In recent years our SBC evangelism statistics have declined significantly. Dr. Jeff Iorg, the President of Gateway Seminary (formerly Golden Gate Baptist Seminary) spoke about this in his convocation message in the fall semester of 2019: “Southern Baptists have a declining effectiveness in sharing the Gospel with non-Christians and leading them to profess faith in Jesus," he said. "Since baptism is the first act of public obedience for a new believer, baptismal rates are one important measure of evangelistic effectiveness. By that key indicator, our effectiveness in leading people to faith … [Read more...] about Why Is It Harder to Evangelize?
JD speaks for JD, but he is the SBC President
From the Houston Chronicle: SBC President cautions churches about hosting disgraced leader Paige Patterson “Trustees terminated Paige Patterson for cause, publicly disclosing that his conduct was ‘antithetical to the core values of our faith,’ ” Greear told the Chronicle. “I advise any Southern Baptist church to consider this severe action before having Dr. Patterson preach or speak and to contact trustee officers if additional information is necessary.” and "Southern Baptist churches must take our mutual accountability to each other more seriously than we have in the past,” he said. “If … [Read more...] about JD speaks for JD, but he is the SBC President
What’s this inconsistent use of autonomy, anyway?
The complaint was that "the SBC" (scare quotes are essential in the present context; if an explanation is needed, just ask) uses autonomy as an excuse for inaction on abuse in churches and by "SBC" (same for the quotes around "SBC" but I'll not take the time to do so for the rest of this article) clergy. I understand that. There are a number of high profile, long running abuse cases that involve churches affiliated with the SBC and staff for those churches. An abuser would move from one SBC church to another, complaints would be made to SBC leaders whose answer would be that that they didn't … [Read more...] about What’s this inconsistent use of autonomy, anyway?
The Blessing of a Godly Heritage
I am blessed. Not for anything I have done but because of the family into which God ordained I would be placed. I had no choice, I had no input, I was not consulted nor did I earn it in some way. But by the grace of God I was given to a family that loved Jesus and therefore loved one-another. Without perfection, to be sure, without wealth or pedigree, but not without a deep and abiding understanding of what a family is and how it should function in a Christ honoring way. Today, I am reminded how thankful I am that my mom and dad have been with us long enough to see and get to know all 5 of … [Read more...] about The Blessing of a Godly Heritage
He’s baaaaack! Peter Lumpkins and those pesky discernment blogs
Back in the day, The Age of Blogs, there were a handful of sites that were SBC go-to blogs: SBC Today in its first or second iteration, SBC Outpost, SBC Voices, a few personal sites. If you read a dozen you probably had all the SBC news worth reading, and from different points of view. Then came the SBC celebrity sites and Twitter with snippets, factoids, puffery, and excruciatingly tedious strings of Tweets. Blogs took a back seat. Not quite under the bus yet but definitely diminished. I suppose Facebook figures in all this but I have my own scruples and FB doesn't get a lot of … [Read more...] about He’s baaaaack! Peter Lumpkins and those pesky discernment blogs
The Pastor’s High Calling
For most of my fifty years in ministry, I’ve served as a foreign missionary or seminary professor. However, in my senior years, I’ve been called to serve as the Teaching Pastor of our church. This new responsibility has prompted me to think about the calling of pastors. For sure, it is a high calling, and it is a challenging one, too. The Pastor’s Challenge To describe the indescribable—" Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15, NKJV) I thought about this the other day. We are expected to stand before our churches and describe the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ to … [Read more...] about The Pastor’s High Calling
Randy Adams’ good idea for the SBC: transparency and openness in all entity matters
Here's the way he puts it: 5. Operate in the Light – The SBC should be the toughest place to hide corruption, abuse, and poor stewardship, operating at the highest level of integrity and accountability. We must eliminate organizational tools, structures and processes that help hide wrongdoing and abuse. The SBC and its entities should end the use of, and recall, all remaining Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). We must not hide corruption and we will not protect predators at the cost of harming victims. There must be transparency in how we make decisions and how we spend money. Records should … [Read more...] about Randy Adams’ good idea for the SBC: transparency and openness in all entity matters
Prayers for IMB Europe January 20, 2020
Good morning. I hope everyone had a wonderful day of worship with their church family yesterday. Here are the prayer requests for this week from our IMB team in Europe. For the rest of the list, please click on Prayers for IMB Wales--A family in Cardiff, Wales asks for prayers for the Lord to open the doors to more fruitful relationships with their unsaved neighbors. They had a coffee event for Thanksgiving and delivered Christmas cards and treats this past month—they are seeking the Lord for how to creatively open their lives & home for the new year so that more may know … [Read more...] about Prayers for IMB Europe January 20, 2020
Randy Adams’ bad idea for the SBC: remote access to SBC annual meeting voting
Randy Adams is the second person to be a declared candidate for SBC president. Baptist Press had a story on him on January 15th. I'm pleased there is more than one candidate (Al Mohler) and there are some things Adams has written that I like. The idea of remote voting for the SBC Annual Meeting bubbles up every year and is one that I don't like. It's a bad idea. For a little background on the idea of remote voting take a look at EC not going to waste missions money on remote SBC voting... Satellite SBC meetings and remote voting: the best, terrible idea around More about satellite … [Read more...] about Randy Adams’ bad idea for the SBC: remote access to SBC annual meeting voting
So You Want Your Church to Be a New Testament Church?
We often declare that all Southern Baptist churches strive to be true New Testament churches. I don’t disagree with that aspiration, but I wonder if we give sufficient thought to what that means. It seems to me that we often idealize the New Testament church. That is, when we speak of the “New Testament Church,” we have a perfect, first-century congregation in mind. A careful reading of the New Testament reveals churches that struggled mightily, much like the imperfect churches we serve today. Note the problems in these churches mentioned in the New Testament. Jerusalem. The members … [Read more...] about So You Want Your Church to Be a New Testament Church?