Sports have a way of bringing out the best and the worst in all of us. Just ask any local umpire if he or she wants to umpire a slow pitch church league game. There is nothing like an enraged Baptist preacher hyped up on adrenalin that will put the fear of the Almighty in [...]
Entries from April 2008
April 29, 2008
New Front Door
New Front Door
There is an old joke about three new ministers who moved into a small town. When the Methodist pastor moved into town he asked “Where are all the Methodists?” Likewise when the Presbyterian minister moved into town he asked “Where are all the Presbyterians?”When the Baptist minister moved into town he asked, “Where [...]
April 29, 2008
Sad News
Ed Stetzer, director of Lifeway Research, announced the bad news that the Southern Baptist Convention is “officially” in decline. You can find his observations at http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/04/new_evangelism_research.html.
For those close to the action this should not come as shocking news. Over the past 25 years our convention has been rocked with strife and controversy as vying [...]
April 24, 2008
Good Hands
Yesterday I had to honor to be the guest speaker in chapel at Dallas Baptist University as a guest of Dr. Gary Cook. It had been probably over 20 years since I had set foot on the campus. My first memories of the university date back to Otis Strickland and stories of Decatur Baptist College. [...]
April 22, 2008
A Singing Lesson
This past weekend our church had the honor of hosting all seven chapters of the “Singing Women of Texas”. These choirs are a music ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Each region chapter has its own director, choir, and mission. I believe once a year they convene for a combined concert and weekend. [...]
April 21, 2008
Spectator Sport
Reggie Joiner, the founder of “ReThink” ministries made this observation about the struggle churches continue to experience in keeping their youth involved in church after graduation from high school. In the book Unchristian he wrote:
“We have discovered a short window of time during the teenage years when students need to experience something beyond church as [...]
April 16, 2008
Good News from Dallas Baptist University
Over the past couple of years too often the news out of Dallas has been sad and sobering. We need to remember that light drives out the darkness, and that good news lifts the spirit. Not all news today is bad news in Texas Baptist life. In fact this month Dallas Baptist University celebrates twenty [...]
April 14, 2008
A Good Word from Marv!
I suspect new Executive Director Randel Everett of the Baptist General Convention of Texas is still working around the packing boxes in his office and he is already the target of much discussion and blogging. As most readers of this blog are aware, Everett did not have much of a honeymoon with the recent announcement [...]
April 10, 2008
Hard Choices
Unfortunately Randel Everett will have to reschedule his “honeymoon”. Much like George Bailey in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” who had to cancel his honeymoon and use his savings to bail out the old Bailey Savings and Loan during a bank rush, Everett has been handed a bucket with a hole in it [...]
April 9, 2008
Prosperity Blues
Recently my wife and I had an interesting conversation over lunch at a local deli. We find ourselves wading through what some would call a “midlife” crisis. From the outside looking in my life appears to be at its pinnacle. Yet from time to time I find myself struggling with the blues. As we discussed [...]
