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Heretic began Louisiana Baptist state paper

Louisiana Baptists' first denominational paper began in 1855 at Mount Lebanon, LA. Named Louisiana Baptist with Hanson Lee as its first editor, the paper was reportedly "ranked with the ablest religious journals of the south." Nonetheless, the paper suffered fatal ups and downs over the next two decades, changing owners several times, until it was sold to J.R. Graves in 1869 and subsequently discontinued. Almost ten years passed when Louisiana pastor, S.C. Lee heeded the call of Louisiana Baptists the state over of the need for a weekly newspaper to... Read more →

Seminary president indicts Southern Baptists for funding shortfalls at International Mission Board

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary president, Jeff Iorg, joins the chorus of high profile Southern Baptists (see here and here) who are publicly insisting the reason for the recent announcement of budgetary problems at the nation's largest and most prestigious missionary-sending agency in the United States, The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB), is that rank-and-file1 Southern Baptists are "robbing God." In a short but pungent piece on the seminary president's blog entitled "Missionaries Are Coming Home," Dr. Iorg was anything but vague. "The basic problem causing... Read more →

Does overseas missions strategy need reform? At least one SBC professor says it does

A piece by Will Hall in the Christian Examiner rehearses a journal article published in The Southwestern Journal of Theology by Midwestern professor of missions, Robin Dale Hadaway. Hall's article entitled "Prof calls for SBC overseas missions reform: Does drastic drop in IMB baptisms merit major remake?" lists among the changes Hadaway proposes: 1. Drop the two percent "reachedness" threshold and return to the original 20 percent or at least adopt a 10 percent baseline. "Exiting a people group that is more than two-percent evangelical," he said, "is the historical... Read more →

Packer on Calvinist Evangelism | robfaircloth.com by Peter Lumpkins

J.I. Packer assesses the Calvinist mindset: via robfaircloth.com Rob Faircloth is pastor of the Covenant Grace Baptist Church in Troy, Alabama. Quoting from a piece James Packer wrote in the sixties, Faircloth concludes: It is difficult to find a more pithy statement of the issues appropriate to the Calvinist-Arminian divide today...Forty-six years ago Packer saw the caricature of Calvinism as anti-evangelistic, and sought to correct the error in part...by citing men who were ardently evangelistic because they were Calvinists (italics original) First, I personally appreciate Packer's contribution to conservative Christianity.... Read more →

Evangelism: A Biblical Response to Today’s Questions: A Brief Review by Peter Lumpkins

J. D. Payne serves as a National Missionary with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and an Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism in the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Evangelism: A Biblical Response to Today's Questions ($17.99 Biblica Publishing, 2011) answers questions about evangelism from an admittedly Calvinistic perspective (47) >>> Dr. Payne addresses 33 questions about evangelism in a decidedly conversational style. Each question is a chapter; and adding a Foreword (written... Read more →

Brad Whitt Makes Baptist News Again by Peter Lumpkins

On February 28, South Carolina pastor, Dr. Brad Whitt, wrote a provocative piece entitled “Young, Southern Baptist…and Irrelevant?” Within a few weeks, over a half dozen state papers had picked up the young pastor’s essay. He obviously resonated with Southern Baptists all over the United States. Indeed his stated concerns shook loose a rebuttal from two Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professors, Nathan Finn and Ed Stetzer >>> Truth be told, Whitt has kept those in the convention who desire to change the methodology/ecclesiology of SBC churches from the top-down running... Read more →

Southern Baptists not Reformed Baptists by Peter Lumpkins

Below is a document circulated in 1827 to Baptists in North Carolina. All our Southern Baptist brothers who love the "Reformed" moniker may want to consider this document before they so boldly testify, "I'm a Reformed Baptist" >>> In the Kehukee Association record, we find: 1827. This session of the Association was one of the most remarkable ever held by her. At this time came up for consideration the Declaration of Principles submitted at the last session to the churches for approval or rejection. And upon a full and fair... Read more →

"A Church in Debt" by Peter Lumpkins

I graduated from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1990. In August of that same year, I preached at my home church in Madison, Tennessee from the text, Romans 1:13-17. During the course of the message, I rhetorically asked "Are Southern Baptists paying their bills?" I then answered my own question>>> I said: There exists an alarming shortage of those going to the mission fields. I'm told 95% of those called to ministry is preaching to 5% of the world's population. Some are suggesting that many are just not listening... Read more →

Danny Akin on Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention and the GCR by Peter Lumpkins

My last piece focused on concerns raised by a large representative group of Alabama Baptists who believe the GCRTF agenda has, through implementation, begun to divide Southern Baptists over missions methodology, an incredible and sad irony since cooperative missions has been the glue which held us together through doctrinal thick and thin. Perhaps more than any other person, Dr. Danny Akin has been the face of the GCR movement in the Southern Baptist Convention. Preaching the famous "axioms" sermon in April of 09, he set in motion what culminated in... Read more →

Troy Gramling Responds by Peter Lumpkins

Raul Palacios, Executive Pastor, Flamingo Road Church (FRC), Cooper City, Florida, and husband to Heather Palacios, teaching Pastor at FRC, posted a link to Lead Pastor, Troy Gramling’s response to questions raised concerning the recent announcement about his nomination to presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference. We thank Pastor Palacios for furnishing us with this link. Furthermore, we’re grateful Pastor Gramling took seriously the questions raised toward his nomination, even if the questions were being raised by those outside the sphere of leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention.... Read more →

Great Commission Resurgence: Rewinding the Tape by Peter Lumpkins

Robert Reeves has served since 1998 as the communications director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention following previous service with the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (now Sunrise Children’s Services) and Connie Maxwell Children’s Home (the children's ministry of South Carolina Baptists). Reeves background is in professional journalism (//link). As a vocational writer, he offers interested Southern Baptists a taste of history leading up to the roaring twenties when Southern Baptists were convinced God had placed in their hands the explicit responsibility to gospelize to the ends of the earth. How... Read more →

Calvinism: The Conflict That May Never Go Away

Ever fond of rummaging through that toward which many, possessing no curious interest in such historical matters, offer but merely a discomforting yawn, I ran across this little golden nugget from Alabama Baptist history. Elder W. C. Bledsoe, author of The History of The Liberty (East) Baptist Association of Alabama (Atlanta, GA. Constitution Job Office, 1886) writes of events leading up to the formation of that association, the first session of which took place "On Thursday before the fourth Sunday in September, 1836...held at the LaFayette church, Chambers county, Ala."... Read more →

Contextualization, Syncretism and Global Witness: Raising Concerns by Peter Lumpkins

An interesting exchange took place last week between an anonymous missionary (non-SBC) presently serving in a Muslim country and a theologian at Liberty Theological Seminary. A post entitled "My Pilgrimage" is hosted at SBCImpact and written by an anonymous missionary who calls himself/herself "From the Middle East" (a regular contributor for SBCImpact, by the way). The pilgrimage described is in story form, self-designed by the missionary, "not so much as a full doctrinal statement"; instead, it is offered to indigenous Muslims to gauge whether they are "interested in hearing the... Read more →

The Great Commission Resurgence: Biblical Mandate or Baptist Movement?: Part I

The heart of Baptists in the south could be summed up as an "eliciting, combining and directory for the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort, for the propagation of the Gospel" when the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845. Since, innumerable concerted efforts to "propagate" the world with the Gospel presented themselves as Baptists continued to ride the wave as a missionary force with which hell itself must contend. And contend it did. One hurdle after another Satan placed on the evangelistic track Baptists were running,... Read more →

Painful Concern or Political Posturing: Rodney Hammer & The Open Letter to the Southern Baptist Convention

Former IMB Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe, Rodney Hammer, recently resigned his post citing two "extrabiblical" policies the Trustees put in placed which, according to Hammer, "restricted the flow of good conservative candidates." Questioning the policies, Hammer said: “I am expected as a regional leader to accept, own and support the policies of the IMB trustees. I can do so no longer.” While, he and his family left the field for stateside assignment on May 5 and plan to be reassigned to a field assignment upon their return,... Read more →

Hershael York and Paul Harvey: One Thing in Common

News reporter and commentator legend, Mr. Paul Harvey, may be the most famed caster of all time. For over fifty years, he's been known "for the rest of the story". Listeners could always expect Mr. Harvey to drop an unexpected ending for them to consider. Today, Dr. Hershael York--Pastor, Professor, Trustee--offered what many surely consider "the rest of the story" concerning the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. For the last two years, the Board has faced stiff criticism from many, especially from a former trustee of the... Read more →

Jerusalem: A Trip to Remember

In early spring of 1994, one of our Deacons came up to me after the evening service and said "I need to talk to you and Kathy immediately." My first thought--as is the case many times--was "Oh my. What'd she do?" Just kidding :^) Seriously, it was "I wonder what I did?" When we arrived at the conference room, Marge was already there. This comforted me for Marge was a sweartheart of a lady and I knew we could all relax. We sat down and Dick said "You know that... Read more →

Kentucky Baptists, Anti-Missions and Hyper-Calvinism

In 1885, Baptist historian J. H. Spencer penned what has become the definitive resource for early Baptist work in Kentucky. Most of the earlier settlers in Kentucky came from Virginia and the Carolinas. The first churches there were undoubtedly Episcopal and in a real sense, therefore, the religious climate in the bluegrass state leaned toward a state-sanctioned church >>> Baptists--most of whom at that time being Regular, Particular Baptists--were in Kentucky early, well before the end of the eighteenth century. The Severns Valley Baptist Church, believed to be the first... Read more →

Calvinism & The Gospel Offer: Is it Sincere?

An oft repeated concern non-Calvinists mention to Calvinists pertains to the sincerity of preaching a Gospel message universally when Christ’s death, according to the Calvinist, was designed only for the Elect. That is, if the Calvinist is correct that Christ’s death was designed for the Elect and only the Elect, then the universal offer of salvation based on the merits of Christ’s death is, in the end, a questionable offer. How can it be considered sincere, the non-Calvinist rightly asks, if the benefits of the Cross, designed only for the... Read more →