Members of the Executive Committee and fellow Southern Baptists, I hope you guys are doing great. It’s been a nice, quiet season for me, so I’m just grateful to be here. When I got nominated to be SBC President, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I told a lot of people that in some […]
Another Aspect to the Sexual abuse Crisis
I’ve avoided giving my two cents about the Houston Chronicle article and its ensuing effects on our convention because I had nothing new to add to the conversation. Our leaders, and entities, the bylaws working group notwithstanding, have responded well. I have something to add to the conversation, something not being discussed. I’d like to […]
Bylaws Workgroup Statement Charts Course for Return to 20th Century
It may be the fastest decision a Baptist committee has ever reached. A workgroup within the SBC Executive Committee has assured us that most of the churches named in the Houston Chronicle’s sexual abuse exposé do not warrant any further investigation. Late Saturday, the bylaws workgroup released a statement through Baptist Press. Both the content and […]
Autonomy is still the reality and rule in Southern Baptist life
Nothing in the past two weeks has changed these facts of SBC life and polity: The SBC (and I use “SBC” in the broad sense of the entire universe of churches, entities, committees, boards, organizations, and institutions) ordains no clergy. Only churches who voluntarily cooperate with Southern Baptist organizations ordain ministers. Neither does […]
Cliches – What Would We Say without Them?
What would preachers, politicians, and sports writers have to say without clichés? According to my American Heritage Dictionary, a cliche is “a trite or overused expression or idea.” Of course, there is truth in clichés. If there was no truth, we would not use them. Still, some are used so much that wise preachers would […]
‘God’s Man’
The Executive Committee Presidential Search Team announced Tuesday that they have found “God’s candidate” to lead the Southern Baptist Convention’s administrative entity. The announcement comes nearly eleven months after the position of EC President was vacated by Frank Page. I have no doubt that the search team has rightly prayed and sought God’s guidance throughout the […]
SBC Executive Committee Recommends Bylaw Change, Disfellowshipping on Basis of Racism or Indifference to Sexual Abuse
More big news out of this week’s SBC Executive Committee meeting. The EC is recommending changes to article 3 of the SBC Constitution, which would add racism or indifference to sexual abuse to the list of circumstances which would call for a church to be deemed out of cooperation with the convention, and therefore no […]
A Word of Appreciation to J.D. Greear
I imagine there were some gasps last night among those in the Executive Committee meeting room when J.D. Greear laid out his plan for responding to the current abuse scandal which we’ve known about for a while and has been made national news by the Houston Chronicle. We are not used to this kind of […]
SBC President J.D. Greear Outlines 10 Action Steps in Response to Sexual Abuse Controversy
Last night during the SBC Executive Committee meeting, J.D. Greear outlined action steps based on the work of the presidential study group on sexual abuse. A number of reports were coming out from media outlets via social media during the meeting. It was clear that the meeting, from the beginning, aimed to take the situation […]
J. D. Greear calls out specific churches on sexual abuse handling
The Executive Committee meeting of last evening was remarkable and unprecedented in a number of ways. For the SBC President to call on an official SBC committee to review the standing of a list of churches for their handling of sex abuse is quite astonishing. The Biblical Recorder put it this way: He called the […]
Adam Greenway to lead Southwestern Seminary
Reports came out this morning that Billy Graham School Dean, Adam Greenway, will be nominated to serve as the next president of Southwestern Seminary to be elected at a special meeting of the SWBTS board, Feb 26-27. You can read the press release here. I affirm the work of the search committee and I believe […]
Can autonomy be “leveraged” in the SBC to guard against abuse?
The proposal by professors Whitfield and Yarnell, of Southeastern and Southwestern seminaries respectively, is serious, comprehensive, and deserves due consideration. In my reading of their 2500 word article, Addressing Abuse in the SBC: A Proposal, it seems to me that the key sentence is this: We must leverage our autonomy to call our churches into […]