Greeting all my blogging friends. I have missed you all. I have been away for a while and made some serious changed. I resigned my position of Associate Pastor, working to start a non-profit, and trying to do more writing. You can see by my lack of blogs that the last one hasn't been going to well. I have left the church with a desire to reach out to those who are not coming to church. I have spent much of my ministry in front line ministry, on high school and college campus doing outreach and evangelism. That is where I feel led to go back, and with this in mind, I woke up to … [Read more...] about The Fights that Need Fighting
Needed: Prophets Not Protectors (by Todd Littleton)
Todd Littleton blogs at The Edge of the Inside. He wrote a four part series reflecting on the 2012 SBC Annual Meeting through the lens of offering his first ever motion on the floor of the SBC. While the nexus of his thoughts turn on a singular incident, Todd finds it illustrative for what ails us. Rather than post these in series form. Todd offers them as stand alone posts. His first post on the subject ran recently here at Voices. Southern Baptists pride themselves as literalists. The tendency is to employ a rabid love for the meaning of words until it does not suit the purpose. Southern … [Read more...] about Needed: Prophets Not Protectors (by Todd Littleton)
Holy Festival
Yesterday, it was brought to my attention by one of our contributors that the Muslim month of Ramadan is underway again. There are Christians who have developed prayer guides and such to lead fellow believers in praying for Muslims during this time, that they would see the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and more importantly get to know His Son, Jesus Christ. I can commend that effort without reservation. But this reminder got me to thinking about something related to this topic. Several years ago now, I ran across a news article highlighting the fact that many guys from the … [Read more...] about Holy Festival
Quick Review of Two Books to Help Fight Pornography
The LORD will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations. (Zephaniah 2:11) In the Lord’s war to dethrone idols and capture the heart of his bride there are few idols that are more alluring in our culture than sinful sex and pornography. In fact pornography/adultery/lust is so ensnaring and so deadly that whole chapters of Proverbs are dedicated to it. The typical advice isn’t “gird up yourself and fight this thing” it is usually “run away” (run towards Jesus). To help us wage war in … [Read more...] about Quick Review of Two Books to Help Fight Pornography
Severability
This was originally posted on my personal blog back in September of last year. In the absence of Dave, those of us on the "infrequent contributor" list are trying to step forward and help fill the blog up. Additions to the original will be in italics. This is going to sound a bit like a rant and may really need to be edited, but you're going to get the full-force of what I have to say. Even if that includes a few errors in spelling and grammar. The big word you see as the post title is a term from contract law. It also appears in general legislation. From a legal perspective, as far as … [Read more...] about Severability
Universal Issues
The longer I live and the more I see and experience, I have come to realize that some things are truly universal. Like, no matter what church we have a community event in here in Langdon, the back rows always fill up before the front ones. I specify church because I found that the baccalaureate in the school gym doesn't suffer from that same problem, which I attribute to the fact that it takes more effort to climb bleachers in order to sit at the back. Because of this truth, I am always excited to see when someone else has done the hard work of illustrating one of these universal issues … [Read more...] about Universal Issues
Balancing Acts
We’re constantly barraged with advice to be “balanced.” Elements of Yoga and Buddhism call for an internal balance, and who can forget the yin-yang symbol depicting a flowing balance of light and dark. We’re constantly concerned about having a balanced diet, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, balancing our checkbook, and the balance of power in both houses of Congress. I can’t hang a picture frame on the wall without first considering placement and creating a visually aesthetic balance between the objects on the wall and the furniture in the room. Balance is all around us. Certainly, … [Read more...] about Balancing Acts
I Miss Dave
Just saying. But since he's out of the country and totally unable to defend himself, I do have a few questions I was hoping some of you could help me with: Did Dave really say, "I'm going to Taiwan?" Or did he say, "I'm going to tie one on?" They don't call it Miller Time for nothing, and have you noticed he always tries to steer us away from discussing alcohol? Did Dave really pack the infamous Gatorade colored sport coat, and if so, does anyone know the Chinese phrase for "Jolly Green Giant?" Since Obama and other politicians leave the country whenever there's a scandal … [Read more...] about I Miss Dave
TULIPY: The Acronym for Hyper-Calvinism
Editor's Note: I originally posted this at my own blog quite a while ago and had thought about publishing it here at that time but didn't. While I am waiting for some of our contributors to finish up some posts and get them ready to go, I figured I would offer this as fodder for discussion. If I have misrepresented any of the core of the five points of TULIP, feel free to offer some constructive correction. It was not my intention to flesh them out fully, but neither did I desire to misrepresent them. I have had a flash of inspiration. Perhaps someone, somewhere has already done this … [Read more...] about TULIPY: The Acronym for Hyper-Calvinism
It Could Be Worse
I am a lot like Dave in some ways. We both serve in states that are out of the main core of the SBC. We both serve in an office that has a title with no real power beyond our ministry as pastors (admittedly his is a much bigger office with no real power than mine). We both dislike the culture of argumentative combativeness that comes with the territory seemingly of the blogosphere. But I remind myself that it could always be worse. Yesterday, I ran across an article that reminded me just how true this statement is. At least we find ourselves arguing over issues that are debatable in … [Read more...] about It Could Be Worse