EDITOR’S NOTE: Gary Ledbetter served for 21 years as editor of The Southern Baptist TEXAN, the official newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. He currently serves as senior editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s High Street Press. The Missouri Baptist Pathway is like the paper I edited for 21 years, The Southern Baptist TEXAN, in that both papers were born out of the SBC Conservative Resurgence. And both our papers were necessitated by regrettable controversy. The … [Read more...]
‘How Do I Retire?’ a ‘must read’ for those who would finish well
JEFFERSON CITY – High Street Press, the publishing arm of the Missouri Baptist Convention, has announced the release of How Do I Retire? by wealth advisor Richard Baker. Baker is an accredited and experienced financial expert who has worked with many clients in preparing for retirement. “How Do I Retire? is exactly what I say to a person who comes to me and asks what they need to do to begin the retirement process,” Baker says of the book. The book provides counsel and resources … [Read more...]
SBTC’s Richards announces plans to step down in 2021
AUSTIN, Texas (BP) – Jim Richards, the executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), has announced his intention to transition from leadership, effective Dec. 31, 2021. Richards, who informed the SBTC executive board of his intention during its meeting Wednesday (Nov. 11), is the founding executive director of the 22-year-old state convention, which has grown from 120 affiliated churches when he was elected in November 1998, to nearly 2,700 churches today. … [Read more...]
Three down, two to go
The election of Ronnie Floyd to lead the SBC Executive Committee marks the third chief executive hire of a pretty remarkable era of transition for the SBC. Only Lifeway and New Orleans Seminary are still looking for presidents. In some ways, the men elected to lead the International Mission Board, Southwestern Seminary and the Executive Committee don’t fit some of the predictions I’ve seen among those who follow our business closely. Here are things that surprise me a little. This is not … [Read more...]
Darkness & light at Sutherland Springs
GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) – John’s prologue in the Gospels is my favorite Christmas passage, showing us in theological outline what happened in Bethlehem’s stable. We know that Jesus is “the Word,” the light that shines in the darkness. With somber joy we read that “the darkness did not overcome it.” I thought of that passage as I’ve considered the darkness manifested at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs Nov. 5. As I write this, hours after the event, pundits are talking in the … [Read more...]
Resolutions: Heart of Southern Baptists in brief
I first attended the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in 1982, early in the days of the Conservative Resurgence. The next few years saw some of our best-attended and most contentious meetings. In those days, news media from everywhere descended on our meeting sites, trying to figure out who we are and what we’re doing. They mostly failed; we are notoriously hard to understand. Then and now, the aspect of convention business most comprehensible to non-Baptist observers is the … [Read more...]
One man, one woman for life, same as it ever was
Across town, the annual Gay Pride parade was setting attendance records. The usual assortment of flamboyant costumes swirled around revelers celebrating the previous day’s victory over an ancient institution they’d found confining. One straight couple said they brought their toddlers, Fox and Bear (no kidding), so they could understand both freedom and homosexuality. About five miles down the road, in the little church my mother attends, the Ledbetter clan was gathered with other great … [Read more...]