I’ve always been a cutting-edge kind of guy! It is now 2012 and I am getting ready to review and comment on a book edited by David Dockery and published in 2009. That is an eternity in blog years.
But I published a review of this book by Wes Kenney on July 11 and my appetite was whetted to read and respond to what the book teaches. So, I am going to begin a series of chapter-by-chapter analysis of this book. The book has an introduction by Dockery, fourteen chapters and a conclusion by Danny Akin. It has articles by such unknowns as Al Mohler, Paige Patterson, Timothy George, Morris Chapman, Ed Stetzer, Thom Rainer, Richard Land and Nathan Finn. It is well worth your time, if you are Southern Baptist, to get the book, read it and learn along with me. In fact, if some of our contributors or regular guests want to get in the act and review a chapter, I would be more than happy to let you join in.
I got into blogging a long time ago in the midst of the brouhaha over what came to be known as the “Baptist Identity” movement. I don’t really want to dredge that back up and redraw those old battle lines, but I do believe that one of the fundamental problems we have as Baptists is a lack of understanding of what we are. There is a pull between the more exclusive “Baptist is biblical” concept and the desire to be part of the universal church. Ought we lean more to the Calvinist side or to the non-Calvinist side? Should we adopt a traditionalist stance stylistically or strive to be more culturally relevant? There are a lot of questions.
On August 17, I wrote a post called, “The Tie that Binds: The Sea-Change in Southern Baptist Culture.” In that article, I argued that what once bound Southern Baptists – our cultural uniformity, no longer holds us together. Absent that cultural bond, we are flying apart in every direction, rapidly splintering into sub-groups that may one day split the convention wide open.
I believe that we have a great need to figure out who we are and what it is that binds us together. If we do not define our Baptist identity, we are, I believe, at risk of a serious fracturing in the days ahead. We must develop a unity based not on our cultural ties, but on Christ’s work in us, our theological unity based on the BF&M, our worldwide mission in his name and our commitment to work cooperatively with one another in spite of our differences on tertiary issues.
I will begin this series with a review of David Dockery’s introduction (pagtes 13-21 of the book) in the near future. Then, we will proceed with examinations of the chapters one by one, ending with Danny Akin’s conclusion.
Here are the chapters:
Introduction: Southern Baptists in the 21st Century, by David S. Dockery.
Part One: Theological and Historical Perspectives
1) Southern Baptist Identity: Is there a future? by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
2) Southern Baptist Identity: A Theological Perspective, by R. Stanton Norman
3) Southern Baptist Identity: A Historical Perspective, by Gregory A. Wills.
4) Is Jesus a Baptist? by Timothy George
5) Learning from Nineteenth Century Baptists, by Russell D. Moore
6) Learning from the Anabaptists by Paige Patterson
7) The Roots of Baptist Belief, by James Leo Garrett, Jr.
Part 2: Ministry and Convention Perspectives
8) Axioms of a Cooperating Southern Baptist, by Morris H. Chapman.
9) Toward a Missional Convention, by Ed Stetzer.
10) The Future of the Traditional Church by Jim Shaddix
11) Evangelism and Church Growth in the SBC by Thom Rainer
12) Future of State Conventions and Associations by Michael Day
13) A Free Church in a Free Society by Richard Land
14) Priorities for a Post-Resurgence Convention by Nathan A. Finn
Conclusion: A Future-Directed Proposal for the SBC by Danny Akin
Each post will include a brief (???) synopsis of the points made in the chapter and then will react and respond to those points.
I sincerely believe that it is important to the future of the SBC that we examine our identity and discuss it, to better define and understand who we are.
So, I hope you will join us in this excursion. Here are some suggestions.
1) Get the book and read along. It will be a more intelligent discussion if we read what is written before we respond! (This statement brought to you by the International DUH Association)
2) If you wish to write one of the chapters, let me know. In fact, I have no objection to having multiple responses to some of the chapters.
3) Think through these issues thoughtfully, carefully, prayerfully and biblically as we narrow down our Southern Baptist Identity.
The Book is available in kindle edition for $7.19 on Amazon.com.
I’m in. I bought my kindle version this morning.
please pray for the storm victims in the North who have been very hard hit and are suffering
The Pessimistic Pewsitter: “Singing those newfangled, praise choruses is like repeating your order to the waitress at the Cracker Barrel over and over and over again. Sometimes, I just wanna scream, ‘Stop it!’ And, I usually leave the waitress a dollar tip….and this is just what I put in the offering plate. And, that’s all they’re gonna get till they stop singing those things.”
I definitely prefer the first, second and last verse out of a hard-bound hymnal myself. Especially if it follows the three hymns per Sunday pattern all SB churches have used as the primary order if worship for 100 years or more.
Even had an organist that refused to play praise songs or anything that wasn’t in a hymnal. And he was in his early 30s at most.
😉 <– because it's too hard to see if I have my right hand or my left hand raised. The organist was named David, though, and he is NOT a composite of many of the keyboardists I've known.
Wowley.
Senior folks get tired of standing for 40 minutes on Sunday morning, and I really long for the old hymns after nothing but contemporary gospel even though that at times can be even more reflective of the Gospel than one would expect. My main concern is the theology that will produce a Third Great Awakening, and, believe it or not, it is not to make calvinists. The end result is the glory of God and the good of souls. Even so we need Sovereign Grace to maintain the means of humbling proud sinners, and exalting God in Christ to His rightful place. And we need the multitudes of the chosen, a number which cannot be numbered, in order to see the fulfilment of prophecy.
volfan007,
The newfangled songs and music reminds me of a day back in 1969 when Golda Meir was priminister of Israel. Her son Oscar couldn’t sing a lick.
Jess,
Just how old are you?
David 🙂
not sure of the ethics involved in relaying this info,
but you can find a section of the book ‘on line’, if you can’t buy the book right now . . .
VolFan007,
I’m old enough to remember Golda Meir. I was making a joke, saying she had a son named Oscar. “Oscar Meir”. You know, the wiener. I don’t know why everything has to be explained to the younger generation.
Jess,
That’s funny. I just thought you had to be older than me to know about Golda Meir, and the Oscar Mayer ad song. I was born in 1961, myself.
Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Mayer wieeeener. That is what I’d truly like to beeee…..
David 🙂
BTW, little known fact. CB Scott dated Golda Meir back when they were both single, AND CB was the first person to ever eat an Oscar Mayer wiener!
Amazing; aint it?
David
Vol,
Thanks for the memories.
Golda and I broke up in ’69 when she became Prime Minister of Israel. The long distance relationship was just too much for her.
Conway Twitty wrote a song about us and he and Loretta Lynn sang it. It became a big hit in the Middle East. It was entitled, “Israeli Woman-SEC Man.”
After Golda and I broke up Conway reworded the song and it became a big country hit here in the states entitled, “Mississippi Woman-Louisiana Man.”
Wow, I never knew that part of the story, CB. Incredible.
🙂
David
Yeah Vol,
Those were the days. My Ole Buddy, Moshe Dayan, introduced me to Golda in ’67 just after we got together and thrashed those heathen Egyptians hip and thigh during the Six Day War.
She went to the Alabama-Tennessee game with me. I introduced her to Bear Bryant. It was a bad first date for me because Ole Richmond Flowers and the VOLUNTEER NATION put a whuppin’ on us real bad that year.
This got weird fast.
Usually does when Wowley and CB get involved.
Cause een the older generation ain’t old enough.
even for een
Hey guys, this is really true. After all isn’t Golda Mier from Wisconsin originally [or maybe it is Missesota]?
Also, I think that future VP Paul Ryan can attest to situation relative to CB and Golda. After all he drove the Oscar Meyer Weinermoble during the summer break when he was attending college in Wisconsin.
I can handle the idea of CB and Golda . . . but Paul Ryan driving the O.M. Weinermobile ????
Now that IS weird.
This blog has utterly wierded me out!
lol
What is even more wierd is that both me and volfan007 are LOL together. Life has become passing strange. All because of CB Scott and Golda Meier!!! Sigh! I think I will go back to the simple life of reading Science Fiction and Fantasy. At least they tried to take a stab at getting at the heart of reality (Proof: I have a short story by A.E. Van Vogt telling about a camera producing a picture in 1943..about 4 years before the polaroid Land Camera was patented) and now and then made it, but this blog – not at all!.
I’m just a big, ole, lovable, Teddy Bear.
James, Dale, L’s, Roger, and all,
Sorry to have weirded you guys out with Halloween having just past and all. I am sure you thought all the Trick-or-Treaters had gone home for the year.
However, now that Vol has revealed the fact that he is “just a big, ole, lovable Teddy Bear,” I will share a fact about him that most of you probably do not know and also one about Dave Miller.
Vol (David Worley) was the inspiration for Elvis when he wrote the song “Teddy Bear.”
Vol was also the inspiration for the really big Elvis hit, “You Ain’t Nothin’ But A Hound Dog.”
That’s all true folks. Elvis and Vol ran Memphis back before Vol went to preachin’ and gave up his position with the Memphis Mafia.
Now, here is something you guys did not know about Dave Miller. Dave Miller’s net worth is somewhere around $63,000,000. That is how he became the major stockholder of Baptist Blog World so fast. He bought everybody out or they work for him.
He made all of his money as a model and he invested well. What kind of model was he, you ask? OK. I will tell you.
Dave was the original model for the first edition of the Care Bear dolls. There are at least a billion of those little replicas of lovable Dave Miller in homes all over the world today.
Yes folks, fact is stranger than fiction…..if you have the nerve to tell it.
CB: Your full of beans. Elvis and David W. could not have run Memphis cause the fellow who did was the descendant of the lawyer who stole all of downtown Memphis from my great great grandpappy, Jas M. Beasley, who was a grad. of U. of Tenn.back when it counted. Any way the lawyer got him to give him (the lawyer) the power of attorney, and it was by by Memphis. So I missed out on a great inheritance.
James,
Was that feller’s name “Crump?”
David
I can handle all of that revelation pretty well. It’s just……well……have you ever seen Golda? I’m sure she was a nice lady and all. But, man…..blind dates and paper bags come to mind.
Dale Pugh,
Have you ever seen me?
It is kinda like the great theologian, Bruce Springsteen, wrote in one of his “theology books,” “Around Here Baby, You Gotta Get What You Can Get.”
CB: I think I am going to upchuck!. David Miller, I thought you were checking these columns to see that people wrote only pleasing, ear tickling words?
It is true that I was born and raised in Memphis. I lived there when Elvis lived there. I also was living there when Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Also, my Dad went to the same Dr. as Elvis. Also, I am related to the country singer, Darryl Worley.
Those are facts. Now, what CB told yall above…..well…..lol.
David