NAMB search committee has a guy for their CEO

...set to vote on him Sep 14:

Presidential vote by NAMB trustees slated Sept. 14

I get a little nervous when people on the search committee say stuff like this:

"I am delighted to report to you that our search team has found God's man to be nominated as the next president of NAMB. Our team has prayerfully considered several impressive candidates.

They had God's man the last two times, even gave a sterling evaluation of the last one just prior to forcing him out...but I'm trying to be optimistic.

And, yeah, I know that "God's man" is the boilerplate language we always use for this kind of thing but can't we be a little more humble?

The interim would be a good, safe choice.

We will see.

Glenn Beck...nah, no thanks.

Not that I've ever cared much for his chalkboard act but Glenn Beck lost me when he said something like "The pulpits of America need to teach American values." Civil religion on display, on steroids, at the mall. Well, I'll pass, preferring to stick with Biblical values in the pulpit and hope Americans learn from that.

It was interesting to hear, however, Richard Land interviewed on public radio yesterday. He is always pretty smooth but I learned that Mormonism might be called "the fourth Abrahamic religion." Land eschewed the standard Southern Baptist term for Mormonism, a "cult," but I understand not wanting to be too inflammatory in a public setting. Land was absolutely ecumenical about it all. One might have thought that he was a rep from the World Council of Churches.

It was also interesting to hear Beck trumpet the black robed line of imams, pastors, priests, and rabbis that he trotted out at his rally. Nope. Nothing wrong with that.

Sorry, although I would probably line up with Beck on most political issues and candidates (I did vote for Mitt Romney, fellow Mormon but a lot sharper one than Beck, in the last presidential primary), he doesn't do a thing for me.

Another blog linked some salient commentary on Beck: here

What SBCers cannot see: NAMB/state Cooperative Agreements

Need some help sleeping? I'm happy to provide such assistance today.

Our North American Mission Board’s contracts with the individual Baptist state conventions, the “Cooperative Agreements,” are strictly inside SBC baseball and would be of little interest to most SBC pastors and all but the most engaged SBC laypeople except for the fact that they involve millions of dollars and except for the prominence given these contracts in the Great Commission Resurgence Report.

The Report adopted by the SBC in annual session in June recommended that these agreements be phased out.

I don’t have much hope that anything I report or any comment I make on this arcane business will be of much interest…but here is what little I have.

I have a copy of NAMB’s “generic” Cooperative Agreement. It is about 4 pages long and has language about Strategic Mission Plans, personnel policies, cooperation, etc. etc. It is saturated with good old fashioned Baptist bureaucratese. I don’t doubt that it is a necessary written contract between NAMB and the conventions.

I asked for a copy of our Georgia Baptist Convention/NAMB Cooperative Agreement. They wouldn’t let me have it, since it “involves personnel and…there are issues related to confidentiality that prohibit it from being shared” and "the...document does not belong to the [GBC]" and "remains in NAMB's possession." Can't say that I quite get that, but that's what I was told.

The NAMB/GBCdocument is 50 pages long and, sorry, I don’t buy the explanation that there are "issues" that preclude me and other ordinary SBCers from seeing it. Baloney. It is confidential not because it has to be, is required to be, or lack of such would be harmful if we got to see it. It is confidential because some SBC leader wanted it to be confidential. Bad policy, but typical in the SBC these days.

Our GBC people were polite and as helpful as they could be with the constraints they feel. I didn’t push it. The GBC has explained, generally, with some specifics, what NAMB’s money is used for here in our state: some GBC staff people, some associational staff people, some in-state training for churches and individuals, conferences, etc. etc. No, I don't have suspicions of gross waste and frivolous spending. I'd just like to see it for myself.

The GBC has indicated that they will try and absorb the $835k in NAMB money that would be lost in accord with the gradual phase-out of the NAMB funding. With Georgia having about 3300 SBC churches, 92 associations, and over a billion dollars in receipts, I don’t know why we should expect to get nearly a million dollars back from NAMB. I appreciate our CEO, Robert White and his leadership in this.

I would, however, still like to see the 50 page Cooperative Agreement between NAMB and the GBC and know of no persuasive reason why I should not be able to bore myself to death reading the thing should I so choose.

Unless the tooth fairy leaves it under my pillow, I guess I’ll never get the chance.

French fries for breakfast, texting for Baptist money and other random Friday plods

Just returned from a nearby megachurch which hosted a big training event for a great children’s ministry. Naturally, there was an appeal for money for the 'missionaries' who coordinate and promote the ministry. Fine by me, but I would like to note for posterity that this meeting is my first where attendees could sit in the sanctuary and donate by texting - just like American Idol. Plodder, again showing his keen grasp of the obvious, predicts that whatever the technology available, churches will use it to keep the money flowing.

Adventures at McDonald’s (where I drink the dollar tea and read the paper most mornings): A young lady I’d never seen, looks at me, smiles, and says, “I sure wish I could get French fries for breakfast.” Now that’s a thought I’ve never had.

Now that you can chase down genealogy fairly easily on the internet, seems I’m related to President John Adams. Admittedly, it is a distant connection - something like second cousin, six times removed…whatever…I’m thinking about asking for a raise anyway.

FBCJax Watchdog reports on the quasi-political rally/worship service last Sunday at FBC Jax. Mike Huckabee and some state and local politicians were all present to be noticed. Looks pretty tame to me, as political stuff in church goes, but with this kind of stuff we SBCers ought to be pretty close to the place where we stop complaining about political activity in Black churches.

Agnes Bojaxhiu would have celebrated her 100th birthday last week. Under her more familiar name of Mother Teresa she is certainly a shoo-in for Roman Catholic sainthood. Her ‘dark night of the soul’ spiritual crisis is one of the most interesting stories I have read recently.

So, Mary Bale, now known in the UK as 'the cat bin lady' impulsively chunked Lola the cat into a trash can and closed the lid, and all Brits are bursting with outrage. I'm a little slow on the uptake here...someone explain the problem to me.

Have a nice weekend.

Will We Get Straight Talk About Our Baptist Money?

Will we?

I don't know. I do know that in my church I couldn't get away with NOT offering straigh talk about our church finances. Things are tight. We may have to do some cutting, even in salaries.

But we SBCers are pretty pathetic when it comes to trotting out the hackneyed, trite, tired old sayings, the clichés, the boilerplate language. Sadly, the Southern Baptist leader who has all the old cliches down can go far; however, one old saying that ought to be used widely is this: “Trust the Lord and tell the people.”

Seems that “Trust the Lord and tell the people” is most often used in a financial context – budgets, church and denominational financial needs and the like.

Too bad that this sound Baptist axiom seems to be forgotten by so many among us. Some churches adamantly refuse to be candid, open, and transparent with their members about spending, particularly about what their staff is paid. Many SBC entities seem to have the same approach about salaries – ‘We don’t tell and you shouldn’t ask.’

I’m told that the famous Cooperative Agreements that our North American Mission Board has with state conventions are private documents (“NAMB owns this document,” my state convention tells me; hence, I can’t get a copy).

We have private employment contracts with entity heads. If I recall correctly, NAMB notably was reported to have settled with their former CEO (not the latest forced resignation, the one before that) for two years salary plus executive placement services and other severance perks, but we’ll never know. It’s a secret from the people who pay their bills.

This list can go on and on.

Perhaps the most pressing need for straight talk is not about salaries but about projected revenues. The Baptist General Convention of Texas is rumored to be looking at another sharp budget decrease. They’ve gone from $46m to $41m, and now to $38m with some expecting much, much lower. “…primarily a reflection of a significant reduction in investment income” sayeth BGCT’s head last year. What is to be said this year? I'd bet Texans are interested to hear.

Even in more stable state conventions there are optimistic projections that churches will increase their Cooperative Program gifts. Well, being positive and upbeat about what churches might do, should do, is not all bad. It’s just that the best predictor of future behavior is the decades of declining percentages that churches devote to the CP. CP gifts in dollars may well go up but church percentages will almost certainly go down...again.

What’s wrong with straight talk about money in the SBC? Not a thing. I’m grateful that Bryant Wright, our SBC prez, seems to be one leader who isn’t afraid to leave the boilerplate cheerleading behind and speak candidly. I hope that Frank Page does the same.

Trust the Lord and tell the people. You cannot go wrong doing that.

Any surging going on with the Great Commission Resurgence?

Any surging going on with the Great Commission Resurgence?

Well, I don’t know that there is, but there is some activity:

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina has established an office of “Great Commission Partnerships.” Sounds good, but SBCers already know that we can have great sounding titles and, when I read the Biblical Recorder’s article
on it, there were way too many buzzwords used to describe the thing. Deck chair rearrangement? Can’t say. At least one BSCNCer is wary.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention has a proposal to move towards a 50/50 split with their Cooperative Program funds. Good for them. Plodder wryly notes that one initial budget move towards this is the elimination of the KBC’s annuity contribution to pastors and staff in the state. ‘Boom! Take that, pastors.’ The move towards that 50/50 split also calls for churches to increase their CP giving, a tall order seeing that the trend in the KBC is sharply downward (10% to 6.8%).

Bryant Wright, our SBC president, calls for churches to increase their goal this year for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. One notes that in the BSCNC and the KBC, getting more money to missions is bureaucratically complicated, politically treacherous, and highly inefficient. Giving more to Lottie Moon, as Wright proposes, is simple, direct, and efficient. Get another dollar for missions. Another dollar goes straight to the IMB.

Which of these proposals actually has a chance of leading to a Great Commission resurgence? While I give credit to the state conventions, particularly Bill Mackey and the KBC, for doing something, it seems to me that Wright's appeal to the churches has the best chance.

New conservative prof takes seminary campus by storm!

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to be specific about the campus.

No, not in 2010 but in 1965.

In our Southern Baptist Convention, among our churches, members, institutions and agencies, is it worth remembering that there was a day far different than today?

I think so.

My friends over at Ethics Occasionally have an article up, Anniversary of Bailey Smith's Harmful Moment in Baptist-Jewish Relations. Fair enough. That bit of SBC history is in the record.

How about we celebrate the 35th anniversary of a single theological conservative taking one of our seminaries by storm? Jerry Vines article on the death of Clark Pinnock, put it just that way:

Dr. Pinnock’s arrival at NOBTS took the campus by storm. Liberal professors had intimidated conservative students, suggesting they were intellectually inferior because they believed the Bible to be without error. Dr. Pinnock provided the intellectual foundation the students needed to undergird their belief in an inerrant Bible.

My guess is that most SBCers living today would have a hard time believing that there was such a day in the SBC.

Thank God for the Conservative Resurgence.

Barack Hussein Obama is a Christian

There. I said it. A simple declarative sentence.

He says he is.

He speaks of "accepting Christ."

He gives a credible testimony.

If he strolled, incognito, down the aisle of almost any Southern Baptist Church with such a testimony, he would be heartily welcomed into the fellowship, especially if he had on an expensive suit and shoes.

Prior to the 2008 election He provided a pretty religiously stark contrast with John McCain who plainly declared he (McCain) had not been born again. So, did we evangelicals vote for the Christian candidate witha record of monogamy and fidelity, rather than the non-born again candidate with the record of adultery and infidelity? Nope.

Ah, but the public is wondering. There is confusion over Obama's religion.

When this topic is raised among my friends the conversation quickly slides to certain political behaviors of the president, as if those abrogate his clear declaration of faith in Christ.

Nope. Sorry. You can be a Christian and support abortion (I've had people in my church, the ones who weren't afraid to tell me, so confess their support of some abortion).

You can be a Christian and run up the deficit. Bush certainly did it.

Dare I sarcastically declare, wonder of wonders, that one can be a Christian and even be a Democrat.? Sure.

No, he didn't come close to receiving my vote in 2008 and will not in 2012. Our politics are light years apart. But, best I can tell, he is a Christian brother of mine. He might not be comfortable in my church. I doubt I would be comfortable in his longtime church.

I am unwilling to recalibrate what it means to be a follower of Christ to suit anyone's political expedience.

Heck, on a bad Monday I sometimes question my own faith in a mild way.

Random Friday Plods: sumo, oil spill, Great Commission et al

One thing that the Great Commission Resurgence has already accomplished is to put the phrase “Great Commission” in official use. The North Carolina Baptist Convention has just established the Office of Great Commission Partnerships. One hopes that Southern Baptists, never shy about taking a great phrase or title and running with it ad nauseum, don’t allow “Great Commission” to become as trite as we have “missions” by using it indiscriminately and inappropriately.

Seems the ancient Japanese sport of sumo is having a tough go these days. No, it’s not the rolls of exposed flesh, the bare but-tocks, as Forrest Gump would say it. Neither is it the funky underwear the wrestlers must wear or a shortage of pomade with which the athletes must use to achieve tonsorial uniformity in their topknots. The problem is with gaijin, foreigners, who fail to be Japanese enough and are not respecting the sport. They might have had a clue about one of the best, a Mongolian, whose name is Asashoryu. His behavior is often, well, say the name, think in English, and see if you can get the picture.

Speaking of sumo, have you been to any SBC meetings lately? The SBC, laden with heavyweights (just ask GuideStone),has plenty from which to build its own sumo stable.

I’m trying to cope with the fact that my candidate for Georgia governor – a Maryland transplant, high school-educated woman – narrowly lost the GOP nomination to a good ‘ol north Georgia boy, former congressman with questionable ethics concerning a very sweet, uh, ‘deal’ his business had from the state. Now the good ‘ol boy nominee, who “is counting heavily on strong support from conservative Christians,” says he is “open” to the idea of allowing casino gambling. What a peach of a guy for conservative Christians to support. Voting Democratic hasn’t looked so attractive here in decades.

So, one of five Americans think Barack Obama is a Muslim and about half don’t know his religion at all. Fact is (and the White House said so today), he openly declares himself to have faith in Jesus Christ. Remind me, why do we allow ignorant people to vote in this country?

The gummit and BP say only 20% of the oil leak is still in the gulf, while scientists say 80% of the oil is still there. Eh? They are light years apart on this. Plodder is happy to state the obvious: each is acting in their own self interest and the universe is still in its present fallen order.

Just added to my all-nickname team: The smallish younger brother of Van, a huge high schooler in our student group. The other kids have named the junior sibling, "Mini-van." Clever kids.

Talk about robbing God

Albert was a welder with big, muscular hands. He was built like a fireplug, was as solid as Stone Mountain and was faithful to attend church every Sunday.

He was also the church treasurer, bookkeeper, tellers committee, finance committee and anything and everything else that had to do with the church’s money. On Sundays he would collect the offering after worship, take it home, count it, deposit it, and write whatever checks needed to be written. Once a quarter, he would give a record of what had been given and what had been spent. The church had no budget, no policies, no co-signers, no internal control. Nothing.

Fortunately, Albert was as solid ethically and morally as he was physically.

Once I was visiting him in his home and he showed me the financial records for the church – a bunch of files and papers that took up one drawer in a file cabinet where he had all of his business and personal records. On another occasion, I asked how much I had to spend in convention expense. He said, “Whatever you think is reasonable.”

I though that was quite reasonable.

Contrast that to the recent story about Way of the Cross Baptist Church in Mount Holly, North Carolina, where the church treasurer and secretary, a married couple, wrote 811 checks to themselves totaling $366,156 over the last three years. This in a church with about 60 in attendance.

Wow. That’s about one check for about $500 to themselves every day. Pretty good pay.

Word is that they had been stealing for 10-12 years in this manner. Who knows the total.

Sure, my church where Albert was the treasurer and Way of the Cross Baptist violated every rule in the church finance book.

Thankfully, Albert was as honest as the day is long, but if he hadn’t been, no one would have known it.

Talk about robbing God.

The only think I can think of that is worse than stealing out of the plate is for the church staff to be helping themselves to the church’s money with the approval of a handful of church leaders but the rest of the congregation not having access to the facts.

But, hey, we’re all autonomous. If we want to do this, no one is around to tell us we cannot.

Old reruns: sbctakeover

Old reruns...Night of the Living Dead, Reefer Madness, The Blob, Rocky Picture Horror Show...and now for those SBCers and ex-SBCers who never tire of the past:

sbctakeover.com

Really?

Yep.

The website is a book, The Fundamentalist Takeover In The Southern Baptist Convention by Robison (Rob) B. James, Barbara Jackson, Robert E. Shepherd, Jr., and Cornelia Showalter and is copyrighted by the CBF of Georgia. It’s not new. The online version is a fourth edition.

Uh...Why?

Brethren…sistren…it’s been 31 years since Adrian Rogers was the first of the long series of conservatives elected president.

It’s been over two decades since the moderates gave up the fight.

Next year the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will observe a 20th anniversary.

Adrian, Chafin, Sherman, and many of the other prominent names are daid and buried.

They tell me that no one under 50 is even interested.

The SBC has moved on to struggle with another resurgence, the Great Commission Resurgence.

The CBF is more concerned about meeting a budget and keeping its mission people on the field.

???

...but, just to be safe, someone oughta get busy and put Pressler's book online.





.

Johnny Hunt, political pastors, old conventioneers and other random Friday plods

Buyer’s remorse for the hundreds of thousands who thought the ballistic, take-this-job-and-shove-it, flight attendant was a folk hero? Seems there is another side to his story. Whatever. Even if he was accurate, the eight buck an hour customer service rep at Wal-Mart has to put up with more than that guy did. No hero he. Self control is a good thing.

Speaking of vocational stresses, Johnny Hunt, who gets every July off, has his annual sabbatical extended through mid-September this year. Good for him. He has more responsibility than I do now or ever will and I’m glad his church is understanding and accommodating; however, most SBC pastors understand that their sabbatical comes when they resign, get fired, retire, or die…and not a minute sooner.

Two SBC pastors locally have run for political office on an angry, take-our-country-back platform…and both lost. I’m not sure exactly what that says but it may say that the level of political indignation among us is not what it is among the electorate.

The 111 year-old Japanese man, the one whose body was found and the guy had been dead for decades? Now his family is being investigated for receiving his benefit checks for all those years. That, we Americans certainly understand.

I don’t care how you slice it. That the Baptist General Convention of Texas has had to jettison over one hundred full time positions since 2006 is staggering. Mismanagement, executive ineptness, or alternative conventions aside, churches want to see value in the money they send to state conventions.

Ed Stetzer reports that, contrary to anecdotes, messengers to the SBC annual meeting are getting older, not younger. Maybe convention leaders could shave their heads, grow goatees, get tattoos, and make their reports in gangsta rap style…and lure the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings to the meetings.

Chipper Jones, best Atlanta Brave since Hank Aaron, has a season ending and perhaps career ending injury. That makes this a pretty bad week.

Managing rapid decline: Baptist General Convention of Texas

Pity the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Be it a church or a state convention, going through lean times is depressing and no Baptist entity seems to be going through a more demoralizing period than the venerable BGCT.

There are lots of Texas Baptist bloggers but I get heads-up stuff on the BGCT (which state would be right next door to me save for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) from David Montoya at Spiritual Samurai. Montoya might be the most effective squeaky voice in blogdom. His continual yipping about ValleyGate was eventually heard and consequences continue to be felt.

The BGCT’s downsizing is put in numerical perspective in this Baptist Standard story.

In 2006, the BGCT employed 406 staff, with 315 in full-time positions. After the latest cuts take effect, staff will number 268, with 213 full-time positions.

Over one hundred full-time staff positions cut in the last four years. Egad.

The upstart convention in Texas, Southern Baptists of Texas, is due some credit for the BGCT’s woes because the SBT provides an attractive choice for Texas churches. Surely some credit is due the BGCT itself for its propensity for self-inflicted wounds.

In the link above note Samurai’s mention of nepotism at the BGCT. To be fair, Montoya has not always been accurate, but if he is, such would be hard to justify in a time of downsizing.

I see no great revival of enthusiasm for denominational (Cooperative Program) giving and our current SBC president, Bryant Wright, has famously said that state conventions should make drastic, radical cuts in what they keep out of CP gifts. Unless something not anticipated occurrs, other state conventions may be following the BGCT in decline. Call this pessimism if you wish. I rather think it is realism.

If so, the most valuable people in the SBC might be those who have the skills to shepherd our entities in a time of radical reprioritization, er, decline. One cannot say that the BGCT has done this well, but it has done it.

Maybe lessons can be learned from it.

Will NAMB really do some things differently?

The headline of the Baptist Press story on the recent North American Mission Board's annual Summer Senior Leadership Meeting was, 'Do things differently,' NAMB's Harris urges.

Harris, of course, is the interim NAMB head, Richard Harris. BP:

Based on current budget commitments to state conventions, current Cooperative Program giving trends will leave NAMB with nothing for other ministry initiatives by 2020, Harris explained to his audience. "We've clearly got to do some things differently," he said.

Will NAMB really do some things differently? Who knows?

One cannot overlook the connection here between CP giving trends (uh, downward, downward, downward) and the incentive to do things differently. NAMB bears watching on this because of past meltdowns, staggering waste of our mission dollars, and endless foundering. I don't question the sincerity of NAMB leaders and trustees to change, and, sure, the adopted Great Commission Resurgence report had NAMB in its bullseye, but I cannot help thinking that Harris fingered the most pressing incentive for NAMB changing: declining funds.

Nothing shouts quite as loudly in SBC life as a declining bank account.

I admit to being the perpetual critic of mid-20th century, expensive institutional denominationalism but this meeting itself, billed as a gathering of “500 state leaders,” bears scrutiny. I suppose NAMB funds this along with the state conventions, at what cost in mission dollars? The problem with NAMBs "metrics" a term Harris used, is not the "500 state leaders." Whatever the cost of this confab, it is chump change in their overall budget; however, such things may represent old line thinking.

Good for whoever asked about NAMB selling their HQ building…

In response to a question whether the entity's building would be sold and staff re-deployed out in the field, Harris and NAMB's trustee chairman, Tim Dowdy, agreed "all options are on the table."

…but it will be a cold day in Gehenna when any SBC entity sells their pride and joy real estate. The Atlanta area office market isn’t so hot now anyhow but, decentralization or not, I don’t see NAMB taking this action. After all, important SBC leaders need impressive, important edifices. I’ll have to be made a believer on this one.

NAMB staffer Jerry Pipes…

...asked the state leaders to agree that in 2012, "we will reach 80 percent or 40,000 of our SBC churches. And we want to see 1 million people accept Christ and be baptized in 2012. Can we all agree on that?"

Well, Baptists like big, round numbers. Ask Bobby Welch who did the million baptism thing four years ago. NAMB staff and state leaders can certainly pick goals and agree on them, after which…what? But, I like the way Frank Page talks:

"Votes can be taken, councils and task forces can come forth with their recommendations," Page said. "What will we listen to? Task forces from Nashville? Convention directives? I challenge you to be men and women responding only to God's call. Your state, your association or your church will not see a revival of God's Holy Spirit because of some denominational directive. Hear the call, heed the command."

Decentralization and the Cooperative State Agreements?

Nothing concrete. I’d just like to lay eyes on one of these Cooperative Agreements. So far, I know they exist but nobody is willing to allow an ordinary SBCer to see it.

New NAMB leader?

Nope. Nothing yet. Richard Harris would be a safe choice, a known quantity. He has done a creditable job as interim...but what do I know?

Chelsea, BWA, Ground Zero mosque and other Friday random plods

The Baptist World Alliance just met in Hawaii. Many in the SBC would love to rejoin the BWA for no other reason than they meet in neat places. We are a convention of conventioneers if nothing else.

Tokyo’s oldest citizen was thought to be an 111 year old man. When someone went to interview him, they couldn't get a syllable out of him. He was dead in his home and had been so for at least thirty years! “Who is thy neighbor?” Jesus asked.

My dear alma mater, The University of Georgia, has been voted the nation’s top party school. Perhaps that ranking had something to do with the fact that downtown Athens, which adjoins the main campus, has dozens and dozens of bars. In somewhat of a reversal of roles, my son has told me, “Daddy, you don’t want to go downtown at night.” The UGA mascot is a bulldog that is usually named ‘Uga.’ I hear they are changing it from ‘Uga’ to ‘Chugga.’

Quotes on the Ground Zero mosque: Newt Gingrich says, There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. Richard Land says, …I strongly support religious communities' right to have places of worship within reasonable distance of where they live…However, no religious community has an absolute right to have a place of worship wherever they choose, regardless of the community's objections. Melissa Rogers, Wake Forest Divinity School professor, says that it would be counterproductive to deny such a symbolic project which she calls a high-profile efforts by Muslims who condemn terrorism to reclaim their faith… Gingrich is the only one in this trio who doesn’t have a good point. We don’t condition religious freedom in America on such in Saudi Arabia.

Samurai says heavy layoffs are in store for the formerly venerable Baptist General Convention of Texas, the outfit that, according to some, spends about 3/4ths of its revenue on itself and is in budgetary freefall. He asks a very good question: “Will they require the folks who are about to be canned to sign a “non-disclosure” document?”


Chelsea Clinton, now wed to a Jewish gentleman, was exhibited as the most prominent case of interfaith (“mixed” to many SBCers) marriage. I confess to sharing marriage duties with Methodists and other mainline protestants (many times), with fellow Baptists (many times), and even with a Roman Catholic Padre (once), but never with a rabbi. It would be a delicate matter, but I’d have to decline that one.

Attended 65 straight SBC conventions?

According to a Baptist Press story, Bill Dodson, a retired Kentucky pastor, attended 65 straight Southern Baptist Conventions.

Wow!

He said his first was in 1945 (though my reference indicates there was no SBC annual meeting that year but I don’t doubt that they have run together for him) and this past June he missed his first since then.

That’s a lot of meetings. Let me ruminate a bit on that.

I'd certainly give him a trophy for sweltering so many years in New Orleans and Houston, regular convention host cities. I mean, I can make New Orleans work with the beignets, crawfish and all, but Houston? If only Dante knew about Houston…

Did Brother Dodson notice the dramatic change over the past couple of decades? No, not the Conservative Resurgence (he approves of that) but the decline in number of SBCers whose tonsorial signature was a toupee. Well, let’s be honest, an ugly toupee. They have gone the way of the dusky seaside sparrow, replaced by shaved heads and goatees. Not sure the brethren have improved their image with this, though.

How long did it take Brother Dodson to tire of the old SBC backslap? You know, where some bigwig grabs you with a vigorous handshake and a hearty slap on the back, all the while looking over your shoulder for someone more important than you to talk to?

Would he confess like some of the brethren, that when in Kansas City in '84 and all the restaurants around the convention hall were jam-packed with SBCers, he found ready seating in Hooters and had lunch there?

And, let’s get personal here. Did he actually sit through all the mind-numbing hours of boilerplate reports, presentations, spiffy charts, and lately, multimedia shtick? Surely not. Everyone deserves a break.

Well, I attended my first in 1982 and have about 20 under my belt. My favorite was Las Vegas, 110 degrees but more tolerable than 90 in New Orleans. I even got offered a job in a casino while I was there. I’m on an every-other-year or so pattern now and hope to hit Phoenix again next year (it was 100+ in 2003, but vastly preferable to 90 in Houston) which would put me on schedule to miss New Orleans in 2012, but then the world is supposed to end that year, December I think, so the rest of you can get your last fill of crawfish etouffee.

Hats off (toupees off, too) to Bill Dodson, SBC conventioneer extraordinaire.

Baptist World Alliance, Bobby Welch Alliance, both, neither...or what?

I get this occasional eruption where I feel that the SBC made a mistake in exiting the Baptist World Alliance some years ago. I get to thinking that maybe we ought to be a part of that global Baptist outfit and just swallow hard every now and then.

Then I read about their meetings, like the splendid one just completed in Honolulu.

Can’t quite put my finger on it but an assortment of speakers on liberation theology of some sort, women’s issues, ethnocentrism, etc, although the session on the ethics of tourism was appropriate, if they could keep attendees in the classroom and off Waikiki Beach.

Associated Baptist Press (where SBCers go to get Baptist news that BP will not print) has a series of stories on the meeting.

The SBC’s Executive Committee, as a substitute for membership in BWA, hired Bobby Welch to be our Global Ambassador. Welch is our peripatetic preacher whose planetary travels has surely put him in the stratosphere with frequent flyer miles. Welch flys, meets, creates partnerships, returns, talks about it, etc. etc.

The guy is a stick of dynamite for Jesus but I just don’t catch the concept here.

So…if the BWA is not something we really want to rejoin and the Executive Committee has missed the mark with their Global whatever office, what should we do?

Maybe trust the International Mission Board with such work?

Have a nominal involvement with BWA?

Continue to have an impressive sounding name for our own in-house global Baptist thing?

Some Baptist at a higher pay level should enlighten us here.

Who to vote for?

It’s about the time here in Georgia when political stuff gets interesting. We’ve had the party primaries and there are some runoffs in about a week. Whatever slight decorum and comity existed among the gaggle of candidates for various state offices, has been summarily jettisoned now that races are down to two individuals.

Here in GA, a candidate has to have a majority. None of this 40something percent winning an election in GA. Gotta have 50% plus one; hence, runoffs between the top two vote-getters in the primary.

The runoff for State Attorney General in the Republican primary is between a Jewish guy, a transplant from New Jersey no less, and a good old boy who has run in the past as a family-values, pro-Christian candidate. The Atlanta paper keeps us informed on the salient issues for the campaign.

Who should we pro-family, Christian, native Georgians vote for in this race?

Oh, seems that the pro-family guy has a record to run on somewhat beyond the community involvement, education, experience, previous offices blah, blah, blah. He has a divorce record that includes stuff like: extramarital affair with a college student (among others), infidelity, marital acrimony and the like. His record of serving as ‘faculty’ in a ministry that produces materials on good Christian morals for kids is not being trumpeted in the current campaign, nor is there any mention of family or Christian values in his campaign materials.

In his own words from the AJC article

“Without a doubt, I fell short in my personal life by getting a divorce, and people have the right to make a moral judgment on that if they chose."

He went on to say he still felt he was the best man to be Georgia's next attorney general.

Believe I’m voting for the Jewish guy from NJ. I can get used to the accent.

And for governor: One good old boy with the last name "Deal" whose first name should probably be "Sweet" on account of a business arrangement he had with the state that put millions in his and partner's pockets. Seems even the congressional ethics committee found some pungency in that.

His opponent is another transplant, a woman born in D.C. who grew up in MD. I'd call her a Yankee but Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Newt likes the good old boy who has questionable ethics. Palin likes the female transplant.

Believe I'll go with the lady who has both good sense and good ethics.