Over the last few years, a stunning shift has taken place in church culture. Successful, influential, and powerful pastors are being dismissed from their churches. Not for the typical moral failures or money scandals but for unhealthy leadership practices. Why has this become such an issue? Understanding the problem The simplified version is that decades […]
K. Marshall Williams to Nominate J.D. Greear for Second Term
Baptist Press is reporting that Pennsylvania pastor K. Marshall Williams has announced that he will nominate J.D. Greear, of Summit Church in Raleigh, for a second term as president of Southern Baptist Convention. There is much solid information in the BP article. We have been thrilled with J.D. Greear’s diverse appointments, his leadership on the […]
Southwestern Seminary: Painful Recalibration
Baptist Press carried an article about the trustee meeting at Southwestern Seminary this week, in with its new President, Dr. Adam Greenway, spoke of his desire to lead the seminary to “recalibrate and to reposition” itself in “every way to strengthen the core of what we do.” Greenway said, At the end of the day, […]
Five things your church could learn from Augusta National Golf Club…
…wherein your humble, hacker and plodder blogger, a non-golfer, gets to smugly drop the info that he has been to the Masters several times. Yes, indeed. The world’s premier golf tournament, under way right now, and the world’s most famous golf course is 110.5 miles from where I type and everyone around here has been, […]
So, you like to play those personality and spiritual gift inventory games at your church?
Churches do some strange things and high among the head-scratchers is how many churches have an affection for promoting personality inventories in their congregation. The most well-known of these is, of course, that one with a hyphenated name which doesn’t include the term “personality” at all. I pass on dropping the name because I don’t […]
The Never-ending Struggle of Ministry
I called to talk to Julie a moment ago to see if I could come by and see her father again. “Dad passed away this morning.” It left me with a feeling of guilt that I’ve experienced often before. On Monday, my supposed day off, I got a call from the father of a man […]
Five Questions I Respectfully Ask Five Southern Baptist Convention Entities To Answer
Five Entities: Southern Baptist Executive Committee (EC), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS), International Mission Board (IMB), New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS), and Lifeway. There are five questions that I plan to forward to five SBC entities (listed above), who have hired, or will be hiring a President for each entity, in the months ahead. […]
A childhood friend takes his life
“Billy died,” my father said over the telephone. “I thought you would want to know.” It was unusual for me to receive a call from my dad, so I expected something serious. “I think he took his own life.” Billy was a close childhood friend from years past. I was surprised and saddend to hear […]
Dr. Steve Horn Recommended to Lead Louisiana Baptists
A Louisiana search committee has decided on the candidate they will recommend to serve as the next Executive Director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Dr. Steve Horn, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Lafayette, Louisiana will be presented to the LBC Executive Board’s Administrative Committee during a special meeting slated for Thursday, April 11. If the […]
Praying for International Missionaries
We hosted a “Revive This Nation” student preach at our church three weeks ago. Pastor Omotayo is a PHd student working to get his Phd in Christian counseling. I would encourage every church to host a “Revive This Nation” preacher in March of 2020. It’s a great opportunity to encourage student preachers. The seminary matches […]
To Attend, or Not Attend, That Is the Question
I enjoy attending the Annual Session of the Southern Baptist Convention each year. Our annual Vacation Bible School and the second week of June SBC session have often conflicted on our church calendar. I have usually opted to attend the SBC, when that occurs, and left an Associate in charge. This year we scheduled the […]
The SBC’s worst kept secret and how if this were the real Army, SBCers would be in the hoosegow
That Ronnie Floyd was the Executive Committee’s nominee for CEO was the worst kept secret in the entire Southern Baptist Convention. If you didn’t know, consider yourself dangerously (or, delightfully) unconnected. Chuck Kelley looks bad because of statements he is said to have made about race and the NOBTS’ presidential search. Multiple, credible, anonymous sources […]