Thom Rainer is widely known as the former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Christian Resources, but now he is set to open a new chapter as he launches both a new company and a new book, I Am…
Who are you? Non-Trumpist evangelicals struggle to be identified
What do you call an evangelical Christian who hasn’t bought into Trumpism? Rare. And likely frustrated. Ever since the ascendance of Donald Trump as the Republican Party presidential nominee in 2016, a chasm has been exposed among a once-loosely defined…
Where’s the line between finding inspiration in another pastor’s sermon and plagiarizing it?
“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…
LifeWay to close stores in shift to digital strategy
A number of LifeWay Christian Stores face closure, LifeWay Christian Resources president Thom Ranier said in a e-mail to employees Jan. 15.
Paige Patterson controversy tests SBC’s ‘no criticism’ code, says former denominational worker
Southern Baptist Convention leaders are distancing themselves from an embattled seminary president in an unusual departure from custom about never speaking ill in public about a fellow agency head, according to a former denominational worker.
With 1 ‘none’ and a slew of Christians, Congress fails to reflect society
Church consultants and researchers for years have warned churches that they need to reflect the communities around them. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, said he discovered that while conducting research for his book Autopsy of a Deceased Church….
Appeals court rejects challenge to Glorieta sale
A federal appeals court has turned down an appeal by an Arkansas couple claiming wrongdoing by Southern Baptist Convention officials when they declined to renew their lease at the Glorieta Conference Center and instead sold the campus. Kirk Tompkins, who along with…