Twitter exploded last night with the news that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) might be considering a name change. At the meeting of the SBC’s Executive Committee, SBC President Bryant Wright appointed a task force to study the issue. Jimmy Draper will be leading the task force. Other members include Al Mohler, Paige Patterson, David Dockery, Tom Elliff, Kevin Ezell, Ken Fentress, Micah Fries, Susie Hawkins, Roger Spradlin, Michael Allen, Marshall Blaylock, Aaron Harvie, Fred Hewitt, Cathy Horner, Benjamin Jo, Bob Sena, John Sullivan, and Jay Wolf.
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Russell Moore Interview on CNN about Pat Robertson
Russell Moore appeared on CNN this afternoon to set the record straight about the Christian view of marriage. He did a fantastic job. If you missed it, the video is above. If you haven’t read his must-read article yet, you can do so here.
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Pat Robertson Would Make a Man Worse Than an Unbeliever
Pat Robertson has said many unhelpful things over the years (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here), but this has to be the absolute worst. On yesterday’s edition of “The 700 Club,” he told a viewer that it would be okay for the viewer to divorce his spouse who has Alzheimer’s because Alzheimer’s is a “kind of death.”
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Richard Land Argues That Perry Is No Bush
Richard Land has an article in USA Today telling why he thinks people are mistaken to think of Rick Perry as George W. Bush redux. He writes: Many people assume Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a carbon copy of George W. Bush. Well, he isn’t. Those who either love or despise former president Bush need to understand that Perry should be neither accepted nor rejected based on their opinion of Bush. Indeed, as the nation heads with full force into the 2012 election cycle, many of Perry’s opponents in and out of the news media will try to tear down the Texas governor as “Bush, continued.” To do so would…
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John Piper Takes On Jim Crow
I have been listening to John Piper’s annual Martin Luther King Day sermons for about thirteen years now. What I have found most compelling about these messages are the moments in which Piper delves into his own background as a boy raised in Greenville, South Carolina during the Jim Crow era. He has told about his home church’s vote to bar blacks from their worship services, about his mother’s heroic actions to escort black guests at his sister’s wedding when the white ushers refused to seat them, about growing up across the tracks from Jesse Jackson, who is roughly the same age as Piper and who also grew up in…
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The Failure of the Megachurch
Tim Suttle has an interesting article at the Huffington Post about “The Failure of the Megachurch.” I don’t agree with the entire analysis here, but this one line is worth highlighting the whole article: If the church is the body of Christ, then the mega-church is a body on steroids.
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What Is a Gay Christian?
I just saw Rachel Held Evans‘ notice of a forthcoming interview with a “gay Christian,” and at once I was struck again by the use of this peculiar phrase—”gay Christian.” For some people, this term will appear immediately to be an oxymoron. For others, it represents a view of Christian morality that has moved beyond the heterosexual norm of scripture to embrace all manner of sexual expressions. But what does this phrase really mean? When you hear it spoken or read it in print, what do people mean by it? And is it a helpful term for Christians to use? We can observe at least two definitions of the phrase…
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Where Rock Stars Go To Die
Ted Kluck is as hilarious as he is insightful. His little article “Where Rock Stars Go To Die” is a great read. It’s his commentary on worship vs. performance, skinny jeans vs. khakis, and everything in between. Among other things, he writes: The only thing that separates a “worship band” from a “rock band” is the presence of lyrics on a projection screen behind the worship band. What’s really happening is a concert. A performance. But the presence of lyrics on a screen somehow makes it “worship.” If this sounds weird/confusing to you, that’s because it is weird and confusing to me as well. To be sure, Kluck says much…
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To Sack or Not To Sack Church Staff Members
Matt Schmucker has a really helpful article in the 9Marks eJournal about when it is appropriate to fire a church staff member. Based on scripture’s stewardship principle (Matthew 25:14-30), Schmucker says that pastors should sack the following kinds of persons:
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Where Were You on September 16, 2001?
This Sunday will mark the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Like every other American, I will never forget where I was and what I was doing when I heard news of the attacks. My wife and I had only been married a year, and we had just moved to Louisville, Kentucky so that I could pursue a Ph.D. I had a seminar that afternoon and was still at home when the attacks happened. My wife called me from work to tell me to turn the television on. I think both buildings had already been struck by the time I tuned in, but I was…