A student recently asked me, “How do you feel about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention?” He was surprised by my answer, “Very positive.” He replied, “Don’t some of the current problems mean the convention is in trouble?” My answer was, “No, not really.” He asked for some explanation...
Karthik Nemmani, from near Dallas, recently won the national spelling bee by knowing how to spell the word koinonia. Southern Baptists will go to Dallas next week and see if we know what the word means.
Organizations – including churches, companies, and conventions – all experience mission drift. It happens when an organization loses focus on its founding purpose and its reason for continued existence.
Tomorrow is the big day. They tell me that I have passed all the requirements, paid all the fees, and will graduate with a Doctor of Ministry in Town and Country Church. I have been contemplating the differences between being a small church pastor and a big church pastor. Since I am a small...
In a recent conversation about leadership and decision-making, a phrase was used that is a good descriptor of one aspect of leadership. My comment was, “I am not always right, but I am responsible.” One of the hallmarks of leadership is making decisions and owning the consequences. It’s a...
My two favorite women in the news recently are Gina Haspel and Maxine Thompson. Haspel is the first woman ever nominated to lead the CIA and Thompson shot a man who was trying to break into her home.
Assembly Bill 2943, if passed, will add language to California’s consumer protection laws which prohibit selling materials which challenge current politically-correct standards of gender and marriage. Hard to believe, but the sale of a book upholding the definition of marriage used by every...
Conley Smith did not make Time magazine’s recent list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Too bad. When the eternal score is settled someday, he will have made a far greater impact than Roseanne Barr (yes, believe it or not, she made the list). Conley went to heaven this past...
When Bill Hybels announced his early retirement last week, he became the third high-profile evangelical leader in the past two months to leave public ministry because of inappropriate moral behavior. This is disheartening for all ministry leaders and besmirches the reputation of evangelicals who...
In his recent column in Facts and Trends, Dr. Thom Rainer wrote about the coming crisis of pastoral leadership – not enough pastors. He reported that half of all American pastors are over age 55. In 1992, only 24% were over that age. He also noted the percentage of pastors under age 40 has...