SBC Voices

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

1) Though we have great theological disagreements, at least we can all unite in hopes that the Yankees rise up to smite the forces of darkness from Baltimore. Amen and amen. 2) It was a reasonable if unusual call in the 8th inning of the Atlanta game and the Turner Field fans demonstrated a humongous lack of class. 3) The Braves and Rangers losing is good. The Cardinals and Orioles winning is bad. Does the good outweigh the bad? Hard to say. 4) Someone needs to either hire a defensive coordinator or change the rules in NCAA football. Very few teams are playing defense. 5) When … [Read more...] about Random Observations about Sports (and GO YANKEES!!!!)

Are you a put together person? Do you have training, experience, know how and talent? Do you have an all go, no quit attitude? Have you never given up, never walked away and never surrendered? That's good to know, I would prefer you not partner with me in any ministry venture or activity. If you have it all together, just do your own thing. If you are flawed and broken however, if you mess up and are broken, call me. If you lack talent, sometimes fail, want to quit and often don't have the answers, we should work together. If you have failed, quit, run, been hurt or wounded, then you are in … [Read more...] about No, I Don’t Got It Together

We get a lot of comments here at SBC Voices. Most are thoughtful and helpful. Some are bewildering, petulant, even mean. A few I have to delete. But every once in a while I read a comment and think it should be a post of its own. One such comment appeared on Thursday, from Randall Cofield. I only read it because I saw Jeremy Parks reference it in our "Reader Comments" sidebar. But I did not hold Jeremy's praise against Randall and I went ahead and read the comment. Wow. Gold medal/Hall of Fame stuff! Here is the comment (made at 11:11 PM on 10/4) from Randall Cofield. Cooperation … [Read more...] about A Comment Worthy of Its Own Post: Fiddling While Rome Burns!

In the aftermath of President Obama’s public affirmation of same-sex marriage, a high profile Black pastor not only supported the President’s position, but also gave a robust defense of the government sanctioning of same-sex marriage. Pastor Otis Moss III serves as Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, formerly pastored by Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Pastor Moss is making a mark and stamp on the social order, contemporary culture and the Black church at large as did his predecessor and his beloved father, Rev. Otis Moss Jr., a retired Baptist pastor and iconic Civil Rights … [Read more...] about THE MOSS “EPISTLE” vs. THE TREASURE BOX: Equipping Black Christians to Respond to Pro Same-Sex Marriage Pastors (by Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr.)

At the recent Executive Committee meeting, Tom Elliff  really made me angry. No, not like that. I wasn't angry at him, but I was angry at what he said. As he was giving his IMB report, he gave some information that set me off a little. Before I get to what he said, let me share a graphic I saw over at William Thornton's site, along with his Plodder's assessment of the current CP trends. After peaking in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Cooperative Program giving took a sharp decline over the next three years. The last three years have been flat, but that is encouraging compared to the … [Read more...] about Are Our Spats, Differences, and Personal Goals Worth the Damage We Are Doing to Missions?

Call me a nerd but I was very ecstatic about what was going down on Tuesday evening in my little church in Northeast, Missouri.  I had been saved for a few months now and beginning to get acclimated into the church.  I could not seem to get enough of this life with other believers. So it was only fitting that when there was something on Tuesday night that I would attend. That something in this instance was the quarterly church business meeting.  Boy, was I pumped!  I figured that this was were we all got together to talk about our evangelism strategies, to share about how the church was … [Read more...] about Review of “Pursuing Peace” by Robert D. Jones