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...]