SBC Voices

Bryant Laird serves as the Family & Student Pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce, SC.  He previously worked at the North American Mission Board and was in charge of recruiting, hiring and training Summer Staff for the ministries of World Changers and PowerPlant from 2006-2011.  Bryant also served at First Baptist Church Yazoo City, MS as Minister to Students from 2002-2006 and has a history with World Changers that includes time as a participant (1991-1995), Summer Staffer (1996, 1998-2000), Coordinator (2001-2005) and Group Leader (2003, 2005, 2012).  Bryant is married to Olivia, … [Read more...] about Do Hard Things, the Easy Way: Concerns about the Changes at World Changers (by Bryant Laird)

One of the most used (over used) resources in the modern church is often guilt.  As Baptists, we don't have the corner on the market when it comes to guilt, but we definately have more than our fair share of usage. I'll admit I have used it from the pulpit, classroom, article and the occasional blog. We use guilt to promote faith, but should we?  One of the things I see very often is people struggling with guilt and not knowing what to do. Guilt can sometimes be a trap for people, but it doesn't need to be. Guilt had to be understood in it's proper context so people can be free of it's … [Read more...] about Do you Guilt, or Let the Spirit bring Conviction?

Dr. David W. Manner is Director of Worship and Administration at the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. He blogs at  http://kncsb.org/blogs/dmanner . You can follow him on Twitter:  @dwmanner.  Evangelical churches have rejected the old covenant practice of designating priests as a special class of religious hierarchy.  And even though Anglican and Episcopal congregations have retained the title, their priests function in a pastoral role as ministers rather than interceders.  The belief that someone else must mediate our relationship with God for us or dispense God’s grace to us … [Read more...] about Are Pastors Functioning As Protestant Priests? (by Dr. David W. Manner)

I've never been called a prophet nor do I have a reputation for insightful brilliance, so take this all with a grain of salt. The BCS-ination of the SBC I enjoy college football as much as a good many people, though not as much as some nut-jobs out there.  However, a recent trend has set my teeth on edge: small and mid-sized football conferences are losing their best schools to the major conferences: Big 10, Pac-12, Big 12, Big East, ACC, SEC, etc.  These conferences in turn set most of the rules and dominate the airways.  Smaller groupings lose their best schools, players, and income … [Read more...] about SBC Trends That We Might See Someday…If We Don’t Already

The boy was horribly disfigured by birth defects.  It was difficult to look at his misshapen face.  His mother’s heart had been broken repeatedly by the looks of horror and the unkind words.  The host of the TV show asked her, “When you look at your son, what do you see?”  Tears running down her face, she replied, “I see a beautiful boy.”  She was not blind to his defects, but defiantly chose to look past her son’s deformity.   She chose to see him with eyes of love. In recent days I have heard harsh criticisms of the church.  Many churches are horribly divided, hopelessly impotent and … [Read more...] about Seeing the Beauty in the Body of Christ

He wept over distresses which He intended to relieve.  -John Newton On hot evenings little boys really need a cold drink.  After an intense day of playing I took my son out for a late night Chicken McNugget Happy Meal with a nice cold chocolate milk. Poor little guy was so parched that on this occasion he was more passionate about the milk than his super cool toy. He got two sips. As we began our journey back home I heard a distraught little boy in the back seat.  He had set his milk next to his leg and began reaching into his jolly bag of goodness to retrieve a Nugget (or more likely … [Read more...] about Does Jesus Cry Over Spilled Milk?

If predictions held true, somewhere around 1500 pastors in America endorsed either a political party or a particular presidential candidate in the pulpit yesterday - a clear violation of IRS guidelines. Wayne Grudem, in the Christian Post, spelled out his reasons for participating, and I think he made an excellent case. According to Grudem: The IRS' guidelines restricting political speech from the pulpit is an encroachment on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. I tend to agree. He says that the only way to challenge such IRS guidelines is for someone to violate them and then … [Read more...] about Why I Did Not Participate in “Pulpit Freedom” Sunday

What a powerful, articulate, and passionate speech. Not used to hearing this kind of press conference, are we? I've never seen a football player as incisively challenge his own fans. Courageous. But this was a great speech. He called the extremes of the American football culture to account for its attitudes. Wow. In the last few days we have seen shameful behavior by sports fans in more than one venue. Braves fans at Turner Field threw debris on the field after a call goes against them in the Wild Card game. It was a judgment call by the umpire - an unusual call, to be sure, but other … [Read more...] about Eric Winston Lays a Smackdown on Chiefs’ Fans