Attendance at the SBC Annual Meeting in my active SBC lifetime has ranged from under five thousand to over forty-five thousand. We can expect less then the convention is outside of the traditional southern cities that regularly host the meeting (Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Orlando, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Antonio; more recently Louisville, […]
Would Your Church Consider Baptism Sunday? Fill the Tank on Easter
I’ve found that intentionally planning a baptism service, even during times we don’t have any candidates committed to be baptized has been a helpful way to start conversations about baptism within our church family. I’d recommend that your church consider Baptism Sunday this coming Easter Sunday, April 12. SBC President J.D. Greear and NAMB, along […]
Baptisms are down. Woe is us. Can this be explained?
Doesn’t really need an explanation. The numbers of baptisms by churches affiliated with the SBC is a decent measure of what’s going on in evangelism in our churches and the number of dunks is in a long term, persistent, consistent slide downward. The last reporting year, 2018, showed 246,442 baptisms. Reporters who are fond of […]
“Blessed Are the Gentle” (Chapel Tribute for James Leo Garrett Jr.) – Dr. Malcolm Yarnell
(This chapel message was preached by Dr. Yarnell after the passing of distinguished SWBTS professor Dr. Garrett.) Our key texts today are found in Matthew 5 and 11. Among the first beatitudes of his inaugural sermon, Jesus said, “Blessed are the gentle [hoi praeis], for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Later, after praying […]
What Makes for a “High Quality” Spouse
I saw a tweet the other day from some guy attempting to instruct women on what “high quality men” look for in a partner. His list can be narrowed down to fitting his definition of attractiveness and unblemished past. On the one hand, the things on his list weren’t bad things. On the other hand, […]
Floyd explains Vision 2025
We’ve had several articles here about the happenings at the SBC Executive Committee Meeting last week. On Monday night, Ronnie Floyd presented his new plan called Vision 2025 to the Executive Committee. William published an article on the plan here at SBC Voices. But Vision 2025 was quickly overshadowed by the actions the Executive Committee […]
A Statement For all Baptists (Luke Holmes)
Controversy is not new to Baptist life. More than sixty years ago many promised fireworks at the annual meeting if their issues were not addressed, others predicted a convention divided, and everyone was grumbling about supposed problems with professors. I’m not talking about our most recent controversy though. Those issues and more were at stake […]
The Southern Baptist Convention is in a pretty sorry state…
…or is it? Depends on whose describing it and what they look at. I have grave reservations about these parts of SBC life: The long running decline in baptisms. This is a trend that precedes any current controversy, wasn’t caused by Cals, Trads, Cons, the secret CBN, NAMB, the ERLC, or anything else along these […]
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It (Chris Gordon)
I can tell you the batting average of Dale Murphy from his 1983 NL MVP season rose 21 points from his 1982 MVP season(.281 to .302). Much to the chagrin of my poor wife I might add, I am a statistical nerd. It’s true I hated Statistics in college though. No not stats, but Statistics, […]
ERLC Responds Powerfully to Mike Stone and EC Task Force
In a statement just posted at ERLC.com, the ERLC trustees address the actions taken by the SBC Executive Committee during Tuesday’s meeting. Full Text Below: Letter from the ERLC Executive Committee Feb 20, 2020 Dear Chairman Stone and Members of the Executive Committee, As convictional and grateful Southern Baptists, we would like to thank every […]
David Uth releases new statement from Pastors’ Conference responding to Executive Committee
Statement from Dr. David Uth regarding SBCPC 2020 February 19, 2020 Available at sbcpc.net. Direct link. On Tuesday, February 18, I learned that the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee voted to disallow the use of the 2020 SBC venue at the Orange County Convention Center for the 2020 Pastors’ Conference unless we adjust the program […]
The SBC Deserves Better: Another Executive Committee Faceplant
The purpose and most basic task of the SBC’s Executive Committee is “to act for the convention” between our Annual Meetings. Can we pause and think together about what that means – that the EC should act for the convention? There are multiple definitions of the word “for” but only one of those really makes sense […]