We are going to be changing some things around here the first of the year (hopefully, if all goes well).
We still intend to write the same kind of soul-stirring, mind-expanding, convention-altering blog posts (am I laying it on too thick?) that we’ve always done, but we are also beginning three regular features – and you can help with those. They will be daily features Monday through Friday.
(NOTE: the names are preliminary – they could change).
In the Word: We had a great time last year promoting expositional preaching at the Pastors’ Conference. We want to keep that up by beginning a daily (weekdays) expositional/devotional that works through a book of the Bible. We have had some discussions and we might start with Ephesians or possibly Colossians – we will announce that very soon.
If you want to be part of the team, let me know. We’d love to get a lot of SBC pastors involved in this. Here are some guidelines.
- The post must be 1000 words or less – that is pretty close to a hard cap.
- The post must be both expositional and applicational. Deal seriously with the text (it will be a relatively small portion) and apply it.
- Write to bless, not impress. It is easy in something like this to try to show off our exegetical skills to one another. Let’s just work through the word together.
- Shelve your agenda. Just preach (write?) the word. Don’t fight blogging battles using the Bible as a bludgeon.
For Pastors, By Pastors
Ever attend one of those conferences where they tell you how to make your church work and you come away feeling like you speak a different language from the people in charge? I would love to have a daily, brief post that deals with some topic on how to make it work as a pastor of an average-sized Southern Baptist church. This will not be “experts” telling you what you are doing wrong. It will be us talking to each other. Guys like you.
- You can share things you have done that were successful.
- You can write about struggles and frustrations.
- You can talk about family and personal issues.
There is no limit to what you can write about, except for one. I have a personal gripe – it was one reason I ran for PC president. I got increasingly annoyed when I attended conferences and speakers bragged about how great they were and said, “If you would only do what I have done you will see what I have seen.” There will be no self-aggrandizing! Share your heart with the intent to bless other pastors.
What’s Happening, SBC?
We want to post a daily digest of stuff that is going on in the SBC, in your state conventions, and associations. It will be a place to keep people informed about news and trends. It will not be a gossip sheet. We will not report innuendo and unsubstantiated rumors. But we will try to inform people about what is going on. Baptist Press has a role, but frankly, they only do so much. We will try to keep people informed. This may not be a daily feature – it is possible it will be three times a week.
We will manage this page, but our readers can submit items of interest for us to report.
As I said, these three regular features, each of which will be scheduled to post in the morning, will be followed by regular opinion pieces such as we have been posting now.
We will be sharpening our focus in a few other ways as well. More details will follow. But I hope you will let me know if you are willing to help us with the “In the Word” feature, and I hope many of you will share posts about how your struggles and successes as pastors of average SBC churches.
