The Southern Baptist Convention’s 2016 Pastors’ Conference will be held in St. Louis, MO on June 12-13. This year, the theme is a repeat from last year–a promotion of President Ronnie Floyd’s prophecy of a Great Awakening. Already announced is a plethora of dubious speakers, including James MacDonald and Jack Graham. Last year, at the … Read more
By now, it’s no doubt that Rick Warren has not let the criticism from fellow believers, advice from his colleagues, or even the Word of God stand in his way of promoting questionable practices, ideas and beliefs in his ministry at Saddleback Church. In the past, he has promoted (and currently still does promote) unbelievers … Read more
Over the last few weeks we’ve received a lot of questions, comments and concerns about the state of and plans for the Pulpit and Pen blog. Many people have been asking how we will be proceeding into the future with JD no longer blogging and having by and large taken a step back from Social Media [His … Read more
Many of have taken issue with Steven Furtick in recent years. Pointing out Furtick-level pastoral narcissism has been common fare on a number of popular podcasts. I’ll assume you haven’t actually made your habitation under a rock and that you’re aware of the Furtick controversies; the increasingly scary cult mentality of Elevation Church as it … Read more
Monday – Program Summary: In this episode, JD briefly discusses Tim Rogers’ continued use of alleged child molestation to discredit those calling for Caner’s repentance, then moves on to exegete Acts 2:38 to address baptismal regeneration and why we are baptized BECAUSE we’ve been forgiven and not in order to be forgiven. For the Daily … Read more
Monday: Program Summary – In today’s program, JD first discusses Phillips, Craig and Dean’s signing a statement affirming the Southern Baptist Faith & Message and why Southern Baptists (and other evangelicals) should still be very, very cautious. JD also discusses Tony Miano’s arrest and in the Daily #DOWNGRADE segment, JD addresses Tim Guthrie’s recent rant … Read more
Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention suffered the embarrassment of learning that the interim CEO of its Executive Committee, Willie McLaurin, was a fraud. This week, Southern Baptists learned that McLaurin’s replacment belongs to a church affiliated with the theologically liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The church is Woodmont Baptist in Nashville. The replacment is … Read more
In the Halcyon days of Pulpit & Pen, new articles came out every day. There were multiple writers contributing back then and if nothing was getting published JD Hall would inform us quickly that “the website was growing cobwebs”. Unfortunately, the site has had cobwebs for a few years now; it’s just me writing. Between … Read more
One of the first articles I ever published at this site was entitled “Ecumenism, Book Sales, Beth Moore, and the Bishop of Saddleback”. In that article, I implied that Rick Warren was more concerned with expanding his influence than staying true to biblical doctrine. Here we are nine years later. Rick Warren, his church having … Read more
For years my parents have taken an annual Spring or Summer vacation to Amelia Island, just outside of Jacksonville, Florida. It is, in my opinion, one of the nicer beach destinations in Florida. It doesn’t have the six pack and go-kart feel of tourist towns such as Panama City Beach. It’s a different kind of … Read more
Who is the worst Christian of 2021? On the surface, this seems like a foolish or even pharisaical question. The fact of the matter is that there are none worthy to stand righteous before God except his perfect son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer struggles with sin every day and will continue to do … Read more
Who out there, among the professing, has had the most deleterious effect on the health of the body of Christ in the year 2021? Using a number of criteria Pulpit & Pen has identified a list of nominees from a pool of eligible individuals (obvious charlatans and the theologically heterodox* were not included for consideration). In … Read more
“We’ve made a lot of progress, but we have a long way to go.” So said former Southern Baptist Convention President (SBC) and founding pastor of Cross Pointe Church James Merritt during the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham. Merritt made these remarks while participating in a six-person panel on Racial Reconciliation. According to Merritt, … Read more
On December 16, 2016 the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC) published an article entitled “The Diversity in Our Christmas Story.” This week, it was reshared via the ERLC Twitter feed. The article was penned by Casey B. Hough, whose Twitter profile lists him as the following: Disciple, Husband of … Read more
Earlier this year Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) hired a law firm to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct that had been leveled against its deceased namesake. This week that firm reported that “credible evidence” indicates that Ravi Zacharias indeed “engaged in sexual misconduct over many years”. Accusations of (among other things) credentials fraud and sexting … Read more
