By Derik Hamby I personally do not know Brad Hoffman or Nancy Stanton McDaniel. Both are now candidates for the Baptist General Association of Virginia presidency. That last sentence was hard to type. “Candidates” is a strange word for those…
Choosing sides, teams or labels in the CBF serves no purpose
A recent BNG article reported a seminary professor’s comments on the “moderate” label for some in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In the 1990s I was a student at Southern Seminary in Louisville. The Southern Baptist Convention decided to create a…
Labels, no thank you!
Ever since the first Jesus followers were tagged with the title “Christians,” labels have been a point of description and controversy throughout the 2,000 years of our movement. From Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians to the kaleidoscope of labels birthed…
Hope in conflict
Today’s mainline denominations are doing plenty of fighting. Some of the disagreements break into the news and public consciousness, while others only affect the faithful. All of this fighting is deeply unsettling, but it also reflects what one observer calls…
Can the church ever be united?
Last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at the Rosedale Congregational United Church of Christ (RCC) in Kansas City, Kansas. As RCC is currently without a pastor, I was asked to preach each Sunday this month, and I much…
“Show Me the Money” No Longer Works When Denominations Talk to Churches
Rather than a Jerry Maguire demand of “show me the money,” denominations often find themselves asking “where has all the money gone?” Depending on the denomination, funds to denominations began declining between 30 and 50 years ago. However, it took…
Denominations Now Provide Fewer Resources for Congregations
Previously covered in my series is the death of the gapology framework for denominations, and the fact that money follows the information flow more than it follows the denominational channels. This post deals with the third element no longer part…
The taller I become….
We’re remembering the Freedom Summer of 1964 this year, fifty years later. During those momentous times in US history, a broad group of organizations worked together to break the tyranny of the Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. Their primary goal…
Leadership for a “Denominetwork”
Women leaders. Diversity in worship. Babies in strollers and toddlers in arms. Faithful friends. New relationships. Creative initiatives. All of these are impressions that I brought back from the 2014 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Atlanta. The Fellowship continues to…