Gene Bridges has informed us of an update on the soul-a-month-ministry from Bailey Smith Ministries (BSM). Without explanation the page promoting that ministry was removed recently from the BSM website. The “Calvinist Gadfly” gave BSM a call and reports on the conversation here. In short, the page may have…
Hurricane Wilma is setting records this morning as it veers north into the storm-weary Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters are once again putting Southwest Florida right in the middle of the “cone of uncertainty.” Our church is about to shift into preparation mode, hopefully implementing plans born out of lessons…
Bailey Smith’s claim that he can get one soul saved for every $48.00 he receives has set me to thinking. He touts his “Save-a-soul-a-month ministry” as something that everyone–at least everyone who is concerned for souls–should support. He claims to make a convert for every $48.00 you send him….
In light of Bailey Smiths’ “Save-a-soul-a-month ministry, I thought it would be very appropriate to plug an upcoming conference on the Gospel. In many ways the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been lost in our day. If it is not recovered, we are sunk. May the Lord grant us…
Michael Spencer has a very insightful observations on Southern Baptist life in this article. He is a long-time Southern Baptist and has a keen eye for analysis. If you have any interest in the SBC, or if you ever wonder what in the world is going on in the…
How much would you expect to pay to see one soul saved? Ten thousand dollars? One hundred thousand? As Bailey Smith, former president of the SBC, points out, “ $100,000 to $300,000 to see one convert.” But now, thanks to Bailey Smith Ministries, you don’t…
I wrote a whole blog satarizing this, but after sitting on it for a day, I have decided that it is simply too serious for that kind of response. I do believe that satire has a place in Christianity. Proverbs 26:5 seems to allow, or even encourage this type…
C.S. Lewis offers helpful insights on worship in his Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. In the first letter he complains about the unhelpful innovations in worship that “new, keen vicar” too often introduce in an established church’s corporate worship. “It looks,” he writes, “as if they believed people…
My second-born child, Rebecca, gave my blog a facelift. At the dusk of her teenaged years, Rebecca has become rather skilled at HTML and web design. She graciously offered to move her dad’s blog out of the generic template mode into something a little more appropriately descriptive. Thanks, Becca!
Christians should be taught that our responsibilities to be like Christ do not get suspended when we step over the threshold of the worship center (or house or hall or room, etc.). Ironically, debates over corporate worship often reveal just how deeply American individualism has embedded itself into the…