SBC Voices

I get annoyed sometimes watching sports - and not just because my teams usually lose. I get annoyed with fans and with announcers and even with participants. I think I have discovered a solution: the PDC. A Paintball Discipline Crew will attend all American sporting events, armed with paintball guns, to deliver discipline when needed. This is a badly overdue thing. Here are some circumstances when such a crew could be helpful. 1) Every time someone at a golf tournament yells, "Get in the hole" immediately after a shot, the PDC will descend on him and pepper him with 50 to 100 tiny balls … [Read more...] about The Sports World Needs PDC (Paintball Discipline Crews)

        … [Read more...] about P4CM – The Exegesis of Jesus

NOTE: I've been discussing this issue with Marty King of LifeWay over the last couple of days. His response on behalf of LifeWay is attached below. While we are not seeing this the same way, I am appreciative of LifeWay's responsiveness and willingness to talk these things through.  World Changers has been coming to Sioux City, Iowa as long as I have lived here (7 years) and for some time before that. When you minister outside of the established SBC states, in what are now called "new work" states, you come to appreciate ministries like World Changers. Southern Baptists struggle for … [Read more...] about An Iowan’s Lament: Regretting LifeWay’s Changes to World Changers (with Response from LifeWay)

Another entry from our newly named Sports Editor. Hey Sports Fans! The Fall Classic is just around the corner of the MLB Baseball Season, yeah boy! I know you all love it because it is a Sports tradition, maybe even the biggest one in all the Sporting World. And that is saying a lot for someone who has seen the ultimate greatness of the FOOTBALL UNIVERSE as I have, being a Sabanite and a member of the SABANATION. With the World Series coming up in mind, my good friend and big time SBC analyst, Scott Gordon, made a statement about the great Mickey Mantle that caused me to ponder something … [Read more...] about THE GREATEST EVER? (by CB Scott)

And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known. C. Austin Miles Principle #1. In order to hear God, you must first expect for God to speak to you. God may already be speaking to you. But if you don’t expect Him to speak, it is likely you won’t hear Him. There are some who read the Bible like they were reading a history book, nothing more. And, then they say that it is boring. One of the main ways God speaks to us today is through the Bible. Hebrews 4:12. For the word of God is … [Read more...] about Hearing God, Part 2

Doctrinal debate is a tricky thing. We are called to walk in unity with one another, to honor one another as brothers in Christ and to edify the Body. But the very act of asserting doctrinal truth demands that one call another wrong. I cannot hold to one truth without denying another. Yet, the common response on blogs to being confronted doctrinally is to yelp like a whipped puppy.  "How could you say that about me?"  "Are you calling me a heretic?"  "How dare you?" Instead of responding with biblical or theological content, the preferred response seems to be to define oneself as a … [Read more...] about My Brother, You Are Wrong!

What is God’s main purpose for us? To have a relationship of love with Him. Romans 5:11 (NLT). So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Has anyone ever heard of a meaningful relationship in which both participants don’t communicate with each other? If we are going to have a love relationship with God, that means we must talk with God. But not only talk to God. It would not be a very healthy relationship if one of the participants did all the talking, and the other always listened. In order to have a healthy … [Read more...] about Hearing God, Part 1

Editor:  Rob Freshour is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of South Lyon, Michigan. Several years ago, as a church planting missionary, I took on secular employment to supplement our family income.  In addition to my work as a planter-pastor, I worked with the United States Postal Service, first as a clerk, then as a mail carrier.  I learned a great deal about people and life as a postman. As you are probably aware, every postal worker who walks a route tries to be on the alert for dogs in the neighborhood.  Seems every puppy is born with an innate dislike for uniforms and the … [Read more...] about The Invisible Fence (by Rob Freshour)

Dr. David W. Manner is the 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. Thank you for sharing this with us, Dr. Manner. Most worship pastors crave the leadership investment from and healthy ministry communication with their senior pastor but don’t often realize the freedom or job security to initiate that relationship.  Consequently, a trial and error process of determining ministry direction often discourages the worship pastor and causes frustration for … [Read more...] about Senior Pastor: What Your Worship Leader Needs from You (by Dr. David Manner)

Alan Cross blogs at Downshore Drift and is a fantastic nomination speech-giver! I believe that God continues to work through His Spirit in the church via miraculous gifts and through His power. This belief is called "continuationism."  Cessationism is the belief that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased with the completion of the canon of Scripture in the New Testament, or at the end of the first century when the last of the original apostles died. This is a big argument and I will not be able to cover it all here. A discussion arose last week on SBCVoices.com that made a case … [Read more...] about Another Case for the Continuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (by Alan Cross)