From Law to Grace » Entries tagged with "Kevin Ezell"
SBC Nickname: Adventures in Baby Splitting? Not!
I’m in a Seinfeld state of mind. First Mr. Mendelbaum and now Newman. Even Postal Employee Newman — Kramer’s friend and Jerry’s nemesis in the popular 1990s sitcom – was wise enough to know that you can’t split a bicycle in half. Upon hearing the news Monday night that the unofficial Name Change Task Force was recommending no official name change for the Southern Baptist Convention, but instead recommending adding an optional nickname — Great Commission Baptists — I was perplexed. My initial thought was, “this doesn’t make any sense.” My wife had a more pithy word to describe the recommendation. Surely this Task Force, whose members include such Convention stalwarts as Dr. Paige Patterson, Dr. Albert Mohler, Dr. David Dockery, Dr. Kevin Ezell, Dr. Tom Eliff and others, are surely wiser than Newman, thus applying the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christianity, Great Commission Baptists, Religion, SBC Name Change, Southern Baptist Convention
Countdown to SBC Phoenix: What to Expect?
After being in Dallas for a few days for our son, Stephen’s, appointment at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (he has Legg-Perthes Disease, a childhood hip condition), I am looking forward to my first visit to Phoenix next week for this year’s annual get-together of the nation’s largest Protestant body. At the moment, I want to be in Phoenix because the “dry heat” in Arizona has to be preferable to the miserably humid temperatures that we have encountered in Texas this week. As a native Floridian, who has called New Mexico home for the past four years, I gladly admit that I do not miss the high temperatures AND high humidity that comes with living back east. It has been nice actually seeing the rain and all the green grass, but that’s not enough to tempt … Read entire article »
Filed under: Great Commission Resurgence, Religion, Southern Baptist Convention
The New NAMB: Bad Precedents & UnAnswered Questions
Coming through this Easter season, I strongly encouraged our congregation to give sacrificially to the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions. While a few of our church leaders know my reservations about the direction and vision of the new NAMB, I did not express that concern with the members at large. With new changes announced at NAMB on an almost weekly basis, I knew that there would be time to ask the hard questions that need to be asked regarding our church’s continued investment and partnership with the new NAMB, but this Annie Armstrong season was not the time. Having met our church goal of $7,500, our Missions Development Committee agreed to add an additional $5,000 to the Easter offering as we have done the past four years. Having received a letter a few weeks … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cooperative Program, Great Commission Resurgence, Religion, Southern Baptist Convention
The New NAMB: 7 Years Sure Goes By Fast!
I’ve never visited Alpharetta, Georgia, the home of the former North American Mission Board and the newly reinvented NAMB. However, it appears that there must be some glitch in the time-space continuum that causes not only months, but years, to accelerate at an astronomical rate. How else to explain how 90 days turned into two weeks or, more recently, how seven years suddenly became 10 months. There must be some logical explanation for the time warp that the new NAMB appears to be stuck in. When Dr. Kevin Ezell was elected President of the new North American Mission Board, he told Dr. Ed Stetzer that he would take the first three months on the job to get the lay of the land: I know there are a lot of expectations, but I want to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Baptist Convention of New Mexico, Cooperative Program, Great Commission Resurgence, Religion, Southern Baptist Convention
The GCR, the New NAMB & Cracks In the Foundation
In 1979, Conservatives within the Southern Baptist Convention united to return the SBC and her entities to Biblical inerrancy and doctrinal fidelity. For 27 years, the Conservative Resurgence (as it came to be called) brought together disparate groups — Conservatives of all stripes and varieties – to successfully re-establish the Southern Baptist Convention upon a solid, Biblical foundation. But, that foundation is beginning to crack. And, with each new radical reinvention that the current establishment leaders implement (NAMB comes to mind), those cracks are becoming more noticeable. The solid foundation — so carefully laid with the blood, sweat, tears, and prayers of so many CR “foot soldiers” — is in real danger of not only cracking, but ultimately collapsing. The collapse will not happen because of disagreements over Biblical inerrancy or doctrine, but rather over disagreements about vision, methodology, and money. Not to mention … Read entire article »
Filed under: Great Commission Resurgence, Religion, Southern Baptist Convention