Our Unhealthy Obsessions With Pastors
John Chrysostom & Justification by Faith
What Did Jesus Mean When He Said "Judge Not"
Weakness is an Advantage
Confession of Sin aa Idle, Lustful Babbling
A Primer on the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 1 and Part 2
Here’s my thesis: The gospel is an offense. If you take the offense out of the gospel, you also remove the saving power of the gospel.Much more at the link. See also The Gospel is NON-Negotiable.
May we reaffirm our commitment to the supremacy and centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our churches.
May our pastors keep the gospel foremost in every sermon they preach, so that the whole of Scripture and every aspect of life can be seen in the context of how every promise of God finds its “Yes” in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May our churches in preaching, teaching, and discipleship proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, showing them how to find peace with God, and to proclaim the gospel to believers, that through the renewing of our minds we might continually be transformed by the gospel.
May our churches display the gospel by transcending ethnic, racial, economic, and social barriers due to our unity in Christ.
May our churches celebrate the gospel through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, teaching our congregations the joy of the gospel therein.
May we recommit ourselves to the glory of the gospel by greater faithfulness to the Great Commission both in personal witness and in sending more gospel workers to the unreached peoples of the world.
May our churches and individual believers study, identify, and act upon the lostness of their communities, the nation, and the world.
May each church support its pastor as he leads personally in ongoing Great Commission involvement, both locally and globally.
May we commit to speak to the outside world as those who are forgiven sinners, who have received mercy as a free gift, and not as those who are morally or ethically superior to anyone.
May we seek to live as those who have been rescued by the gospel, evidenced by forgiving our enemies, setting aside personal offenses, crucifying selfish pride, breaking down carnal divisions, and loving one another joyously, counting others as more important than ourselves.
May God pour out His Spirit to make us truly gospel-centered, gospel-saturated people whose lives and words point the world to our Lord Jesus Christ!
"...Holiness isn’t all about abstaining. Holiness is living out the life of Christ within us; it separates us from the world. Holiness is the Holy Spirit within our spirit hungering and thirsting for the best of life. He seeks the newness of life for us. He seeks to transform and renew our minds to habitually walk in Christ, everyday, all day. He does not lead us in the way of any temptation…not one. He leads us away from temptation. He guides us and steers our thoughts to the purity of life. The devil has us focus on our own desires, our own enjoyments, our own pleasures and comforts. The devil doesn’t want us to suffer any inconvenience for the sake of the gospel. He tells us God will understand why we do or do not do something. He tells us we need not bother ourselves with living as Jesus lived, or is calling us to live. Do you think Satan even reminds us that God is merciful and what we do is covered in the liberty of God’s grace? I think he does. Just as he used the goodness of God to entice Eve to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden of Eden. The reminder Satan gives comes before the act, not after.If you did know this, it is still good to be reminded - because we (I) are prone to forget!
Grace fills the crevices of our faults and weaknesses, yet gives what we need to close those gaps in our walk with Christ as they are revealed to us. Grace is second chances. Grace is patience in our immaturity. Grace covers our deficiencies and creates in us a desire to correct them as we grow in it’s shadows. Grace even makes allowances for our stubborn refusal to give all to Christ. It lets us go our own way until we fall flat on our faces, and then grace is the cushion beneath the hard pavement of consequence. Grace covers our sin and picks us up. Grace cradles us in its arms till we are healed to walk again. Grace is sufficient to meet all our needs. All means all. Every single thing we need is fulfilled in the grace of God. We won’t be kicked out of the kingdom because we fail a test, or lose a battle with our flesh. We will be given more grace to meet the challenges before us. We will be given more grace to drop our nets and follow Him immediately. We will be given more grace to pick up our cross. We will be given more grace to deny ourselves and live for Him, with Him, in Him."
The Mississippi Baptist Convention's effort to graphically show the tragedy of abortion gets a little out-of-town attention at Take Your Vitamin Z: 50 Million Pennies for 50 Million Babies. Zach Nielsen's blog quoted the following from the December 2 issue of Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Thanks Zach for noticingThere's a half million dollars sitting on the corner of Mississippi and President streets [in Jackson, MS], but no one could possibly steal it.
That's because the cash is in the form of pennies - 50 million of them - that collectively weigh 156 tons.The coins, which fill a glass house on the grounds of the Mississippi Baptist Convention building, provide a visual reminder of the number of abortions performed in the United States since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973. [Photo above shows memorial with only 26 million pennies in 2007.]...
"We just needed something to memorialize and help people see the magnitude of abortion over the last several decades," said the Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention's Christian Action Commission.
Called the "Memorial to the Missing," the penny-filled structure is a project of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which set out more than two years ago to collect one penny for each child who would have been born were it not for legalized abortion.
Now that the convention reached its goal of collecting 50 million pennies, it plans to invest the money in a fund dedicated to anti-abortion causes.
From Southern Baptist blog Between The Times comes this discussion by Danny Akin on the importance of Preaching the Great Christological TextsWhat is it that drives Baptists like us, and evangelical Christians as a whole, to make such strong statements of theology and faith? I believe the answer can be found not only in “the clear teaching of the Holy Scripture” in general, but in the great Christological texts in the New Testament in particular. I refer to the quintessential quartet of John 1:1-18; Phil 2:1-11; Col 1:13-23; and Heb 1:1-3.
The clear exegesis and exposition of these four passages are the bedrock foundation of biblical and orthodox Christology. Both his person (full deity and perfect humanity) and work (sacrifice and atonement) are gloriously expounded in these texts, though it is his person that is more strongly emphasized.
What we think and believe about Jesus influences all aspects of our theology: what we think about God, the Bible, and salvation, for example. If we are to think correctly, that is biblically, about Jesus, these four great texts should be taught clearly, consistently, and courageously without compromise or apology.
I agree. We need more doctrinal preaching - good doctrine washes out bad theology. I hear lots of charismatic believers talk about being "anointed." If you want to be "anointed," talk about the "Anointed One" - that's what Messiah means! The Spirit loves to be present where Jesus is proclaimed and worshipped.
The Kingdom of God, though, is an explosively veiled inbreaking into the present world order of the reign of Jesus himself as emperor of the cosmos. It ought then to change the way we see ourselves, and our place in this age and in the one to come.
A Kingdom apathy leads to carnality, the very kind of carnality we see in so many of our listless, unevangelistic, divided churches. At the same time, a "Kingdom only" mentality can seek to transform the present order into the Kingdom of God through means other than the power of Christ. That leads, as it turns out, to carnality too. Ultimately, the Kingdom comes not by messianic zeal but by the zeal of the Messiah.
Here’s my list of ideas for How Southern Baptists (and other Evangelicals) Can Promote Spiritual Formation.
1. Lifeway can ask Don Whitney, Avery Willis, and Dallas Willard- all Southern Baptists with credibiity in this area- to develop resources for Lifeway to promote, along with an annual conference on the subject.
2. The seminaries can pay more attention to spiritual formation in the Baptist, evangelical and Protestant tradition. (I’m happy for the Puritans to get in on the game as long as the game is in progress somewhere.)
3. Churches can begin looking for pastors who take personal and corporate spiritual formation seriously, and ask that spiritual formation be reflected as a legitimate concern in preaching, Christian education, women’s and men’s ministry, student ministry and retreat topics.
4. Baptists interested in spiritual formation can form small groups within churches to train, mentor and encourage each other.
5. Baptists can resurrect the concept of discipleship training, but examine how spiritual formation relates to the entirety of life in a vocation of discipleship, and not just to involvement in Church programs and evangelism.
6. Preachers and teachers within churches can raise questions related to sanctification and Christian growth, and suggest sound principles of spiritual formation as the answer to those questions. (Most Baptists are interested in the subject of post-conversion assurance.)
7. Advocates of spiritual formation can look for places in existing church ministries and program where spiritual formation resources and teaching can be introduced. Examples would be accountability groups, leadership teams, worship teams, DiscipleNow weekends and Promise Keepers groups.
8. Youth and student ministers can introduce the concept of spiritual formation, both individually and in community, to youth ministry and student events. Many youth ministry resource sources are already exploring spiritual formation in this settings and have developed resources.
9. At every opportunity, bring together the idea of discipleship with the processes that form a person into a follower of Christ. Seek to bring the subject of “encouraging the basics of discipleship through spiritual disciplines and community into any discussion of discipleship.
10. Take a group to a church, retreat or event where spiritual formation is being discussed in another tradition, then discuss how the same concepts can be practiced in a Southern Baptist/evangelical context.
With some help from the Internet Monk Research Division, I’ve found a list of Baptist Holy Days of Guilt and Obligation.Now you have it - the official list. I have to go get ready for football opening day.
Now these aren’t necessarily days where we must go to church or risk a major sin. No, these are days that we are, as a matter of being Baptist, obligated to do something, which may include church. Or not.
Here they are:
* Opening night/day of high school/college football season. (Depends on proximity of school, relationships to players, etc. Should include tailgating if possible.)
* Mother’s Day. Obligated to go to church with mom and then take her out to a restaurant, which means standing in line at Cracker Barrel for about 2 hours.
* Any church potluck or meal.
* Any Sunday that starts a revival (or any Sunday that begins a 40 Days of Purpose if your church dumped revivals.)
* Any wedding of anyone in your family within 250 miles.
* Any funeral of anyone in your family within 70 miles.
* The opening of any “Christian Film” in a theater, especially if the movie is produced by a church using their actors and cameras, or stars Kirk Cameron.
* The opening and any 5 subsequent showings of “The Passion of the Christ II.”
* Any school board meeting where creationism will be discussed.
* Homecomings at any church you’ve ever attended, even once, within 300 miles.
* Opening week of any buffet or Barbecue restaurant.
* Any Christian music festival held in an open field in August when the temperature is over 105 degrees.
* You must go vote if any conservative is running for anything.
* You must vote if your town is having a “wet/dry” election.
* Ladies: Any Christian Women’s Conference within 500 miles.
* Men: Any Promise Keeper’s Meeting within 500 miles.
* Christmas and Easter.
* Any church sponsored Super Bowl event.
* Any meeting related to voting on a building.
* Any Vacation Bible School “Family Night.”
* Any event involving Bill Gaither Homecomings.
* Any event involving Rick Warren.
* Any Upward Championship game involving your kids.
* Any Olin Mills Church Directory photoshoot.
* Any church softball game against another Baptist church.
* Any youth group fundraisers for the mission trip.
* Any open question/answer with prospective pastors.
* Any church business meeting where there’s a chance of a big fight or someone getting fired.
* Any Billy Graham Crusade within 1000 miles.
The President of the Southern Baptist Convention,Frank Page, tells Southern Baptists that half of their churches will die in the next twenty years!"If we don't start paying attention to the realities … by the year 2030, we will be proud to have 20,000 rather than 44,000 Southern Baptist churches." That's a quote from outgoing Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page recently. According to a report in the Tennessean.com, Page believes the 16.2 million-member convention faces the same challenges that bedeviled other Protestant denominations — lower birthrates, aging demographics and a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity.Michael Spencer comments at internetmonk.com
For those of us who work for SBC funded entities, this is a bit ‘o sobering news and if a person has both feet on the ground and his/her head in the real world, they would immediately take the news seriously.
And thousands of SBC churches do take that sort of things seriously. They are starting new churches that don’t resemble a refuge for southern white people who think churches ought to be museums of their tribe. They are daring to do things differently, or not at all, or like the other guy who is reaching his community.
Good for them. But for the ten thousand or so churches that are going to expire in the next twenty years, it’s a sad matter, and I hate to see it. I’ve preached and ministered in many of those churches. They have good people in them who love Jesus. They just have no idea at all what it means to be a missional church, so the clock is ticking, and no revival, change of pastor or new carpet is going to make a difference.
