From time to time, in my reading on various topics, I have come across the term civil religion—or, more specifically, American civil religion. Although I have had a general notion of what these terms were referring to, it was only this past week, in relation to various articles (here, here, here, and here) I read commenting on the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” Rally, that I decided to do a bit of research and find out exactly what civil religion and American civil religion are. The fruits of my investigation have …

It seems to me that fewer people are coming to Christ and being saved today in America than in other times. I don’t have hard statistics. For those who are interested, I suggest you check out Ed Stetzer, or George Barna, or someone else who specializes in investigating these types of things. I do know that, from a global perspective, this is not necessarily the case. There are places in the world today where many, many people are coming to Christ and the church is growing by leaps and bounds. …

Tomorrow is election day here in Tennessee, with various local offices up for grabs, as well as the primaries for the upcoming election for governor. All three of the leading Republican candidates for governor have made a special point in their campaigns to delineate a hard-line stance toward illegal immigration. Indeed, it seems in areas of the United States, such as the South, in which Evangelicals are most established, that hard-line positions toward illegal immigration are more popular.
Several years ago, in the early days of SBC Impact, I wrote another …

In the midst of all the other news coming out of Liberty University recently, some of you may not have caught the following dialogue between Glenn Beck and Jerry Falwell, Jr., as aired on the Glenn Beck Program, June 25:
GLENN: Jerry, I have to speak about something we’ve spoken about privately and I hope you don’t mind, but when we first met and I went down, you asked me to give the commencement speech and I — when I first met you, I thanked you for that and I said …

The convention is behind us, as well as the vote on the GCR Task Force Report. Now, it’s time to move ahead with plans to work together on seeing the Great Commission fulfilled. As has already been stated on various occasions, the real responsibility for the task before us lies primarily in the hands of the individual congregations that cooperate together through the SBC. It also lies with each of us as individual believers, as we seek to be the best stewards possible of the gifts and resources the Father …

As I have read through a lot of the commentary that has come out in the past couple of months on the GCR Task Force report, it seems as if most of those expressing their views have a strong opinion one way or another, some in favor, and others opposed to it (or at least to some of the recommendations). There have been some exceptions, but they have been comparatively few and far between. I realize that for any politicized issue (i.e. issues on which votes are taken) this is …

In 1983, Robertson McQuilken published an article in Evangelical Missions Quarterly entitled “Looking at the Task Six Ways.” His article, together with all of the back issues of EMQ, is available online with a paid subscription to EMQ, a publication I highly recommend to anyone seriously interested in cross-cultural missions and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. McQuilken’s article highlights six different factors that play into any effort to determine strategic allocation of financial and human resources in international missions: total number of lost people, rate of responsiveness, the proportion …

An April 12, 2010 e-mail written by Ronnie Floyd and sent out by the GCR Task Force (which can be viewed here) states the following:
“Spiritual revival is the number one need in the Great Commission Resurgence movement. Nothing is more needed in our lives, our churches, and in our convention of churches than spiritual revival. We are in desperate need for the refreshing wind of God’s Spirit to blow upon us.”
I (as I imagine are the great majority of you) am in total agreement. Floyd continues:
“This next great movement of …

Last week, I got into a bit of a discussion on the comment stream over at SBC Today on the subject of who should be allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper in a Baptist church, and who should not. Some of my words here are taken from the discussion over there. Some leading views advocated by Baptists are close, closed, open, and, the view I personally take, modified open communion. I do not consider myself, technically, to be an advocate of open communion, since I don’t believe the Lord’s …

On various occasions, I have had the opportunity of hearing missiologist and house church guru Wolfgang Simson in person and on tape, and have also read several of his writings. He has some very interesting things to say that have spurred my imagination and helped me to think more deeply on a variety of subjects. However, I do not subscribe completely to everything he teaches. Frankly, there are a few things he says which strike me as rather extreme. However, there is one thing he said once, in a seminar …