Archive for Discipleship
Brotherly Love
Posted by: | CommentsNOTE: This post was originally published on my now-mostly-dead personal blog in October of 2007.
In doing some research for a report I am to deliver to the Frisco Baptist Association at next week’s annual meeting, I read through some of the minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association from their meetings in the eighteenth century. My last two posts on the subject of church membership and discipline generated some healthy discussion on the topic, so I thought I would add the view of some of our Baptist forefathers to the mix, in the form of responses the association gave to queries from member churches.
Their regard for the importance of membership in the local church was so great that they didn’t believe it proper for someone to pass another Baptist church on their way to the one of which they were a member. This is from the annual meeting of 1735:
Upon a motion moved by some members of the Association:
Whether a person that is a well-wisher to us, and desires to be admitted a member into a church far distant from the place of his abode; whereas a church of the same order is nearer to him than the church that he proposed to join with; whether it be orderly for the distant church to receive such an one? Yea or nay?
Resolved in the negative, there being substantial reasons to the contrary. Such practice is contrary to the intendent, in instituting particular churches.
They also didn’t think it proper for a person to change their church membership unless it was required by a move, as they asserted in the annual meeting of 1728:
Query from the church at Montgomery: Whether a church is bound to grant a letter of dismission to any member to go to another church, while his residence is not removed?
Answered in the negative, we having neither precept nor precedent for such a practice in Scripture.
Does it bother the pastors in my readership when faithful members are missing from services, and later they can’t wait to tell you about the nearby preacher they went and heard instead of coming to their own church? It bothered our eighteenth-century brethren, if the following answer to a query from the church at Middletown is any indication (from 1734):
Whether it be justifiable for our members to neglect our own appointed meetings, and at their pleasure go to hear those differing in judgment from us?
Answered in the negative. Heb. x. 25
I don’t think anyone would argue against the reality that church membership today doesn’t mean what it used to mean. The questions I have are these: Are the attitudes toward membership reflected in these answers worth reclaiming, and if so, how do we go about reclaiming them?
Does One Leave or Rebel?
Posted by: | CommentsIn this video, Matt Chandler shares some wonderful insight into the mind of the younger community. Certainly one desires to reach into a community that is threatening to walk away and live life according to their own desires. Certainly one desires to reach out to those with unfulfilled dreams. Certainly no one desires to give up on an entire generation.
Podcast Episode 5
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We’re back with episode five of the SBC Today podcast. This time, I’m joined by Robin Foster, Scott Gordon, and Joe Stewart, and with a smaller crew comes a shorter podcast, this time coming in under thirty minutes. We were all over the place in terms of topics in this episode, from the President Obama’s health care initiative to Baptists in Romania to tornadoes in Minnesota.
You can listen to the podcast right from the site using the player below, or, as many folks have done, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and have it downloaded immediately when it becomes available each week. Click the podcast image in this post or the link in the sidebar to be taken to our iTunes page, and while you’re there, give us a rating and/or a review. We’d appreciate feedback, which you can put in a review there, or in a comment here. Let us know how we can improve the podcast.
Below are some links to the items we discussed in this episode. See you next week on the podcast.
- Trevin Wax’s blog discussion with Romanian Baptist leaders
- Oklahoma’s ultrasound law struck down
- Tornado warnings
- Richard Dawkins equating evolution skeptics with holocaust deniers
- Southwestern prof resigns to retain membership in Broadway Baptist Church
- National health care as moral concern
Enhanced Podcast: On Improvements and Advancements in Christianity
Posted by: | CommentsThe Celestial Railroad
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Not a great while ago, passing through the gate of dreams, I visited that region of the earth in which lies the famous City of Destruction. It interested me much to learn that by the public spirit of some of the inhabitants a railroad has recently been established between this populous and flourishing town and the Celestial City. Having a little time upon my hands, I resolved to gratify a liberal curiosity by making a trip thither. Accordingly, one fine morning after paying my bill at the hotel, and directing the porter to stow my luggage behind a coach, I took my seat in the vehicle and set out for the station-house. It was my good fortune to enjoy the company of a gentleman–one Mr. Smooth-it-away–who, though he had never actually visited the Celestial City, yet seemed as well acquainted with its laws, customs, policy, and statistics, as with those of the City of Destruction, of which he was a native townsman. Being, moreover, a director of the railroad corporation and one of its largest stockholders, he had it in his power to give me all desirable information respecting that praiseworthy enterprise.
Merritt and the ACLU On Same Page
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Below is a post from guest contributor Tim Guthrie. Tim is Senior Pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Knoxville Tennessee. To comment on this post, you can go to Tim’s blog here.
USA Today ran an article by Jonathan Merritt exposing his own views (not those of the norm in SBC life) related to homosexuality. Though Merritt, the son of SBC Pastor James Merritt and Liberty Grad (of which I am) presents his heart for loving people, he also reveals a dangerous view of Biblical understanding and application.
I do not question his heart. I do question several things in the article and I also question his use of “title” in describing who he is and what he does which I will explain later.
Hate the Spin
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When I was in college at John Brown University in the early 1990′s, I loved playing foosball. I played every day, at all hours. It’s possible that, had I not loved it so much, I might not now be working my way through Liberty University’s distance learning program, but I digress.
I was never a great player, mainly because I was never able to generate enough power without spinning the handle, and spinning, in real competitive foosball, is strictly verboten. There was even a catchy saying in the foosball community at this private Christian college: “Hate the spin, but love the spinner.” It is much easier to slam the ball into the back of the goal when you spin, but the truly talented players can fire unbelievably powerful shots just by the action of their wrists. They don’t need to spin in order to be effective.
On April 20, USA Today published an essay by Jonathan Merritt. Merritt, 26, is a recent graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and according to the footnote of his essay, he works as a faith and culture writer. The article is titled “An Evangelical’s Plea: ‘Love the Sinner’,” and it is a call for Christians to reach out in love to the gays and lesbians around us, and to do so in tangible ways. This is a worthy point to make, and a call that all of us who name the name of Christ ought to heed. But in making the point, Merritt makes use of quite a lot of rhetorical “spin,” enough to make me want to dust off that old catch phrase I learned around the foosball tables at JBU.
A Text Driven Devotion
Posted by: | CommentsBelow is a brief devotional I was asked to compose for the Stillwater News Press. Further down, after the devotion, I will provide some analysis on how I came up with my four points, specifically focusing on verse thirteen of the passage.
People search for answers during tough times. There is no doubt that things are getting tougher for many. But, how can the community of faith navigate through difficult times? The Apostle Peter (1 Peter 1:13-25) offers us four checkpoints to follow. First, while in this world, we are to look beyond our present situation to the grace we will fully realize when Jesus returns for His church. While things may be unstable here, we can be assured of our hope in Jesus when he returns to set this fallen world straight. Second, while in this world, we are to live our lives in a manner that reflects a growing holiness in our actions that stems from a relationship with Jesus. The old ways that was conducted in worldly ignorance must not be our habit as Jesus is now our new example. Third, we are to do all things with reverence, not with sloppy aimlessness. The Father gave the most precious thing He could, His Son, and the lives of those who call upon the name of the Lord should reflect the price that was paid to redeem them from their iniquity. Finally, we are to love one another in the community of faith. Not superficially, but in such a way that the true believer displays passion and finds pleasure in loving his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Our closest friends and confidants should be found in the household of God and it is where we should find our greatest encouragement. Ultimately, our love comes from God and we are able to love during difficulty because God has brought us to a new birth that was supernaturally seeded by His Word. The answer to these tough days is Jesus as told to us in the scriptures. May all who are being transformed by His Holy Writ search for Him, live in Him, honor Him, and love each other through Him.
The Measure of Success
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Today we present an article written by Tennessee pastor Joe White. Brother Joe is the pastor of the Thompson Springs Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee. He earned his Bachelors Degree in Theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary in Camilla, Georgia and his Associates Degree in Business Administration from Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland, Tennessee.
He and his wife, Andrea, have been married for 10 years and have been blessed with two wonderful daughters; Whitney and Makenzie. The Tennessee Baptist Convention selected Brother Joe as the 2007 Bivocational Pastor of the Year for the state of Tennessee. In November, Brother Joe and Mrs. Andrea began serving a 4 year term on the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s Bivocational Ministry Counsel. You can read this post, as well as other thoughts from Brother Joe, at his blog, Lifted by Love.
As we attempt to deal with the many social and cultural issues that impact the church, we need to make sure we are biblically accurate. We must not seek to be politically or socially correct, but biblically correct. We believe, and Baptists have historically believed, that the Bible is the “sole authority for faith and practice”. It is not the “final” authority; it is the “sole” authority. Therefore, our philosophy must be born out of our theology. If we accept this as true, that our philosophy is to be born of our theology, then our theology must be based upon the Word of God. In other words it is dangerous and can be disastrous to build a philosophy for the church, a philosophy for ministry, or a philosophy for life without building that philosophy upon the right theological foundation.
The New Methodists: Reflections on the SBC Today
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Dr. Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, presented a paper in chapel at the seminary on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 entitled “The New Methodists: Reflections on the SBC Today.” In this paper, Dr. Kelley shines a penetrating and necessary light on the root causes of our present decline in baptisms and membership. Some highlights:
On our lack of empowerment by the Holy Spirit:
“We are not anointed. The conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. The stirring of a church and community in revival and awakening is a work of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these works of the Spirit are typical in SBC churches today. We are not anointed. That ‘we’ would be you, me and all of us at work in places with little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit. We are so not anointed we have come to accept not being anointed as normal.”
On our similarities with the declining United Methodist Church:
“Universalism is settling into our pews as more and more Southern Baptists believe and behave as though they believe a personal relationship with Christ is not necessary for one to be right with God. Tolerance is beginning to overtake conviction as growing numbers, particularly of younger Southern Baptists, are less comfortable with taking a firm stance on moral or doctrinal issues. Our behavior, the way we live our lives, is blending more and more with our culture. We are growing ever less distinct and recognizable in the crowd of our nation’s population.”
On our loss of discipleship, the key to an effective harvest:
“…Changes and innovations were added to make the church more welcoming to the lost and unchurched, but little has been done to improve the way we inspire evangelistic discipleship in believers.
Upon reflection, the most significant and influential death in the modern history of the Southern Baptist Convention was the death of Discipleship Training. I am talking about the death of an SBC discipleship process, not a particular discipleship training program.”
The heart of the problem:
“Today, we do not know who we are. The world does not know who we are. Our lost friends and neighbors do not know who we are. In the New Testament world, believers lived differently than their neighbors. That is how they came to be called Christians, a term of derision, not respect. Our problem is not that more of us don’t witness to our neighbors. Our problem is that more of us do not look like and live like Jesus.
…
Southern Baptists are not losing our voice. We are losing the distinctiveness of our voice in the music of today’s culture. We are blending in more than we are standing out.”
The most important lesson:
“Aggressive evangelism without aggressive discipleship will eventually undo itself. The most crucial issue in SBC evangelism today is recovering or reinventing a process to bring our children, youth, and adults to spiritual maturity in an evangelistic way. We need discipl-istic churches! Baptist believers must be taught how to be the distinctive presence of Christ as both missionary and minister in the culture. We must be the salt our neighbors cannot fail to taste; the light the world around us cannot fail to see.”
The paper is available by clicking here, and the audio of its presentation is available in .mp3 format at this link. I recommend both be consumed in their entirety, and I’m grateful to Dr. Kelley for his prophetic voice in calling us back to biblical discipleship.
