OKPREACHER'S CHRISTIAN RESOURCE CENTER

Profess X

2007-09-05T17:58:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally pulled my head out of my butt and decided what I was going to do. OKpreacher has already displayed his plans and has developed a new site. Professor X has done the same. If you meander by this site and want to check out the new one here is a link:

www.professx.wordpress.com

I know you have all been chomping at the bit to find out what is next for me. I can hear all four of you now.

Enjoy

OKpreacher’s Farewell Address

2007-08-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

In October of 2004, I created “OKpreacher’s Christian Resource Center”. I had several friends that were getting into blogging and thought it would be fun. My goal was to share about my faith in Christ, my journey through seminary, and my experiences as a pastor of a Baptist Church. I wanted to create a site that had links to anything a Southern Baptist would need to serve the Lord with all their heart.

Last summer I had the honor of doing the series called, “Seven Questions.” I got to interview several leaders, pastors, and missionaries. I believe this was my best work. I want to say a big thank you to every person that responded to my, “Seven Questions.”

Over the last several months I have had to re-think my call, my relationship to the Southern Baptist Convention, and my purpose for this blog. I am to the point that I believe it is time for OKpreacher to move on. I trust God in handling everything “Southern Baptist” and I realize that it’s time for me to refocus on what is most important. The focus of my life is exalting Jesus Christ as Lord and spreading His Kingdom. It’s time for me to focus on God and bringing in His harvest.

There will always be debates but I want to focus on something bigger than Southern Baptists. While I am thankful for my Christian training that I received at a SBC church, for meeting my wife at a SBC school, and for all the wonderful people I have meet through pastoring a SBC church, I realize that God’s Kingdom is bigger than the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe the greatest problem facing the church is Christians who don’t understand the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they don’t understand who God is or what He has done for them.

This is where OKpreacher ends and a new blog begins. I have created a new blog called, “Life Matters.” At “Life Matters” I will share my journey with Christ and my experiences in ministry with the hope that my life challenges and encourages you in your journey with God. Thanks for being apart of OKpreacher and I hope you will join me at “Life Matters.”

Christian = Republican?

2007-08-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Please read Republicans losing Christian vote.

I have always been concerned when I heard statements like, "God votes Republican" or "It is a sin to vote Democrat". I have never voted for a democrat for president, senator, or governor, but I must admit I am weighting my options this year. George Bush, outside of nominating conservative Supreme Court justices, has done a horrible job as president. He has lied repeatedly and never apologized for any of it. I'm tired of him and I can't wait till we have a new president.

After looking at the list of republican candidates, only one gets me excited. Mike Huckabee is the best candidate, but the poles show he is way behind the republican leaders. My problem is the republican leaders don't represent core Christian beliefs and therefore, I'm open to voting democrat. If neither party wants to represent core Christian beliefs, I'll vote democrat. If I vote democrat, I will vote for Obama.

Clearly, Christians have to decide who to vote for because “Republican” and “Christian” aren’t the same thing.

Pastor Has Church Member Arrested

2007-07-28T06:02:00.001-07:00

Please read the full story.

As a pastor, I have struggled with the question of what to do with a member who stands against the vision God has given you for the church. Normally, I start by listening to the criticism and see if I missed something or if there is a way to do something better. I pray for the person who does the criticizing and try to protect my fellowship with them. I realize that if agreement can't be made between the preacher and the critic then the church will be hurt.

According to the information given, I believe the pastor went too far in having the member arrested for showing up to the church. There are cases where calling for the police is the right thing to do as in the situation that you feel the member is a physical danger to themselves or someone else. Otherwise, leave the police out of your squabble with church members.

What's New For OKpreacher

2007-07-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on the struggles and victories in my life. The victory has been a new ministry. On Sunday Mornings, I have been helping a friend do a truck stop service. I never realized how spiritually hungry truckers are for God. Last week was interesting in seeing a transsexual trucker. My prayer as I witnessed was, “God, let me see this person through Your eyes.” This coming week is my week to preach so please pray that I can share the gospel in a way that the amazing truth of Christ becomes a reality in the heart of every trucker there.

As far as my struggles with my Baptist Identity, I have found peace. I’m thankful for my Baptist training. God used Southern Baptists to shape the minister that I am and I learned from them the most important principle is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Living out the Lordship of Christ is a scary but adventurous life. The call of Christ is to abandon everything and follow Him. I’m not concerned about what label I wear anymore, I’m concerned about being faithful to the call of Christ. My prayer is that I can be apart of a movement of God that transforms the lost into followers of Jesus that change the world.

I have shared a victory and a struggle, now in closing I want to share something I have learned. There really are only three areas of concern for every believer trusting in Christ. These three are faith, hope, and love. These aren’t theological ideas that have no practical application, but these are the roots that Christ waters to grow us into His likeness. So ask yourself three questions, where is your faith, where is your hope, and where is your love? This is where the rubber meets the road. Join me in making Christ the focus and making our faith, hope, and love the measure of our success.

The Gospel According To Harry Potter?

2007-07-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Please read "Use Harry Potter to spread the Christian Message."

There is an old saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." Clearly Harry Potter is a world wide success. Is there anyone who doesn't know who Harry Potter is and wants to know how the final book ends? The church of England, who was against Harry Potter in the beginning, is ready to use Harry Potter as a means of communicating the gospel. Do you think this is right? Read the story and post a comment. Is this what evangelism has come to?

Thumbs Down for John Reaney

2007-07-19T06:35:00.001-07:00

Please Read "Gay man wins Church discrimination case."

I wonder how long it will be until we read similar headlines here in the United States. Clearly this wasn't about discrimination because homosexuality is a choice, but about a political agenda against a Biblical belief. Once again there is hope and help for anyone dealing with the sin of homosexuality and it is found in surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Is There A Christian Lifestyle?

2007-07-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

I heard a sermon today that got me to thinking about the nature of what it means to be a Christian and how to live out this new life in Christ. The statement was, “If America is going to experience God’s blessing then people need to start living a Christian life-style.” I wondered what he meant by “Christian Life-style?” I was told growing up, “don’t swear, don’t chew, and don’t go with girls that do.” Surely the preacher meant more than that in his concept of a Christian life-style. So what is it? Is it being meek and mild and never doing anything wild? Is it attending church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights? Is a Christian Life-style one that has an early quiet time and prays five times a day in the direction of Nashville? All of these things fall short of what it means to be a Christian and live for Him. Matter of fact, I don’t think anyone can define concretely what actions make up a Christian’s life-style. What can be defined is the motivation or foundation of that life. The foundation for a Christian is a complete trust in Christ as the Lord of every area of your life. Without this foundation all good actions that could be defined as a Christian life-style are done in vain.

The problem with talking of a Christian Life-style is we focus people on rules that can be accomplished if they only try hard enough. Our life in Christ isn’t focused on keeping rules; it’s focused on deepening a Lordship relationship with Jesus Christ. So the question is, “How do we develop a life that is just like Jesus?” The answer is awesome and we see it in Gal. 2:20. The answer to how to live like Christ is to have Christ living in you. Paul writes that he has been crucified with Christ and he no longer lives, but Christ now lives in him.

God doesn’t want you trying to do good things for Him. God wants to do His work through you. The goodnews is when we came to Christ and surrendered to His Lordship, He came into our lives. Now through the Holy Spirit we have Christ present in our lives. The purpose of the Holy Spirit in your life is to make real the power, presence, and purpose of Christ. Therefore a believer who is surrendered to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit will experience Christ living through them.

So how do we know that are lives are becoming more like Christ? When Christ is living through you, your values change like your values on worship, time, ministry, family, and love. When Christ is living through you, your views change like your views on God, yourself, other people, family, church, job, and the world. When Christ is living through you, you will experience some amazing things like God’s love, His grace, people coming to Christ, a bond with other believers, and a desire for people to experience God’s mercy. Therefore I challenge you to surrender to the control of God so that Christ can live through you. This Christian life isn’t about a life-style, but about Christ living through you

Money Or God

2007-07-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

Many are sounding the warning signal for Southern Baptists to wake up and realize that the convention is dying. Baptism numbers are at a thirty year low and the fighting over the direction of the convention has already turned ugly. In the midst of the storm something unusual is happening. The Southern Baptist Convention has more money than ever before. Each year record amounts are being given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. So the question that has to be asked is, “How does a denomination in decline increase it’s funding?”

Some will answer this question by saying there is a new emphasis on the Cooperative Program. Every church, local association and state convention is encouraged to give as much as they can to the Cooperative Program. I agree that this new emphasis is part of the reason for the increase in giving.

Some will look at the increase in giving and say the reason is God’s blessing. Many still feel that God is satisfied with Southern Baptists and that is the reason He is blessing them with so much money. My question is if God was truly blessing Southern Baptists wouldn’t the baptism numbers increase as well?

I believe the reason for the increase in giving is the average Southern Baptist has more money to give. The average age of a Southern Baptist is going up. When the average age of a Southern Baptist was in the twenties, the convention didn’t have as much money. Now that the average age of a Southern Baptist is in their forties and fifties, there is a lot more money. I believe the reason for the increase in money is that the Southern Baptist Convention has aged. Therefore in ten to fifteen years we will see a sharp drop in giving if things don’t change.

The danger is reading our health by how much money we have instead of how many people we are reaching. Money is no substitute for God. More money doesn’t equate to more God. Money isn’t bad; it’s just not the goal of our mission. The goal of our mission is more people coming into the Kingdom of God and this is the failure of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Text Of The Day: Jesus and His Glory

2007-07-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

John 11: 1-16

11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ESV

(The reason Jesus waited to respond to Mary and Martha's plea for help was for His glory to be revealed in a greater way. Jesus knew that His glory would be revealed by rising a dead Lazarus from the tomb. Jesus also knew he could increase the faith of His followers and bring others into His Kingdom by allowing Lazarus to die and then raise Him from the dead. As a follower of Jesus I must understand His purpose in my life. His purpose is to glorify Himself through me. This may mean life or it could mean death, either way we trust that His glory means my good. Will you trust Christ and seek His Glory?)

A New Direction for OKpreacher

2007-07-11T09:48:00.001-07:00

Over the last six months I have been in a crisis of calling, identity, and faith. I and Mrs. OKpreacher left our church in Texas to move back to Oklahoma to plant a non-traditional Baptist church six months ago. I felt that being a Baptist was important because of our message and our commitment to missions and therefore this church had to be Baptist in it’s identity. I thought I had everything figured out for the support and partners we needed to begin this church, I wasn’t even close. As we experienced four months of consistent family sickness and long hours of work to just get by, frustration sat in. “Where is God?” and “How did we get here?” where the questions running through my mind. We were alone.

Since I have been a long time blogger, I stayed up on reading what was going on in our convention and my heart was broken. To hear statements knocking a desire to work with other Christians around the world for the gospel of Christ because they weren’t Southern Baptist made me sick. There were other issues that caused me to oppose leaders of our seminaries. I disagreed with them on the issues of closed communion, a ban on private prayer language, a ban on teaching moderation concerning alcohol, and that women can’t teach theology at a seminary. Because I hold these views it is clear that I’m an outsider in the eyes of our seminary presidents and this lead to my crisis of religious identity.

I need to mention the Biblical truths I stood upon as I went through this crisis. First, God is God and He is still in control. I held to the fact that God has no labels and my identity isn’t founded in being Baptist, but my identity is founded in Christ Jesus. I stuck to the fact that God is at work building His Kingdom for His glory. I can’t be concerned about what Baptists are doing, but what God is doing. Lastly, I held to the fact that, just like Abraham, God’s got the next step planned out.

Here are things as I see them. I can’t plant a church that would be supported by the Southern Baptist Convention. I have realized that if I’m going to be effective in ministry I need some supporters and teammates. I’m not a “Lone Ranger” minister. I see two options for me. Option one is I can pastor a Southern Baptist church that is in-line with my beliefs and passions. Option two is I can pastor or serve a church that is in-line with my beliefs and passions, but isn’t a Southern Baptist church.

God has me at the point of were I can let go of my Baptist Identity, so that I can do more for His Kingdom. If God wants me to stay Southern Baptist so be it, but my new direction is to stay focused on His Kingdom and His Righteousness. My call, identity, and faith are all in Christ Jesus as Lord.

“Who Holds The Power?”

2007-07-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Who holds the power in the Southern Baptist Convention? Is the power in the hands of laymen, pastors, or denominational leaders? Many talk as if power is in the pew, but nothing could be further from the truth. The average Southern Baptist layman has no voice in directing where the Southern Baptist Convention goes. When denominational leaders talk about representing Baptist beliefs they aren’t talking about the people in the pews, but the people behind the pulpit. There are two sources of power in the Southern Baptist Convention. The first source of power is found in those behind the pulpit.

Why do you think the Conservative Resurgence was mainly a battle for the seminary? The seminary trains the pastors and the pastors control the church. At this point, someone may disagree and say that the power lies with the messengers who meet yearly to cast their votes. You are right, but ask yourself this question, “How many messengers will the church elect to attend the Convention meeting who disagree with their pastor’s point of view about Southern Baptist life?” Pastors don’t bring messengers who can vote their own conscience, pastors bring their mob. Everyone knows that the question isn’t, “what do the messengers believe,” but “what do the pastors believe.” Therefore the first source of power in the SBC is found in the pulpit.

The second source of power is the main source of power because it controls the first. The second source of power is the position of seminary president. I’m saying the most power position in the Southern Baptist Convention is the seminary president. We heard this in the messages from Al Mohler and Paige Patterson at the convention this year. They made the statement that their job was to train pastors. Therefore their plan is to hire professors who will train pastors who will stay faithful to their separatist agenda. Sadly the Baptist Faith and Message has been used for control instead of unity. Now even the BF&M isn’t enough to keep the troops in line and now there is a call for more. Why? Are the laymen in our churches calling for stricter rules? No, the call comes from the second source of power, the seminary presidents.

I’m writing this article to reveal the truth that as long as there is a hierarchy of power, change will be difficult and involvement will be low. Why should people feel passion for a convention that doesn’t care about their voice? Seminary control that leads to church control isn’t going to work anymore.

I believe the average church member is calling for a return to the Lordship of Christ. I believe the average church member is calling for faith that can be seen in the home, church, and around the world. They want real worship, real fellowship, real discipleship, real missions, real ministry, and real evangelism. The average member isn’t controlled by rules, but engaged by vision. I hope we can listen to them before we lose them. Laymen may not hold the power, but they hold the passion and potential for completing our mission.

Random City

2007-07-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is a totally random thought:

I was typing and sending an email this morning with Groupwise, which is the program my church uses. In the text of the email I used the word:

Inerrancy

Groupwise's spellcheck feature did not recognize the word and offered the following word as its replacement:

Ignorance

Something about that made me laugh and I thought I would share it.

Text Of The Day: Jesus Forgives Sin

2007-07-09T04:44:00.001-07:00

Mark 2:1-12,

2:1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

(Jesus shows His power and authority as God by doing three things in this event. First, He forgave the man his sins. Second, Jesus read the thoughts of the Scribes. Finally, Jesus healed the man so he could walk. All of these acts of Christ prove who He is, He is the Lord. I want to encourage you to come to Christ and ask Him for His grace to forgive you and heal you.)

You Supply The Caption

2007-07-08T10:41:00.001-07:00

"Supply the caption" isn't orginal with me, but I hope you enjoy these two pictures and come up with some funny captions.

Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Text Of The Day: Jesus Is Lord

2007-07-08T04:47:00.000-07:00

Luke 19:1-10

19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

(The fact that always strikes me about this event is that Zacchaeus thought he was seeking Christ and the truth was that Christ was seeking him. The same is true for us. When we seek and receive Christ into our lives we realize that Christ had been seeking us long before we realized it. Zacchaeus responded quickly by calling Christ, Lord. The Lordship of Christ is the foundation of the Christian life. The proof of Zacchaeus' salvation is that he is ready to make things right with the people he wronged. If Zacchaeus can be changed by Christ then so can you. Seek Christ and receive Him into your life.)

Update on Redding

2007-07-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

-Okpreacher's first article on Rev Ann Holmes Redding
-The Update on Redding

The story of Rev. Ann Holmes Redding's search for faith is a sad story. The Episcopal Church has suspended her for a year so that she can think through the principals of the Christian faith. This isn't a bad idea, but I hope someone shares with her these truths. The reason someone can't be a Christian and a Muslim is their basic beliefs about Jesus Christ oppose one another.

The most basic Christian belief is in the Divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ. This means that a person can't call themselves a Christian unless he or she believes that Jesus is both God and Lord.

One of the most basic Muslim beliefs is that Jesus isn't God or Lord, but only a prophet. This is a rejection of the foundation of the Christian faith and of fact. Either one believes that Jesus Christ is Lord of all or one believes that Jesus isn’t Lord at all.

Rev Ann Holmes illustration that she can be Christian and Muslim at the same time because she is both African American and a woman doesn't apply. There are no opposing issues in being an African American and being a woman, but there are opposing issues in thinking your a Christian and being a Muslim.

I do ask everyone to pray for Redding that she will realize the truth about Christ and become a real Christian.

"Pat On The Back": Henry Blackaby

2007-07-07T05:08:00.000-07:00

Please read Henry Blackaby

Since I first read "Experiencing God", I realize that Henry Blackaby was special. I have always been thankful for his faithful service to Southern Baptists. God used him to remind us that God is building His Kingdom. As followers of God, we are to seek where He is working and join Him.

Too many times we think that since we go to a Baptist church then we should only do Baptist work. This view is sadly lacking. God wears no denominational labels, God isn't interested in denominational work, and God isn't interested in denominational politics. God is interested in building His Kingdom by using repentant, humble, and faithful believers to accomplish His plan. Examine your heart for revival begins with you.

Thanks to Henry Blackaby for all that he has done. I give you a big "pat on the back."

Text Of The Day: Jesus Is The Word Of God.

2007-07-07T05:01:00.000-07:00

John 1: 1-18,

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. (ESV)

(Here Jesus is shown to be eternal and co-equal with God the Father. Jesus is the light, full of grace and truth. He is the Word of God who became flesh and He is the revealer of God the Father. No one knows the True God outside of knowing Jesus Christ.)

National Evangelism & Discipleship Conference - Glorieta

2007-07-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

National Evangelism & Discipleship Conference

Glorieta Conference Center, New Mexico

July 16 - 20

Last year I decided to attend the Lifeway National Discipleship Conference in hopes of gleaning some great information on discipleship methods and strategy while developing some key relationships with peers in my field (okay one of my fields). The event taught me a great deal about some of the things we are facing as a convention (denomination) in the future. I took time out to speak with the director of the conference, a man named Jay Johnston. I enjoyed meeting him and, in fact, took time to share a rather frank impression of the conference. (The low point was when a professor from NOBTS, in a class about biblical models of discipleship, wasted the entire time talking about how he won't allow students to come to his class in sandals and unshaven. I guess Jesus would be s.o.l. for that particular professor.)

In my conversation with Jay I noted that very few people my age were in attendance. He agreed readily. In the course of the discussion I suggested doing a series of classes designed to help people deal with and minister within the parameters of postmodern culture. He accepted the idea and actually asked me to teach the elective classes. That is what I get for suggesting. I do the same thing to members of my congregation who think the church needs to start this ministry or that ministry. My first response is: "When can you begin?" That typically weeds them out pretty quick. Well, I agreed to teach, and put together two classes: Ministering in a Postmodern Culture and Engaging the Postmodern in Evangelism.

To be honest, I sincerely hope that this goes well and that the people who attend will at least listen to the attempt to cast a true picture of postmodernism and not the many accusations that abound. We would be in a much different place as a convention (denomination) if we would remind ourselves of the generational differences that continue to hinder us.

I invite you all to at least consider coming to the conference. For one, Glorieta is a beautiful place. For two, I am thankful for the willingness of Lifeway staff to dare to try something new and deeply desire to support them in their efforts. For three, I really want somebody to show up to the class. Some come on and have a good time.

Book Review: Holy Discontent

2007-07-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

What is the one aspect of this broken world that, when you see it, touch it, get near it, you just can't stand? Very likely, that firestorm of frustration reflects your holy discontent, a reality so troubling that you are thrust off the couch and into the game. It's during these defining times when your eyes open to the needs surrounding you and your heart hungers to respond that you hear God say, "I feel the same way about this problem. Now, let's go solve it together!"
Bill Hybels invites you to consider the dramatic impact your life will have when you allow your holy discontent to fuel instead of frustrate you. Using examples from the Bible, his own life, and the experiences of others, Hybels shows how you can find and feed your personal area of holy discontent, fight for it when things get risky, and follow it when it takes a mid-course turn. As you live from the energy of your holy discontent, you'll fulfill your role in setting what is wrong in this world right!

I found this book to not be entirely dramatic, meaty, or all together thought-provoking. What it did do was to challenge me to name and live that which God has created me for. I breezed through the reading of it as it is filled often with the stories of people who have found their discontent and sought to let it fuel them. There are the stories of ordinary individuals and celebrities such as Bono who are making an impact in the world because of their discontent. One thing is for sure about this book. It is a stated reminder that the church ought not to be concerned about producing like-minded programs and institutional procedures, but be about empowering and equipping believers to discover their "discontent", their passion, their God-given mission and do something about it.

Text Of The Day: Jesus Gives True Freedom

2007-07-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

John 8: 31-36,

"31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (ESV)

(True freedom is found in Christ. So have a great 4th of July, but remember true freedom comes throught the death and resurrection of Christ. Believe in Him and you will be free.)

Text Of The Day: Jesus Takes Sin Away

2007-07-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

John 1:19-34

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

(Everyone of us has to come to the point of realizing that Jesus Christ is Lord and I'm not him. There is only one who has paid the price for our sin. There is only one who lived a perfect life of sacrifice. There is only one savior. It is Jesus Christ, Son of God, Lord Almighty.)

Is the Bible Literally True?

2007-07-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

I came across this little tidbit while reading the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. I looked up the poll on Gallup's site. You can click the title of this post to go to the full story on Gallup's website. The difficulty with this poll in interpreting all that its results reveal is that I don't know how the questions were worded. Let me point out a few key points of the poll.

1) This survey is an average of an identical poll done in May every year. The total number of participants equals 3010.

To provide a larger and more stable sample for purposes of analyzing the distribution of beliefs regarding the Bible in the American population, we aggregated data from the last three surveys in which this Bible question was asked -- in May of 2005, 2006, and 2007 -- for a sample size of 3,010 interviews.

Now, somehow, 3010 people more than speak for well over 300 million people in the United States. However, 405 Southern Baptist pastors can't speak for Southern Baptists according to someone at an SBC entity which has publicly claimed it will not be a part of the "criticism of a sister agency." I don't know how that works exactly.

2) From the Gallup Organization:

Only about one-third of Americans today believe the Bible is absolutely accurate and that it should be taken literally word for word. The rest either feel that the Bible is the inspired word of God, but not literally so, or that it is a book of ancient fables, legends, and history as recorded by man.

31% held to the belief that the Bible is "absolutely accurate" and "should be taken literally word for word." I am really curious here if the wording of the questions played a part of the answers. Yet, we ought to take this at least at face value. Okay, actually the really fun question is which of the first two would represent inerrancy?

3) Again, an interesting point:

It is interesting to note, however, that 10% of those with no religious identification still believe the Bible is literally the word of God, and another 26% say it is inspired.

Does it fascinate you that 36% of those with "no religious identification" held to either a literal or inspired view of the Bible?

4) Another interesting portion:

The analysis of these data shows one demographic variable that is highly related to views of the Bible -- education. The higher the level of education, the less likely the individual is to believe that the Bible is the actual, literal word of God.

I don't really have any idea of what to make of this one. I would dare to theorize that those with more education would see some of the fallacies of adopting a very high literal view of Scripture. What I mean by this is that there are obvious hyperbole in the Bible. I don't know of a lot of literal ineerantists who are missing their right eye and hand. Again, this is an assumption on my part. I really don't know how the questions were worded.

5) I am really surprised at the consistency of the results over the various age groups:

There is not a highly significant relationship between age and belief in a literal Bible.

Perhaps, what this is saying, is that all those young postmodern whippersnappers, who are decried regularly as being "moral relativists", really do hold to truth. The truth they hold to is not the modernist radically logical reductionist truth. Regardless of age, the Bible is held in high esteem. Apparently the root of the arguments and accusations is found in one's application and interpretation of what that truth means.

Text Of The Day: Jesus Is Lord

2007-07-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

John 20: 24-29

24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

(This encounter with Thomas that Jesus had is very important to understand Jesus' Identity. First, Jesus has just risen from the dead. Second, Thomas realizes who Jesus is, "Lord and God". I hope that you have come to the place in your life where you can say about Jesus, "My Lord and My God.")

Thumbs Down For US Senate

2007-07-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

Please read this story about the US Senate to open with Hindu prayers.

I found this story to be ironic. Everything Christian or that proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord is frowned down upon. So the US Senate decides that during a month where we celebrate our creation as a nation, they are going to open with Hindu prayers. This earn them a big thumbs down from OKpreacher.

Text Of The Day: Jesus Is The Way

2007-07-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

John 14:1-7,

14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

( The gospel is goodnews in that hope is revealed. There is a way to God. This way isn't a principle, but a person. The way to God is by faith in Jesus Christ as the Master of your life. There is no plan "B" way to God, only plan "A". I encourage everyone to examine his or her life and determine if you're on God's plan "A". Have you trusted Christ with your life?)

Potential

2007-06-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

This week marks the final week of one my church's staff members. Her name is Barbara and she has served at our church for well over 20 years in various capacities. Her compassion and heart is legendary in our area and quite a challenge to a person such as myself who scores negative on the mercy scale. We gathered together as a church staff to honor her with a going away luncheon this past Tuesday. During that time, as is customary with our group, we took time to share stories or thoughts about what made her special. It was touching to listen to the various people share how Barbara had touched their lives whether through doing something, or just being her natural self.

Barbara was known throughout our church and community as a person you could get help from. It might be help for an overdue electric bill, or groceries, or something else. Those of us on the side of cynicism tended to see this as empowering them to take advantage. She never saw it that way. One of the comments that touched me the most was about just this issue. Countless person would come through making the church rounds seeking help for their disinterested lifestyle and she would help however she could. Why did she do it again and again?

"She always saw what that person could be, instead of what they currently were."

She always saw the potential of that person in God's eyes rather than looking at the outward appearance of that person. She never let the outward look prevent her from trying to help. God designed her with that sort of compassion and she discovered it while living it to the fullest.

Potential is an interesting word. We at church are often guilty and caught up in expecting a sinner to be anything other than a sinner. Many years of self-focused church inbreeding has created an atmosphere of conformity to certain priestly defined standards. We so often look at an unchurched person with an expectancy that he or she will meet our standards before attempting to join our community of like-minded fellowship. The Gospels are essentially story after story of Jesus interacting with lost people in whom He saw their potential for the Kingdom of God. Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, blind people, lame people, diseased people, Peter, Andrew, and even Judas were all benefactors of Jesus' slow march to judgment.

What about the potential found in the beliefs and thoughts of others within our own community? We, as the SBC, are a conditional cooperative conglomerate of like-minded churches who have united to create a greater global reach with the truth of the gospel. We are conditional because we have united to establish a confessional statement, which seeks to bind us together in essential beliefs. Beyond this confession there may or may not be a disparity of viewpoints on a myriad(shoutout to TWT) of non-essential issues. We are a cooperative group due to our agreement to pool our resources, namely cold hard cash, to create and maintain entities that further or supposedly gospel-focused agenda through missions (both local and global), academic training, and resources. We are a conglomerate because our genetic make-up as a convention is thousands of individually autonomous churches and millions of individually created and redeemed believers.

What happens if we cease to see potential in each other? What happens if we seek to remove those who are not like-minded in non-essentials from our midst? What happens if we censure and conflict with those who do not hold to all our personal scriptural interpretations? What happens if we remove the voice of what we could be? Jesus looked past the ravenously murderous appetite of a man named Saul and raised up the greatest missionary the church has known. When will we do the same?

When an organization of religious foundation and purpose ceases to work together in spite of minor differences and moves to establish homogeneous principles in all matters of doctrinal belief it crosses from being a movement of the Holy Spirit to being a legalistic enforcement of Pharisaical rules and regulations. It becomes unbiblical, while attempting to be as biblical as it can be.

Text Of The Day: The Identity Of Christ

2007-06-30T07:52:00.001-07:00

Matthew 16:13-17
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

(Some have said the problem in Baptist life is a lack of Baptist identity. I believe the real problem in American Christianity is a lack of real understanding of Jesus' identity. Jesus Christ is God and by faith in Him, we are made right with God. I want to challenge you to get to know the real Jesus, the one in scripture.)

Pat On The Back: Shipston's St Edmund's Church.

2007-06-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

Please read about The Bible Reading Marathon.

This is an interesting way to raise money and many of you may disagree with it. I for one think it is creative and therefore, they receive a "Pat On The Back". I'm for almost anything that helps people get excited about reading the Bible.

Text Of The Day: Jesus, The Physician

2007-06-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mark 2:13-17
13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (ESV)

(Whether we make small mistakes or royally screw up everything, we have a tendency to think God doesn't want anything to do with us. This isn't true. Jesus came to call sinners to return to God. No matter who you are or what you have done, there is hope for you in Christ. He can heal you, He is The Physician.)

Text Of The Day: God Justifies The Ungodly

2007-06-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

Romans 4: 1-8

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

(Of all the names of God found in scripture, this is one of my favorites. Paul calls God, "him who justifies the ungodly." No matter what anyone has done, there is hope. Hope not just because of what God has done by sending Christ to die on the cross and rise from the dead, but because of who He is. He is the justifier.)

Text Of The Day: What Really Matters Is Knowing Christ

2007-06-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Phil. 3:1-16
Finally, my brothers, [1] rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God [2] and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, [3] blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (ESV)

The Open Church

2007-06-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Open Church
Jurgen Moltmann

I actually came across this book while reading another book that often cited it in its notes. That book is The Shaping of Things to Come. I actually put it down in order to read The Open Church. I searched for a while to find it, and ultimately found it for a reasonable price on Ebay. The link in the title is to Amazon, which lists it for a fairly high price.

Overview
I fully realize that many people would automatically discount the writings of Moltmann based purely on what they have been taught in school, or by their well intended pastor. I still vividly remember being asked by an ethics prof at SWBTS why I was reading The Crucified God because Moltmann was a heretic. His theology and writings are certainly rich with the theme of social justice and the underpinnings of liberation theology. This book does have its leanings in this area as it stresses the union through suffering aspect of Christianity and care for the poor and oppressed. When one learns the history of Moltmann, especially the time he spent as a POW, you begin to understand his theological stance for justice for those who lack. The perspective of this book is ultimately summed up in the challenge to refocus church to a compassionate community of people who seek to live Christ in the world. The church must be a committed group of believers who have sought to discover their unique spiritual make up of gifts, passions, and abilities and put this into practice daily outside the walls of a structure called church. In his eyes the church is not necessarily comprised of like-minded people, but rather God created individuals with the common goal of making the truth of Christ known in the world.

In honor of Ben Cole here are some money quotes:

"... the most crucial thing the congregation has to regain today is passion."

"Every Christian congregation must be formed charismatically by discovering the special gifts and talents which have been given by the Spirit to each person."

"The Christian lifestyle is characterized and shaped by the gospel... The Christian lifestyle therefore will be evangelical and not legalistic... Life under the law is principally determined by prohibition and restraints. If one understands the Christian lifestyle legalistically, then a Christian is a person who is not allowed to do this and that, perhaps smoke, or drink, or dance. Living under the law gives us a constant fear of ourselves and anxiety before our impulses and wishes. It makes us have the gnawing feeling that we must and ought to be someone other than who we really are. Life under the law is a repressed, agonizing life. A common law demands uniformity. Everybody must wither do or abstain from the same thing. When the Christian lifestyle becomes legalistic, then the Christian life becomes anxious and narrow-minded.
A life which is worthy of the gospel, however, liberates us to be ourselves and fills us with the powers of the Spirit. We are enabled to give ourselves up and trust ourselves to the leading of the Spirit. Then we are able to accept ourselves just as we are, with out possibilities and limitations, and thereby gain a new spontaneity. We are freed to live with God in the covenant of freedom. The life worthy of the gospel also has its discipline, but it is the discipline of love and joy, not the discipline of anxiety under the threat of the law."

"There is room enough in God's all-powerful freedom for human freedom."

"Nationalism is one of the worst seductions of the people. It is an instrument of the domination of the people with which one people and be incited against another people."

"But God as love can be experienced and represented only in the comprehendible congregation in which one sees and recognizes the other, and accepts the other as he or she is accepted in Christ."

"The Reformation's own impetus was and is composed of three strands: the justifying faith, the universal priesthood of all believers, and the mature, responsible congregation."

The book is well worth the read if it can be found for good price. I have always sought and enjoyed reading material that challenges my thinking and perspective. This book certainly accomplished that goal. I do not agree entirely with all that Moltmann writes or believes, yet I walk away with the challenge of thinking about how I do "church" differently. The idea of closely identifying with the "least of these" through the church is important, yet often forgotten in our race to ensure we don't lose those congregational members who believe that church is entirely centered on and created for their own personal needs.

Thumbs Down For German Court

2007-06-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

Please Read Story Here.

It is easy to forget in America that Christianity isn't popular everywhere in the world. In America, we are thankful for our freedom of speech and the freedom it provides us in practicing our Christianity.

I want to challenge you by asking you a question, "if you didn't have free speech, would you still speak up for what you believe?" Pastor Johannes Lerle did this very thing in Germany in speaking about abortion. He compared abortion to the Holocaust and a court has given him a year in jail. So I give this court's decision a big thumbs down.

Hyper-Baptist And The Practice Of The Lord’s Supper.

2007-06-24T09:48:00.001-07:00

First Two Articles:

Am I Southern Baptist Part Two

Hyper-Baptist Want Control Of Your Prayer Life

Over the years Southern Baptists have neglected the Biblical mandate of the Lord’s Supper. In trying to create a uniquely Baptist style for practicing the Lord’s Supper, most churches neglect it all together. There are two main ways that the practice of the Lord’s Supper has been neglected, in its meaning and in its practice. The desire of Hyper-Baptists to create a Baptist style of doing the Lord’s Supper has corrupted the Biblical view of the Lord's Supper. My challenge for Hyper-Baptist and regular Baptists alike is to return to a Biblical model for practicing the Lord’s Supper.

If Southern Baptists are going to return to a Biblical model for practicing the Lord’s Supper, we must understand its Biblical meaning. The foundational theme of the Lord’s Supper is fellowship and communion. During the original Lord’s Supper, Jesus invited His followers to take bread that symbolized His body and to eat. He also gave them wine that symbolized His blood and told them to drink. He told them they were to continue to observe the Lord’s Supper until His return.

The meaning of the Lord’s Supper is clear. When one takes the Lord’s Supper they are identifying themselves with Christ’s Lordship, His death and Resurrection, His Kingdom, and His Return. The Lord’s Supper is an act of worship and the Early Church in Acts 2 practiced the Lord’s Supper every time they meet together. How could you truly worship Christ and deny taking His body and His blood? Clearly the Lord’s Supper belongs in every worship service. The Lord’s Supper also gives us a basis for fellowship with other believers. What units us as believers in Christ? His body and His blood unite us and it's meaning defines who we are as His people. The Lord’s Supper recognizes the universality of God’s Kingdom. Through taking the Lord’s Supper we are identifying ourselves with every believer who trusts in the Lord Jesus.

The area that gets most Southern Baptists in trouble isn’t the meaning, but the practice of the Lord’s Supper. First, most Southern Baptist churches are guilty of making the Lord’s Supper insignificant. Most churches only practice the Lord’s Supper once a quarter or four times a year. Then they normally observe it in their least attended service. Some churches will think they are better because they do it once a month. If you aren’t doing the Lord’s Supper every time you meet for worship, you have fallen short. I’m challenging every church to observe the Lord’s Supper every Sunday, not because I said so, but because scripture does.

Another dangerous area for Southern Baptists is the issue of the Lord’s Supper being “open” or “closed”. Let me explain what I mean. Scripture is clear that the Lord’s Supper is to be observed by Christians only. Therefore the terms “open” or “closed” refer to which Christians can observe the Lord’s Supper in your church. The term “open” means any Christian in your service is welcome to enjoy the Lord’s Supper with the other believers in the church. The term “closed” means that the Lord’s Supper is restricted to only the Christians present who are members of that local church. Much is being said by Hyper-Baptists that the Baptist Faith and Message supports “closed” Lord Supper practices. As a regular Baptist, I’m more concerned with what the Bible says than what the Baptist Faith and Message says. I have read The Baptist Faith and Message and it says that those who take the Lord’s Supper should be members of the church. So the question is how we define “the church”. Biblically, the church is Christ’s body. Therefore every person who confesses Christ as Lord can take the Lord’s Supper at any time. Therefore Southern Baptists should have an “open” Lord’s Supper observance.

Lastly there is no set “Baptist” way of performing the Lord’s Supper. Your church can use wine, juice, loafs of bread, crackers, or little bread pellets in the actual observing of the Lord’s Supper. Your church can have the elders, deacons, or men pass out the sacraments. I personally enjoy the practice of the people coming forward and getting the sacraments. My point is don’t get stuck in a rut in how you do the Lord’s Supper and don’t lose the Biblical meaning of it either. Don’t worry if Hyper-Baptists tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Most of them are more concerned with being Baptist than being Biblical.

If you are a pastor I encourage you rethink how you’re doing the Lord’s Supper in your church. If you are a member of a church, talk with your church staff about their practices concerning Lord’s Supper. It should be the desire of every Christian to make the observance of the Lord’s Supper important again and together we will succeed.

Pat On The Back: Carla Crain

2007-06-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Arizona Republic had a great article by Kelsey Hazlewood a couple of days ago. I want to encourage you to read the inspiring store of Carla Crain. We as Southern Baptist have a heart for missions, but we aren’t the only ones. She started with a simple vacation/mission trip and God opened her eyes to His purpose for her life. I want to encourage every reader to think about going on some form of mission trip as soon as possible. Hook up with any group that is interested is seeing God’s Kingdom expressed and explained around the world. I encourage every reader to consider going with a Southern Baptist group, but don’t allow that to limit you either. If you want more information about the ministry of Carla Crain check out Hope 4 Kids International.

Pat On The Back: Morris Chapman

2007-06-22T04:04:00.001-07:00

I have made it no secret that I'm a big fan of Morris Chapman. God has been and is continuing to use Dr. Morris Chapman to give direction to the Southern Baptist Convention. Since the Baptist Faith and Message Motion passed at the annual convention, the debate over how to use the Baptist Faith and Message has escalated. Once again Dr. Chapman brings light where there was darkness and therefore he receives a "Pat on the Back". You can read the article here at MorrisChapman.com. Please pray for him, because the Hyper-Baptists won't agree with this article.

Preaching Help From Rick Warren

2007-06-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

Here are 5 tips on preaching to the unchurched:

1. You should provide an outline with the scriptures written out.
2. You should plan your titles to appeal to the unchurched.
3. You should systematically preach in a series.
4. You should be consistent in your preaching style.
5. You should choose your guest speakers very carefully.

Read the whole article here at Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox

Hyper-Baptists Want Control Of Your Prayer Life.

2007-06-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I didn’t have to write this series of articles. I wish everyone who carries the label Southern Baptist would realize that the Christian life is about growing in a commitment to the Lordship of Christ, to the spreading of the gospel globally, and to working with God as He builds His Kingdom. Unfortunately there is a movement that I call “Hyper-Baptist” that has a different idea of what it means to carry the label Southern Baptist. Sadly, there are SBC seminary presidents, agency heads, trustees, and pastors that are leading this movement. Even worse is many of these were leaders of the conservative resurgence or what I call the fight for a Christian understanding of the Bible. These men have taken their desire to protect the Southern Baptist Convention to a fanatical extreme. Don’t get me wrong, there are still many regular Southern Baptists in areas of leadership in the SBC, but if we don’t let our voices be heard the Hyper-Baptist Movement may drown them out.

For the past two years the issue of personal prayer language was been a huge topic in Southern Baptist life. The issue bloomed when the trustees of the International Mission Board made a policy that they wouldn’t send anyone with a PPL to the mission field. First you need to understand what a personal prayer language is. As a person is praying to God the Father, God the Holy Spirit intercedes and speaks through the person to voice a prayer in a language that only God and the person praying understands. The president of the IMB has said that he has a personal prayer language but he never made PPL mandatory for anyone to serve as a missionary. So why have the IMB trustee acted to ban anyone with a personal prayer language from serving as a missionary?

The reason is that many of those serving on the trustee board of the IMB are Hyper-Baptists. Hyper-Baptists believe there is a Baptist style of praying and if you don’t pray like they say you should, then you are unqualified to serve with them. You maybe thinking to yourself, this is crazy. The number of people without Christ is increasing and Southern Baptists are coming up with new ways to send fewer people out as missionaries. Maybe you are thinking that statistics show that the average Baptist minister prays less than three minutes a day and therefore, Southern Baptists should be thankful that someone is praying, even if it is a prayer language. Maybe you think regular Baptists should speak up and tell the Hyper-Baptist to stop trying to control what people pray. I believe if people are Christians, committed to the Baptist Faith and Message, willing to pack up their families, move to a foreign country, and learn a new language for the purpose of sharing Christ with the lost then we as Southern Baptist should do all we can to help them.

Regular Southern Baptists believe prayer is one of the foundations of the Christian life. Prayer is inspired by God and for God. One of the biggest differences between regular Southern Baptists and Hyper-Baptist is Hyper-Baptists want to control the way you pray and regular Southern Baptists believe that is God’s job.

Stay tuned for more on Hyper-Baptists

“Pat on the Back: Mike Huckabee”

2007-06-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

Every Christian in the United States has a responsibility to be involved in our political system. Many believe that religion and politics don’t mix, but social change and progress is dependent on Christians getting involved. Whether it is running for office or filling out a ballot to cast a vote, Christians need to take serious their role in setting the course for America’s future.

Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee has placed his name into the race for President. He has gained a lot of attention for his faith and the warm funny ways he responses to questions. As a voter, I’m looking for someone who values traditional marriage, life, education, and bring peace to the Iraq situation. I trust Mike Huckabee and as long as he is running for president, he has my vote. I encourage you to read about Mike Huckabee and I hope you decide to vote for him as well.

Finally, if you are a Christian, you need to decide how you can make a difference in our political system.

Thumbs Down: Rev Ann Holmes Redding

2007-06-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an article for, "Pat on the Back" and came across this article. This story is a great example of the importance of doctrinal truth. So I will create a series called, "Thumbs Down" where I expose things Christians can't support. In an article by the World Net Daily, they detail how Rev Ann Holmes Redding is both an Episcopal priest and a practicing Muslim. She doesn't mind that both faiths teach something completely different about the nature of Christ.

This is sad because Rev. Ann Redding is looking for truth and even though she has been religious she has missed what she needed most. She needs to experience the call of Christ to come and repent of trying to solve her problems with religion and surrender her life to His control. She needs to believe in her heart that Christ is the only begotten Son of God and therefore God indeed. I encourage you to pray for her.

This serves as a warning for Southern Baptists. Many Southern Baptists have wonder how far should our desire for ecumenicalism extend? This is an illustration of crossing the line. When we start changing our believes about the nature of the Bible, God, Christ, Holy Spirit, and our calling to evangelize the world to fit in with other groups, then we have taken ecumenicalism too far. Please read the rest of the article on Rev Ann Redding.

Am I a Southern Baptist: Part Two?

2007-06-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

As I read through the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, I didn’t find anything I disagreed with. I believe everything stated in our confession. So I realized I truly am a Southern Baptist. I’m a Christian who is a member of a Southern Baptist church and I hold to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Before you start clapping your hands in joy, this raised a question that has to be answered.

If I’m Southern Baptist, then what are those people that are making rules I don’t agree with? The answer is they are Hyper-Baptists. So if I confused you with a new word. Let me illustrate my point by using Calvinism as my example. Some of the best Baptists are Calvinist, but there is a form of Calvinism that is dangerous and it is called Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinists were against evangelism and missions because they thought men were trying to do God’s job of saving. Under Hyper-Calvinism ton of people went to Hell without hearing the gospel. Listen to a regular Baptist Calvinist and you will hear a passion for evangelism and missions. Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism are completely different even though they share lingo and some beliefs.

The same thing that happened with Calvinism is happening with Southern Baptist beliefs. As regular Southern Baptists, you and I hold to the Baptist Faith and Message as our Confession, but this isn’t enough for the Hyper-Baptist. What is sad and hard to understand is that many of our heroes over the past 30 years have joined this Hyper-Baptist movement. It is true that many Baptist heroes have stayed true to regular Baptist beliefs like Morris Chapman, Thom Rainer, Jerry Rankin, Ed Stetzer and many others.

The Hyper-Baptist sound like they are concern about the same things we are as regular Baptists, but the honest truth is they aren’t. Their goals aren’t the same as ours. As regular Baptists we want to practice what the Bible teaches. Hyper-Baptists want to practice what the Anabaptist and Separatist Baptists did 300 hundred years ago. As regular Southern Baptists we want to give people the freedom to practice anything the Bible teaches. Hyper-Baptists want to make rules that force you to do what they think makes you Baptist. A Hyper-Baptist battles for Baptist traditions to build a Baptist Kingdom while serving a Baptist God. Regular Southern Baptists are focused on being obedient to the Word of God, building God’s Kingdom, and inviting as many as possible to enjoy God forever.

Stay tuned because I will be writing a series of articles on Hyper-Baptist beliefs.

Am I A Southern Baptist: God’s Holy Word

2007-06-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

Baptist Faith and Message 2000 – “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

I am in agreement with the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 on the issue of God’s Word. I believe the Bible is God’s Word, therefore, it is completely true and our main guide for living life God’s way. The Bible has two main activities. The Bible is revelation about God, man, sin, salvation, heaven, hell, family, faith, forgiveness, and love. The Bible is also redemption by making clear that Christ is God and by dying on the cross and rising from the dead, he has brought help to everyone who will give Him control of their lives.

I believe Biblical truth is necessary for salvation. No one can say that he or she is a Christian and doesn’t believe what the Bible teaches. I’m glad that Southern Baptist have adopted this Christain principle as part of their confession, but everyone must remember that every real Christian will also except God’s Word as truth. In closing the reason Christians believe in God’s Word is because the Bible testifies to itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” ESV

Pat On The Back: Ed Stetzer

2007-06-17T05:57:00.000-07:00

At this Southern Baptist Convention there were several men that were courageous enough to say what Southern Baptists needed to hear. I thank God for the things Morris Chapman, Frank Page, Jerry Rankin, and Rob Zinn had to say at the Convention. I believe the most important message was given by Ed Stetzer. Ed Stetzer called our convention back to a life of missions and to the cross of Christ. While others spoke to divide our convention, Ed spoke to unite us under the cross of Christ and His command to share the gospel with all people. Ed Stetzer told us that doctrine is important, but we are losing a generation of people because we are debating each other instead of evangelizing the lost. So here is a pat on the back to Ed Stetzer for allowing God to use him to say what Southern Baptists needed to hear. Please read the Baptist Press article about Ed Stetzer.

Am I A Southern Baptist: Introduction

2007-06-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

A Southern Baptist is a person who is a member of a local Southern Baptist Church. By definition, I’m a Southern Baptist and have been one for a long time. So what is my problem? My problem is that many of my beliefs and practices that I consider Biblical are no longer accepted by many leading Southern Baptists. I find myself losing the ability to be useful to my convention and God’s Kingdom at the same time. Matter of fact, many in SBC leadership would like for Southern Baptists like me to be quiet, do nothing, and just give to the cooperative program while allowing them to create a new Southern Baptist identity. My hope is whoever has leadership in the SBC would realize the need for Southern Baptists like me. I invite you to come along on the journey with me. Examine my beliefs and practices to see if I can still be considered a value to the Southern Baptist Convention. Examine your own beliefs and let me know how I can help you along your journey of being obedient to God’s Will in your own life.

Preview of my next article:

I believe the Bible is God’s Word, therefore, it is completely true and our main guide for living life God’s way.

"Am I a Southern Baptist?

2007-06-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

At fifteen I became a believer in Christ, was baptized as a sign of my faith in the Lord, and joined the local Baptist church my parents attended. Since that time I have considered myself a Southern Baptist. I graduated from a Baptist college, served as pastor of several Baptist churches, and got a MDIV from a Baptist seminary, but with recent events I have began to question my ability to serve in this denomination. I would image that I’m not alone. I’m not trying to take sides in any debate, but I wonder if I can continue to be a Southern Baptist and hold to the principles I believe the Bible teaches.

Over the next several weeks I will share my beliefs on some important issues and as I struggle through this process, I invite anyone who wants to join in to share your views. You don’t have to agree with me, but realize there are people just like me in every Baptist Church.

My goal is to help every reader to realize that this isn’t about the Baptist “liberals” against the Baptist “conservatives”, but real people trying to figure out the best way they can serve their God and follow His will.

As I share my beliefs, I hope to learn from you and for you to learn from me. It will be interesting at the end of the journey to see if I’m still considered a Southern Baptist.

Pat On The Back: The Life of Ruth Graham

2007-06-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

Another hero of the faith went to be with the Lord. Mrs. Ruth Graham, Billy Graham's wife died this week. Any great preacher knows that he couldn't do a thing without his spouse. A whole world as watched God use Billy Graham to change millions of lives and he couldn't have done it without the commitmemt of Ruth. Therefore I ask you to pray for the Graham family during this time of loss, but be thankful for a wonder example of what God can do through a family when there is a godly woman in it. Here are some pictures from the Charlotte Observer.

Pat On The Back: James Holsinger, Jr.

2007-06-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

James Holsinger, Jr is the current surgeon general nominee. He is under attack for making clear that homosexuality is a choice and it produces health concerns to people in that lifesyle. I support his courage and intregrity to make this stand. The media makes it sounds like no one ever stops being queer. The media also promotes that a choice to be homosexual should grant you special rights. So here is a pat on the back for someone sharing the truth about homosexuality, James Holsinger, Jr. For anyone struggling with homosexuality, there is hope and help for you. Don’t be intimidated by the homosexual movement, it's time for a change.

Pat On The Back: The Life Of Dr. Bill Tanner

2007-06-12T10:12:00.001-07:00

With Dr. Bill Tanner going to be with the Lord I want to send out a special "Pat on the Back" in recognition of the impact that he had on my life and the life of so many others. I don't know of any person that could say they out loved Dr. Tanner. He loved life, laughter, his family, Southern Baptists, and most of all his Lord. When I think of what a Southern Baptist should be, I think of Dr. Tanner. He served so others might come to know Christ. He had the ability to use laughter to teach and help people focus on what is most important in life. I always felt better after having talked to Dr. Tanner and he always gave great advice when I needed it. I'm thankful that I knew Dr. Tanner as a teacher but even more as a friend. Dr. Tanner should be remembered for what he was, a servant of God. Dr. Tanner would tell anyone that he couldn't have done anything without his dear wife Ellen. She is one incredible lady. I encourage everyone to pray for her and the Tanner family during this time. Short Bio of Dr. Tanner

Please Read Before The SBC Convention

2007-06-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned." Titus 3:1-11, ESV Bible

Pat On The Back For Rebekah St. James

2007-06-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

It might not be Elijah and the prophets of baal, but Rebekah St. James is taking a huge stand for God. New York wants to see if Christian concerts can be profitable and Rebekah St. James has been chosen as the draw. If Miss. St. James’ concert is profitable these New York promoters will hold more Christian concerts, if this concert doesn’t bring in the expected people it could be the last such concert for some time. Rebekah is taking a risk for God. We need to pray that tons of people will come and have their lives changed. Let those promoters have their money, but let God have the Glory. Everyone needs to take notice that God matters. This is a great opportunity to give a huge witness for Christ. Personally, I thank God for Christian music because it has had a big impact on my life. Rebekah St. James is one of my favorite singers and her concert can be the start of something big in New York. Let’s pray for Rebekah St. James. Please read the article in full at the Christian Post website, Rebekah St. James. I want to challenge you to consider how you can take a risk and make a stand for Christ in your community.

"Pat On The Back"

2007-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new series called, “Pat On The Back” which will highlight actions that create a positive witness and show that God is mightily at work. Even though I’m Southern Baptist, I believe God uses anyone that is willing to listen and obey Him. God is focused on building His Kingdom and that should be our focus as well. Please understand that just because I give someone a pat on the back doesn’t mean I agree with their theology, actions they have done in the past, or any of their future actions. I encourage each person who reads, “Pat on the Back” to consider how he or she can do a similar action in their church or community. Sometimes “Pat on the Back” may be a call to pray for someone who is attempting something big for God. Most of all, I hope you’re encouraged and your faith strengthened as you see God at work.

Frank Page

2007-06-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Since Frank Page is going to be nominated again for President of the SBC I thought it would be helpful to reprint his answers to my seven questions that I sent him last summer. I voted for him last year and I am excited to see how God uses him this coming year.

Seven Questions with President Frank Page
1. As President of the SBC, you served in one of the most stressful positions in the convention. What was your secret to staying focused?

Obviously, I have just begun this task. However, already, I can assure you that it is one of the most stressful of positions. I must stay focused by keeping my priorities straight. I will not let this position hurt my family or my church. I will not neglect my daily quiet time. I will not allow the demands for my time to hurt my relationship to Jesus.

2. In your opinion what is the main thing that must happen in the SBC to build momentum for Kingdom growth over the next 5 years.

I believe that the primary issue that will build momentum for kingdom growth in the coming years is a new attitude of selflessness. It is time for every group to realize that they do not own the SBC. I hear people whine about how they’ve lost control of their convention over the last 30 years. I hear other people rejoicing that they now have control over their convention. I hear many groups seeking to gain control over their convention. I believe all of us must realize that this convention belongs to the Lord. Until we confess our feeble attempts at ownership and repent of our sinful self centeredness, the Kingdom will be second in our focus.

3. At the 2006 SBC Convention Southern Baptists made a renewed commitment to the Cooperative Program. Why should a church support the Cooperative Program.

We should support the Cooperative program because of the moral obligation to support the entities and most of all over 10,000 missionaries that we have voted to support. There is much great work going on within associations and state conventions where thousands of hurting churches are being assisted. It is an object of worth and we must find a better way to show that worth and value.

4. If you could give one word of encouragement to every Baptist minister what would it be?

My word of encouragement to ministers is that you do count. You matter and I speak a word of encouragement to you today. The evil one wants to destroy you, your family, and your church. You matter for the Kingdom.

5. What has been the secret to your success as an SBC leader?

I have no secret to success. In fact, I do not see myself as a success. I have failed the lord in many ways and even now am very aware of my inadequacy.

6. In your opinion, what is the key to getting the average church member involved in evangelism?

I believe the key to getting the average church member involved in evangelism by example and encouragement. Pastors must set the example and encourage church members to come along beside them.

7. Over the next year what are some things you hope to accomplish and how can my readers and I be praying for you?

Please pray that over the next year that we will see leadership which deals honestly with difficult questions and seeks to draw together the factions that are splintering quickly and profoundly.

Dr. Frank Page is president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, SC.

Jim Richards and David Rogers

2007-06-06T04:25:00.000-07:00

With the announcement that David Rogers would be nominated for the position of 1st. Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, I thought it would be helpful to reprint two articles of mine from last summer. Both Jim Richards and David Rogers answered my Seven Questions Series. Personally, I have a great deal of respect for both men and how God is using them in our convention. There should be no fear in voting for either one of these men. I encourage you to allow your choice to be a matter of serious prayer. Only God knows which man should hold this office, because both are qualified. I have listed Jim's answers first because his name came out first for this position.

"Seven Questions with Jim Richards"
1. What is your greatest passion?

Since Jesus saved me at 17 years, He has been my passion. Pleasing Jesus on a daily basis is my desire. I have failed Him many times but He has never failed me.

2. In your opinion what is the main thing that must happen in the SBC to build momentum for Kingdom growth over the next 5 years.

A strong focus on church planting and evangelism is the greatest need in SBC life. The IMB has been consistent with a strategy. We need that type of strategy in North America. Starting churches that are committed to reaching the lost and reproducing while supporting the SBC giving method will impact Kingdom growth more than anything I can think of.

3. What type of relationship does the state convention have with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary? Why should someone who feels called to ministry think about attending seminary?

a. The SBTC is a full partner with SWBTS. Southwestern is supported through the Cooperative Program. The SBTC sends on 53% of all CP operating dollars to the SBC. The seminaries receive about 23% of SBC allocation. SBTC has a scholarship fund for Hispanic Ph.D. students helping to raise more leaders for the next generation.

b. I was told as a young preacher that you can cut more wood with a sharp ax. While you might be able to get to the woods quicker if you don’t sharpen the ax, you will eventually be overtaken by someone with a sharp ax. Preparation for ministry is important.

4. If you could give one word of encouragement to every Baptist minister what would it be?

Find your strength in a personal walk with Jesus and stay close to your family. God’s work may take different forms but your personal spiritual development is where His power begins. Every pastor’s wife needs her husband to be her friend, lover, and co-laborer not just her pastor. The children need a dad. Remember the church or ministry is always secondary to those two priorities.

5. As an Executive Director of a state convention, in your opinion, what are some ways a pastor can lead his church to become more evangelistic?

Leadership by example is the best. Being a personal soul-winner is absolutely essential. A church will never rise above the pastor. Use both proven and innovative methods to reach people. Be intentional. Churches do not grow by conversion without a plan. Get a plan (from God) and work the plan.

6. What is one trend in Southern Baptist churches that has given you reason for concern? What is one trend in Southern Baptist churches that has given you reason for excitement?

“Younger leaders” is the answer for both of these.

a. Cooperation on a large scale is loosing ground. Getting and keeping a “big” partnership for missions and ministry is in jeopardy. Unfortunately, some do not see the value in the Cooperative Program.

b. Many of the newer churches have a true desire to make a difference in their areas for reaching people with the Gospel. I see commitment, fervency, and sincerity in many who are beginning in ministry. On a visit to a “20- something” church, I experienced the preaching, singing and ministry. If that is an indicator of the future, I believe Kingdom work will be fine.

7. Over the next year what are some things you hope to accomplish and how can my readers and I be praying for you?

An important opportunity is before us. We are told that 75-85% of SBC churches are plateaued or declining. We can turn this around. Under God, we must turn this around. A plan is being formulated to help these churches reverse this trend. It can happen. Pray that God will give us insight and resources to make a difference in the thousands of churches that need to be vibrant again.

Dr. Jim Richards is the Executive Director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Please visit the SBTC's Blog

"Seven Questions with David Rogers"

1. What were some of the key issues that lead you to serve with the International Mission Board?

At various stages in my youth, I felt God’s “tug at my heart” whenever the subject of missions would come up. I had several opportunities for short-term missions experience, first with my church youth group, then through several summer campaigns with Operation Mobilization (OM), and, then through a life-changing 2-year experience on board OM’s missionary ship, the M.V. Doulos, ministering in various countries throughout Europe and West Africa. I finished this time sensing God’s confirmation in pursuing a career ministry in Spain. Shortly after this, I met my wife, Kelly, and we began to pray together about the best vehicle for serving Him as missionaries in Spain.

At that time, we actually decided to go to Spain through another mission organization other than the IMB. After our first term in Spain, however, various circumstances led us to conclude the Lord was leading us to return to our denominational roots, and pursue appointment with the IMB.

2. What is your greatest passion?

My greatest passion is seeing the Great Commission fulfilled among all the people groups of the world. Serving in Spain, I am particularly interested in seeing a viable Christian witness established in all of the approximately 7,400 cities and towns of Spain which still have none. I am also passionate about the Body of Christ coming to maturity and unity (per Ephesians 4), and working together towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

3. What is one barrier that you are experiencing in your ministry at this time?

The biggest barrier I see in Spain is the stranglehold sin has over the Spanish people, and their reluctance to consider any life change that would imply turning their back on their sinful lifestyle.

4. What is one thing you would want every Southern Baptist to know about your ministry?

God is working in different ways in different parts of the world, and at different times in history. But God is still at work. In Spain, and in our ministry, we believe He is doing something new through the arrival of many evangelical Latin American immigrants, new models of church, and greater cooperation throughout the Body of Christ.

5. What has been the biggest culture change that you have experienced since leaving the States?

In Western Europe in general, and Spain in particular, the cultural changes are perhaps more subtle than in some other parts of the world. On the surface, things seem quite similar. But, underneath, basic cultural core values are often very different. Things like individual vs. community rights, the importance of enjoying life and spending time with others as opposed to getting things accomplished efficiently, etc.

6. What are two or three things that you hope to accomplish in the next year?

A. Begin our first on-going “lay” evangelist and church planter training classes

B. See significant spiritual and numerical growth in the church plant in Toledo

C. See some good spiritual growth in all four members of my immediate family

7. Are there some prayer needs that we could begin lifting up in prayer?

A. Long-lasting fruit from special evangelistic efforts this summer all around Spain.

B. That God would raise up some Spirit-filled Spanish and Latin American men and women who are willing to be mentored and trained in evangelistic and church planting ministry.

C. Protection for our family against the attacks of the Enemy.

David Rogers is a Southern Baptist Missionary serving in Spain. He has his own blog at love each stone.

The Great Divider

2007-06-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

This year Southern Baptists are debating over the issue of personal prayer language. LifeWay has recently published a report showing that Southern Baptists are split on this issue. There is great potential that the outcome of the convention this year will be greater division among Southern Baptists. Why have Southern Baptist leaders allowed personal prayer language to become such a divisive issue? Is it someone’s agenda, a lack of communication, or a commitment to uncompromising truth that has caused people to gear up for this theological battle? If this issue divides us, it is for one reason only, Pride.

There is no greater destroyer and divider of unity and peace than pride. Whether it be relationships in marriage, in a job, in a church, or in a denomination pride divides us. Pride shows itself when I make myself the measure others must live up to. If you don’t worship like me, pray like me, believe like me, look like me, think like me, and act like me then there is something wrong with you. Pride also sees people as expendable when it comes to getting your way. Pride also seeks position and power above purpose and patience. Pride is never wrong. Pride is also prayerless in it's daily activities. When attacked or criticized, pride fights back. Pride will always have the last word.

Pride must be defeated for there to be restoration in our relationships with God and other people. The first step is to admit that pride has been in control of your life. The second step is to repent of the damage your pride has caused. The next step is to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Make Christ the measure and the focus of your life. The fourth step is to commit to spending time with God in prayer. The final step is to view yourself as a servant. Don’t see yourself as a reformer, a hero, a conqueror, a protector of theology, or a ruler but as a servant willing to give your life for others. When you become more concerned about God and other people, not yourself, marriages, churches, and denominations will experience restoration. My prayer is that every messenger that attends this convention will come with a servant’s heart and leave their pride at the door.

Calling For A Recount

2007-06-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

Size is power and the Southern Baptist Convention prides itself on being the largest protestant denomination in America with over 15 million members. I have served as the pastor of four Baptist churches and each church had a flawed system of tracking members. Most churches never removed people from their membership roles. Those that had died, moved away, joined another church, or hadn’t attended in over a year are never removed from the membership lists. Therefore if most SBC churches have inaccurate member numbers, how can anyone truly believe that the Southern Baptist Convention has over 15 million people? Integrity demands that we have a system of gaining accurate numbers of members. Here is my proposal.

I believe it is important to have accurate numbers so that we can understand who we are as Southern Baptists and what God is doing in our midst. This is a difficult issue because most SBC churches aren’t going to agree to clean up their membership roles. The reason is most members would be shocked and ashamed at their actual number of members. Therefore, the system of gaining numbers must be changed. My proposal is to make SBC membership annual and would therefore need to be renewed yearly. Every year during January, churches would get new church members to sign up for membership to the Southern Baptist Convention and current members to renew their membership to the SBC. This wouldn’t be hard; if we can deliver a Lottie Moon Offering envelope to every SBC member then we can provide every person with an annual SBC membership card. The number of responses in each church would determine how many messengers from that church could attend the convention that year.

This proposal would solve our numbers problem and give us our integrity back. It would also provide accurate information on each individual, like phone number and address. It will also help the SBC leadership to plan better, understand their data better, and understand our convention better by having accurate numbers. The benefits are too great for us to not take action and change how the SBC number thier members. Finally, an appeal to my readers, I will not be attending the convention this year. If you are committed to making a change, please make a motion that would change from the current way of numbering membership to using my purposed annual membership plan. Please feel free to contact me by leaving your email address in my “comment” section.

OBESITY IS A HUGE ISSUE

2007-06-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Southern Baptists are known for their uncompromising stances on spiritual issues such as the virgin birth of Christ, His lordship, and the inerrancy of God’s Word. Southern Baptists have made their voices heard on many social issues by their uncompromising stance on abortion and alcohol. There is now an issue that is both spiritual and social that Southern Baptists are in danger of compromising. The issue is obesity. The biblical word for the problem is gluttony which describes a person who has no self-control when it comes to food. All reports show that obesity in America is on the rise, especially in children. If we don’t deal with this problem we are asking for health problems that could destroy a generation. I want to challenge the Southern Baptist Convention to develop a denomination wide emphasis on health and weight loss. I believe it is time for the Southern Baptist Convention to not only be pro-life, but also pro-health.

This issue is a personal one. I am an over weight Baptist preacher. In the past I justified my weight in lots of ways. I justified my weight by pointing to my busy schedule. My schedule didn’t allow for exercise or time to prepare health meals because I was too busy doing God’s work. The truth of the matter was that the reason I didn’t exercise is because I didn’t want to exercise. The reason I over eat is because I found comfort in food. After a stressful day at the office, a snack would take my mind off my troubles. The combination of over eating and not exercising is deadly. I found this out the last time I went to the doctor. With my blood work results in hand, the doctor said, “You need to lose weight because your blood results show some early signs of serious health problems. I believe with changing your diet and exercise, we can reverse these numbers.” As I made my decision to take my health serious, I couldn’t help but ask, “Why did I wait so long to focus on my health?” I don’t believe I’m alone. Many people are in my situation. You have made your excuses and you’re overweight. Please understand what I’m saying, “You need to be concerned about your health and get some help so that you can avoid serious health problems in the future.”

This is a serious issue for us as Southern Baptists. From the Pulpit to the Pew, many Southern Baptists are obese. So how do we create a movement that results in people becoming healthy? Maybe we should consider what is going on in New Jersey. Should the Southern Baptist create a task force on fat? It couldn’t hurt, but a task force alone won’t solve the problem. Maybe the solution is making a resolution like Ben Cole is submitting for the ’07 SBC annual meeting. A resolution couldn’t hurt because Southern Baptists need to agree that obesity is a serious problem. Maybe the solution is in creating a website that has articles and information about how to become healthy like LifeWay has done. There are many helpful things on their site, but I still don’t see that being the cure for our obesity problem. I believe this problem doesn’t just have one answer but many. The answer revolves around the local church becoming passionate about the health of our members and our community. For too long, there has been a concern for a person’s spiritual health and not their physical health. The two are related and as Southern Baptists we need to show that we care.

Pastors and church leaders, change begins with you. How many of your plans or visions for the next year deal with a person health? We need to begin planning events that encourage health and proper diet. Hire a nutritionist on staff or find one that may volunteer some time. Each church member needs to meet with a nutritionist to help them plan their diet. Create accountability teams around weight loss. Create a regular prayer walking night. Open your building to having dance or aerobic classes. Preach sermons of health and living a disciplined life.

We can help people to avoid serious health problems by taking a stand on this issue. The result will be people will be able to do more for the Lord and live longer for the Lord. It has been said, Southern Baptists should do everything within their power to make sure their members live as long as possible because with the declining baptism rates, once this generation dies there will be no one left. While the statement is very pessimistic it does show my final reason Southern Baptists must respond to the obesity problem with a demonition wide emphasis on health that premates the local church because we care about every Southern Baptist member.

A Big Thank You!

2007-05-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

The Christian Resource Center wants to say, "Thank You" to all the men and women who serve in our Military. As I think about those that have died to protect our freedom and have fought for the freedom of others, it makes me proud to be an American. The biggest "thanks" must go out to these soldier's families and the sacrifices they make while their loved ones are away on the field of battle or have given their lives for the cause of freedom. Let us all remember that freedom has a cost and be thankful for those who have paid the price for us all.

Okpreacher’s Response to “Where have we gone wrong?”

2007-05-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

As a back drop to my article please read "Where have we gone wrong?” by Todd Stinnett. I appreciate anyone who tries to answer the hard questions facing us as Christians and as Baptists. Todd wrestles with the question of why are Southern Baptists baptizing less and less people each year. Despite great efforts by godly men in our convention, our campaigns and programs aren’t leading to greater success for God’s Kingdom or for our churches. So Todd asks, “Where have we gone wrong?”

He points to the fork in the road as being the Vineyard Movement and Baptist pastors trying to copy their, “low-pressure environments that foster a come-as-you-are attitude (which in turn) have routinely de-emphasized atmospheres or actions that could be considered dogmatic.” Many have attacked churches that are seeker sensitive or that provide a holistic worship experience as being worldly. I would challenge anyone who holds such a view to consider the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The incarnation of Jesus Christ proves that God is seeker sensitive. Jesus, who is God, became flesh, so that men and women could see and experience the living God. Matter of fact, I would say that in the Southern Baptist Convention most of our baptisms are coming from churches that are engaging their communities and their culture in a way that impacts the lost. Therefore, the Vineyard Movement isn’t to blame for our problems.

Todd mentions another problem in Baptist life. The problem is, “true biblical preaching has become a thing of the past in too many of our Southern Baptist churches.” Is it really? Sure there are some churches that have gone off course, but I believe that is a very small number. Every Southern Baptist preacher I know claims to preach the Bible. Matter of fact, I would bet that most of the churches that didn’t baptize one person last year, had a preacher who preached the Bible.

I don’t think preaching God’s Word is enough to reach people. Now before you call me a heretic, let me explain. The problem isn’t that God’s Word isn’t being preached, but that it is being preached without the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. I have preached flat sermons before and the reason wasn’t that I wasn’t preaching God’s Word, but because I wasn’t filled with the Holy Spirit. The only way to transform people is to preach God’s Word in God’s Power. In Baptist life, preachers too often hold to God’s Word without holding to God’s power to deliver it. We must remember that the Holy Spirit is God and we need His power to obediently preach His Word.

Southern Baptists have gone wrong by trading in God’s power and glory for our own plans and programs. How do we fix the problem? Real repentance is the first step. From the pulpit to the pew, there must be a renewed sense of our complete dependence on God. There must be a letting go of trying to build our churches, homes, and lives in our own strength. Until we are ready to say that we need God, I don’t see much hope of change.

With real repentance comes a desire for prayer. The reason Southern Baptist are no longer an evangelistic denomination is because we are no longer a praying denomination. Churches are dying, not because a lack of people, but a lack of prayer. Where is God’s revival for America? It is tied up in the apathy of American believers towards prayer. According to the Bible, without prayer we arn't truly worshiping God or fellowshiping with other believers.

You want to see the problem up close. Call a real prayer meeting in your church and see how many people come to pray. Until the members of our churches want to meet with God in prayer, we shouldn’t expect the lost world to want to meet with God either. Prayerlessness has cost us our desire for God. If Christians don’t desire God, why should the lost?

The last trend I see as a problem for Southern Baptists is our lack of devotion for Christ. We must return to Christ-centeredness. How do we expect to change the world for Christ, when we aren’t devoted to Christ? For too long, we have split our devotion. Many of us are devoted to our careers, our churches, our denominations, our families, our governments, and ourselves. These things aren’t bad in themselves, but our engagement in these things should be the overflow of being completely devoted to Christ. Let’s be honest, if we aren’t committed to going all the way with Christ, then we won’t get very far with Christ. If I’m not devoted to Christ, how can I be an effective witness for Christ?

The reason baptism numbers are down isn’t that the lost world doesn’t want accountability. The reason baptism numbers are down is people are looking for God and authentic fellowship and aren’t finding either in our churches. Think about it this way. How many of you would want to be buried alive with a dead person? No one would, so what makes you think a person without Christ would want to join your dead church? The problem isn’t a lack of accountability, but a lack of life because of a lack of repentance, prayer, and Christ-centerness.

In closing, I appreciate Todd’s thoughts and I hope my article may be a challenging read as well. My prayer is that you and I will be moved to action. Churches are made up of individuals and until you and I decided to take action, the Southern Baptist Convention will limp on.

"As I See It" Part 3

2007-04-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

After a great comment posted by PreachRwife on my last article I decided to make my response the focus of this article. One of the biggest problems of the Southern Baptist Convention is a lack of connection between SBC leadership and the people who sit in the pews every Sunday. The SBC brags about being the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, but when most of the people who make up that denomination don’t know what’s going on, there is a problem. The consequence of this disconnection is ignorance or even worse apathy on the part of the average member. How do we start building the bridge of connection?

The first step in building that bridge is to make our message clear and our voice heard. Here is the problem, how many answers would there be if we asked every Southern Baptist, “What is the main focus of the Southern Baptist Convention?” There would probably be millions of different answers, but I bet the number one answer would be, “I don’t know.” Whether it be missions, the Bible, Baptist Faith and Message, God, Christ, Church, Worship, Ministry, or fellowship the SBC needs to communicate a central core value that denominates and demonstrates everything Southern Baptist are about.

Then the role of the pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention is to take that core value and promote it to the individual member. If the individual member commits themselves to the same core value then a connection is made. So the first rule for the SBC core value is it has to be something that every Christian can commit themselves to. For example, if the Southern Baptist Convention were to make a statement that their main value and focus is evangelizing the world. Pastors, then must promote missions in their church and to their individual members. Each member should realize that missions is more than what we do with out tithe in December, April, and September. If each member doesn’t see their life through missions then a disconnection carries on. The life focus of each Baptist should be the same as the key focus of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Where to begin? As a Convention we need to simplify our message. What are we really about? We need to decide. Then we need to show the average member that their life will have meaning if they will live by these same values. I will tell you why I believe the conservative resurgence happened. It was simple and focused. It was over the Bible and most Christians understand the importance of the Bible.

We need to simplify again and begin to communicate with one clear voice what it means to be a Southern Baptist.

As I See It, Part Two

2007-04-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Southern Baptist Convention and conflict go hand in hand. I am over thirty years old and I have never known a time when there was peace and harmony in our convention. The battle of the conservative resurgence, to changing the SBC structure, to signing the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, to boycotting Disney, and to disqualifying anyone from serving as a missionary who has a private prayer language shows that we as Southern Baptists maintain conflict.

As I see it something is happening with many Southern Baptists. They are tired of all the fighting. The same thing is true in our secular world. Last November, the republicans lost seats in Congress over the war in Iraq. Most Americans want to pull out of Iraq, they are tired of fighting a battle that in their view was meaningless. Unless the war ends soon, there will probably be a democrat serving as our next president. The American people are tired of war and want change. The same is true of many Southern Baptists. Most Southern Baptists are tired of battles over meaningless things and are calling for change. We are tired of all the name calling and back-biting. If the battles continue, I would expect to see changes in SBC leadership or huge drops in membership.

My solution to the problem is for Southern Baptist Leadership and pastors to lead the way in fighting the good fight. Building God’s Kingdom and spreading the message of Christ, this must be our unifying battle cry.

"As I See It" Part One

2007-04-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I posted and the reason is I had nothing to say. Over the last several weeks as I have been listening and watching events take place in the Southern Baptist Convention, I have felt compelled to write. I want to start with answering the question of what kind of change is needed to propel Southern Baptists to reaching more people, planting more churches, and sending more missionaries. I have read that many godly men in our convention believe that the problem is a lack of Baptist identity. If we become the type of Baptists people were in the 1700’s, 1800’s, and early 1900’s then the world would be fine. As I see it, the problem isn’t a lack of Baptist identity, but a lack of Christian identity. It is true that many people don’t understand what it means to be a Baptist, but there are a whole lot more who don’t understand what it means to be a Christian.

I believe the change needed is one that only happens in the heart of men and women as they realize what it means to be a Christian. People don’t need to be more conservative, but more Christian. Southern Baptists don’t need a reformation, but a revival of authentic Christianity. Once I asked Dr. Tanner, former president of the Home Mission Board/NAMB, “How did you survive the conservative resurgence without getting in the middle of it? I haven't read anything that talk about you in any controversy.” Dr. Tanner said, “I believed I could be Christian and conservative at the same time.” As I see it, we as Southern Baptist need to start asking some different questions. How do we show the world authentic Christianity? How do we build our denomination while staying true to the Kingdom of God? How do we change the focus from being Baptist to being Christians who are also Baptist? As I see it, every Southern Baptist needs to take responsibility for becoming more like Christ and building their own Christian identity in their home, church, and world.

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Characteristics Part 3

2007-03-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Characteristics

The Intimacy of Faith and Works

Boy howdy, I hadn't realized how fast time can get away from you. It has been almost a month since I started this post. This is the final post in the characteristics of postmodern. I have tried to be as simple as possible for this series. I think there is one more post coming about the nature of postmodern discipleship. We will see. Time is becoming more valuable to me right now. I may have to pause for a while. But anyway, here goes.

James 1: 22-25

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; 24 for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts—this person will be blessed in what he does.

James 2: 14-26

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can his faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder. 20 Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? 21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected. 23 So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness , and he was called God's friend. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by a different route? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

The controversy over the Book of James is well documented. It entered the New Testament Canon barely. Martin Luther actually tried to remove the book from the Bible. (He probably considered the council to have experienced a "momentary lax in parameters.) :) Lord help me for that one I couldn't resist. James offers us a distinct characteristic of the postmodern culture. Your works (actions) must match up with the words coming out of your mouth. Anything less is hypocrisy.

I am really not sure that I could say it any better than the above passages in James. Our faith is dead without the evidence of works alongside of it. Postmodernism puts a high emphasis on the presence of works with one's faith. If those two don't match up, and quite frankly they have not in the church for a long time, then you have already lost the right to be heard with the gospel. If Jesus has no lasting visible impact on your daily life than your faith is entirely unimportant to you.

The postmodern discipleship conversation is far more about coming together side by side and doing faith, than teaching faith. In that process, people by the scores will be led to the Lord, not by the eloquence of your three point argument, but the consistency of your works with your faith. Jesus must make a difference in you, before you make a difference in them.

Previous Posts:

Prelude

The Evangelism Shift

The Disillusionment

Loss of a Cultural Metanarrative

Rise of Experientialism

Seventh Day Adventist Invade Wikipedia

2007-03-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

I came across a fascinating part of Wikipedia while working on an online bible study I lead for our church. Click here here here and here for what I am talking about. The SDA has apparently started a movement in Wikipedia to alter articles in order to reflect their doctrinal teaching. The other part of the project is to inject as many articles as they can about Adventist specifics. I am fascinated by this, and amazed quite frankly about the possibilities this offers.

Could someone potentially rewrite history online to reflect only a certain denominational viewpoint?

What about disagreement within that particular denomination?

Could someone alter this page and claim it reflects the true meaning behind the BF&M? (notice that in reading the article there has already been some revision)

Aren't we already having this discussion?

Upcoming Event for Our Church

2007-02-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, check out this upcoming event our church is hosting for men and their children. If you are in the area, come on by and have fun!!!

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Characteristics Part 2

2007-02-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Characteristics

The Rise of Experientialism

This one is probably the most interesting to me. The appropriation of sensory experience to the individual carries as much weight in defining personal existence as the scientific method. The deluge of sources available to people today has flattened the world back out. Think about this. I am 30 years old. In my lifetime I have witnessed the computer move from filling out an entire room to that same computer capability being carried around in my pocket. I am sitting at a computer that would fit in my lap that is more powerful than the ones that put men on the moon. While I had to convince my mom to let me have a phone in my room, today's kids are fighting to get their text message rights back. I can log on to the internet 24/7 and meet someone around the other side of the world and communicate. I can send a picture that I took with my cell phone around the world in a flash. The connectedness of this world has allowed the younger generations to experience a broad spectrum of ideas, beliefs, and faiths. Many of these things would never have intersected their culture/world before the technological advances of today's society.

As previously discussed here, the blind faith in man's ability to progress culture through rational thought led to a great disillusionment amongst the young. This disillusionment found fertile soil in an arts movement labeled postmodernism. To boil it down to a point in a time, when Hiroshima experienced the horrors of a nuclear attack, the young members of the world's culture saw the disastrous consequences of man's ability to reason left unchecked by experiential wisdom. The nuclear attack on Japan didn't just end a war, it also ended an innocence long favored by the youth of the day. The backlash is still being dealt with.

The Rise of Modern Scientific Rationalism
In the previous characteristic we discussed the infamous arrival of the pinnacle of modernist rationalism in Rene Descartes known as "I think therefore I am." The next guy that solidified the impact of rationalism is Immanuel Kant. Kant believed heartily that one ought to live an orderly life because God created an orderly world. He actually divided man's cognitive world into the phenomenon and noumenon. Phenomena is the world as we experience it, or how our rational mind explains and understands something. The noumena is that same sensed, or rationally experienced, thing independent of the sensory experience. It is the "thing in itself." It is the real object of human congnitive understanding independent of the experience. For Kant, the noumena is unknowable by us. By placing God in the noumena Kant created the possibility of a creeping agnosticism seen ultimately in the works of Friedrich Neitzche and Charles Darwin. Kant made God unknowable to mankind's highly developed skills of reason. Seems ironic. I am reminded of the scene from Jurassic Park where the scienctist points out that God created dinosaurs, God destroyed the dinosaurs, God created man, man destroyed God, and then man created dinosaurs. Kant basically elevated modernity's belief that if it cannot be verified by scientific reason it does not exist, or can't be known anyway so why care. Enter all sorts of things. Why do you think the Jesus Seminar can decide 2000 years later what Jesus actually said? Why do you think Rudolf Bultmann had no problem applying the term demytholigization to our theological vocabulary? (note that Bultmann's critical time of scholarship develops in the middle of the planting and sprouting of the movement we know call postmodernism) The rise of a focus on the individual's ability to reason, and an inability to know God for real, created a decline in several key virtues of society. In this time we find declines in personal morality, responsibility to community, and a sense of purpose and commitment. It is exactly this declined that has led to the quasi-revolt (I would actually like to coin the term "reevaluation") by the postmoderns. Modernity turned God theoretical to the world. God became what we make Him to be. He can be manipulated and redefined multiple times. He is no longer trasncendent and supreme. He is only a creation of our own mind, whose purpose is to satisfy our doubts, our fears, and lack of understanding. As Karl Marx pointed out, God became a crutch to the weak minded.

The Conversational Response of Postmodernism
The loss of innocence caused by the ending of WWII and magnified by Vietnam created a vacuum in which the fledging movement soon to be known as postmodernism would find fertile soil, take root, and sprout. Suddenly, man's ability to think and reason was not as attractive anymore. Individualistic reason allowed mankind to find personal justitification for their actions. The world lost its belief that there is something out there beyond us. In response, the postmoderns elevated experiential knowledge as a legitimate source of truth. They became interested in the conversation. The plus side to this is that they begin to seek out classical doctrine and belief, much of which had been shunned by moderns. They discovered newfound freedom in a relational model of Christianity. They turned from a self-centered focus to a focus on social causes and campaigns. They seek to make the world a better place because they were there, instead of expecting the world to make them a better place because they are there. The drawbacks are found in an increased appropriation of foreign doctrines and belief systems. The fine line between cultural relevance and cultrually influenced is often crossed or missed all together. Truth can sometimes fluctuate with the latest book read or podcast heard.

A postmodern discipleship must learn to capture the core value of experiential learning in order to spur spiritual growth among the younger generations. They aren't seeking another program to be a part. They are seeking a mission to change the world. They are far more interested in a significant life rather than a merely successful life. The postmodern will regularly join you in community assistance projects well before he/she joins you in faith. They want to see your faith lived out in your life and ensure it is not just another telemarketing scheme to get their money. They will walk side by side with you in an effort to clean up the city, but won't stand with you in faith until they know your faith makes a difference in you personally. Quite frankly, they have to see Jesus in you, before they will ever see Jesus in themselves.

Prelude

The Evangelism Shift

The Disillusionment

Loss of a Cultural Metanarrative

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Characteristics Part 1

2007-02-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Characteristics of Postmodernism
The Loss of a Cultural Metanarrative

For the purpose of this series I will identify three main characteristics of postmodernity, which have the greatest impact on the church's attempt to evangelize and disciple younger generations. I, in no way, calim that this is a perfect or definitive list of postmodernism's traits. It does, however, offer a glimpse in a summary fashion at basic realities that each church must face, understand, and traverse in order to establish an ongoing evangelistic conversation with the youth of our society. The first is found below. I will offer the next two over the coming days.

Loss of a Cultural Metanarrative
A metanarrative is an all-encompassing account or story of the historical record on which personal experience and belief is and can be built in order to explain the surrounding world, society, and individual culture. Essentially it is the foundational truth on which you construct your personal worldview. History is generally divided into three distinct periods each of which maintains its particular metanarrative.
The Classical, or Pre-modern period featured an inherently God-centered metanarrative. The world was explained, understood, and defined through the church. Most know of the dangers of ecclesiastical/papal rule. Anyway, the world and humanity was seen as innately sinful and in need of redemption from sin.
The Enlightenment, or Modern period found its apex in Rene Descartes' cogito ergo sum. We know this phrase as, I think, therefore I am. The full phrase actually goes, I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. And they call postmoderns skeptics. The prevailing rationalism of the day held that mankind would progress to a euphoric utopia through the exercise of his own ability to think and reason. Society would experience continual progress in moral, social, and ethical norms. Well, the world did progress. The advances that make our current world possible find their genesis in this time. As I alluded in a previous post in this series, postmillenial thought ruled the day as the world witnessed the power inherent in the human mind. What many failed to remember is summed up aptly by Martin Luther, Reason is the Devil's greatest whore. Something got in the way of this progression to utopia. We now call it World War 1. If that wasn't enough to nail shut the coffin of humanistic optimism the world decided one massive war wasn't enough so it launched into World War 2, which accounts for some the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen or experienced. Needless to say, doubt crept into society's ability to rationally bring about utopia. Some subcultural movements housed within this period are Marxism, Captialism, Freudian Psychology, Communism and Socialism.
The current period, Postmodernism, finds its metanarrative in not having a metanarrative. I would dare say that the root of this reailty is found in modernity's inability to secure its own true metanarrative. What happenned when man put all his faith in his own thinking ability is that a multitude of ideas and -isms developed. The chaotic result led the youth of the current generation to reject the need for a metanarrative at all. It isn't a full scale rejection, but a general skepticism towards blind acceptance of an overarching explanation for the way things are. To be frank, the postmodern generations have watched the reality of the prime of modernistic thought bring forth selfishness, foolishness, moral relativity, Watergate, Whitewater, Monicagate, Vietnam, Irag, Enron, Worldcom, world poverty, AIDS crisis, and so much more. Postmoderns look at all narratives as holding equal weight. This is not totally true. Basically, the postmodern is willing to entertain the veracity of Hinduism just as easily as Christianity, but will make an individual choice that could be one or the other, or even some of both! The postmodern has seen what the modern did to the world and society, and has little interest in conintuing down that path. Unfortunately, they don't tend to find a path very easily. The influx of scandal to the church, a la Haggard; Swaggert; Baker; and more, coupled with the reality that church people have taken a do as I say, not as I do mentality had driven much of the young postmodern generations out of the church building to parachurch, pseudo church, and other ministries. Barna has done plenty of work on this. Read about it here.
Their loyalty is closely guarded and not easily won. They haven't rejected God, but have walked away from the god often preached in today's churches. Today's church, in its quest to reach postmoderns, must help them identify with and personalize a Christian biblical worldview. It is imperative that the church recognize the postmodern's need to search out truth on his own and to take an attitude of guiding, or leading, that person to faith in Christ. This is most often done, not through a sermon on Sunday morning, but by that sermon being lived out through faith during the rest of the week. If you, or your congregation is uninterested in living your faith out loud Monday through Saturday don't bother opening on Sunday. We must seek to help them take ownership and apply their loyalty to accomplilshing God's purposes in and through the local church while making a significant impact in other people's lives and the surrounding community.

Previous Posts:

Prelude

The Evangelism Shift

The Disillusionment

Is the Cooperative Program on Life Support?

2007-02-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

I am sitting here in my office drinking coffee and eating Skittles. This will turn out to be a fun morning. I was flipping through and reading my current Winter 07 edition of Leadership Journal from Chrisitianity Today. There was an article in there titled: New Ownership on page 19 by Eric Reed. In that article he makes the comment that the church has lost in many ways the face that went along with their support of missionaries. No longer does the congregational member hear personally on a Sunday morning/evening from the missionary/ies their dollars support. This is the subtle negative of the Cooperative Program amongst the thousands of positives. As culture continues to evolve more to a "postmodern" (however you choose to define that) mindset, what will be the effect on the Cooperative Program? Gen x'ers and Millenials are much more interested in the face to face, side by side experiential reality of the world and society. Does the CP stand at the edge of cultural denominational irrelavance? How can we prevent such a collapse (and I am not intending to say there is one on the near horizon) from happenning (that is not a resolution passed at a meeting)? I am curious about this. I believe strongly in the CP and what it has allowed the SBC to do and accomplish, but what if I am in the minority in my age class (I am 30) and younger? How do we bring back the missionary face to the CP?

The Leadership Void

2007-02-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

I believe the greatest issue facing the church and her ability to impact the world is a void of godly leadership. I’m not talking about a void of people who enjoy the power of leadership, but a void of those gifted and called to lead. A great example of leadership is found in the book of Job where he says that before his sufferings, “Where I led, people followed.” I believe that is a great picture of what leadership is all about.

There first must be a passion that leads to a vision. Too many so called leaders have no passion. Their heart doesn’t break and therefore they have no vision. A leader without vision is a person who seeks to gain or maintain power. Leadership isn’t about power, but influence. Leadership isn’t about pride, but sacrifice. Leadership isn’t about gaining, but giving. Leadership isn’t about selfishness, but selflessness. Leadership is the ability to see what God is doing and communicate that vision with people in such a way that they become committed to the vision.

The next key of leadership is people. A leader can’t sit aloft from people. A leader has got to be one of the guys. People need to know that the leader knows them and cares about them. As people experience a leader’s life, they are transformed by what they see. Jesus is the great example of a leader becoming one of us. God took on flesh and that of a servant to lead us. Too many potential leaders aren’t willing to let go of their comfort and safety to serve in the mire of people’s lives.

The last key to being a leader is a leader sets the example for others. People follow what you do more than what you say. Many potential leaders fail not because they don’t see the vision or can’t relate to people, but because they don’t live out the vision themselves. A leader has to be a person worth following for people to follow him or her. I encourage every leader to live with integrity by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In closing, I believe 95 percent of the problems faced in the Southern Baptist Convention, our churches, and our world would be solved by filling the leadership void with godly leadership.

My Three Sons

2007-01-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

Hey, I am the proud dad of my third son. He was born Wed. January 17th at 2:44 pm. He was 6 pounds 13 ounces and 18 3/4 inches long. The older two are letting us know to be quiet around the baby in the top picture. The oldest is 6, the middle is 2 and a half, and of course the newborn is just a couple days old.

Asking for Prayer

2007-01-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Over the next week, my family and I are moving to Oklahoma to start a new church. This Sunday will be our last at our current church. We leave behind a lot of friends, but know that God has called us to start this church. Please pray for us as we get settled and get started. The church will be called Damascus Road Baptist Church. The name represents the mission of the church. It was on the road to Damascus that Paul experienced Christ. Damascus Road Baptist Church will be a place where people can experience Christ. Christians weren’t going to witness to Paul, who was at that time called Saul, because they were afraid of him. Damascus Road will be a church that goes after the ones that no other church is going after or reaching. On the road to Damascus Paul not only experienced a changed identity and true salvation, but he also received a mission as well. In Paul’s conversion, Christ not only saved him, but gave him a ministry. Damascus Road will be a place that brings people into a saving relationship with Christ and a serving relationship with Christ. Please pray for Damascus Road and us. If you want to become a prayer partner or financial partner in this work please send me an email at okpreacher@hushmail.com

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - The Disillusionment

2007-01-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have purposefully taken time in writing this post. At the heart of this post is my ideas on why there is such a disillusionment amongst the younger generations with the older. I need to stress that much of this is my opinion and ideas drawn from numerous pages of reading and study of the surrounding culture. Some of it is from just simply sitting around thinking about it. So, bear that in mind with what you will find below. I believe it is a great source, if not the source, of much of the difficulty and disagreement in our world today.

While postmodernity finds its genesis in the late 19th century, it was not until the mid to late 20th century that it took root and blossomed. Ultimately, at the heart of its growth is a disillusionment with modernity's take on culture and life. Let me give you and example. There are three overarching eschatological views on the end times. Generally(very generally) speaking there is premillenial, amillenial, and then there is the little heard of anymore postmillenial. Oddly enough, postmillenial thought believed that the world would progress eventually to a near utopian condition because of the inherent goodness of humanity's ability to reason. Then something tragic happenned called World War 1. Then, whatever remained of postmillenial thought was pretty much stomped on by World War 2 and the holocaust. With that a steady dose of the reality of the human condition began to creep into society. The inherent goodness of mankind basically ran screaming out the door. Society realized its own self-disillusionment with believing reason would bring about utopia.

Moderntiy's focus on one's ability to think/reason as the highest power, its quest for absolutes in everything, and its denegration of society to a herd to be controlled created the ultimate question of "why are one's ideas better than another's?" Here you have the source of the disillusionment in a nutshell. The postmoderns have cryed foul at the excesses and abuses of power so prevalent in the modern genre. Think Nietzche's will to power and the superman here. Modernity's focus on self above all else created a rift when postmoderns took that very belief to its logical conclusion. A shift is occuring as postmodernity develops more of a stronghold. The inherent worth of the self image is being replaced with an attitude of authenticity, realism, and acceptance. The diversity of ideas in the marketplace has forced society to redefine its own ideals of consumeristic existence. The ideals of loyalty, truth, and commitment have not been abandoned, but have become more closely guarded by the individual. Postmoderns have seen what moderntiy has offered in the past 30 years(Vietnam, Watergate, inflation, Clinton, and the past 8 years of constant bickering with nothing being accomplished) and soundly rejected that way of life. Postmoderns are loyal and committed, but not to the things moderns feel they should be. Perhaps this is the greatest source of difficulty. The modern expects submission to traditional ideals and beliefs because that is the way it is done, an often fails to really understand or know why it is done. The postmodern wonders why it has always been done that way. It is not a rejection of tradition or truth, but faith seeking to understand the foundation of its belief. This wonderment is key to capturing the postmodern in faith and discipleship. Postmodern discipleship must seek to harness the questioning nature and direct the postmodern to Christ by walking alongside them, not pointing a finger while decrying their disrespect and lack of truth.

Previous Posts:

Prelude

The Evangelism Shift

What Are You Most Thankful For?

2006-12-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

This Christmas, my wife and I are celebrating our first Christmas with our daughter. We struggled many years with trying to have a child and having her is truly a miracle of God. I thought it might be an exciting witness to have our readers share what they are most thankful for this year. Enjoy the picture of our daughter and have a Merry Christmas. - Okpreacher

Article #6 - Rural Church Growth

2006-12-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Grow or Gone: Understanding You

In this last article of my series on rural church growth, I want to deal with a subject very close to my heart. I have seen too many ministers with a genuine call get scarred up serving churches that were never going to grow. A pastor needs to understand his make-up and calling. A pastor friend of mine says, “There are three types of pastors; caretakers, undertakers, and risk-takers.” Most rural churches are looking for pastors that are caretakers or undertakers, but not risk-takers. I’m a risk-taker and I’m writing this last article for my risk-taker ministry friends.

As a Southern Baptist minister who is also a risk-taker, job searching is frustrating. Most Southern Baptist Churches are small rural churches. That means that there are few great risk-taker ministry positions available. So what is a risk-taker to do?

Rural churches normally go through preachers like Hollywood Stars go through spouses. There is always a rural church looking for a preacher. Rural churches are attracted to risk-taker ministers because they are charismatic and passionate. Risk-takers are drawn to any church that talks about change, risk, and the Kingdom of God. Soon the Risk-taker takes the risk and become pastor of a rural church thinking that change can happen. Then the risk-taker faces reality, the rural church that talked about change is trying to make him fit into the caretaker or undertaker mold. At this point the risk-taker faces some choices. First, he can stop being a risk-taker and become a caretaker or undertaker. Second, he can push a head and see if he can win enough people to Christ to keep the church members from firing him. Finally, he can leave the church.

I believe Risk-takers spend too much time in rural churches. I heard a quote that was attributed to Billy Graham which was, “If you serve a church where the people aren’t willing to follow you after six months, leave. There is too much Kingdom work to be done, to keep focusing energy on people who refuse to grow.” I believe six months is too short of a time, but within a year you should know whether your church can grow or not. I believe a risk-taker who realizes that his church isn’t interested in growth should leave the church. I have never seen anything good come from a risk-taker at a church wanting an undertaker. Leave and let them find a pastor that is a caregiver or undertaker. There are plenty of caregiver and undertaker pastors and I’m thankful for them. Let them pastor the rural churches.

I want to challenge the Risk-takers to stop giving your gifts to churches that don’t want them and give them to starting new churches. If the Risk-takers don’t plant churches, who will? Many churches, associations, conventions, and denominations are realizing that church planting is the hope for building God’s Kingdom in the 21st century and are willing to provide support. The key to church planting is risk-takers so please check into the possibility of planting a church in your area.

In closing, caretakers and undertakers are great and are needed to serve as pastors so that the risk-takers can go and plant new churches. Risk-takers stop wasting your gifts on churches that really don’t want it and take the big risk of planting a church.

Article #5 - Rural Church Growth

2006-12-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

You Win When You Lose – Understanding the Risk and Sacrifice Involved in Change.

My purpose in writing on rural church growth is to help rural churches identify and solve the main issues they must address for the church to grow again. I believe that many churches talk about wanting to grow, but most are unwilling to pay the cost to grow. I want to be completely honest about what it takes to grow. Ask any woman about giving birth and they will tell you about the pain of birthing. Church grow is a lot like giving birth because church growth is a result of the pastor and church members enduring growth pains in order to birth a movement of God.

The core members of your church must understand that they are expected to stay engaged and sacrifice on their part will be involved as the church seeks to grow. Every rural church has core members. That core must be engaged in the process of change or don’t change. If you lose the support of the core members, your church is sunk. If your core is willing to follow, here is the sacrifice they will need to endure.

The first sacrifice is the style of the church. In my past articles I have written in detail about this subject. There must come a point where the core members see themselves as missionaries. They are to view their community as a foreign country. They must study their community and develop their evangelism and discipleship programs around the needs of the community. The style is to change from being focused on the core to focusing on the needs and style of the community. Most churches aren’t willing to sacrifice the style of the church in order to reach their community. My comfort and your comfort have to be sacrificed in order for us to connect with our community. This means “our Church” becomes “their church”.

The second sacrifice is the members of the church. Church members are use to being the focus of the church. If and when that changes, church members are tempted to find a church that will focus on them. Why should church members stay engaged in a church that has changed it’s focus from church members to the community? The reason is every church member must realize that they are a minister or missionary. A missionary never seeks to build a church that focuses on the missionary, but on the community they are trying to reach. A church must decide, will we seek those going to Heaven or will we seek those going to Hell. Members will leave, but the right type of members will stay. The members that understand their mission and want to be apart of building God’s Kingdom will stay engaged in the church.

The third sacrifice is the money of the church. Every pastor has been told by the church treasure, “We don’t want to lose Mr. and Mrs. So and So, because they tithe lots of money, so keep them happy.” Churches need to view their finances as a tool for doing ministry, not as a shackle from doing ministry. I believe the more a church emphasizes the mission of their church, the more money for doing that mission will be tithed. It will be tithed by different members, members who have been waiting to get involved. So be prepared to lose some money up front, but gaining money as you stand on the mission.

The last sacrifice is the time and energy of the church. To successfully change a church, there is a sacrifice of time and energy that must be made by each member. Changing a church is hard work and it doesn’t happen over night. There are additional meetings, small groups, worship services, parties, and community functions that take up time from our members, but to change a church it is needed.

In closing, I want to challenge you with one thing that never changes. The spreading of the message of God’s Word is the reason a church exists. Never change God’s Word, just communicate it more effectively. What is the result of all this sacrifice and pain? To use the birthing example again, after the pain, you expect life. We sacrifice not for change alone, but for the ability to bring our community into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. In order to bring people to God, Christ sacrificed His life, what will you sacrifice?

Taking Christ Out Of Christmas

2006-12-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas is the time when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is important because there is only one true God and He became flesh. Jesus Christ is God. His birth was a miracle. His life was a miracle. His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead was a miracle. Christ the Lord can rescue anyone who will trust their lives to Him. Christians celebrate Christmas because they realize how much Christ has done for them. Christians understand everything Christ did for humanity, He did as a gift. Since Christians view Christ as the greatest gift, they place great importance on gift giving.

This year the ever growing Political Correctness War has targeted Christmas. Many stores and government agencies have made policies forbidding the use of, “Merry Christmas” by employees. To them Christmas is too limiting. Since most of our world doesn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord or honor His birth, the Political Correctness people cry out “unfair”. Why should they be forced to experience a holiday that they don’t believe in? I agree with them because Christmas isn’t about Santa Clause, reindeer, or Christmas Trees. Christmas is about Christ. Why should we be surprised that the P.C. people want to take Christ out of Christmas, when Christians haven’t put Christ into Christmas? Maybe this year instead of getting mad at someone for not saying, “Merry Christmas”, you can share the reason you celebrate Christmas.

The people who took Christ out of Christmas were Christians who deluded the true meaning of Christmas. I’m not saying Santa Clause, Reindeer, or Christmas Trees are bad, but I’m saying that as long as this is all we talk about, we shouldn’t be surprised that the world has very little use for our holiday.

Don’t worry Christmas isn’t going anywhere because the Christmas season is extremely profitable for companies. The bottom line of our country is our economy. Our economy’s survival is built on the Christmas season. Most business gauge their success or failure for the year on how they do during Christmas. So don’t worry, Christmas isn’t going anywhere, but the question is will Christ still be apart of it.

Article # 4: Rural Church Growth

2006-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Just Be Honest – Understanding your commitment level for change

Nothing destroys churches and pastors like unmet expectations. I believe 95% of rural churches have unreal and therefore unmet expectations. How do you determine if an expectation is realistic? Here are some questions to ask that will help to determine if your expectations are realistic. First, are your expectations Biblical? For example, I expect every member of our church to tithe. This is a Biblical expectation because the Bible tells us that every member of our church should tithe.

The second question to ask is, are your expectations physically possible? For example, I expect to have 500 in worship for High Attendance Sunday and our Worship Center only holds 100. This is an unrealistic expectation, because it’s not physically possible to get 500 people into a space meant for 100. Each expectation should have a faith and a practical side to it.

The third question to ask is what type of commitment is there to fulfilling this expectation? When people are uncommitted to an expectation, it is unrealistic. For an expectation to be met, people must be willing to do whatever must be done, for however long it must be done. People must be committed to accomplishing the task for it to be a realistic expectation.

With this said, I believe most rural churches have an unrealistic expectation of growth for their church. It is unrealistic not because it isn’t Biblical or physically impossible, but because most church members aren’t committed to it. Most rural churches are dying and if they don’t begin a new life-cycle they will either close or have no influence in their communities within five years. Most members intellectually understand that change needs to occur and they talk about change needing to occur, but most really don’t want change. Don’t fool yourself; intellectually knowing changes need to happen is different than being committed to change.

Statements I have heard rural churches say that shows they aren’t committed to church growth are; “We need slow change”, “We can change as long as we take care of those who have money”, and “We can change, but lets not lose our tradition.” Someone who is committed to change says, “I know we need to change, lets do it and how can I help.”

Here is what keeps me motivated to change and to change quickly. I’m motivated by what I don’t know. I don’t know two things. First, I don’t know when Christ is coming back. He could be coming back today. Second, I don’t know how long the lost people in my community have to live. So the question that motivates me is, “how many people must die and go to hell before I’m willing to change.” Most churches want to change slowly because most aren’t really committed to change. You don’t know how much time you have left before Christ comes or your target people die. I encourage every church to change as quickly as you can. Your church must connect with as many people as possible in a short amount of time, because we can’t take time for granted.

If you realize your church isn’t committed to an expectation, either church growth or something else, then let it go. Your church will be what the members of your church are committed to. It is better for you to plant another church than to try and lead a church to change when members really aren’t committed to changing. In closing, understand your church’s commitment level as you make expectations because only realistic expectations can be met.

The Guys' Rules

2006-12-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

"Got this from a friend on email and thought it was a great laugh. We spend so much time solving all the problems of the world and the church on this blog, I thought I would post this for a laugh. Enjoy."

Finally , the guys' side of the story, listen up ladies.

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

2. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

3. Sunday sports It's like the full moon
or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

4. Shopping is NOT a sport.
And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

5. Crying is blackmail.

6. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

7. "Yes" and "No" are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

8. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

9. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a Problem. See a doctor.

10. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.

11. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

12. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

13. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done. Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

14. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

15. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

16. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

17. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

18. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or golf.

Article #3: Rural Church Growth

2006-12-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

You Reach Your Culture: Understanding Your Church and Your Community.

Most rural churches have already hit their peak and they are in a stage of decline. In my last article I wrote about life-cycles and how a church ages. Understanding your life-cycle is important because where your church is in it’s life-cycle determines your church’s culture. Church culture is important because it determines who your church will reach in the community. Many rural churches talk about reaching younger couples but are unwilling to change their church's culture because they are comfortable with their current life-cycle.

If your rural church is going to be one of the few churches that transition into birthing a new life-cycle you need to understand what is going to be required of you. The first requirement is to die to the current church culture. Your core church members must be committed to the fact, “The church we are is completely different than the church we want to become.”

Most rural churches make a mistake at this point. They will do a study and find out what the current church members like and want their church to be. I am challenging every church to do a study of what your future church members like and want their church to be. Your church must view the community as their future church members. Each rural church must understand who they are, but they also must understand who they need to become in order to reach their future church members.

Each church that desires to birth a new life-cycle must decide to become missional. For example, if I went to start a church in Mexico, I wouldn’t try to plant an “American” church. I wouldn’t preach in English, but Spanish. The whole style of the church would be Mexican. The reason is I want to connect the unchanging message of Jesus Christ with the Mexican people. Most rural churches aren’t missional because they don’t understand the culture of their community and therefore, they’ve created a church culture that connects with them, but with no one else. This isn’t about whether you sing hymns or choruses, but will the whole culture of your church connect with the culture of your community?

The next requirement is to determine who in the community is your future church members. Make a target group. Even though we desire for everyone in our community to accept Christ, we also understand that our community is made up of many different cultures. Which ever culture we create is who we will reach. If we decide to reach people who are 50 our culture will look different then if we are trying to reach cowboys that are 25 and listen to Garth Brooks. A church must determine who they want to reach in their community. This should come as a result of praying, studying of the demographics, and talking with people.

The next step is to study the target group. What are the values of this group? What makes them tick? What music do they enjoy? What language do they speak? How do they feel about traditional church? We need to learn as much as possible about them. The reason for learning this information is for the purpose of creating a church culture that will connect with them.

The next step is to create a culture that speaks to your target group. Every member needs to see themselves as a missionary and the reason your church is creating a new culture is to reach those future church members. Everything related to style and methods must be shaped by your target group. This process will lead you from the church that you are to the church you need to be.

The last step is to develop relationships with your target group outside the church for the purpose of sharing Christ in a community environment. If your target group doesn’t know your church members then they won’t know your church.

In closing, if a church doesn’t want to create a new life-cycle don’t worry about changing your culture. Don’t worry about studying the community. Old life-cycles are driven by the members you have, while new life-cycles are driven by the members you don’t have yet. No matter what, your church culture determines who you will reach.

Article # 2 - Rural Church Growth

2006-12-01T07:27:00.000-08:00

Change Brings Death - Understanding Life-cycles

“Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it” is a quote my parents use to tell me growing up. I believe this quote applies to many churches. Churches talk about wanting to grow and make changes, but most church don’t understand or want what they are asking for. When you ask for change you are speeding up the death process in a church. Let me explain.

Churches and vision have a life-cycle. For example, is there any person that expects to live forever and never experience death? No, every person knows that they will probably live 70 – 90 years. That is all the time that you have to make a difference and then death comes. You may have never realized that churches and vision work on life-cycles.

Most rural churches were founded between 1920 and 1960. At that time the church was new and there were many young people involved in the church. The church was relevant to the young members and it grew. Then as the young people aged to become middle-aged, so the church aged. The church wasn’t so relevant to the young anymore, but continued to be relevant to the middle-aged who had families and money. Then as the middle-aged people became older the church aged again. But this time the church wasn’t relevant to the young anymore and all of the families had left. Older people in a rural church love the church because the church aged with them and kept them as it’s focus. Then as older people realize that death isn’t to far away for them, they also realize the church that has aged with them is headed for the same fate. I call this process of aging with what was the foundational young members of the church a life-cycle. Normally, at the end of a life-cycle fear for survival dominates the mission of the church.

The problem is the church has lived out it’s life-cycle. The rural church has only two options at this point. The first is to let the church die along with the members of the church. We have to remember that our individual churches aren’t the completion of God’s Kingdom. There is nothing unchristian about a church dying or closing. Rejoice for the dying church because it has lived it’s life-cycle and served it purpose for that generation.

The second option is to birth a new life-cycle. Birthing a new life-cycle is the work of God giving a group of people a brand new vision to reach young people in their community. To begin a new life-cycle in a church, the old life-cycle is fundamentally put to death. People seeking to birth a new life-cycle realize that the mission, vision, and methods of the church will be completely different than what it was. I heard of a church that every time they changed a program, the church had a funeral service for the existing program. They would rejoice about how God had worked through that existing program in it's prime. Then they symbolically buried it. Everyone had to let it die. Here is a warning: some people think that their church can have two life-cycles going at once but just like you can’t be 40 and 70 at the same time, so a church can only have one life-cycle at a time.

How do you choose what you are going to do as a church? You must decide what Jesus’ Will is for your individual church. His Will may be for the church to close at the end of it’s current life-cycle. If so, proclaim it and tell your church, “Guys, we have five or ten good years left. Let’s make a difference and go out with a bang.”

You may sense that Jesus’ Will is for your church to birth a new life-cycle. This is where you begin talking about change and you tell your church, “Guys, Jesus has given us a new vision and mission. We are no longer going to be the church we were. We are going to go through the pain to do what it takes to birth this new life-cycle.”

One thing I should share with you, if your church chooses to stay with the current life-cycle until death. God will rise up new churches with new life-cycles in your area. They will do what you’re not able to do and there will be people from your church who leave to join the new life-cycle churches. Also if you choose to birth a new life-cycle you will lose most of the old life-cycle people. What I’m saying is that with both decisions you will lose people and this is the reason that the decision can’t be made on the bases of survival, but mission. You must determine where the church is in it’s life-cycle and commit to doing what Jesus wants. Whether Jesus’ Will for your church is dying or giving birth, do it for His glory.

Article # 1: Rural Church Growth

2006-11-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

A Church is Mission Driven: Understanding the Purpose of Your Church

Matthew 28:18-20,
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This series of articles is committed to solving the problems facing rural churches and Kingdom growth. The first problem facing rural church is a loss of Kingdom focus. Most rural churches have existed in their communities for several decades. There is a large gap between those who planted the church and their passion to win their community to Christ and those in the church who just want to keep the doors open another week.

The mission of any church is the Great Commission given by Jesus Christ and it is to be lived out according to the example given by the early church in Acts 2:42-47. Each believer has been given the charge by Christ to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them obedience to God’s Word. This is God’s will for your life and for your church.

The problem is most rural churches no longer have the passion or the vision to fulfill this command of Christ. For most rural churches their passion isn’t for making disciples of Christ, but disciples of their church. Most of the gages of spiritual maturity in rural churches are based on what will keep the church structure going. An example of this is how rural churches measure a person’s maturity by their church attendance. The problem of this is church attendance isn’t part of the great commission.

My point is the mission of the church isn’t survival, but revival. The mission of the church isn’t to maintain people, but to make disciples. The mission isn’t to please the people who control the money, but to please Christ who controls the Kingdom. The mission isn’t to make people that are bound for heaven comfortable and lazy, but to make people bound for hell into disciples that are passionate for living for Christ. The same reason God the Father sent Christ, He sends us. It is all about bringing the lost into Christ-likeness. Church survival is important, but understand this truth, “As we seek to build God’s Kingdom through making disciples, God will grow our individual churches. The reason churches are dying is we are church focused, not Kingdom focus, and therefore the goal becomes keeping Christians comfortable.”

The ways in which rural churches have tried to reach those without Christ have been disastrous. The reason is because most rural churches are stuck in programing ruts. Instead of working smarter, they only work harder, doing the things that have no impact on the lives of people without Christ. Rural church need to examine everything they do and see if it helps in making disciples. Rural churches must examine everything because Sunday School, the way you worship, and the way your church plans events may not help your church in making disciples. Remember the mission isn’t about having Sunday School and three worship services a week. The mission is about making disciples.

Will rural churches work smarter to carry out their mission to make disciples? Will they start going after those without Christ instead of expecting those without Christ to come to them? Only one agenda can have priority. Make the commission of Christ the mission of your church and your life.

Al Mohler and Richard Land Mix it Up

2006-11-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

I came across this link while reading through the Baptist Press website. Here is the link to the actual article. Al Mohler and Richard Land are amongst a number of panelists who are engaging in an online religious dialogue in conjunction with Newsweek and The Washington Post. There are some amazing insights here for us as a denomination through the comment strings. Check it out.

On Faith

It makes some neat reading.

Don't forget to continue reading the ongoing series from OKPreacher and Professor X below!!!!!!

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - The Evangelism Shift

2006-11-27T05:39:00.000-08:00

Postmodern Discipleship begins with a shift in evangelistic method. Ultimately, there are two distinct methods of evangelism. These methods are Deductive and Inductive.

(The bulk of this information is found in the work of Delos Miles who was the Professor of Evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have focused in on a book called The Gospel for the New Millenium, which is comprised of essays written in honor of Dr. Miles.)

Deductive Evangelism
Deductive evangelism is defined in terms of the three P's of the church growth movement. These three P's are proclamation, persuasion, and presence. Deductive evangelism practices the P's precisely in that order. It's primary emphasis is the proclamation of the gospel with the purpose of persuading the hearer to accept the terms of the gospel. It maintains less emphasis on the believer living out his faith in front of the non-believer.

Some key words that would be associated with this style are rational, lips, canned, monological, traditional, and religious. I would dare say that many of our churches are geared this way. The calling is for the individual congregational members to invite the people they come in contact with to come to church on Sunday and hear a gospel message. This approach might be modified to challenge a believer to get to know the person first and practice a little bit of presence first, and then invite them to church to hear the message. You might think of Pentecost as a biblical example of this approach to evangelism.

Inductive Evangelism
In contrast to deductive evangelism, the inductive approach places primary importance on presence, then persuasion, and finally proclamation. Establishing credibility with the unbeliever is of utmost importance in inductive evangelism. One must show the relevance of the gospel to the unbeliever's life by living faith out loud in front of them. Much of the persuasion is accomplished before the gospel is ever proclaimed to that person.

Some key words for this approach are lifestyle, relational, dialogical, friendship, conversational, and spontaneous. This approach is dramatically seen in the current emerging church movement, Brian McLaren, Rick Warren at Saddleback, and Bill Hybels' contagious Christianity motif. This style challenges the individual to live out the gospel in the midst of a lost world and walk alongside of the unbeliever guiding them to faith after gaining their trust. This approach is also often accused of watering down the gospel because of it shying away from a strong confrontational method. Think of the time Paul spent in cities, or even Prsicila and Aquila and their approach. I would speculate that much of our modern missions is based on an inductive approach to evangelism.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23
This means I am not bound to obey people just because they pay me, yet I have become a servant of everyone so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings.
NLT

It is easy to see above that Paul recognized distinct methods in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel remained the same no matter what, the delivery was fluid. Likewise, we should not champion one method over the other, and especially not decry the evils of one's use of either. The goal is to share the gospel, and reach people for Christ. Both methods are valid and should be employed in various forms.

My point in bringing out this distinction is that a fundamental shift has occurred between a Modernist approach to the evangelism and a Post-modernist approach. This shift is from deductive to inductive. The post-modern Gen X/Bridger is more interested in walking alongside someone to faith than being shouted at from a pulpit. Recognizing this shift and accepting it is paramount to beginning to develop a post-modern ethos of discipleship. This shift carries methodological applications throughout our Christian lives. Think about educational development. If learning is more inductive now, why are so many classes in seminary strictly lecture style? Why are so many Sunday mornings centered on a 30 - 40 minute sermon? Why are we so afraid of the question "why"?

A key point to make in this evangelistic shift is that a form of discipleship often occurs before conversion ever takes place. Now, before you get all tied up and talk about how spiritual maturity cannot take place in a non-believer close your mouth and think about it. Basically, pull your head out. The shift to inductive evangelism allows the believer to instill basic spiritual principles into the potential convert. Essentially, it allows a foundation to be built before the building is ever considered. What a concept!!!!!! The sad truth is that the person who comes to faith in Christ through proper inductive evangelism is years ahead of the other at conversion in regards to spiritual maturity. The inductive approach in post-modern conversation is key to laying the groundwork for continued spiritual growth once there is conversion. This shift signals to us that a new approach to discipleship must take place to foster the continued growth of the postmodern believer. It must incorporate the key values and concepts that define the postmodern and identify him. The core will never change, but the method of developing that core must make cultural shifts amongst believers.

Previous Posts can be found below:

Prelude

Introduction - Rural Church Growth

2006-11-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

“We Want To Grow” (A series on the growth potential of rural Baptist churches.)

Every pastor search committee I have interviewed with told me, “We want to grow and we are ready under the right pastor to make the changes necessary to grow.” I would get excited about what I though was growth potential. I would share with the committee that I was interested in being their pastor. Over the years I have realized that most pastor search committees are lying. Most don’t realize they are lying, they think they are telling the truth, but just saying you want to grow doesn’t make it true. My purpose in this series of articles is to share what steps must be taken for a rural Baptist church to grow. I want to help churches that are considering change, leaders of rural churches that are desperate for change, and ministers that may feel called to a rural church and think they are going to be leading change. Issues that I’m going to cover are:

1. A Church Is Mission Driven – Understanding the purpose of your church
2. Change Brings Death – Understanding Life-cycles.
3. You reach your culture – Understanding your church and your community.
4. Just Be Honest – Understanding your commitment level for change.
5. You Win When You Lose – Understanding the risk and sacrifice involved in change
6. Grow Or Gone – Understanding yourself.

This will be an interesting journey and I hope this helps many of you. Plus Happy Thanksgiving.

Deconstructing Postmodern Discipleship - Prelude

2006-11-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

No one would honestly disagree that we are standing at the greatest crisis phase the Kingdom of God has ever faced. The beginning of this series will deal spcifically with the problem we must come to terms with much much sooner than later. Postmodern thought is not everything it is made up and out to be. Most would identify the main characteristic of postmodernists as a lack of absolute truth. That is wrong. That is an extreme side of it. The problem is that the postmodern is often accused of this simply because he does not automatically accept one's belief as true without support or reason. Before we go too far let's look at some statistics that illuminate the postmodern drift we are dealing with.

2 Questions from Thom Rainer:

Do you know for certain when you die you will go to heaven?
Why should God let you into heaven?

Generational Reality:

Builders - Born before 1946 65% answered appropriately
Boomers - Born 1946 - 1964 35% answered appropriately
Gen X - Born 1965 - 1976 15% answered appropriately
Bridgers - Born 1977 - 1994 4% answered appropriately

William Barrett
The postmodern generation of Chrisitians is now 112 million and will double that in 12 years.

George Barna
The population of unchurched people in the USA has doubled in the decade from 1990-2001. After 9/11 attendance is less than half of what it was before 9/11.

Dawson McAllister
90% of kids active in high school youth groups will abandon church after their sophomore year of college.

Dr. Stanley Presser & Linda Stinson
Only 26% of Americans actually attend church.
Denominations claim that 40% attend church.

(On a side note here, if you agree with Billy Graham about the percentage of people in church who don't really know Christ then only about 10-13% or less really are believers. What that means to me and you in the SBC world is that out of the "16 million" people we "claim" are members of the denomination there are only about 1 million who might be actual authentic believers in Christ. That is a staggeringly scary reality of our faith.)

So, what is the problem? Is it postmodernism bent on seeking truth? Could it be its disdain for tradition? Is it postmodernism's fault at all? Postmodernism itself developed late in the 19th century, and early 20th. It did not receive its namesake and become truly recognized until the mid 1930's when it was called "postmodernism" in reference to a phase in the art world. It reached the end of its incubation period in the mid-1960's and has grown ever since. The point is this, postmodernism developed as a logical extension of modernistic thought, not as a rebellion against it. If man's ability to think is above all else, than why is one man's thought any better than another?

The most basic form of the issue facing us today is that the church is hemorraging people out of it. The church-goer demographic is radically shrinking for some reason. We must find the source and stop the deluge.

Ignite Your Passion!

2006-11-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

Ignite your passion by reading your Bible. I have been on a rewarding journey lately of reading through my Bible from cover to cover. In October, I got "The Message, Remix" Bible for my birthday. This bible is written in contemporary English. My daily readings have been awesome. I started with my own reading schedule of four chapters on weekdays and five chapters on weekends. With this reading schedule I will read through the Bible in less than a year. I want to encourage everyone to do whatever you have to do to ignite a passion within you for reading God's Word.

I know there is a lot of talk about what is needed for the church to grow and solutions to Baptist problems. I hope I don't sound naive when I say that Christians becoming committed to reading God's Word daily would make a difference. It doesn't matter the translation or even if you use a paraphrase Bible. Read and ignite your passion for God.

A Great Quote

2006-11-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

I have been reading a couple books lately. One of them is:

The Gospel for the New Millennium

And for those who don't like Amazon:

The Gospel for the New Millennium

Chapter 5 is by Alvin Reid and the title is: "Revival/Spiritual Awakening and Incarnational Evangelism." In this chapter on page 102 he points out the usual excuses that people don't witness. He then moves into the below quote:

The root cause lies in our misunderstanding in our day of the essential nature of the Christian faith. For some, Christianity is a simple system of dogma. Make no mistake: doctrine is critical, particularly in our pluralistic world which sees tolerance as a virtue and conviction as a vice. But an emphasis on doctrine apart from devotion to God leads to dead orthodoxy.

The emphasis on the final sentence is mine. I have tried to give a little context to the quote in order to capture what I think he is saying. I have often asked myself the question of which comes first? Or, which do I as a spiritual formation minister at a church teach first? Does spiritual discipline and right doctrine lead to devotion to God and spiritual growth? Or does pure enamored devotion to God lead to spiritual discipline and doctrinal aptitude? For many years I think we have ignored the slow death of our orthodox existence while attempting to purge our denomination of its less than stellar proponents. We forgot how to love God in our effort to not be charasmatically emotional. In my evangelistic endeavors I have yet to have an unbeliever question my doctrine before my character and integrity.

A Conservative Education?

2006-10-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

“Liberals approach education as being a matter of just exploring -- there is no right, there is no wrong, let's just look at all sides of things and try to create a tolerant open-minded person,” Owens explained. “A conservative says no. We want to teach everything that's out there. But we are going to advocate what we believe to be true.”

The above quote is directly from a Baptist Press article pertaining to the Steven Flockhart debacle at FBC West Palm Beach in Florida. Here is the link to the full article:

Pastor's Resignation Sparks Discussion of Accreditation

The quote struck me as extremely trite. I received a first rate education in seminary mainly because I was taught by a particular professor to think "theologically." The reason, in my opinion, that the professor was so succesful at it was because he did not advocate one position as true or right. He craftily led each of us to develop and learn the tools to decide the truth. He was as baptist and doctrinal as any professor there, but you could not decipher his position without work. If we strayed off doctrinal course he would deftly refocus us through questioning and challenge. He ensured our theological soundness through dialogue. He dared to allow me to drift from the truth in order to bring me back with sound apoligetic capability to defend the truth of Christ. The difficulty with the above position is that often the class is little more than instruction on what and how to believe. This creates the very shallowness that so many of the same people are speaking out against. Not only that, you end up with student after student with truth, but no ability to defend that truth, or answer the most basic question of "why?". That student has no real reason to believe that truth other than it is what he was told to believe. I am a better theologian, student, and minister because I was forced to think "theologically" for myself by this professor. Today, I continue to read theological texts that are diverse in their nature. I don't do this because I believe they are true, but to continue to hone my own theological skill and more than anything strengthen my personal faith in God.

The Crucible

2006-10-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I came across a movie on HBO's free preview weekend. The movie was The Crucible. The Crucible is a play that was written by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials were a dark time in the United States around 1692. Arthur Miller wrote the play as a commentary of sorts on the current events of his time. The major news of his day has retroactively been dubbed the Second Red Scare. During about 1947/8 to 1957/8 the United States entered into a time of wild accusations and fear over the rise of communism in the world. Neighbor turned against neighbor and people accused their closest friends of being "red" out of fear for their own self and power. Miller's commentary in the play relates the story of a group of girls who are caught in the woods dancing around a fire by the town minister. The youngest girl, who is the minister's daughter, lapses into a catatonic state. The town jumps to the conclusion that the devil is at foot in the town and they are dealing with witches. Fearing for her own self, the eldest girl, Abigal Williams, incites the girls to blame women in the town they don't like of witchcraft. Eventually, Abigal takes the opportunity to accuse the wife of a man she is in love with of witchcraft thinking he will turn to her when his wife is out of the way. The fear of the town and the spirit of revenge drove the town to do incideous things. Use the above links to read the full story of the play and history.

The nature of the play struck a chord with me. At its most simple point the play was about people allowing fear of the unknown to rule life and the tendency of mankind to label things in an extreme manner that he doesn't know or agree with. These actions are little more then excertions of authoritarion control over others. How far are we from Salem today? The general rule of debate today is to label your opponent something negative in order to discredit their position regardless of the actual nature of their view. I have heard this exact thing taught in a seminary classroom. We feel the freedom to attach a stigma, such as liberal; moderate; fundamentalist; legalist; right-wing; left-wing, to a person simply because he doesn't interpret particular passages in the way we do. We create a modern day doctrinal witch hunt. Why is that? Why do we feel the need to discredit a person so completely only because he interprets a verse/s differently? Why attack the character of a man over a non-essential? The slandering of a fellow Christian brother or sister in the name of doctrinal holiness is still slander. It only reveals the great weakness of our own character. The path to righteousness in God's eyes is not traversed by the oppression of those who disagree with you. It is ungodly, and it is definitely unbiblical to do such a thing.

Word of Mouth

2006-10-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

“Hiring Smiling Faces” was the job recruitment theme for McDonald’s. I always laughed when I’d see that sign, because I always thought about a bouncing head without a body serving my food. McDonald’s wasn’t trying to be funny, they were serious about hiring people that where friendly and happy. Nothing would be worse for McDonald’s business than having a grumpy person serve food. What would happen to McDonald’s if people stopped coming because they were served by a rude person? Even though McDonald’s has a good product and good advertising, the word of mouth influence would be devastating. Most companies seek to create an enjoyable experience for their customers so that they will use their mouth to promote the company.

In the same way a church’s growth is heavily dependent upon word of mouth. I know of churches that hurt people in their community, therefore, there was no positive word of mouth talk about the church. When there is no positive word of mouth talk about the church, the church is in serious trouble. I also know of churches that are reaching people and there is tons of positive word of mouth talk. Christians need to feel good about their church and to feel excited about telling other people about their church. No church is perfect, but each member needs to think about how they can promote their church and even more promote their Lord.

I believe a church should seek ways to create an enjoyable worship experience for the members of their church and the surrounding community. A church must develop positive Bible Studies and fun fellowship times. If a person leaves without a positive experience, the church witness has been hurt. Earlier I said the members need to feel good about their church, but the staff also should feel good about the church. If you’re a staff member, you can help your church grow by feeling positive about the church and what God will do.

P.S. – Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I have been on vacation and read, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. I am currently reading, “Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age” by Ed Stetzer.

The 26 Wellness Center

2006-10-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Today, my church held the grand opening celebration of The 26 Wellness Center. Like most churches we built a family life center in 1990. It was never used the way it truly can be used. Most of our members have generally forgotten that we have a gym. As an effort to establish a unique connection point for our community I was brought on staff in October of last year with one of my purposes being to bring about the vision of our senior pastor called the wellness center. Rather than a fitness center we have sought to build a place that challenges a person to transform their entire life. We seek to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of every person that comes in our door. We offer a full workout facility, walking track, gym, bathrooms with shower, job skills classes, computer skills, stress management, griefshare, financial management, parenting, new moms classes, sports leagues, nutrition classes, cooking classes, and on and on. The idea is to promote the entire health of the individual with the goal being leading them to faith in Christ. Check out the link below for our website.

The 26 Wellness Center

The name comes from the street that this side of the church faces, which is called Boulevard 26.

Large Scale

2006-10-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

I have been challenging a couple of guys in my church to start a men’s ministry. My three best guys invited me to come with them to a men’s ministry meeting in another town and learn from them. On the way back I was so encouraged. They talked about how growth must happen outside the church building. They talked about this men’s group not being under any one church, but open to every man of the community. I am proud of them. We are going to start meeting weekly for lunch and talk about ministries we can do together in the community. I believe large scale spiritual growth doesn’t happen in the church building, but outside the church. Groups like the one we are forming are the answer to transformational growth in a community. I would like to hear from other bloggers if you think there is any hope for the American local church to experience large scale spiritual growth?

Where In The World Is OKpreacher?

2006-10-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

This blogger has been blogged down. I became discouraged about a month ago when I stopped getting "Seven Questions" back from people. I also couldn't come up with any new names of people that I wanted to have answer the "Seven Questions". I was down and I didn't want to write articles with that type of attitude.

Church has been hard recently. I became discouraged because I just don't fit the mold of a traditional pastor in rural America. I have struggled with how to handle my calling to bring as many people as possible into Christ-likeness and the seemingly unbreakable wall called the traditional, instutional, and dying church. I have wrestled with the quesiton, can you pour "new wine" into "old wineskins"? I have been reading everything I can on leadership. I have read in the last three weeks: "Orbiting The Giant Hairball" by Gordon MacKenzie, "Revolution" by George Barna, and half of, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. I want to be the best leader for the Lord possible.

I went on a "Walk to Emmaus". It was a great time of fellowship and worship. I was able to deal with some issues of forgiveness and bitterness that I was experiencing because of the church situation I have been dealing with. I would recommend the "walk" to anyone.

In the last month, I applied to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I feel called to complete a Doctor of Ministry Degree. Since I completed my MDIV in 2005, Midwestern said they excepted me, but I couldn't start until 2008.

My wife and daughter are awesome. I am a blessed man to have their encouragement and love. This last month has reminded me of this more and more.

This is my update because this blogger is back.

The Effect of Sin

2006-09-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book lately: Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church by D.A. Carson. I came across a fascinating quote that has some great application. I thought I would toss it out there to foster a little discussion.

"God's gracious 'common grace' assures us that even systems that are deeply structurally flawed will preserve some insight in them somewhere; our sin ensures that even a system closely aligned with Scripture will be in some measure distorted."

I have some to understand this quote as simply saying that no matter how off base the idea/belief is there is a pinch or dash or twinkle somewhere in it of truth. But more than anything, no matter how right we think we have it, or close to the inerrant Scripture we have come, our sin still distorts it in some way. His insight is dead on in my opinion.

PS: Do you hate it when people put IMHO(In My Humble Opinion) on posts? Doesn't saying that preclude you from telling the truth about yourself? Just a side thought.

Seven Questions with Terri Blackstock

2006-09-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

1. Current statistics show that pastors have a hard time of managing their time and therefore their devotional time suffers. Please share your method or habit of daily devotional time.

I teach Precept Bible Studies, and whether I’m teaching or just sitting as a student, I usually have some Precept course that I’m working through. So my daily devotional time consists of me studying a book of the Bible and doing the homework in my Precept book, which makes me dig deeply, letting scripture interpret scripture. When I’m not involved in a study, I’ll just pick a section of the Bible and read. But I don’t stop at one or two chapters, usually. I’ll read a whole book in one or two sittings.

After I study or read God’s Word, I always feel the desire to talk to Him, so I usually have a prayer time then.

There are days when my routine is off, that I don’t do any of these things. I’ll go halfway through the day and realize that I didn’t read my Bible. I’m trying to make sure those days happen less often.

2. What do you hope to accomplish by writing Christian fiction?

I hope that I’ll challenge Christians to bear more fruit, and lead unbelievers to Christ. I also hope to teach biblical principles while still telling a page-turning story.

3. Who is your inspiration when it comes to writing? Who do you read when you have free time?

I have a lot of writer friends, so I read a lot of their books. I enjoy Christian writers like James Scott Bell, Brandilyn Collins, Bill Myers, Alton Gansky, Angela Hunt, and many others.

4. What is your greatest passion?

My greatest passion is to whet people’s appetite for the Bible and make them long for Christ.

5. If you could share one thing about the Christian life to encourage all of your readers, what would it be?

That righteous living and biblical principles do work to bring us abundant life.

6. What ministries are you involved in currently?

I teach Precept Bible studies, and lead a prayer group for parents at my church. I also try to be a helpmeet to my husband who teaches a huge Sunday School class of about 150 people.

7. What has been the key to your success as an author?

Perseverance. I’ve been writing for over 22 years, 12 of them in the Christian market. Instead of trying to be a best-seller or award-winner, or working tirelessly to promote my books, I’ve just worked hard to tell the best story I can. Over the years, my readers have multiplied and put me on the best-seller lists. That’s just icing on the cake. But even if my books weren’t selling, I’d still be writing.

Terri Blackstock is a Christian Fiction writer. She is currently writing books for her "Restoration Series". Here is a list of her books. You can get more information about Terri and order her books at her website. Terri is also one of Mrs. OKpreacher and I's favorite authors.

For A Dumb Laugh

2006-08-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have a dumb sense of humor and I saw this little cartoon before a movie and thought it was funnier than the movie. I hope you enjoy as well.

Sing Along with Roosevelt

If I had a private prayer language, which I don't, I'm pretty sure I would sound something like Roosevelt. :)

Token Black Guy

2006-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

I have no desire to be political, but to challenge a problem I see in Southern Baptist Churches. The Sunday morning worship hour is the most segregated time of the week. The whites go to their churches, while the blacks go to theirs. Nobody cares where the Hispanics go because most of them are Illegals anyway. Sorry for the satire but this really isn't an issue to laugh about. Here is my point, I believe that we are satisfied with having token black men and Hispanic men serving on our boards and speaking at our conventions so that we give the appearance of being a denomination that is racially unified.

We aren't racially unified. It is sad to realize that Southern Baptists in the 21st century have about as many minorities in their churches as they did thirty years ago. Racial unification has to be more than inviting Dr. Fred Luter to speak at our convention. When will black men and women become part of our church staffs? When will our churches represent our cultural make-up?

How do I know that the SBC is dealing with this issue, because at my second church, I had my job as pastor threatened by a deacon and a man with lots of influence because I was witnessing to black families and inviting them to church. Let me be clear, I'm not saying that Southern Baptists are racists or that SBC leaders aren't working for there to be multi-culture unification in the church. What I am saying is that every person needs to examine their own heart and determine if they are still limited by color. More needs to be done!

My challenge to everyone and to every church is to be as much like heaven as possible by bringing the nations together to worship before the Lord. There are no token people in the Kingdom.

My Life

2006-08-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have debated this a little bit. I've gone back and forth in my head. I want you to hear more about me and what I have been through. Essentially, I think hearing about my life might help you understand why I am what I am. I have pockets of memories here and there in my mind of growing up. One of them is of a movie called My Life. You may or may not remember the movie. Okay, it was a major chick flick. The movie dealt with a man, played by Micheal Keaton, who was dying of cancer. He decided that he would videotape himself for his young children talking about his life, hence My Life. Well, for me it was an incredibly emotional movie.

My father died of acute leukemia 9 days before I was born. I have a photocopy of his obituary I recently researched from a library in Ohio. He was 30. He became sick and went to an emergency room on a Monday evening. Saturday morning of the same week he passed away. I came along 9 days later. At around a year old my mom moved us, I have an older brother and older sister, to Texas to be close to her parents. After a rebound marriage and divorce to a guy I don't even remember she eventually married a guy that turned out to be an alcoholic. She divorced him when I was around 5th grade. Now, my real dad was never, and still isn't, a topic of discussion in my family. It is exceedingly rare. I grew up having person after person tell me I look just like my dad, but never telling me about him.

Allow me an aside here to talk of my spiritual development through this. As an infant I was baptized in the Presbyterian Church where I would later learn my dad was the head of the deacons from the obituary I obtained. As a child, while mom was married to the third guy, I was actually confirmed a Lutheran. We stopped going after the divorce and the way my mom was treated. I didn't mind, the kids there were just as mean and rude as kids at school. I hated church. I used to pretend to be asleep so I didn't have to go.

Okay, in the 6th grade I discoverd a rather disturbing truth. I had thought for the longest time for some reason my dad's name was "Dale." I found out that I was wrond, my dad's name is John. Dale was the name of the rebound guy. Although I am sure that I had been told, the lack of talk about my father had never really set me straight. I begin to spiral downward at that point. By 8th grade I was severly depressed, and the summer after was the first time I began to have serious thoughts of suicide. My freshman year was filled with consistent depression and thougts of suicide. The beginning of my sophomore year in high school found me routinely fighting the urge to commit suicide. I vividly remember sitting in my neighbor's house while taking care of their animals. I had found their revolver and I sat next to their bed with it pointed at my face. That was it for me. I was done. As I began to slowly pull the trigger a voice came into my head.

It simply said, "Hold on, what you're looking for is coming."

It was the most remarkable thing. It wasn't my own voice. It was soothing and calming. I put the gun away and left. A couple of months later things weren't any better. I came home from school and had just a horrible day. That night in my room I decided to end it. I took out my knife and began to cut. On my hand at first, and then my arm, and then finally my wrist. As I moved to my wrist each cut went deeper. As I began to see small amounts of blood that voice came back. This time He told me to call a girl named Julie, my only friend at the time. She immediately knew something was wrong. I told her what was happenning, and she talked to me for an hour and a half. Her parents were suicide counselors. During that conversation she invited me to church with her the next Wednesday night. After that fell through I heard some guys talking about this church at the lunch table. I piped up and mentioned that I had been invited there. They promptly invited me to come to the lock-in there on that Friday.

At that lock-in a band called Judah performed, they would become Between Thieves. At the end of the concert the youth minister got up and asked everyone to pray. During that time he led a prayer of salvation. I prayed it with him. As he gave the invitation I stood and watched kid after kid walk forward. Suddenly, there was the voice again telling me this was it. This was what I had been looking for. I fought it. In fact, I was white-knuckled on the chair in front of me. All I heard was that this was the time. I knew I needed to go forward. I had just asked Jesus into my heart. I finally took that first step and instantly I felt the weight of my life lifted. It was gone. I literally felt the sweeping chill of being washed as I began to walk foward. I was the second to last to go forward.

That Sunday I went to church for the first time in many years. They had said that the youth sat together in middle at the front. I was early, still am early to this day(it drives my wife crazy because apparently you can't make an entrance when you are 15 minutes early). I walked to the second row in the middle and sat down alone. I stayed alone as all the other youth began to come in until finally the girl who had led our group counseling session recognized me and sat next to me. I went forward at the invitation and was baptized two weeks later. I had to convince my mom to let me get baptized. Remember, I had been baptized as an infant.

It was four years before my mom ever came back to church with me. She visited on a Thanksgiving Sunday with me with my girlfriend, who would eventually be my wife, and her parents. The next Sunday she was back, without prompting and sat with my future in-laws. The next Sunday was the same. She became more regular than most of their members. Finally, when she joined the church where I currently serve, she walked through the waters of baptism. She now serves by teaching young women who have been in an abusive relationship develop job skills to take care of themselves. I am incredibly proud of her.

I realize now that God was the voice in my head, interceeding to make sure I got the chance to know Him. I am a product of a legacy I am yet to know. My dad was a head deacon, leader of the Sr. High youth group, and met my mom at a Christian summer camp. I will see him in heaven, of that I am convinced. I am passionate about people experiencing the life-changing power of the Creator of it all. Hopefully, with this, you know a little more about where God has brought me from and through. God is awesome, don't ever lose sight of that simple fact. I have been through a ton in life. God has used every bit. He has used the good, bad, and indifferent to make me who I am. So, there you go. That is a small portion of what God has done. There is much more, but that is for a later day. I hope this helps you understand a little bit about where I have come from. God bless.

Seven Questions with OKPREACHER

2006-08-28T04:49:00.000-07:00

1. What is your greatest passion?

My greatest passion is spending time with the Lord. I long for the moments of listening and talking with the Lord daily. I am passionate about preaching God’s Word and seeing Christians grow in their Christian walk.

2. In your opinion what is the main thing that must happen in the SBC to build momentum for Kingdom growth over the next 5 years.

We must burst our Baptist bubble. Bursting the bubble means realizing that God wants us working to build His Kingdom, not our own. Bursting the bubble means we must engage our culture and not run from it. Bursting the bubble means we realize that our goals have been too small and our focus too limited. Bursting the bubble means that we aren’t satisfied with anything less than a movement of God that transforms every person in America and in the world.

3. What are some trends that cause you concern or excitement when you consider the church?

The trend that causes me concern is that over half of the churches in the Southern Baptist are in decline. The decline doesn’t concern me as much as the attitude in those churches. Instead of changing so that there can be new growth and re-dreaming the dream. They are content with doing church as normal.

The trend that causes me excitement is the progress of the church planting movement around the world but even more in America. I believe the greatest opportunity for churches to reach new people are through church planting movements. Churches that refuse to reproduce will die.

4. If you could give one word of encouragement to every Baptist minister what would it be?

My pastor growing up was Dr. Ted Kersh. Before service one Sunday he shared with me and I now share with you, “Please God and those that please God will be pleased with you and you just can’t do much with the rest.”

5. What are some secrets to great leadership?

I wish I was a better leader. I believe most of the problems that I have faced in the churches I have served haven’t been spiritual ones, but leadership ones. I believe that seminary would be much more profitable to every minister if a third of the classes where on the Bible, a third on evangelism, and a third on leadership. If a minister can preach the Bible, lead people to Christ, and lead his church to accomplish their vision he will be successful. I am currently reading anything on leadership and thinking through how I can apply what I’m learning to leading the people in my church to new growth.

6. Over the next year what are some things you hope to accomplish and how can my readers and I be praying for you?

I want to begin working on a Doctor of Ministry Degree. Pray that I can attain a wavier so that I can start a little early. You can also be praying for me and our church because our community is going to be doing a 40 Days of Purpose Campaign starting in October. I hope to be able to lead our church to plant a satellite in our community in the next year as well. Finally, pray that I will stay fresh for the Lord.

7. Is blogging a good thing?

I believe that blogging is a wonderful thing to do as long as you are christian in all that you write, it doesn’t distract from your daily work, and it doesn’t distract from your family time.

OKpreacher is the founder of this blog and senior pastor of a rural church in West Texas. OKpreacher is also a huge Sooner Fan.