In just under two months, thousands of Southern Baptists will gather in Birmingham for the annual meeting. Over the course of two days, we will conduct business as a denomination. For many, the prospect of attending a denominational business meeting sounds akin to experiencing a colonoscopy. During the Conservative Resurgence, tens of thousands attended the … Continue reading Why You Should Care about the SBC?
Category: Ministry
Rehoboam stood before the people at Shechem. They had come to make him king. The people who once looked to his father, Solomon, now looked to Rehoboam. Though he suffered decline at the end of his reign, Solomon led the kingdom to heights it had never seen, and Rehoboam now felt the weight of that … Continue reading Going the Way of Rehoboam
The people wanted a king. Or, to be more exact, the people wanted a different king. That's the story of 1 Samuel 8. The Lord formed Israel to be a kingdom under his rule and reign. He was their king, but the nation demanded to have a ruler like all of the other nations. Rather … Continue reading A King like the Nations
People typically either love or loathe documentaries. I like a good documentary, but I am usually skeptical of Christian documentaries. We do not have a great track record of producing films that are high-quality in form and content. For this reason, I would not normally pay to rent a documentary named American Gospel, but I … Continue reading Review of American Gospel
I recently finished Arnold Dallimore's biography of Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist preacher known as the "Prince of Preachers." If you're familiar at all with Spurgeon, you've likely heard about how gifted of an orator he was or how effective he was as an evangelist. While those traits certainly did characterize his life and ministry, there … Continue reading Spurgeon’s Humility
A sobering quote from Eugene Peterson's Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity: I don't know of any other profession in which it is quite easy to fake it as in ours. By adopting a reverential demeanor, cultivating a stained-glass voice, slipping occasional words like "eschatology" into conversation and heilsgeschichte into our discourse—not often enough actually … Continue reading The Danger of Faking Pastoral Ministry
What is it that defines success in pastoral ministry? While some would point to membership growth or baptism numbers, many would rightly point to one trait as the sole indicator of success: biblical fidelity—faithfulness to the Word of God in one's life and ministry. Fundamentally, pastors are called to a life of faithfulness to the … Continue reading Faithfulness for Future Ministers
Cody A. Cunningham 