SBC Voices

As laborers for Jesus, we are all working to reap a harvest through the gospel.  We plant, we water, and we harvest.  However, we don’t always get to do all three things with the same person.  Sometimes we’re the one who plants the gospel in a person’s life.  At other times we’re the one who waters that gospel so that it might take root, grow, bloom, and bear fruit.  Still other times we are the one who gets to harvest that soul by leading them to faith in Jesus Christ.  Of course, it’s God who brings the growth and the harvest, but He uses human agents to bring it about (Matthew 9:37-38).  … [Read more...] about It’s a Team Harvest

William Thornton is the inimitable, insightful, sometimes curmudgeonly, rarely acerbic or irascible, always interesting, SBC Plodder.  I do think that we're going to see a winnowing. We're going to see a clarification of who we are and I do believe in twenty years we're going to be a smaller denomination, maybe less number of churches but I think that we're going to be more focused. I think we're going to be more serious about joining together and reaching the world for Christ. Frank Page, CEO, SBC Executive Committee, Fault Lines Within the SBC Panel, June, 2014 (go to the 24 minute mark at … [Read more...] about The SBC Will Be Smaller in 20 Years (by William Thornton)

Adam Blosser is the pastor of Drakes Branch Baptist Church, in Drakes Branch, Virginia, and blogs at One True Joy.  Over the last week on SBC Voices we have debated baptism as it relates to church membership, and whether or not we have the authority to use a different mode for baptism when immersion just isn't possible.  Let me see if I can stir the baptism pot a little more, but change the direction. Let me begin by telling you what a typical baptism service looks like in the church I pastor.  Near the beginning of the morning worship service, I bring the candidate(s) for baptism up on … [Read more...] about Practical Reflections on Baptism (by Adam Blosser)

The ERLC's blog "Canon and Culture" carried an article today by Bart Barber, whose articles appear here (when Dr. Moore doesn't steal his affections and efforts!). I hope my angst doesn't come across as bitterness or anything. Seriously, Bart wrote an excellent article, entitled "A Postlude to Hobby Lobby" which you are strongly encouraged to read. If the SBC had a Supreme Court, Bart would likely be a candidate for the next opening!  He seems to have a grasp on religious liberty issues that rivals his theological grasp displayed here. He gives both an academic analysis of the case and a … [Read more...] about On Bart Barber’s “A Postlude to Hobby Lobby” (at Canon and Culture)

Joel Rainey is the Director of Missions at Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, an adjunct professor at Capital Bible Seminary and blogs at Themelios (Twitter - @joelrainey).  As spring and summer approach, mission teams from churches all over America begin gearing up for a busy season. Anyone who frequents airports for either business or pleasure has no doubt seen oceans of identical T-shirts wandering the concourses between connections, and those wearing those T-shirts expect no less than a "great missions experience." Summer has barely begun, and our Association has already had teams on … [Read more...] about Missions Reflections: Why We Go (by Joel Rainey)

Can you identify anything in your current spiritual practice of your faith that has come about as a result of your having read a blog article? Have you ever preached a sermon that seemed helpful to yourself or to others for which you could say that some of the material was contributed through your consumption of blogs? Have you ever had a blog article to touch you profoundly or to lead you closer to the Lord in some way? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, I wonder whether you would consider sharing a brief narrative of your experience in the comments below? Please refrain … [Read more...] about The Impact of Blogging: A Poll

As I read the discussion on Bart's post yesterday my mind went back to a story I heard a Baptist leader tell not too long ago. I wanted to pose this tough question for our discussion. We ought to form our theology based on biblical teachings, not on difficult quandaries such as this, but it is still interesting to ponder what we might do in particular circumstance. For the sake of this article, we need not argue the basics of biblical baptism. Apologies to our Presby friend Les who hangs out here, but the readers of Voices are pretty much exclusively people who are convinced that biblical … [Read more...] about A Tough Question for Biblical Baptists