the country not […]
Peacemaking: 4 Lessons Southern Baptists Can Learn From Whitefield and Wesley
Peacemaking. It’s a word that probably won’t get this post many views or likes. It seems that we currently are like the drivers who frustrate the stew out of me on the interstate. They slow down traffic while passing an accident scene to rubberneck and see the carnage from the collision. Or perhaps we are […]
Certainly, I fully support our SBC president Ed Litton
Among the SBC Voices writers and editors, I believe I am the only one who does not know Ed Litton personally. I’ve never met him. I did not attend any of his pre-convention meet-and-greets. Until about a year ago, he was someone that I had never heard of. After reflection, he got my vote for […]
3 Commitments for Leading Your Church to Address Sexual Abuse
Last week at #SBC21, messengers sent a clear message that we want our denomination to address the issue of sexual abuse and stand with survivors. As many survivors have pointed out, our decisions made at the annual meeting must be followed up by meaningful action or what we said is just words. Coming home, most […]
Leadership: Learning the Army’s 3 M’s
One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned in leadership involves standing in a chow line with other officers waiting for our enlisted soldiers to get their food. The reason we stood in line rather than going ahead of our soldiers directly related to the 3 M’s of leadership taught to us in our officer […]
We are a convention of pundits and analysts…but I’m not buying that the election looked closer than it really was
Ed Litton won the SBC presidential election by a total of 556 votes out of 13,112 total votes counted. That’s pretty close. I read that it wasn’t really close, that there are reasons to conclude that the margin of victory, less than three percent, didn’t represent the level of support that the CBN candidate had. […]
Decidedly low tech but high confidence SBC voting and counting
So, my millennial techno savvy friends who don’t write checks, who use Venmo, order groceries online and Prime every purchase. You are in charge of the SBC Annual Meeting. How would you manage voting? There are some rules in place: Only registered messengers may vote. Votes may be made only by those present in the […]
An Infant of The Conservative Resurgence (by Jonathan Raffini)
As a convention of churches we learned a lot through the Conservative Resurgence, but ultimately the two primary questions answered during that time period were “Is the Bible true?” and “Is the Bible fully sufficient for guiding churches and the SBC?” The answer to those two questions was, and still is, a resounding YES! So if that answer is yes in such a bold manner, why have we been experiencing so many issues in the past three to five years over a variety of topics within the convention?