Just when I thought I was a stranger in my own denomination, Dr. Grant Ethridge invites a list of actual Southern Baptist Pastors to preach at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference. This list is certainly not complete, and I’m sure there are likely to be a few outsiders invited to the party, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong with David Jeremiah, David Platt, Fred Luter, Johnny Hunt and Jack Graham.
A year ago, we were embroiled in a bit of controversy over this conference. I suppose there is still time for that to develop, depending on the remaining speakers. But so far, from my perspective at least, this is a conference that appears to be doctrinally sound, homiletically inspiring and denominationally faithful.
Now if I can only survive about ten hours of preaching without anyone suggesting that I’m a pagan or a liberal for opposing the name change, I will have died and gone to Southern Baptist nirvana, where the fried chicken grows on trees with foil wrapped baked potatoes and casserole dishes and the rivers pour forth streams flowing with strong coffee.
Here’s the link: 2012 Southern Baptist Pastors Conference
Nehemiah 8:10 states that while celebrating the Word of God, they “ate of the fat and drank of the sweet.”
I’m pretty sure that actually means “ate of the (stuff fried in) fat (like chicken) and drank of the sweet (tea).”
Nehemiah was a Southern Baptist! Because, after all, Jerusalem was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 🙂
Doug gets it! 🙂 🙂
And John the Baptist can trace his lineage to the Southern Kingdom … thus, he was a Southern Baptist!
And, this, my friends, is why I wanted to get rid of the name Southern!!!!!!
But Dave … if we change the name, we will have John to answer to!!
Maybe taking Southern out of our name would actually save us, if we left fried chicken and sweet tea behind as well. Our health insurance would probably be a lot cheaper too!
I am as enthused about this one as I was the last one. It’s great that we will hear from outstanding leaders from within our Baptist family. And it was great last year to be encouraged by some great leaders outside our Convention.
We have an awesome partnership in the SBC that we should celebrate. At the same time, we are privileged to be part of a larger Christian family with those who share our commitments to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
I do enjoy hearing maybe a few outside speakers, provided they offer a variety of different perspectives that can challenge us in unique and thought provoking ways.
Still, I hope the flavor remains distinctively Southern Baptist.
Cool, we agree twice in one week 🙂
Someone’s in a good mood, today, Rick!
Looks like a good lineup. Hopefully this year’s PC staff will continue last year’s innovation of using these things called the “internet” and “mp3s” to provide the conference content for those of the SBC who can’ t be there.
I’m skeptical, especially, with Jack Graham’s promotion and affiliation with TD Jakes.
I am looking forward to being there.
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I think that it looks like a great line up. I do like hearing from a few outside speakers as well. I was at the Expository Preaching Conference at SWBTS and one of the speakers was Bryan Chapell from Covenant Seminary. Dr. Chapell was an outstanding speaker and was very inspirational. I was glad they invited him to be one of the speakers.
I tell you though I do wish every once in a while the pastor’s conference would get a slate of relative no names. We might be surprised at the great preaching we could find among those obscure preachers. Not to mention it would broaden the pool of preachers to use in these types of conferences. We tend to preach our celebrities half to death.
If they didn’t thoroughly enjoy the seats at the head of the table, they can always say “no”. 😉
Similarly, politicking the leadership to get new preachers behind the podium is proof we are still Southern Baptist, to riff on Rick’s meme.
Could rather than “can always say…” to convey tense correctly. Though can in the sense of “can I” rather than “may I”.
Oh I don’t doubt that what you said is true. I wasn’t feeling sorry for the celebrity preachers, because you’re right, they could refuse. But my whole point is that there is a vast resource in the SBC, namely, unknown preachers. There is no telling what blessing we might find if we would just mine that resource. Oh we could still have the token celebrity or two to get the preachers to attend, but just once I would like to see a man up there who is so nervous he has no choice but to rely on God.
“We might be surprised at the great preaching we could find among those obscure preachers.”
Amen John Wylie! Anointing is birthed in obscurity. I’ve caught a glimpse of some of those obscure preachers and convinced that the best in SBC ranks are in the wilderness right now waiting for the time of their showing forth. In due season, “no names” will be at the front of the revival we long for.
Dr. Chapell is a wonderful preacher.
“but just once I would like to see a man up there who is so nervous he has no choice but to rely on God.
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Amen, John.
Thanks Lydia,
I just think in a denomination of 50,000 churches we should broaden our horizons a bit. Now we not only use our celebrities but the celebrities from other denominations, while I’m not opposed to a little of that, what about the great pastors in the convention who are unknown but faithful?
It’s hard to comment on this without being at least a little cynical.
So, I’ll stop there.
I hope this Pastor’s Conference is as good as the last one – the best I’ve attended.
To be honest, in 13 years I’ve never attended the entire conference. I usually arrive late on Sunday and then pick three or four sermons to hear on Monday. The rest of the time, I try to do the majority of my networking and display hall things on Monday so I can attend all the business sessions and not miss any voting (admittedly, I do skip a report or two during the actual Convention:) ).
My habits have changed dramatically since I got involved here. I usually worked the book store more than I worked my voting card. I only attended enough of the convention to assuage my guilt about travelling on an expense account! But, since I’ve been blogging and tweeting the convention here at SBC Voices, I’m in a lot more of the sessions.
Ten hours of preaching? I wonder what would happen if that many pastors got together and did ten hours of praying?
I may be enticed to spend some plane fare and attend a conference like that.
I’m not a great history buff but in finishing my degree in evangelism I seem to have read where all great revival movements began with prayer and led to powerful preaching, not vice versa.
Frank L.,
Are you a pastor?
It depends upon who you ask.
You could argue the opposite in the First Great Awakening and Jonathan Edwards. At least we seem to know a lot more about his preaching than about his prayer, although I’m sure there was passion in both.
Dave,
I personally believe that both prayer and preaching are of equal importance and neither one is measured by how many hours we log in.
I would certainly agree with that.
Dave, you might be right. However, to say Jonathan Edwards was a prominent preacher during the Great Awakening, and saying his preaching was the spark, are two different issues. I actually studied the Great Awakenings at some length with Dr. Roy Fish of SWBTS. It has been a few years, but I seem to remember him making the statement (with a folder full of facts) that all great revival fires have been sparked by prayer, not preaching. As I said, history is not my strong suit, and old age has taken a toll on the memory cells. But, let’s take… Read more »
Frank L.,
This a rare time that I can recall agreeing with you without qualification. May this pastor’s prayer time come to pass according to God’s timing and for His glory.
Left out “is” after “This”.
Dwight, thanks for the good word.
Don’t fret . . . sometimes I have to qualify things just to agree with myself.
Frank L,
I would have to strenuously disagree on your assessment that preaching is not as important as prayer. I love E.M. Bounds but the Word places a pretty high value on both.
John, Try preaching without prayer and see how well that works. By the way, I said clearly, I place a high value upon preaching. The matter is perhaps one of priorty rather than intrinsic value. A sort of: horse and cart thing. Would you not agree that the SBC Pastor’s Conference is proof that SBC pastors hold a higher place for preaching than for prayer? That’s the point I’m trying to make. Let’s just be honest. How many hours are spent on “studying” to preach as compared to “praying to preach.” Again, one can pray effectively and NEVER preach but… Read more »
Frank,
I agree with everything you said on this subject except that prayer and preaching are not equal. Because we must not preach without praying and we dare not think anyone will be saved or edified if we pray without preaching. I don’t think that one is more important than the other. I do think that we should definitely pray more. And I think that your tithe idea for prayer is a noble one.
John
It may be like asking, which wing of a plane is most important.
I think we are in substantial agreement
David Jeremiah is a Southern Baptist?
If you read it in Wikipedia, it must be true!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Mountain_Community_Church
Rick, I checked out the church’s site and found no evidence of an affiliation except a link the IMB amongst tons of missions links. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Thanks for the wikipedia link, but I still wonder :).
Couple of references:
http://www.sbclife.org/Articles/2007/01/sla9.asp
http://www.sbcbaptistpress.com/bpnews.asp?id=19751
Here’s another, this one claiming the church affiliated with the SBC in 2004.
http://jcsm.org/ChristianBiographies/DavidJeremiah.htm
Ok. I’m convinced. I learned something today.
If it were Matt Chandler, you’d be griping about how you couldn’t find his church was Southern Baptist on the website. But David Jeremiah gets a pass. 😉
I think your comment earlier about Southern Baptist flavor speaks volumes about the current controversies related to Calvinism and the like. It’s not just about theology. It’s about being a particular kind of Southern Baptist.
Yes the church used to be called Scott Memorial Baptist Church and it was pastored by Dr. Tim Lahaye. At that time it was an independent Baptist church. David Jeremiah’s father, James T. Jeremiah was one of the founders of the GARBC. David left the GARBC several years ago and eventually took Shadow Mtn into the Convention.
David Jeremiah served as a trustee of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Jeremiah’s church is listed on SBC.net.
Preaching and Prayer, E.M.Bounds
“The real sermon is made in the closet. The man–God’s man–is made in the closet.”
“Prayer makes the man; prayer makes the preacher.”
“The preaching man is to be a praying man.”
How about: five hours of preaching and five hours of praying. I’ll bet that would be a Pastors’ Conference that would shake the world.
Frank,
I certainly would agree with that statement. So if I may ask a dumb question, Frank L and Frank on here is the same person?
No I don’t think so
Frank L.
That’s twice on this thread that your sense of humor caught me by surprise. Well said.
In my local Association, the Pastors take turns preaching on Monday mornings. Then, we spend time in prayer together. We have great attendance, and we have a sweet fellowship. And, I’ll tell you that the preaching I hear in that meeting is good preaching, most of the time, and it’s always inspiring. We dont have to have the celebrity preachers in order to have good preaching. I tried to get a “celebrity preacher” one time, and I was told that he charged $1,500 plus expenses to come to a church….and that was like 15 years ago, or longer. There’s no… Read more »
Vol, I am glad you posted this comment. I think we often make a mistake in determining who preaches well due to the size of a church. We flash the word “leader” around too much now days in the SBC. It is sad that we, in the Christian community, have adopted a Hollywood concept of celebrity and superimposed it upon the church. I am glad to hear what your association is doing. Oh, BTW I like David Jeremiah and Fred Luter. I think they are excellent preachers, but I do not look to them as “leaders.” Lastly, William Thorton has… Read more »
Thanks, CB.
David, I am astounded that a smart fellow like you would speak so harshly against such sacred things as my grandmother’s fried chicken and her sweet tea. She lived to be 81 on it, and I am 71..though I doubt I will make 81, but you never know. After all, my day almost made 91. But, of course, any one who promotes the Yankees to a Southerner is asking for some humorous handling. Nothing personal, you understand.
Re: Prayer and its importance. The main thing is for us to hear the word of God, first. And I speak with reference to the Bible. It is more important for me to hear what God is saying to me than for me to utter my sorry requests to Him. It will be 39 years this fall, since I began to pray for a Third Great Awakening and the day of that answer is at least nearly 39 years closer than it was when I began. In addition to theology (Sovereign Grace) and Prayer, there must be a coming down… Read more »