SBC Voices

Stephanie is the wife of Voices contributor Mike Bergman. These thoughts on prayer were originally posted at her blog. Lately I've been thinking about spiritual growth; the two main things that come to my mind are Bible study and prayer. Reading and studying the Bible is (for me), easy. I love reading and learning new things and somehow even if I've read a passage of scripture twenty times, I've found that I still can learn something new about God each time I re-read it. Prayer, on the other hand, has always seemed a bit mysterious to me. Growing up in church I learned that prayer was … [Read more...] about On Prayer (by Stephanie Bergman)

I read a few tweets on the SBC Voices Twitter feed last night and I realized that there is a misperception out there among some about who we are. I know you regular SBCers know this, but there are some things I need to make clear. We've been "blessed" recently to have some of our articles referenced in major news articles - pro and con.  It is gratifying to get noticed outside the Baptist world, but folks, we must admit it - we Southern Baptists are weird. People don't understand our structure, our ecclesiology, our autonomy. These links draw people to this site from the secular world, from … [Read more...] about We’re Flattered, But…

This is a link to Bart's Facebook site. I thought it was pretty cool. Bart's son Jim threw out the first pitch for the Cardinals tonight. Didn't take my advice. I suggested a slider down and away. https://www.facebook.com/dr.bart.barber/videos/10212463121806275/ … [Read more...] about Breaking NEWS from Busch Stadium: A Barber on the Mound!

GuideStone, our chief purveyor of advice on ministerial compensation, hates the compensation system expressed by the two sentences above. Better said, the professionals there and in our state conventions and LifeWay prefer a different approach to ministerial compensation that most SBC churches are using. While I think that my denominational staffers advocate for the better system, I'm not sure that churches have been weaned off of the natural methods of paying the preacher. That is, decide what the church has to allot for pastor pay and let (or work with) the pastor to divide this … [Read more...] about “Here’s your pay package, pastor. We will divide it any way you want.”

Trust the Trustees. It is not just a suggestion for Southern Baptists, it is a way of life. You can gripe and moan and rage and resolve and move, but in the end, the direction of the entities of the Southern Baptist Convention is set by the Trustees. Even our actions at the SBC Annual Meeting have far less control over these entities than we think. We approve the budget and we elect the trustees, but the trustees are entrusted with the oversight of the entities. People have railed about the injustice of entities that don't bend and bow to SBC resolutions. They don't have to because entities … [Read more...] about Trustees and the SBC: A Key to Our Future

I am preaching through 2 Timothy and last week's message covered 2 Timothy 2:8-13. I believe in eternal security, but I have to admit that this passage seems easier to explain if you take the other side. As I studied the commentaries, most of them just finessed the topic and few actually dealt with the theological implications of it head on. The passage in question, verses 11-13 is an ancient saying that some believe is an early hymn. I think it is a series of tweets by the Apostle Paul, but who knows. Where is the text. 11 For if we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we … [Read more...] about So, Whaddya Think? 2 Timothy 2:12 and Eternal Security

That would be the brusque answer to the question, "Why do so many churches have money embezzled from them?" The fuller answer would be that most churches are small, depend on volunteers for financial matters, and are far too relaxed about the handling of contributions and disbursements by the people who serve as treasurers and church financial secretaries. [It is also the answer to the question, "Why are churches targeted by pedophiles?" and I have heard experts be less kind about this. "Because churches are stupid and are easy targets."] Take LifeWay Research's examination that touches on … [Read more...] about “…because churches are too trusting.”

A ROAD MAP ON RACE IN THE SBC IN LIGHT OF THE PHOENIX ’17 ALT-RIGHT RESOLUTION By William Dwight McKissic, Sr. The Southern Baptist Convention’s response in its Annual Session in Phoenix, June 2017, to the White Supremacy/Alt-Right Resolution that I submitted, may be recorded by historians as a defining moment in SBC history, particularly on the racial front. Phoenix may prove to have been a pivotal turning point and place in how racial matters are dealt with in the SBC for years to come. To reflect on the Resolution and to offer a road map to navigate through uncharted racial waters as an … [Read more...] about A Road Map on Race: After Phoenix ’17 and the Alt-Right Resolution (William Dwight McKissic, Sr.)l

...so how's that working out for the few, the called, the already beleaguered pastors? Getting married? Chances are it won't be in a church is a splendid article in the Wichita Eagle by Katherine Burgess. Bobby Ross, Jr. the excellent Get Religion writer (who really 'gets' Southern Baptists) calls it a "fascinating trend piece." It likely does not surprise many of us that most weddings are sans-church facility these days. There are three wedding venues near me. One is a rustic barn facility and the other two are renovated and expanded old houses. There is, I hear, big money in these … [Read more...] about Most weddings not in a church these days…

This past Sunday, I preached the final sermon in a 12-week journey through Ecclesiastes. In 13+ years of pastoring, it marks the fifteenth book that I have preached all the way through, and the tenth in seven years at my current church.** Growing up in the same church for the first twenty years of my life, most of the sermons that I heard were topical in nature. They weren’t bad, many were quite good, and they weren’t unbiblical, but they never really brought a text of Scripture together. They simply connected verses about a single topic, like mid-column references in some Bibles. When I … [Read more...] about “Thank you!” to those who taught me the importance of expository preaching