Stand By Me

Stand By Me from Mike Yates on Vimeo.

America, We Have A Problem

While at youth camp this summer I heard a statistic quoted that 80% of seminary graduates leave the ministry within five years of graduating.  I went snooping around to see where such a statistic might come from.  Well, it turns out that LeadingFromYourStrengths.com has come across various troubling studies.  They posted them at their blog about a year ago.  Here’s what they found: Read more

Two Referals And A Request

Wow.  This has been a very busy and very long week.  Nearly every night has been taken up with some sort of activity and an extra project along with a doctor’s visit have filled up my already busy days.  I intended to post something original this week, but instead I want to point you to two other sites and make a request.

First, I want to point you to this update from J.D. Greear.  J.D. is a pastor in North Carolina who has been asked to serve on our national convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.  This is a task force that was appointed by Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt to examine how the SBC can be more effective in our obedience to the Great Commission.  Baptisms in the denomination are down, giving to our International Missions Board is down.  How can we reverse those trends?  Read more

Jesus The Center

For a religion that takes its name from its founder it would seem that Jesus being the center of the Christian faith would be a redundant statement of the obvious. But is it?

I think there are two sources of competition for Jesus being the center in the modern American church. One of those sources of competition shouldn’t be competition at all because it actually points back to Jesus everywhere. The other source of competition is killing the church while we sit by and sing My Jesus I Love Thee. Read more

Salvation Army Band