Wade Burleson resigned as trustee of the International Mission Board on January 30, 2008 with a simple terse statement:
”This letter is to officially notify you and the other members of the IMB Board of Trustees that I am resigning my service on the Board effective today.”
His resignation came after a long lengthy struggle with the [...]
Entries from January 2008
January 31, 2008
A Divided House: A Response to Burleson’s Resignation
January 30, 2008
New Baptist Covenant
The New Baptist Covenant
History will be made today in Atlanta as Baptists from across North America gather as an expression of our “unity in Christ”. This dream of unity across racial and theological lines hopes to reverse recent divisive trends among the people of God who claim the name Baptists.
The stated mission of this [...]
January 26, 2008
Looking into a Glass Darkly: The Language of Money (part 3)
When people chose to speak to an organization in the dialect of dollars and cents storm clouds can be seen brewing just over the horizon. Among Christian organizations and churches I suspect that “money language” is the language of last resort.. The worst part of speaking to an organization through money is the fact that [...]
January 23, 2008
A Response to Lee Concerning New BGCT Executive Director
I decided to post my response to some comments by Lee Saunders to my post on the new Executive Director of the BGCT “A New Day Dawns”. Lee and I both hoped for a new Executive Director who would have had stronger public ties to the “constructive conservative” churches of our convention. Below are [...]
January 22, 2008
New Day Dawns!
Today the BGCT Executive Director Search Committee announced that they will recommend Dr. Randel Everett of FBC Newport News, VA to be the next Executive Director of our state convention. I suspect for most of us he was not one who was on the radar screen. He may come as a surprise to most, but [...]
January 18, 2008
A Remnant: Engage, The Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference 2008
Newspaper writers tend to be lousy historians. To be fair, it is not always their fault. It is difficult to understand, and explain the magnitude of a situation when you are standing in the “present”. Like the ol’ adage you cannot see the forest because of the trees. Interpreting the meaning of a “current” event [...]
January 11, 2008
Looking into a Glass Darkly (part 2)
One of the challenges faced by the church today may be the need to adopt a “both/and” mentality instead of an “either/or”. Our boxes may be too small for the complex realities of today. Like “new” wine in “old” wineskins, we may be about to ruin a good party by having our “new wine” splattered [...]
January 10, 2008
Seats at the Table
The process for naming the committees and board for the BGCT has begun. Those of us who consider ourselves “constructive conservatives” need to do our part to join the conversation. On the BGCT website the nomination committees are seeking names for consideration. If we want our voices heard we need to be proactive and recommend [...]
January 7, 2008
Looking into a Glass Darkly
Recently I stumbled across an stimulating book by Tony Campolo entitled Speaking My Mind. In the opening chapters of the book he performs a verbal autopsy of what led to the demise of the Mainline denominations like the United Methodists and the Presbyterian Church USA. As I read his account and projected his insights upon [...]
January 3, 2008
Angry Baptists!
Over the past twenty-five years the words “angry” and “Baptists” seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. Baptists are notorious for our business meetings and squabbling. Let’s face it many of our new churches that dot the corners of small towns and cities were the byproducts of the fact we could not get [...]
