Thinking Critically . . . Acting Faithfully
Bill Jones muses about Baptists, faith, ethics, justice, politics . . . and more
Bible Freedom . . . Soul Freedom . . . Church Freedom . . . Religious Freedom — Walter B. Shurden, The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms (1993)
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. (Galatians 5:1, The Message)
Friday evening, I attended the premiere of “No. 1: MARY ALICE,” the inaugural entry in the micro-documentary series, each entry to feature a woman pastor, co-produced by BAPTIST WOMEN IN MINISTRY (BWIM) and ETHICS DAILY. The namesake of this first entry is MARY ALICE BIRDWHISTELL, senior pastor of CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH in Waco, Texas. Accordingly, Read more . . .
November 7 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Baptist evangelist BILLY GRAHAM. This brought a couple of stories to my mind. The first is a personal story – one concerning my dad, A. JASE JONES, who served for 22 years (1/1/57-1/1/79) as Midwest Area Director with the Interfaith Witness Department of Read more . . .
(Click here for video of the entire program.) First, a few thank yous to: • George Mason and Wilshire Baptist Church, for hosting this dinner • Heather Mustain, for facilitating all of the preparations • Chef Elizabeth Ferguson and your staff, for the wonderful meal • David Hammons for taking care of the sound and Read more . . .
A few days ago, the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) held its annual meeting. It was the second self-styled “Family Gathering” – now held every 5 years – in which the state’s Hispanic and African-American conventions meet simultaneously with the BGCT. Last week, Ethics Daily published an Op-Ed by JACKIE BAUGH MOORE, titled “New Read more . . .
On July 21, 2018, the Sullivan Tower in Nashville – former headquarters of LifeWay Resources, the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) publishing arm – was imploded. In an article dated July 23, Baptist Press reporter ART TOALSTON covered the building’s demise and wrote about its namesake, Dr. JAMES L. SULLIVAN, longtime president of the Baptist Sunday Read more . . .
This week, SUZII PAYNTER announced she is retiring after 5 years as executive coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). I first met Suzii in the late 1990s during my visits to First Baptist Church, Austin, with my dad, JASE JONES, who was a member there. However, where I truly got to knowing Suzii was in Read more . . .
For me, CBF began – as it does almost every year – with the T. B. Maston Foundation’s CBF Maston Scholars Retreat. I’ve been privileged to serve on the Maston Foundation Board of Trustees for the past 10 years, and the annual student retreats at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary in March and CBF in June Read more . . .
Though I missed the spirited debate over the invitation to Mike Pence, which occurred about an hour before I arrived at the SBC gathering Tuesday morning, I did hear a motion proposed to limit any such speaking invitations in future years to local political leaders. The most interesting motion I heard discussed was to defund Read more . . .
Last week, Downtown Dallas hosted both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) General Assembly AND the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting. No, there was no bloodbath in the streets, though I did hear of a few awkward encounters, in hotels & restaurants, between those wearing CBF badges and those adorned with SBC badges. In one Read more . . .