Archive for Missions
“Common Ground” or Common Deception?
Posted by: | Comments
Our podcast this week seems to have stirred up some folks, yet there has been no meaningful refutation offered of the basis for all this consternation, specifically Dr. Ergun Caner’s claim that use of the Camel Method by our International Mission Board is deceptive and that the method contains heresy. Admittedly, I’m no expert on these matters; others are far more able to speak to the specifics of what the Camel Method is and what it teaches. For example, our friend and former contributor, Dr. Bart Barber, wrote a lengthy series of posts, which can be found by clicking here, and ultimately concluded that the Camel method is deceptive and in error.
As I understand it, the Camel Method is part of a larger missiological movement known as “Common Ground.” As it relates to evangelism among Muslims, I suppose the name speaks for itself. Today I came across a guest post on the blog Biblical Missiology. It was written by a Christian from a Muslim background, and I was fascinated by his perspective on this “Common Ground” movement. Particularly intriguing to me were the questions he asked regarding the so-called “converts” that result from this approach. Here is his paragraph containing those questions:
And so following some years in closeness with Common Ground movement, still there were a lot of unresolved questions within myself! Should CMBs (Christians from a Muslim Background) continue to attend mosques and would that be helpful for them? If that is the situation what happens after the Islamic congregation understands there are some different Muslims in their congregation? Will they tolerate, expel or persecute them? Where will they get their true spiritual nourishment? Perhaps they will meet in home groups in addition to attending mosque, but for how long that situation will last? What about church planting since they are supposed to stay within the Islamic culture and religion, will it be established at some point the Christian community or such a thing is not necessary? What about their identity, is it like Christian with Christians and Muslims with Muslims? Who are going to be their true brothers and sisters, Muslims or Christians or both of them? Is there any compromise in all of that? These were some questions I faced and am quite sure most of these believers do go through.
The entire post can be accessed by clicking here, and I encourage readers to take the time to read about the experiences of this former Muslim who believes that this deceptive approach is doing more harm than good.
Podcast Episode 15
Posted by: | Comments
This episode of the podcast features Greg Hall. Greg is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Oklahoma, and the founder of CREEK Ministry in the Warm Heart of Africa. The name CREEK is an acronym for:
- Caring for the people
- Reaching the population
- Equipping pastors
- Encouraging participation
- Kneeling in prayer
This ministry supports a seminary, medical clinic, and orphanage in the southeast African country of Malawi. In our discussion today, Greg shares how this ministry began and what they do to support seminary students in a country that has a desperate need for trained pastors to lead churches. The seminary is presently facing a financial shortfall that threatens its continued existence, and Greg shares the details of that crisis in the podcast as well. If you or your church would like to help meet this need, the best way to do it is to send a check to the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Make the check payable to “BGCO,” and write “Malawi Seminary” on the memo line, then send it to:
Cindi Robinson BGCO 3800 N. May Ave. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112
You can also send support directly to the CREEK Ministry. Make your check payable to “CREEK Ministry,” and send it to:
First Baptist Church Creek Ministry P.O. Box 656 Cleveland, Oklahoma 74020
You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or you can subscribe in iTunes by clicking the image in this post, or the podcast link in the sidebar. Please leave a comment here if you have a suggestion for how we can improve the podcast, and while you’re on our iTunes page, give us a review or just click on some stars (the more, the better) to give us a rating. Thanks for listening.
Enhanced Podcast: A Theologian’s Response to Contextualization
Posted by: | CommentsDr. Fred Smith, Associate Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, has penned, at our request, a response to a recent post on another blog. We are grateful to Dr. Smith for his work on this article.
More than a Prophet: A response to “My Pilgrimage” on SBCImpact
by Dr. Fred Smith
Associate Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies
Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Lynchburg, VA
The recent SBCImpact article, “My Pilgrimage,” attempts to offer a testimony in “contextualized form” designed to appeal to Muslims. The anonymous author of this piece admits that some of the terminology “may not be everyday language for many readers.” Indeed much of what he writes is startling, even if it were biblical.
However, this author, in his zeal to contextualize the truth, sacrifices way too much. The ideal of contextualization is to present the gospel in terms which the hearers will understand and so be able to make an informed decision about trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The challenge of contextualization is to find a way to do this without changing the basic message. Unfortunately, this author, an IMB Missionary, crosses that line. He moves from contextualizing to changing the gospel message itself. The end result is a false gospel, not merely the “old message in a new form.”
Defining the Great Commission Resurgence
Posted by: | CommentsFirst, let me say, “What a convention!” Even though Frank Cox did not win the presidential race, I believe that all of us were still pleased that Johnny Hunt did. To me, the watershed moment of the convention was when Dr. Hunt preached at the pastors conference. A bunch of us did get to meet with Dr. Hunt after the vote was taken and he was gracious and kind. I look forward to his leadership and pray that the Lord blesses him as he leads our convention.
Last week at the convention, the big buzz phrase was, “Great Commission Resurgence.” (GCR) Every time I heard it there were positive affirmations given, but I wondered what exactly was meant by that terminology. Did it mean winning people to Christ or planting churches? If it did mean planting churches, what would these churches believe and how would they operate? Nathan Finn, an apt and astute scholar in his own right, believes it means to be the missional people God created us to be. Okay, what does it mean to be a missional people? I have read that to me missional, we must be incarnational. How is that played out in the real world as we are winning people to Christ? There seems to be a lot of terms used in defining the GCR, but after reading what others think it is and listening to still others explain to me me what they think the GCR is, it is not a stretch to say that there are competing ideas at play.
One thing that I noticed missing (though not totally absent) in explaining the GCR was the lack of using the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) itself as the defining parameter. I can’t say as to why this scripture has seemingly been ignored (again, not totally), but I wonder if it has to do with what it says. Namely that as we are going, we are to make disciples by baptizing and teaching disciples all that Christ had commanded. The little word “all” kills the idea that baptism and the Lord’s supper are some how “tertiary.” One excellent article I did find, even though it is not directly linked to the phraseology of GCR, was Dr. Yarnell’s White Paper, The Heart of a Baptist.
Now someone might argue that the Great Commission encompasses more than just Matt 28:18-20. In fact it encompasses the entire Bible. With that I do agree. In the revelation of the New Testament, we see that “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” But there is a strong foundation that is laid in the Great Commission that is our compass in defining what the church is to do and more specifically, how to do it. It is the last recorded command of Jesus to his band of followers (along with Acts 1:8) before he ascended to His Father. It should carry a significant load of weight in defining the GCR not only theologically, but practically as it is lived out in the lives of those who call themselves followers of Jesus.
I am going to leave this post specifically open to the following questions. It is not my desire to start defining my understanding of the GCR, but this post is to get us thinking as to what exactly is the GCR and how it should be played out in our churches and our convention.
So, what do you think the GCR is? How should it be defined and practically carried out by Southern Baptists?
Getting the Facts Straight: Hershael York
Posted by: | CommentsIn a post on his blog, Dr. Hershael York, who is a trustee of the International Mission Board, gets the facts straight and corrects some of the misinformation concerning the attrition rate of missionary personnel:
Interestingly, the attrition rate has actually declined since the IMB passed the policies on baptism and private prayer language that some people find controversial. Another way of putting it is that the attrition rate has dropped since John Floyd became chairman of the IMB. Now, do I think Dr. Floyd can or should take credit for that? Of course not. But I think it just as foolish when some critics of his or of the board simplistically blame the board or Dr. Floyd when missionaries leave.
You can read his post in its entirety by clicking here.
Missionary Appointment Service
Posted by: | Comments
Last night, the trustees of the IMB concluded their meetings with a wonderful commissioning service for 92 newly-appointed missionaries. My wife and I took four members of our church along on the two-hour drive to First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale to attend the service.
This morning, I received an email from Sharon Bain. She is the secretary of the Frisco Baptist Association, but of more impact for my family, she is my five-year-old daughter’s Sunday school teacher. Attached to her email was a document recounting the experience of attending the appointment service, and I’ve received permission to share her thoughts with our readers. Enjoy:
While showering early this morning before coming to work I realized something major. I was the unofficial chaperone on the trip to Sunnyvale, Texas to see and hear my first ever Missionary Appointment Service. I was the elder in the van. The van should have made me feel younger since it rattled as much as the yellow bird that took me to school a few years ago. I sat on the back seat again, defying anyone who thought I could not crawl over the wheel hump and through the narrow space to get there. Actually, there was room for three of us to have seats to ourselves and I knew it would be good to stretch out on the way home. Stretching out was good but the van noise and lack of insulation in the flooring and asphalt on the highway did not allow any real sleep. Pastor’s children were spending the night with substitute grandparents so I hollered out, “Are we there yet?” frequently so he and his wife would not miss them too much.
Sunnyvale First Baptist is a very beautiful church. It has everything you would need to make a bunch of Southern Baptists happy; plenty of clean restrooms, comfortable seating, visual aids and because of its arrangement, there were lots of back row seats. A friend of our pastor saved us seats on row nine in the center aisle (that never has happened to me at a Paul McCartney concert). There was a huge choir loft hanging above the lower band level. Flags of the nations where we have missionaries were hung or stood all around the pulpit area. Just pondering that was an awesome thing. Read More→
Interview with Dr. Ed Stetzer
Posted by: | Comments
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Stetzer for the first time at the Baptist Identity Conference in February, 2007. He needed a ride from the hotel to the conference and I was leaving town. I apologized all the way for not being able to stay and hear him. However, I previously planned to take my daughter to a Father/Daughter dance and needed to leave. We then met again at the SBC in San Antonio. This was after the research on PPL was released and he lovingly corrected me on some areas of mis-information I had placed on my personal blog.
Dr. Stetzer is a gracious person but one that has convictions. We were able to take time for this interview at the end of the day. There was a group of people around when I conducted this interview and you can hear laughter in the background. It was an interview conducted in the lounge area, so it is a discussion of questions–not just an interview. While Dr. Stetzer and I are not in agreement on every aspect of ministry, we are in agreement that our task is to take the Gospel to the nations. His heart is one that desires to do such and I can whole heartedly support him in that endeavor. As you will hear in the interview, Dr. Stetzer is in an interim position at a traditional church. He showed me a picture of him preaching in a suit. It is the only suit he owns and now that he will be preaching on a consistent basis in this traditional church setting, he has to go and purchase suits. :>) Who says that God does not have a sense of humor?
You can listen to the interview by clicking below, or you can visit our “Interviews” resource page to download the file.
Standard Podcast [18:59m]: Drifting Away From Our Mission
Posted by: | CommentsI am currently preaching through the book of Genesis. It is probably one of my favorite books of the Bible, because it displays the drama of God’s unending love for his creation in the face of willful disobedience and rebellion.
In studying chapter two of Genesis I came across a profound thought from Walter Brueggemann. While not always agreeing with his analysis, I did notice something I was in partial agreement with. In looking at Gen 2:15-17, he states, “Human beings before God are characterized by vocation (cultivating and protecting the garden), permission (enjoying the blessings of God), and prohibition (Trusting him out of obedience).” (Bold parenthesis, my additions to original quote)
While I agree with him on these points, I believe he left out one vital characteristic of humans before God: community (encouragement and accountability between brothers and sisters in Christ). Before humanity can gain the proper perspective on any of these four characteristics, they must have their relationship with God restored. This can only be done by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ that is defined by the acceptance of the Savior and His Lordship.
In expanding Brueggemann’s thought further, how can our convention keep these four characteristics together?
In vocation, churches have been called to propagate the gospel by means of the Great Commission. In doing this, we cooperate with each other. We find in the Genesis account of the Garden, Adam’s and Eve’s failure to protect it from outside enemies, namely the serpent (satan). The serpent brought doctrinal error into the Garden, thus leading Adam and Eve to disobey God. We not only cooperate in sending missionaries, we also cooperate in protecting this endeavor from doctrinal error.
In permission (having access to all the trees in the garden including the tree of life, i.e. authority), God has given us the authority and abundant blessings of His Word and Spirit in achieving our vocation of the Great Commission. When we turn from the abundant resources found in His Word along with His Spirit and seek pragmatic solutions that focus on unbiblical practices, we show our rejection of God’s generous goodness. We no longer work under God’s authority. In other words, we seek that which God prohibits which is outside of His authority. By staying away from what God prohibits, we show our trust in Him and the authority he has given us rather than trusting in ourselves to accomplish the mission.
Finally, the Great Commission was not meant to be carried out by isolated individuals. Christian community is not defined by isolation. William Carey had the prayers and financial support of churches in Britain to carry him to India. Today, missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention have not only the prayers and financial support of cooperating churches, they also have the support of the IMB in training and offering assistance to missionaries before and during their time on the field.
What can cause the SBC to falter in its vocation of the Great Commission? I believe the greatest threat to the SBC and reaching the world for Christ is a slow yet steady acceptance of worldly pragmatism over revelation. Pragmatism says, “Minimize doctrine because it only divides and gets in the way.” Yet Paul told Timothy to be an approved workman “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15) and to avoid “worldly and empty chatter” that leads to “ungodliness.” (2 Tim 2:16) He also told the church at Colosse not to be taken “captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world.“(Col 2:8) BTW, Paul does not equate the traditions of men to doctrines rightly divided from the Word of God.
If we allow ourselves to be deceived by the serpent of old, we will fail in our vocation and calling. Some say that the foundation of cooperating in the missionary task is the task itself. Yet we see continual warnings about falling away from the truth. (2 Tim 3:1-5, 4:3-4) Doctrine is the glue that holds missions together. It keeps us together in getting the message and method right. God has called us to make disciples (vocation). God has given us permission (authority) in carrying out this vocation. Yet, he provides parameters (prohibitions) from His Word not to follow worldly schemes. Finally, he has brought together a community of churches to encourage missionaries and each other. But in this community, accountability is necessary to keep each other focused on the accomplishing the mission the way God demands.
Because Adam and Eve failed to trust God by not focusing on what He provided while engaging in what He prohibited they had to abandon cultivating and keeping the Garden. Ultimately, abandoning biblical distinctives, that Baptist churches have cherish, for the “wider tent” philosophy in ecumenical pragmatism will lead the SBC to drift away from her mission in bringing like minded Baptists together in accomplishing the Great Commission.
