Many churches, like mine, find themselves in a state of plateau or decline. We want our churches to grow and believe that God desires that too, but we seem stuck and don’t know how to move forward. Our first instinct ought to be to pray, but pray for what? If you are leading a declining church, here are five prayers to be sure to include on your list: 1. Pray for wisdom. Here is a prayer that God promises to answer when we ask in faith (James 1:5). Leaders always need wisdom and we should seek the Lord for it. We need wisdom to understand why the church is not growing, the steps we need to … [Read more...] about Five Prayers for Leaders of a Declining Church
How to (and how NOT to) Minister to Families Battling Cancer
Reflecting on our past and present experience with cancer, we have been blessed to have family, friends and a church family who have been wonderfully supportive. Quite often, people want to know how they can help and encourage someone going through the experience of cancer or other medical related trials. I hope that you will find this list useful as you minister to others. Here are a few things I found to be helpful and not so helpful in our journey: Helpful: Encouraging me to trust God through our trial More Helpful: Sharing your experience of God's grace in your time of need … [Read more...] about How to (and how NOT to) Minister to Families Battling Cancer
Will you hear his story? A Baptist pastor reviews a gay author
A year ago, I had a brief email correspondence with author Scott Terry about evangelicals and homosexuality. The following is a review and response to his book, Cowboys Armageddon, and the Truth: How a Gay Child Was Saved from Religion Note: Parts of this post are rewritten, with permission, from my personal correspondence with the author. In that section, I refer to him by his first name. How I came to read the book My initial contact with Terry was regarding an art piece that he created that quoted various hateful and homophobic statements about LGBT people. I had … [Read more...] about Will you hear his story? A Baptist pastor reviews a gay author
An Acts 17 Moment: What Burger King has right about LGBT people
The new Proud Whopper is the latest instance of a corporation coming out in support of the LGBT community. While evangelicals reject these types of campaigns as contrary to the Bible’s teaching about sexuality, the Proud Whopper provides us with an Acts 17 moment. Burger King has unwittingly made a statement about LGBT people that evangelical Christians can stand in agreement. I suggest that Christians use this opportunity to remember their own need for Christ, then engage in conversation with our neighbors and witness to the truth of the gospel. After all, whatever the intent of their … [Read more...] about An Acts 17 Moment: What Burger King has right about LGBT people
3 Reasons You Should Learn to Appreciate Soccer (even if you don’t like it)
Soccer is the sport many Americans love to hate. Whether you think it’s boring, inferior as a sport, you hate the “flop”, or just tired of the rabid fútbol evangelists (who are often more persistent than Sam-I-am and his green eggs and ham), soccer is a sport which many people just refuse to like. I am not going to ask you to like soccer. I’ll leave it to the true fans to champion its merits. Let me suggest, however, that you move from vocal antagonist of soccer to at least an appreciation of the sport. Here are three missional reasons to do so: 1. To be part of the global community. While … [Read more...] about 3 Reasons You Should Learn to Appreciate Soccer (even if you don’t like it)
The “right man” for the job: Can race/ethnicity be a factor?
Whenever we have discussions about selecting leaders, people will often argue that we approach the process in a color-blind way and base our decision on finding the best man for the job, without regard to race or ethnicity. I personally believe the idea of a “best” person for a leadership position is a myth. When it comes to our selection of leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and, particularly, the selection of our next IMB president, we should rather look for the “right” person. We must ask ourselves, who is the right person for the position now? And, as my previous post suggests, is … [Read more...] about The “right man” for the job: Can race/ethnicity be a factor?
My “personal plan” for SBC14: A self-assessment
In my pre-Convention post, I laid out my personal plan for this year’s Convention. I wrote my post before because I wanted to move past a non-specific, general call for unity and offer some practical, event-specific application for the average messenger like me. Well, no one in Baltimore asked me how I was doing on my plan, but one person did remark that they were glad to see I was actually doing what I suggested rather than merely writing about it. For the most part, I count my experiment as a success. Here is my self-evaluation of my Baltimore experiment. 1. Be a good listener. This … [Read more...] about My “personal plan” for SBC14: A self-assessment
After Baltimore: Two Recommendations for our Trustees on Increasing Diversity in the SBC
One of the under-the-surface themes at the Convention this year was the increased desire among messengers to move past the issue of race and see a growing diversity in SBC involvement and leadership. Among the many positive indications of an increasing racial/ethnic diversity and unity in the Convention, I noted the following in Baltimore: Fred Luter completed his historic presidency as the first non-Anglo leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. A Korean nominee, Dennis Kim, was a serious candidate for his successor and made a strong showing garnering more than 40% of the vote. The … [Read more...] about After Baltimore: Two Recommendations for our Trustees on Increasing Diversity in the SBC
My personal plan to strive for unity in Baltimore
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! Psalm 133:1 When it comes to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, “unity” may not be the first word that comes to mind. Especially if you spend a lot of time on the SBC blogosphere, you might think that unity is an unachievable goal. Yet, I believe it is not only achievable, but within our grasp. Most of us are not power-brokers in the convention. We will not attend the meeting with any kind of clout (though maybe a few of you might have some name recognition among the faithful blog readers). We come as messengers, … [Read more...] about My personal plan to strive for unity in Baltimore
Missions and the fate of those who never hear
In my roles as pastor and professor, I am often asked about the fate of those who never have a chance to hear the gospel. The answer to that question has profound implications, not only for our Christian apologetic, but for our urgency in taking the gospel to the nations. While many will try to find answers we find more palatable, I believe we have enough explicit teaching in the Bible to recognize that those without Christ are under the wrath of God and that knowledge ought to inspire an urgency in us to take the gospel to those who have never heard. This is hard teaching, and whenever it … [Read more...] about Missions and the fate of those who never hear