In keeping with the spirit of the blog administrators here at SBC Today, I am posting over at my personal blog.  In my personal site I post on things that pertain more to NC Baptist events.  However, during our time off, I have posted on a theological issue pertaining to infant death and election.  You can click here to view the article.

Dr. Steve W. Lemke

The Resource Managers here at SBC Today are on a hiatus until sometime this fall.  However, we are still publishing on our personal blogs.  Over at Southern Baptist in NC, I have posted an article by Dr. Steve Lemke.  I encourage you to come over and view it.  Dr. Lemke serves as Provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  He also holds the position of Professor of Philosophy and Ethics.  His article on the “Age of Accountability”  was originally published in January 7, 2010 issue of the Louisiana Baptist Message.  Dr. Lemke is a good friend and has articulated a doctrine that seems to be taken for granted in today’s younger pastors.  Dr. Lemke gives a very reasonable argument and Biblical foundation for this doctrine.

I just wanted to write a quick post to ask all of our readers to pray for the SBC as we meet next week. We ask for your prayers. We want the Lord to bless our time together. We want God’s presence to be felt in a strong and real way. We want God’s wisdom and guidance in all that we decide. We need for the Holy Spirit to guard our tongues and dominate our minds as the speakers preach, and as people discuss business, and as we fellowship in the halls and hotels and restaurants. We want the Spirit of God to be thick in Orlando as we witness to people, and as we interact with people in Orlando. Please pray that the Lord will renew our vision and our determination to reach the world for Christ. Pray that the Lord will give us the hearts we need to win souls. And, pray that God will move in such a way that there will be unity and harmony as we leave Orlando.

My prayer is that we’ll leave Orlando with this heart:

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” – Charles Spurgeon

Since June 4, 1978, Dr. Jimmy Jackson has served faithfully as pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama. Next week, he will be nominated to succeed Johnny Hunt as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and we heartily support his election to that office.

Dr. Jackson’s experience, wisdom, and demeanor uniquely qualify him to serve Southern Baptists in this crucial hour. At a time when our convention seems to be fracturing and dividing, his wisdom can help us to unite around our shared convictions.

The length of his service to one congregation reveals a man who knows how to look at the big picture and lead others to see it as well, and the growth of that congregation over the years is surely a sign of God’s blessing.

His service to his state convention, as a vice-president and then as president, his election as a vice-president of the SBC, and his service as a trustee of Southwestern Seminary reveal a man who understands denominational politics, and can be productive and well respected in that environment.

We believe that this combination of qualities, along with his steadfast conservative Baptist convictions, makes Dr. Jimmy Jackson an excellent choice to lead our convention. We encourage our readers who will be serving as messengers from their churches to the convention in Orlando next week to prayerfully consider supporting Dr. Jackson as the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

What is most important in a Baptist church, unity in the fellowship, or renaming the Building Fund offering?  Well, everyone would say that if renaming the Building Fund offering were going to cause a divisive nature within the fellowship of the church then it would be better not to proceed.

It seems that the GCRTF’s report may be something similar to the above example.  The question one must continually ask from a leadership standpoint is very simple.  Is the balance of unity worth upsetting if the issue is not a theological issue?  For the GCRTF report it seems that the unity of the convention is placed in jeopardy because of a simple renaming of something already in place.  Why is the renaming so divisive?  I believe it is due to two reasons; exclusivity, and degeneration.

Read More→

Upon reading Dr. Alvin Reid’s perspective on the reasons to attend the convention in Orlando, I was encouraged and excited.  I encourage you to read his perspective found at the above link.  I must admit I was a bit surprised after reading reasons #3, #4, and #6.   Dr. Reid is an eloquent writer who can clearly and convincingly express his point of view.  The above mentioned reasons give me pause concerning his perspective.

My first pause to his reasons has to do with his point on Proactivity.

3. Proactivity. The GCRTF offers us a proactive approach to bring change. If we do not seize the day and call for change, we will nevertheless change. But it will be reactionary. What if it does not pass? The movement will not stop. It will simply lead to further factionalism, and delay the inevitable. Let’s be clear: we are not voting on a structural change primarily. We are not voting on the Cooperative Program—I have not met anyone who wants to abandon it. We re voting on what we believe should be the soul of our convention, and accountability and consistency in what we say and how we live. We are stepping back from the how of cooperation to talk about the why. (Emphasis mine)

I have never known anyone to question the “why” of cooperation among the SBC. I thought the Peace Committee Report settled that we were “cooperating together to accomplish evangelism, missions, Christian education and other causes authorized by our Constitution“.  I thought that once the CR was in place we understood that the gospel message was about the blood of Jesus redeeming sinners of which I am chief.  I thought the “why” of cooperation was that the light of the Gospel needed to be shined on the darkness of the world.  I thought the moderate/liberal way of  doing missions without presenting the Gospel was the reason we held tenaciously to the inerrancy of the Scripture.  Now, Dr. Reid tells us that we are needing to stop and get to Orlando to vote on the “why” we cooperate instead of how we cooperate.

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Maybe a Baptist Press article shows us the reason why the sin of homosexuality is talked about so much by Pastors in our day and time?  I mean, homosexuality is being thrown in our faces from all angles; from TV shows, to movies, to comediennes, to songs, to government action, to gay protests, etc, etc, etc.  Maybe the reason that so many SB Pastors speak on this topic so much, or mention that homosexuality is a sin, is because it’s an issue that the gay community, and liberals, and heretical, Church leaders are making into such a big  issue?  Maybe?  You think?

Now, I know that there are other sins that are just as bad.  I know that we should love homosexual people, and they need Jesus just like everyone else.  I know that homosexuals can be changed by the power of God, just like an adulterer can be forgiven, and God can help the adulterer to not commit adultery anymore.  And, my heart cries out for homosexuals to be saved and gloriously changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  But, when something is continually thrown in people’s faces, and people make something such a big issue; then Pastors and Church leaders usually respond in like manner; especially if it’s an issue of sin and the Bible and the Christian faith.

So, read the BP article from the link provided, and weep, and pray that God will keep our country a free place.

http://bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32939

A PHP injection attack is spreading like wildfire among WordPress hosted blogs. For a brief period of time today SBC Today was affected. Although I am no longer contributing to SBC Today, the SBC Today team knows that I know a bit of the PHP computer language, so they asked me to log in and see if I could clean things up.

So, I’m confident now that the important files have been cleaned and the site is presently safe for you to use. Unfortunately, we can’t be certain that we’ve eliminated the security hole that led to this problem in the first place until we completely reinstall the site and restore everything from backups, checking security every step along the way.

For your safety and the safety of your files, we’ll be working expeditiously to make the needed changes. This means that the site will be unreliable over the weekend as we fix everything. Our apologies ahead of time for any inconvenience that we may cause you.

To all of the Mothers in our lives we at SBC Today want to wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day.  It is an honor to be a Mother and we honor you today.  Thank you for showing the unconditional love that you do for us every day.  When God gives a woman the honor of becoming a Mother I believe He places a seed of unconditional love within her heart.  That seed is devoloped as the child/children grow and the Mother desires their best.  She sacrifices like never before to make certain that child/children are able to have the best chances at life that she can provide for them.

We here at SBC Today want to thank the Mothers of our Children.  We honor you in a very special way today and want to tell you–Thank You for being the Mothers of our children and allowing us to do the ministry God has called us.  You have, on multiple occasions,  put the kids to bed by yourself while we were at the hospital, or in someone’s home leading another Mother’s child to Christ.  God has a special reward for you.

David & Sherri Worley

Scott & Rhonda Gordon

Debra Kenney & Children

Tim & Gail Rogers