Recently, Barry King, pastor of Grace Baptist Church (http://tiny.cc/te1v3), Wood Green, London came into contact with some friends in Germany who are at the heart of a struggle for Biblical reformation in their land. The testimony of Anita Kupfermann is sending shock waves through the churches of Germany.  Her complete testimony was published in German in Bibel und Gemeinde in the October 2011 issue (pp. 9-14). This English translation is published here in hopes of encouraging prayer for Anita and others like her who are standing for Biblical orthodoxy in Germany.

Would you join him in prayer for God to continue to move among German Baptists?

– the Editors of SBC Today

My Life Changed! How God Gave Me Faith:
A Testimony

by Anita Kupfermann



Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to read my story!

My name is Anita Kupfermann and I would like to tell you about my time studying theology.  It is my hope that this little account of my experiences will serve as a warning and an encouragement to you. I would like to warn you of how the so-called “Higher Critical” (Historical Criticism) method left my relationship with God, and therefore my entire life, severely damaged. Yet I equally hope to encourage you! I can testify with great joy and thankfulness that the Lord Jesus Christ, during my time at university, healed my unbelief and called me to follow Him.

I hope and pray that God will be glorified through these pages and that you, the reader, will be encouraged to fully trust the Word of God.

My Time At Theological College & the Higher Critical Method (HCM)

Through my parents I was confronted with the Christian faith at an early age. I regularly went to Sunday School and was baptized at the age of 14.

A full ten years later, whilst working at a nursery, I was gripped by the desire to do something else with my time, something equally meaningful.  I wanted to submit myself to the Word of God and reflect on my walk with God. Although I had been baptized, I realized that I did not know the Bible. I couldn’t say I had a living relationship with God.  I longed to know God better, to better understand what being a Christian meant. So, I decided to attend a theological college for ten months. My hope was that these ten months would supply what was missing in my faith.

Right from the beginning of my time at theological college I was confronted with Biblical criticism in the form of the “Higher Critical” method, (HCM). The HCM is the current philosophy of understanding and explaining Bible passages at German universities, as well as at many free-church theological colleges. According to this philosophy the Bible is not understood to be the inspired Word of God but a contradictory, mistake-prone, human work. Just like any other piece of literature it must be critically questioned and examined. This method of approaching the biblical texts normally leads to rejecting the historicity of the Bible – in other words, the historical accuracy and reliability of the Bible is questioned. Simply put, the Bible’s stories are just myths that never happened.

An example of this technique may help explain what it looks like in practice.

We were taught that Mark’s Gospel has its origin dated back to roughly 70 A.D. According to the HCM, it is categorically denied that it was possible for Jesus Christ to have seen the future. However Mark’s Gospel reports that Christ predicts the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. This prophecy was perfectly fulfilled: in 70 A.D. the Romans razed the temple to the ground. The majority of critical researchers believe that the prophecy in Mark is a fake prophecy, (vaticinium ex eventu). Only after the event, they assume, was Jesus’ prophecy added to the text. The Gospel of Mark cannot have predicted the future destruction of the temple, therefore it must have been written afterwards.

With this fixed, faithless presupposition, the Holy Bible is critically evaluated until all her reports are questionable. A few more short examples give a fuller picture of the results of this modern critical scientific approach to the Bible:

Adam and Eve never existed. Rather, they are merely literary symbols for all of humanity. Hence, there never was a real fall into sin.

Noah and the ark is a legend, not a real event.

The first five books of the Bible were not written by Moses. Instead they were compiled by at least three different writers over a long period of time. Moreover they are, at least in part, contradictory.

The Ten Commandments did not come from God but slowly evolved from various stories. This happened a long time after Moses had died.

The conquests such as those that are recorded in Joshua never happened.

Jesus’ words and deeds in the Gospels were often invented later by well meaning Christians. Therefore, much of the Gospels is simply fictitious. For example; Jesus never talked about His death, much less His resurrection. Furthermore His identity as the promised Christ and as the Son of God was also invented at a much later date. He never wanted to start a church or reach out to the Gentiles.

Paul is not the author of the New Testament letters to the Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians and 1 and 2 Timothy, or Titus. Neither did Peter write the letters ascribed to him.

These are just some of countless examples. The theories of the HCM were not taught at this theological college, or in my later studies, to merely acknowledge them. Instead they were taught and proclaimed with conviction. Under the influence of such teaching, the reliability of the Bible was increasingly questioned. I became more and more convinced that the Bible is not the infallible Word of God but a jumbled collection of human, (i.e. imperfect) thoughts about God and life.

An unavoidable question-mark was now next to every person and event in the Bible. Moreover, as well as my new discoveries about the unreliability of the Bible, my ethical convictions were also brought into question. At the college we discussed themes such as homosexuality and sex outside of marriage. Were these perhaps permissible after all? In short, I felt my doubts about Christianity and the Bible grow and grow. If everything is not as it was written then, how could I be sure of anything I believed?

My skepticism blossomed as we took up the theme of world religions in our classes. Faced with a deep crisis of faith, I seriously considered giving up Christianity. My lecturers were so certain that it could only be good for me to give up the fundamentals of my former faith. Only such a “deconstruction” would give me a new mature and responsible faith. Such was their conviction for my life, and I desperately hoped that they were right.

My Time at the Theological Seminary

After these ten months I returned to my old job for a year. During this time I toyed with the idea of furthering my education. As the questions raised by the HCM still occupied my thoughts, I was keen to further study theology. In addition I rather liked the thought of becoming a pastor. So it was that 2007 saw me begin to study theology at the Theological Seminary of the German Baptist Union. I received no call to this by God, even if I tried to talk myself into believing this was the case. I talked with many people about my plans, but not with God Himself.

In the meantime I no longer sought to question the HCM as I was well familiar with its teachings from my previous time at college. However, the criticism of the Bible was to increase dramatically over the next few years.

I can still remember, for example, a lecturer leaving a lecture hall, stopping at the doorway to say, “Tomorrow we’ll kill Moses!” He meant that the following day we would be taught that historically, Moses never existed as the Bible taught. Furthermore I learnt that many of the Old Testament accounts were nothing more than myths and legends; far removed from history and reality. The Jewish worship of Yahweh, – the temple system, services, festivals, and commandments, – was mostly copied from the religions of Israel’s neighbours at that time. Over hundreds of years the biblical texts were added to, changed and consciously manipulated by numerous unknown authors. This is why the Bible is (apparently!) so full of contradictions. If given room to do so, the HCM swiftly gains power, tearing through every point of doctrine like a hurricane, until assurance of faith lies shattered.

I heard many students say that these “academic” discoveries were a great help for them; at the time I agreed, or at least talked myself into agreeing. In reality I was beginning to reap the bitter harvest of my new, “mature” faith. At the end of the second semester I came to the firm conclusion that the Bible was totally unbelievable and thus I laid it aside at the bottom of my bookshelves. I had no more desire to read it, let alone to try and live according to it. I did not pray any more, nor did I ask God for help or wisdom. I was just too confident of my new critical attitude.

Despite having no inner relationship with God, I continued with the outward appearance of wanting to be a pastor. I preached and seemed religious – at least whilst in church! It was a different story when I was with my fellow students. There I did not hold myself back, increasingly getting drunk at parties and losing my distaste for lying and cheating. I especially enjoyed gossiping and slandering the other students. In this case I had a specific target, a group of young men who annoyed me beyond all else. They wholeheartedly believed in the Scriptures as the Word of God. There was a small group of students in my semester who defended the trustworthiness of the Scriptures – even in our classes.  This greatly irritated me and other students and thus we delighted to spread rumors about them.

In doing this I was not in the least bothered by my conscience. I had long lost any fear of God or an eternal punishment. The words of warning in the Scriptures weren’t important to me. The god I had discovered through my studies did not get angry, respected people’s doubts and forgave everyone everything. What did I have to be afraid of? Why not have fun and live life to the max? This was my new philosophy for life, and this was how I lived. However, once the initial euphoria had left, life became worse and worse for me, until I felt there was nothing for me to stand on. An inner emptiness made it increasingly clear that I had no true life or peace. In books critical of the Bible and in conversations I tried to find what I was missing, but to no avail.

Finally I asked an evangelist I met at a church event to pray for me. I longed for a real relationship to God but felt unable to ask Him. It was as if I had lost any ability to pray.

The Change!

A few weeks later the preacher’s prayer was answered. On the 6th December, 2008 the Lord opened my eyes to see my guilt and godless life.

The catalyst for this was a polemical speech given by a lecturer at a film evening at the seminary. Above all, he mocked those who put their trust in the reliability of every word in the Bible. One of those being mocked sat right in front of me and didn’t react. I talked to him afterwards and he assured me that he was not ashamed of his faith. His inner peace and assurance made me stop and think. I asked myself how the rest of the Bible-believers, or “Fundys” (short for fundamentalists) as we called them, reacted to all this.

To my great amazement they did not consider boycotting the classes. Instead they continued to meet together every day to pray for the mockers, lecturers, and the entire seminary. I saw that the Lord was their shield, that He had given them a firm faith. The Bible says that Christians do not live for themselves anymore, but for Him who died for them.  Thanks to these young men I was able to see that the grace of God was working in them. They did not feel forced to defend themselves. I did not think this was a normal reaction to such a situation and I was greatly impressed. They simply passed the humiliation that they suffered on to Christ, and so anger or a desire for revenge simply had no hold on them.

After all these events, I drove home to spend Christmas with my family. There I recognized even more that I had despised God through my embrace of higher criticism. I had denied God’s word, rejected God’s grace, and mocked God’s servants. Worse than all, I had called myself a Christian and cared nothing for the atonement Christ bought at the cost of His life. This I realized to be an unbearably dreadful mistake. Over Christmas and with many tears I repented of many things, seeking God in prayer, and rejoiced to know His full and free forgiveness. With a glad heart I bought a new Bible and began to read it eagerly and joyfully; today I enjoy this book as much as I did then!

I called on the Lord Jesus Christ, humbling myself before him. I entrusted my life to Him and told Him that from now on I would believe His Word, no matter what questions I might have. To this day I do not have an answer to everything, but I am fully convinced that the Bible is completely inspired by God; inerrant and infallible in all that it teaches. I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the sovereign grace that He poured over me in letting me see my sinfulness and the Savior who has given me such forgiveness.

Dear Reader, I am so happy that you have read my testimony to the end. God has richly blessed my life and by His grace I believe that His Word is truth. (John 17: 17) It is very precious to be able to believe with childlike faith; I do not bother myself with any doubts or so-called academic discoveries that call into question the trustworthiness of the Bible. Instead I find in Christ, the true subject of Scripture, all the riches of wisdom and insight. Let us trust our Lord and Savior, for then He will bless us. My prayer is that you, too, will be saved from unbelief and that your faith in God and His Word will grow from strength to strength.

In Christ,
Anita Kupfermann

The Bible:

“This book speaks of the thoughts of God, mankind’s condition, the way of salvation, the unfortunate fate of all unrepentant sinners, and the joyous future of all believers. Its teaching is holy, its commandments binding, its decrees unchanging. Read it to become wise, believe it to be saved, obey it to become holy. It contains light to guide you, food to strengthen you, comfort to gladden you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the seaman’s compass, the soldier’s sword and the Christian’s royal book. Here Eden is restored, Heaven is opened and the doors to Hell revealed. Christ is its great theme, our wellbeing its product, and the glory of God its one great aim. It should fill our minds, rule our hearts and determine the steps of our feet.

Read it carefully, thoughtfully, regularly, and prayerfully. It is goldmine of riches, a paradise of glory, and a river of joy. It is given to you in life, it will be opened at the day of final judgment and will remain in our hearts for all eternity. It brings the greatest responsibility with it, will reward all our efforts to live by it, and will damn all that ignore her.”

Listen to the podcast using the player below, or visit our iTunes page to subscribe. A click on the link in the sidebar (or on the image in this post) will take you there, and while you’re at it, write us a review or give us a rating. And as always, we welcome your comments here on issues we discuss or on how we can improve the podcast. Thanks for listening.

Links to items discussed:

• Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
• The Camel Method – Endorsements
• Great Commission Resurgence Task Force
• The Sacred Desk

Come for the reflections and reactions, but be sure to stay until the 39 minute mark, where Tim Rogers gets so fired up that he accidentally cuts off his telephone connection. You’ll be glad you did.

You can listen using the player below, or you can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes. Just click the logo above to be taken to our iTunes page. While you’re there, please take a moment to give us a review, or just click some stars to rate the podcast. We welcome your feedback here, as well. Just leave a comment to let us know how we can improve the podcast.

As always, here are links to the items discussed, in this case simply a link to the task force website and links to the two parts of the video from the forum:

• GCR Task Force
• Video part one
• Video part two

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.

I have never been good at writing short devotions, in fact it was requested that I keep the words down to 150! Well, I went over that at 325. Being a preacher, I fall into the error of sometimes being too long-winded. The passage studied was 1 Peter 1:13-25. In these verses I found four imperatives (commands) given to church under difficult times. Normally when imperatives are given it indicates a primary clause. In this passage the primary clauses are found in verses 13, 15, 17, and 22. If I was preaching this in a sermon, it would have four points that supported the idea of how Christians are to persevere in times of trouble and trials.

The Epistles contain mainly a didactic genre. In preparing lessons or sermons, it is important to focus on what the writer was emphasizing in light of its context. It is too easy to focus on a secondary clause and neglect the main emphasis of the passage. I see this a lot in so-called “expository preaching.” The preacher will take a verse of scripture, possibly do some word studies on it and develop a sermon from that. This can lead to a gross error in missing the point of the passage. While word studies are important to understanding the text, they must follow a proper understanding of how the clauses in the passage relate to one another.

I am a believer in text-driven preaching (TDP). The basis of TDP is understanding the semantic structure of the text. This requires searching out the primary and secondary clauses. Primary clauses stand on their own as independent units of thought. Secondary clauses relate to the primary clause in a supporting way. For instance, if I say, “I played football and I went to college,” both “I played football” and “I went to college” are independent clauses without a supporting relationship between them. Yet, if I say, “I played football when I went to college,” there is a subordinating (supporting) relationship of “when I went to college” to “I played football.” The primary clause is, “I played football” and this is further explained in that it was while I was in college that I played.

So what does all this mean for the preacher preparing to deliver God’s Word? In the passage used for the devotional there was identified four primary clauses. The first clause is in verse thirteen.

13 Therefore, get your minds ready for action, being self-disciplined, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Someone might look at that and preach a sermon on being self-disciplined, yet that is not the main point of what the writer intended. By the way, I consider the author of all Scripture to be God using inspired human writers to convey His message to us. In doing so in this verse, God did not put the major emphasis on being self-disciplined, even though He does want us to do that. No, the main emphasis is on setting our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us. When will we fully realize this hope of ours? At the revelation of Jesus Christ. Yet in this world of trouble and trials, our minds are prepared through self-discipline. The focus of this verse is not being self-disciplined or being prepared. The focus is while in this world, to set our hope on the next world where grace will be fully realized at the unveiling of our Savior. How do I know this? Because in the Greek, the imperative command is not on being self-discipline or having ready minds. The imperative is placed on setting our hope.

It takes time to learn TDP. I am still learning myself, but it is well worth the effort. In a later post, I will write on how to identify primary and secondary clauses in a scripture. But, until then, I’d like to suggest some resources you may or may not have in your library. First is David Alan Black’s, Learn to Read New Testament Greek. On pages 185-86, he gives a brief description on how to identify the primary from secondary clauses. Also, if you do not already have it, you must get Daniel B. Wallace’s, Greek Grammar, Beyond the Basics. It also discusses the relationships between clauses and how to identify those relationships. Plus, it is written is such a way to quickly find answers to various Greek questions.

A surgeon never stops studying his craft in order to save lives; how much more important is it for us to study our craft when it is souls we seek to save? I have benefited greatly from TDP. May the Lord use it in all the pulpits so that His Word will be delivered the way He intended it to the original hearers.

Dr. Emir Caner Called As President

In a meeting held on August 8, 2008, the Board of Trustees of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia, voted to call Dr. Emir Caner as the eighth president of the college.

Born and reared a Sunni Muslim, Caner converted to Christianity in 1982 and was subsequently disowned by his family. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from The Criswell College in Dallas, TX; his Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC; and his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Texas at Arlington.

He served previously in faculty and administrative positions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and in 2005 became the founding Dean of the College at Southwestern, a division of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. He was named to Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Educators in the 2006-2007 edition.

A highly respected scholar, the 37-year-old Caner has authored or contributed to 16 books, including Unveiling Islam, which won the Gold Medallion Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and More Than a Prophet, a finalist for Book of the Year in Evangelism by Outreach magazine. In total, his books have sold more than 300,000 copies and been translated into eight languages.

Caner becomes the first former Muslim to be elected as president of a Southern Baptist college or university. His brother, Ergun, was the first former Muslim to be elected president of a seminary, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA.

According to Terrell J. Williams, chairman of the Truett-McConnell Board of Trustees: “It’s a great day in the life of Truett-McConnell College and Georgia Baptists! The TMC Board of Trustees is extremely excited about the future of our school under the leadership of Dr. Emir Caner. We proudly welcome Dr. Caner and his family and look forward to working with him in the fall semester.” Rev. Bucky Kennedy, current president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, comments: “Dr. Emir Caner will bring to Truett-McConnell a level of Christian education that will raise the bar academically but also manifest itself in the life of the students.”

Dr. J. Robert White, Executive Director/CEO of the Georgia Baptist Convention, writes: “Dr. Caner is a scholar, a professor, a writer, a preacher and an experienced administrator-a powerful combination of gifts. At the same time, he has a vibrant personality and is easy to know. He has a contagious warmth, is enjoyable to be with and is an excellent conversationalist.” And in the words of Dr. Mike Simoneaux, who has served Truett-McConnell as its interim president for the past year: “God’s leading is evident in the calling of Dr. Emir Caner as the new president of Truett-McConnell College. I sincerely believe that Dr. Caner’s presidency will be characterized by unprecedented expansion of our student body, by strengthening our readiness to serve the Lord through Christian education, and by rapid growth of our financial resources.”

Caner is married to the former Hana Titerova, daughter of the General Secretary of the Czech Baptist Union. They have three children: John Mark (5), Daniela (3), and Anna (1).

Caner is expected to begin his duties at Truett-McConnell College at the beginning of the fall semester.

Union University in Jackson, Tennessee was struck by a tornado last evening. No life-threatening injuries are reported, but the school’s dormitories and academic buildings sustained heavy damage. Details can be found by clicking here.

We’ll continue with our current series of interviews this afternoon. This morning, please take some time to pray for the school. Give thanks to God for his protection of human life, and pray that the school’s president, Dr. David Dockery, be given wisdom in the days ahead as they begin to recover.

Dr. Caner is the president of the recently re-named Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. For more information about him, click here to visit his website.

This interview runs about 17 minutes. You can listen to the interview directly from this page, you can download it by following the instructions below, or you can access it along with all of our other interviews by visiting our “Interviews” resource page. Tomorrow we will be presenting another interview, as Tim was able to sit down today for a visit with Mac Brunson.

Monday, Wes Kenney and I had the opportunity to sit down with President Danny Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. After the interview, Dr. Akin told us about his website, dannyakin.com, which is packed full of free resources, from sermon audio to complete publications. It is an outstanding source for pastors and anyone else interested in studying the Bible with the help of one of the leading theologians of our day.

During the interview, we talked about a variety of topics, from confessions of faith to expository preaching to the emerging church. Recently Dr. Akin led Southeastern in sponsoring a conference that focused on the emerging church. One of the main speakers was Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Dr. Akin had the opportunity to talk about why he helped in sponsoring the conference and he gave some of his thoughts on Mark Driscoll and the ministry Driscoll has in Seattle.

Thanks to Micah Fries (pronounced “freeze”) for his blog that led me to a great site, sponsored by Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church in Seattle, for helping pastors, laypeople, and students with their New Testament Greek. Re: Greek is a site that will be a major help in studying your Greek Bible, especially for all you seminary students who don’t have major bucks to drop on a Greek parsing program. That’s because Re:Greek gives you the parsing. Of course, to keep us out of hot water with our former Greek professors, we add the disclaimer that all New Testament Greek students should strive to memorize and apply all those parsing charts and use programs like this only as a back up. I would like to thank those who put this program together.

The audio from the interview is available below. Enjoy the Greek tool, Dr. Akin’s resources, and the interview.

We covered a variety of topics in the limited time we had, from his recent health issues to what he does to relax. He talked about supposed conflicts between the Baptist Faith & Message and the Abstract of Principles, and addressed the adoption of an anti-Calvinism statement by an Oklahoma association (Click here for the details).

We also visited this morning with Dr. Danny Akin of Southeastern Seminary, and we’ll post that audio in a couple of days. We appreciate Dr. Mohler making time for us today. Click below to listen to the interview, which was recorded using the second-best digital audio recorder Wal-Mart has to offer.

One such paper presented was by Dr. Joel Breidenbaugh. He is pastor of CornerStone Baptist Church in Panama City Beach, Florida and adjunct professor of preaching at Liberty Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Baptist College of Florida. He delivered a thought provoking paper on preaching in our post-modern world. I highly recommend you read it. It can be found on our resource page or click here.

While Dr. Breidenbaugh is a Southern Baptist, there was a wide range of different denominations from various schools represented, from Southwestern to Liberty to Gordon Conwell to Talbot to Azusa Pacific University. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the men who I have read like Dr. Kent Edwards, and Dr. Jeffrey Arthurs. It was a pleasure to talk with both men and they were a blessing to me. Dr. Arthurs came and talked with this years D. Min. class about preaching the parables of Jesus. I highly recommend his book, Preaching with Variety. Both men are class acts and I look forward to their continued offerings in the world of preaching.

I also had the opportunity to go to Grace Community Church (GCC) where John MacArthur is pastor. He delivered an excellent sermon concerning the second coming of our Lord. One thing that struck me about GCC was that it is not what we would term a church on the “cutting edge.” In fact, three of the songs we sang came out of the hymnal. In case you are wondering, the words from the songs did not appear on a big screen because no big screen was used. In fact, there was no big jumbotron sign outside the church advertising the upcoming events in various colors. Just a small humble sign near the road that resembled most church signs that conveyed when the worship times were and who their pastor is. It all looked plain and simple with no frills. In a day when we are told to get high tech and cutting edge with our worship, it is a blessing to see a “mega-church” that still focuses on loving people with the expository preaching of God’s Word.

So, what is the point of this post? There are areas of fellowship that Southern Baptists can and do participate. To continue in painting a caricature that describes those who agree with me on certain issues as “narrow minded isolationists” is to make fallacious statements concerning our love and fellowship with those who do not see eye to eye with us. In a time when conservative traditional Baptists like me are characterized as narrow, uncooperative, and isolationist, it was a blessing to be a part of this gathering. Many people from different traditions came together to learn from one another how to more effectively share the good news of the Gospel from our pulpits. While I would not consider planting a church with some of these folks, because of the different traditions, I can certainly share with them in a learning experience that will make me a better preacher of the gospel. With that, there’s nothing “spooky!”