In this sixth and final part of our presentation of Dr. Russell Moore’s lecture to D. Min. Students at Southwestern Seminary, he gives a powerful argument for the importance of biblical community within our churches. He argues that while our churches have, by and large, become the ecclesial equivalent of a “big box” store, they ought to be “outposts of the Kingdom that is coming.” My favorite quote is when he offers a suggestion of what we ought to be able to say to people:

“If you want to see what the Kingdom is like, come to our business meeting.”

I also found helpful his discussion of biblical music and why men hate our worship services. It’s challenging stuff. And all of this is in the first five minutes of this 33+ minute segment.

Feel free to use the comment section of this post to comment on any of the issues raised by Dr. Moore in this six-part presentation, which you can listen to by clicking here.

In this third part of Dr. Moore’s presentation (click here for the audio), he continues with “Dangers to the SBC.” He states that we are turning from our roots which were based in rural or labor type people. We have the picture of the person we want to reach, and it does not match our humble historical past.

So, do you believe we have taken the focus off of reaching “embarrassing” people for those the culture says are cool and hip?

Has our ecclesiology become rootless?

Are we afraid of being red-neck?

In the second part of our six-part presentation (access the audio by clicking here), Dr. Moore gives a brief history lesson concerning Evangelicalism and the SBC. In it he says that there were some benefits from Evangelicalism that helped foster the conservative resurgence. But he also states this was filtered through pastors like W. A. Criswell.

After discussing how Evangelicalism was a benefit to the conservative resurgence in the SBC, Dr. Moore moves on to some of the dangers that Evangelicalism might pose to the SBC. One such danger is Christian Consumerism. He states that today’s pulpits are being bypassed by the Christian music industry and the self help/psychotherapy literature explosion.

Dr. Moore also states as a threat the need for cultural validation. Many are seeking to be accepted by the culture, to look cool/hip.

I will leave you with two questions:

1. Is Christian consumerism as defined by Dr. Moore a threat. If it is, how can we as pastors and church leaders prepare our people for the threat it poses?

2. Are we seeing Southern Baptist churches focusing more on being culturally validated, relevant, and cutting edge instead showing the difference Jesus makes in our lives?