tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22941708016737532912024-03-12T19:03:24.841-04:00SBC PlodderIn Christ there is redemption...William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.comBlogger690125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-77564605905185381502017-04-13T11:32:00.000-04:002017-04-15T08:25:46.296-04:00About that lawsuit against NAMB
Baptist Press now has a summary article on this:
Former Md./Del. exec. sues NAMB, claims libel
William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-57096764938733523012017-02-05T08:32:00.004-05:002017-02-05T08:32:34.460-05:00
Yesterday, the closest mosque to me held an open house and having business in the vicinity, I stopped by. This is an annual event that draws quite a crowd of local, non-Islamic visitors. The small parking lot was full and cars were parked up and down the street.
The open house included guided tours of the facility, information about Islam and the local center, questions and answersWilliam Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-42583529018334720292016-12-10T08:53:00.002-05:002016-12-10T08:53:30.332-05:00Not good news, Cooperative Program 2016-17 is down significantly
National CP 4.13% under projection
The percentage drop featured in the Baptist Press story above is a bit less negative than the actual CP receipts for the first two months of the fiscal year as compared to the first two months last year: a drop of 5.07%.
There is some variation in how states might send the checks to Nashville, so the two consecutive drops may be quickly reversed.
William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-76097573386392173152016-10-13T09:51:00.002-04:002016-10-13T09:51:48.053-04:00The long, slow slog to a 50/50 Cooperative Program split
The money collected under our venerable Cooperative Program, now in its tenth decade, is divided into two parts: the first part is the money kept by the state conventions, the second part is forwarded to the SBC Executive Committee, most of which is divided among the mission boards and seminaries.
Of interest to those who pay attention is the "split"; how much stays in each state and how much William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-30080039984046104442016-09-05T10:19:00.002-04:002016-09-05T10:19:34.648-04:00SBC could do better in helping pastors with sabbaticals
I never had a sabbatical, not after serving as pastor for more than a decade in two different Southern Baptist churches. By way of abject confession I'm sharing why my resume would not include any brief or extended period away from my church for renewal and rest:
I never asked.
Had I asked, the two wonderful congregations where I served longer pastorates would likely have worked with me to William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-70771809846967491372016-09-03T11:40:00.001-04:002016-09-03T11:40:46.135-04:00They're coming after your housing allowance...again
"They" would be the Freedom From Religion Foundation which gained a victory in a federal court district ruling in 2013 which disallowed the cash housing allowance. Unfortunately for them, the ruling was overturned at the appeals level. The appeals court found a problem with a technical legal issue, standing, and made no determination about the constitutionality of the cash version of the William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-79156422773411852662016-07-04T10:45:00.000-04:002016-07-04T10:45:04.584-04:00The strange world of autonomy and the clergy housing allowance
What a great country! Aside from a thousand other reasons, add our sacred clergy tax break the Housing Allowance which has and continues to give us a pretty good exclusion for a chunk of our cash pay. I'd speculate that the average Southern Baptist pastor is able to exclude around a couple thousand dollars a month from being reported and taxed under our income tax laws. I'm just guessing about William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-22690439140020689052016-06-20T08:03:00.002-04:002016-06-20T08:03:44.480-04:00Great Commission Giving: The metric that can't get any respect in the SBC
One would think that giving by SBC churches to the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon offering, Annie Armstrong offering, state mission offering, associational offering, their local association, state convention, mission boards, seminaries, children's homes, Baptist colleges, ministries for the aging, hospitals, recovery programs, disaster relief programs, direct partnership projects with our William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-73262972455224899642016-06-16T15:34:00.000-04:002016-06-16T15:34:48.577-04:00Convention winners and losers
From my distance, 597 miles, here's my winners and losers on the convention just completed in St. Louis.
Winners
1. J. D. Greear. He lost the most contested race for SBC president in many years but his withdrawal was a statesmanlike decision. He leaves St. Louis with a Mississippi barge load of goodwill that didn't arrive with him.
2. Steve Gaines. Hey, he won and is the voice and face of theWilliam Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-28722047730125347142016-06-12T15:42:00.001-04:002016-06-12T15:43:17.508-04:00Is Steve Gaines is running paid social media news feeds in his campaign?
I expect all of the three candidates for SBC president to get their messages out. J. D. Greear has a series of short YouTube pieces covering a number of topics relevant to the SBC. David Crosby has some interviews but not much else that I have seen. Steve Gaines has some videos similar to Greear's, along with media interviews.
Steve Gaines, or someone on his behalf, appears to have some "William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-86002925299263416622016-06-08T09:05:00.000-04:002016-06-08T09:05:57.874-04:00Before we get sidetracked, let's celebrate Lottie Moon's big year
Our International Mission Board is reporting a spectacular increase in the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions. The total for the 2015 offering is $165.8 million, an increase of $12.8 million over last year.
Here are the Lottie Moon totals for this century:
Lottie Moon Offering
Year Received
2000 &William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-53780816588145285502016-06-07T08:14:00.001-04:002016-06-07T08:14:46.186-04:00State conventions should add value, not guilt, to churches
...the value of a state convention will not be determined by the size of its staff, its building, its budget, or its programming. Value will be determined by one metric alone—investment in the local church. When we bring value to the church, we bring glory to God.
The quote above is not mine, although I have made many such statements over the past decade or so. These words are from the chief William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-15610622212233563362016-06-04T08:16:00.001-04:002016-06-04T08:20:53.002-04:00Big Lottie Moon increase; modest but encouraging Cooperative Program increase
The benchmark for the general financial health of the Southern Baptist Convention has always been Cooperative Program giving. It is certainly the measure of state convention financial health, not so much for the mission boards and seminaries. Regardless, the recent SBC Executive Committee report of giving through May, 2016, two-thirds of their fiscal year, shows a notable CP increase and William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-7248948117924556332016-06-02T09:01:00.000-04:002016-06-02T09:01:11.145-04:00It's time for a modest generational change in the SBC
J. D. Greear is 44. Steve Gaines is 58. David Crosby is (I think) 63. Ronnie Floyd is 60.
I like the idea of a modest generational change in the SBC President and think that J. D. Greear would offer much more than either the traditional megachurch pastor Steve Gaines or the traditional large church pastor, David Crosby. All are good men who have accomplished much.
If past history has shown us William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-2259699342827525952016-05-27T11:02:00.004-04:002016-05-27T11:02:41.000-04:00This election doesn't need to be about Calvinism...and I hope it isn't.
All the candidates were asked about Calvinism by B21. Here is what they said. Crosby gave a short answer so his is complete below. Gaines and Greear gave longer answers, so I have excerpted theirs. Click to see the whole interview. J. D. Greear: I am pretty confident that if you asked the average person at the Summit whether we were “Calvinist” or “non-Calvinist,” they wouldn’t know what to William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-60256298821306383422016-05-24T08:20:00.003-04:002016-05-24T08:23:00.157-04:00Questions for NAMB, IMB, and seminary leaders
One feature of the annual meeting of our beloved Southern Baptist Convention is a time for reports from entity heads. These leaders usually leave a short time for questions from the floor. While I'm not planning to be in muggy St. Louis next month, if I were and could stake out one of the floor mics here's a question or two that I'd like to ask:
For David Platt, International Mission Board William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-81081781230424712912016-05-23T09:05:00.001-04:002016-05-23T09:05:19.100-04:00Does the SBC President make much of a difference?
I'd say, "no," that the SBC president doesn't really make much of a difference in the SBC.
Unless we return to some type of decades-long battle between various factions within the convention where several years worth if replacement trustee appointments are envisioned as putting one faction in control of the seminaries and mission boards, the person who is president doesn't make much difference.William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-38184350196455045802016-05-12T08:02:00.004-04:002016-05-12T08:02:59.480-04:00Greear, Summit Church and the alternative approach to missions funding and support
The choices for SBC president next month include:
One old-school mega-pastor (Steve Gaines) whose church gives considerably below the SBC average percentage to the Cooperative Program but which gives considerable sums directly to both NAMB and IMB.
One new-school megapastor (J. D. Greear) who pastors another church that gives considerably below the average church's Cooperative Program William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-29118699494917040192016-05-09T10:04:00.000-04:002016-05-09T10:04:33.319-04:00Looks like the SBC may raise the CSA flag in June
Raise it as in raising the issue of the Confederate battle flag in the form of a resolution.
Most SBC resolutions are both forgotten and forgettable but indications are that the resolution to be submitted by Dwight McKissick, Resolution on the Elimination of the Confederate Flag from Public Life, will be much more notable than what the SBC is accustomed to.
Atlanta William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-35500238528276913242016-05-03T17:57:00.000-04:002016-05-03T17:57:22.470-04:00I'm predicting a $161,386,492.33 Lottie Moon offering
The normal procedure, I think, is that the LMCO total is announced at the annual meeting in June.
I'm predicting a record offering and one that is $7m or so more than last year's but not one that will approach the $20m increase we had one year back in the early 2000s.
An infusion of LMCO money will gave IMB a stronger position going forward, will enable more flexibility in future strategies, William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-79707359208041040672016-04-27T10:47:00.002-04:002016-04-27T10:47:27.654-04:00Is "cooperation" solely defined by the Cooperative Program?
No. It's not. Unless one wants to deny that there was any cooperation among Southern Baptist churches for the first fourscore years of the SBC.
The Cooperative Program, that scheme of giving that provides almost all of the revenues that enable state conventions and their related entities to operate and which provides a lesser proportion of the revenues of our seminaries and mission boards, is William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-78186104962049231312016-04-25T16:26:00.000-04:002016-04-25T16:35:02.338-04:00What we need is more good clean Baptist rap
I thought the J. D. Greear for SBC president rap by Ashley Unzicker was clever, humorous, creative, and harmless.
A few of the brethren, mainly from the subset of white, older, anti-Calvinist teeth-grinding curmudgeon SBCers didn't like it.
So what? No one said that the long-in-the-tooth gray-hairs who have a wistful longing for what they nostalgically think were the halcyon SBC days of the William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-76136752168712054382016-04-20T20:14:00.002-04:002016-04-20T20:14:30.821-04:00J. D. Greear would be a great SBC president
I will likely not attend the SBC Annual meeting this year, since, strangely, no one gives retired pastors a convention allowance. I've been to St. Louis a few times already. It was hot.
If I were present, I'd cast my presidential vote for J. D. Greear. I think he would be a great president. The other two announced nominees would be fine but I'd go with Greear.
No SBC church has more members William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-89459542768846089482016-04-14T08:20:00.001-04:002016-04-14T08:20:48.099-04:00Cooperative Program Sunday: Straight talk on the Cooperative Program
Cooperative Program Sunday on the beloved denominational calendar was April 10th, last Sunday. Some churches observed it. Some didn't. It should have been observed.
Here are some straight talk observations about our primary denominational giving plan.
CP revenues are up this year. The SBC Executive Committee is six months, half-way, through the fiscal year and are able to report that CP William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2294170801673753291.post-50344271691740232112016-04-08T09:31:00.003-04:002016-04-08T10:03:22.588-04:00They're back at it...renewed legal challenge to our clergy Housing Allowance
The Freedom From Religion Foundation lost their earlier challenge but is taking another shot.
FFRF renews 'David and Goliath' IRS challenge
Same song...just another verse.
Interestingly, the FFRF press release includes a quote from your humble and plodding blogger:
"The manner in which our housing allowance has been used borders on clergy malpractice," William Thornton, a Georgia pastor and William Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12502242710436994507noreply@blogger.com1