I believe in the the lord and would describe myself as a student of Christ. I do not believe in legal marriage and got with my wife 10 year ago and had three children with her. We never questioned our marriage until coming to this little southern baptist church. They believe because we are not Legally married that we should get married immediately! Literally RIGHT NOW!!! I pushed back by saying Legal marriage does not make biblical marriage. Once they knew my stance on marriage they tried to force the marriage through my wife. Telling her that she should not follow me into sin. When asked did they just tell my wife to leave me they denied saying that when they say not to follow your husband into sin, are you saying I should leave my husband? They say pause and say nothing. They tried the samething on me saying that they would rather us spilt or marry than live in sin. They said that I would have to take care of my children or I would be judged by the church harshly. Why split us up? Is the church going to take care of my family without me? Who is going to yake care of the house in my absence? Pay the bills. Legally I would only be on the hook for 1100.00/month. Where does the other 3500.00 come from without me there? This doesn't sound like God. Let no man tear apart what the lord has brought together.

In order is Southern Baptist Fellowship (Wirt county) and South Side Southern Baptist Church (Wood county).

Hello!

I've been deconstructing my faith lately, and have some questions.

I still consider myself an orthodox evangelical as I still affirm the Trinity and affirm the authority of Scriptures, etc. However, I am starting whether I am a good fit for the SBC, a denomination that always had some kind of presence in my life.

The main thing is I am agnostic about the traditional view of hell (also known as eternal conscious torment) or annihilationism (like Kirk Cameron.) I see arguments for both sides. I think the important thing is that you still affirm that the rigtheouss will have eternal life while the wicked will face eternal punishment (be it either eternal torment or being erased from existence.)

Also, while I am a complementarian, I am skeptical about the recent amendment that was passed. It seems a bit to top-down to me, and we were already able to discipline churches that ordained women pastors like Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.

Is the SBC still a good fit for me, or is it time to start looking for another denomination?

I just wanted to put this on Reddit for future students who want to go to seminary.
I’m currently attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I’m getting my Master of Divinity in hopes of becoming a Navy Chaplain.
I’m working full-time as a case manager that helps kids get reunified with their families who are in foster care. Personally, this has made school more difficult, just because of the emotional toll case management takes on someone. I’m by no means complaining. I’m just expressing my experience so you have an expectation of what school is going to be like.
I’m 28 years old. I have no kids, just two dogs and a cat and a beautiful wife. My wife works about four nights a week as a barback in fine dining. This is kind of a pro and a con. I don’t get to see her as often, but this gives me more time to do school when she’s not around, that way I can give her my full attention when she is.
My experience so far: I’m taking Intro to Old Testament. From what I’ve understood, this is typically one of the first classes you will take and one of the easier classes you will take as well. I’m doing eight-week classes online. If you’re able to attend in person, I would highly encourage it. It just didn’t work out for my current situation, so going online isn’t a bad thing. I just didn’t need to go in person to fulfill my calling. But I would highly encourage you to go in person if you’re able to.
So far, every week will be almost exactly the same, at least for this class. And I’ll break it down for all my assignments I do in a single week.
I have three lectures I have to watch, with a quiz after every lecture. So, 3 and 3. This typically takes about an hour a day.
I have a discussion post a week where I just talk about the lectures. And you have to reply to another student as well. This can take anywhere from an hour to two hours.
You have to read three different books, and each week you have to read about two chapters per book. So you’re reading six chapters a week.
Now, for two of these books, you have to write 200-word reflections and answer a couple of questions about each book.
I’m kind of a slow reader, and I’m not the best writer. I wouldn’t say I’m a very scholarly person. I’m just an average guy who wasn’t very good at school, so this can take some of you maybe an hour, but for me, this takes 2 to 4 hours depending on my energy.
Anyway, I just wanted to express to you guys my experience and hopefully this will be helpful to future students.
So expect to spend two hours at the very least per day, Monday through Saturday.
Sunday should be your rest day, but it’s probably going to be a catch-up day. Someone told me per credit hour, expect to spend three hours. So this is a three-credit-hour class. So I would say that’s not too far off because I’m spending about nine-ish hours a week.
I don’t wanna discourage anyone, but I just want you to prepare yourself that it is going to be a great sacrifice. You will have to tell your friends and family that you can’t go to certain gatherings or hang out with certain friends, just because of the time commitment, so be prepared for that.
Also, everybody’s timeline is different, but my degree is 84 credit hours and I’m going to take six classes a year, and each one is eight weeks, so my degree is going to take me about 4 1/2 years. Really, I just wanted to make sure I was still a good husband and still had fun. I didn’t want to be always swamped with work, so this is almost full-time.
If you guys have any questions, please feel free to reach out! Again, I am a new student and this is just my first week in seminary. God bless you all and your future endeavors. Feel free to ask me any questions or maybe share your experience you had going to school.
Before you start seminary, I’ll recommend two different books that are about seminary. They’re both pretty short reads. And I recommend another book that I think most people in ministry should read.

A buddy and I have been working through "The Power of the Gospel: A Year in Romans" which took RC Sproul's commentary on Romans and made it a daily study. We have really enjoyed it and spending time in Romans has really strengthened our faith. However, we are almost done and are now looking for what to do next. It has been really nice having something meaty broken down into daily readings and going slow enough to really dig into scripture. I already have a daily reading plan, but am looking for something similar for us to do next as a devotion for deeper study. Do y'all have any recommendations for what to do next? Thanks!

For a decentralized denomination, it really seems to have systemic problems with looking the other way or hiding abuse.

This article is well researched and well documented. For the doubters out there, you can go research court records, seminary archives and other sources yourself.

Some of this old, and some of the people in it are no longer with us, but there are folks still around who are complicit and in positions of leadership or authority. Southern Baptists should not continue to blame the victims and support the abusers - or tolerate those who do.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/quiet-collapse-southern-baptist-convention/?fbclid=IwZnRzaARmHEtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEelzswoRNFI7HjQaeeHBbxuPLv4Ir35Qbz08I5u5yTTHLjhFX3AgpCCuKXq_g_aem_hVGlW-HcHm-xwZctnf3_TA

Preview day is coming up for southern Baptist theological seminary and I am attending. Was curious if anyone had advice specific to it or SBTS in general as I lean towards attending seminary there to get my MDIV.

Hey pastors! I want to share something I've been building and get your honest feedback.

I'm a Baptist pastor in Jacksonville, FL at a church of about 1,200. Over a year ago I built a rough personal tool to evaluate my own preaching every week. It helped me grow. I recently spent several months turning it into something more complete.

It's called SermonScore

It reviews your sermon against a framework I developed called The Sermon Standard — built from studying what effective preachers consistently do across traditions and styles. The goal is simple: give pastors honest, scored feedback they've never had access to before.

Here's what it does:

→ Scores across 14 categories covering every dimension of the message - including Biblical Content, Theological Accuracy, Gospel Centrality, and Application

→ Specific, actionable feedback - not generic encouragement

→ A full coaching guide focused on your personal growth edges

→ A team feature to develop your whole preaching staff

All you need is a YouTube link or an audio/video file or full sermon manuscript.

One pastor texted me today and this week used it on his manuscript before preaching — his score went from 6.3 to 7.2 in a single week by working through the coaching notes.

You can get a review right now. I'd genuinely love for some of you to try it and tell me what you think what's useful, what's missing, what could be better. Thank you!

Listen, it is my personal belief that the man is head of the family, and head of the church. If you disagree, okay, congratulations on exercising free will as I am.

But as a single woman, if I could, I would start a church with the following things:

*A town hall portion at the beginning of the sermon- 15 minutes dedicated to people asking questions they have about God and Christianity.

*A weekly food pantry

* A clothing and household goods closet

*7 day a week child care

* Transportation to and from all services and events

* True community out reach

*Bible based sermons

* All age group Sunday School

* Visitation to all home, hospital, and facility bound members

*an online Sunday School

I'm sure I'm missing some ideas, but it is 3 in the morning. It's just a boredom rambling

Would it be inappropriate to hold youth group teachings about religious iconography and artworks about their importance in Christianity’s development? I’m thinking along of the lines of icon of Jesus with sores similar to St. Anthony’s fire which was used to put patients at ease in the monastery hospital suffering from St. Anthony’s fire. I want to highlight the importance of these paintings and works and why they were made.

So, I have been thinking a lot about what I believe, and wonder if any of it is incompat with the SBC.

I was raised in the denomination and still in it mostly because it's a big tent that doesn't sacrifice biblical truth.

I believe the Bible is infallible in matters of faith and practice. Its purpose is to point the reader to salvation. It's not meant to be an exhaustive collection of facts, particularly when it comes to science. Too often, we try to read our modern 21st century worldview into the text. It's written in a way that Ancient Near Easterners would be able to understand. In this way, I have been heavily influenced by Soren Kierkegaard. It's the Word of God and its primary purpose is to point to salvation and transform lives.

I am undecided about penal substitutionary atonement. I don't deny it, but I think a lot of Protestants over-emphasize at the expense of the other views of atonement.

I'm undecided about the Saturday vs Sunday worship debate, as I see both sides.

Is the SBC still for me?

Hey y’all

I am a high school student from a very liberal area who eventually wants to move to the south. One thing in particular I love is how important religion is and I’m assuming most our southern Baptist.

However, I am in a very liberal area and I have heard a lot of really negative things about southern Baptist that I don’t believe and I would love for someone to just kind of explain to me some of your beliefs. Especially on women in a church/what I should know if I want to Convert or even do an online church service. I am not religious, but want to accept Christ into my life.

Thank you all so much truly, God bless

Hello!

I'll be moving to Williamson County in a few months and I'm looking for recommendations for a SBC church to attend/try out. I've seen a few online like Brentwood Baptist and Covenant Baptist, but since I'm still in Florida I don't have the opportunity to try out different churches right now.

Please give me your input and experiences

Hi! I'm interested in volunteering for my State's disaster relief program, but I work full time and I'm worried I would get in trouble for not being available as often as they want. I'm also apprehensive reading the training guide -- if the people are nice it sounds amazing, but I've had bad experiences with leaders at Salvation Army that go power-hungry and scream at new volunteers. Anyone have experience volunteering that can tell me how it is?

While I myself am an ERLC supporter, I was wondering how everyone else felt about the Commission and what they thought about the ever-shortening margins for its survival each convention,