SBC Voices

My church is working to upgrade our technological and organizational structure. One of the things we are considering is purchasing and subscribing to a "Church Management System" software package. Do any of your churches use such a software? Are you impressed? Upset? Tell me what you know about Church Management software. … [Read more...] about Discussion Forum: Do You Use Church Management Software?

My wife has a deathly fear: blindness. It is only natural.  She's been deaf all her life, and everything she's ever learned has come to her through her eyes.  Vision is everything. She reads voraciously.  She accessorizes with colorful scarves.  She loves light: sunlight, Christmas lights, beautiful lamps, and tiny candles.  She can lip-read, if she must, but greatly prefers the living, fluid beauty of sign language. I was born hearing, but I've been losing it bit by bit over the years; the loss started in early childhood and continues today.  I've noticed a similar fear of blindness … [Read more...] about Blindness, Deafness, and Despair

I've had plenty of practice in recent years. I'm a sports fan (in case anyone doesn't know that) and over the last few years I've watched as many of my athletic heroes have fallen flat on their faces. Man, I hated Roger Clemens - everything about him. Then, he donned the pinstripes and I have to admit that it took a while for me to warm to him. But I did. I really did. I remember watching Roger walk off the mound for the last time, with a tear in my eye. And then it turned out that his greatness likely came from a syringe. I cheered for Tiger Woods when he was a scrawny little kid winning … [Read more...] about When Your Hero Falls

My brilliant wife returns to the blogging world with me continuing to serve as her amanuensis. Wait...you're my what? Your amanuensis. And what does that mean?! Someone who writes something dictated or composed by another. Don't you know an easy word that means the same thing? Yes...amanuensis. I can't talk to you when you're like this. "Then the King will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.’” Matthew 25:40 Ethan and I work in a country filled with quite a bit of poverty.  People work long hours to buy starchy … [Read more...] about And Who Is Your Least?

Alan Cross blogs at Downshore Drift, where this article was originally published. He graciously allowed me to repost this here. In the days after the Sandy Hook Massacre, Gun Control advocates have pushed their agenda to center stage in the national debate. Or, maybe the whole issue about what we do with guns, why we have so many, and whether or not we even should have them took center stage all on its own in the wake of such a horror. The argument goes that since the mass murders that take place on occasion in America almost always involve semi-automatic "assault" rifles with high magazine … [Read more...] about Evangelical Christians and Guns: Are We Doing It Right? (by Alan Cross)

Do you ever read a passage of Scripture and think that Paul (or another biblical author) may have had a prophetic vision of blogging when he wrote it? In reality, the issues that come up in blogging are not new, they are just human foibles in a new format. Social media does not create new problems; it simply reveals old ones in a new way. I was reading a post at Mike Leake's site, Borrowed Light, which had a link to an article at "Gentle Reformation" called, "Short Rules of Blogging." In that post, the author quoted a verse from 2 Timothy 2, and it drove me to get the Bible out and read that … [Read more...] about Paul’s Admonitions to Bloggers (Well, to Timothy)

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.  -Proverbs 18:17 I’m not an expert counselor.  But I hope I am growing.  Early on in my ministry I dealt almost exclusively with counseling teenagers.  As one in my early twenties and still  with plenty of youthful vigor (or perhaps rebellion) in my heart I listened intently as teenagers would tell me about how much they were victimized by their parents. It is much to my chagrin that I confess that for the first year or two I really thought that these kids had horrible parents that simply did not … [Read more...] about Don’t Proxy Counsel

In my ministry, I have been privileged to serve as Pastor of four wonderful churches--three with parsonages and one without. When living in a parsonage, I sometimes felt the desire for a home to call my very own. Asking others about drapes, carpets and repairs made me feel like I lived in a nice apartment with a friendly landlord, but clearly had no authority to make the place my own because, of course, it wasn't. I was thrilled to finally enter the world of mortgages about twelve years ago. But there is one very significant occasion when living in a parsonage can make a lot of sense, both … [Read more...] about Time to Bring Back the Parsonage?

Pastor Mark Driscoll* tweeted this last week: That he is no fan of bloggers is no secret. He’s been known in the past to be quick to use his sharp wit to lampoon the critical blogger. I realize also that by responding to him I am probably becoming one of those “pontificating” bloggers that he so disdains. Fair enough, but I thought this might serve as a decent opportunity to share the benefit of blogging. On one hand I totally agree with Pastor Mark. Pontificating about what others are doing while doing nothing yourself can be very annoying. There is no doubt that one of the negative … [Read more...] about Blogging Can Be Doing, a Response to @PastorMark