A lesson from the NC State Baptist Convention

A convention with no controversy is boring. This year I attended Tuesday only.  I had obligations on Monday that kept me away from the pastor’s conference, which I’m sure I would have enjoyed.  There was really only one major piece of business this year; amending and restructuring of the constitution.  Most of the changes were for streamlining purposes and it was not controversial.  For example, we renamed the annual session the annual "meeting." (Exciting huh?) The election of officers was completely uneventful.  Only one ballot was even necessary (CJ Bordeaux was elected as second VP), as President and first VP were unopposed.  (In slightly related news, my great-uncle, Don Mathis, was elected as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.)  Even the budget, which involved substantial cuts, only had a few comments from the floor.

Compare this to last year, when we were doing away with giving plans, or to ’07 when we were defunding the colleges as they began electing their own trustees.  Those years had a different feel to them.  In a year like this when everything is routine, we are simply going about our business controversy free.

I almost titled this post Baptists like to Argue.  At a business meeting where everything is cut and dried you begin to hear people say things like “this thing was railroaded,” or “they are just going to elect who they want.”  It’s weird; it’s almost as if we are creating controversy where there is none.  In this case I know that is it.  We in NC are too recently past the major controversies to be organized.  It ought to be a reason for celebration.  Hooray, we are controversy-free! But instead it’s boring.

I must confess, I am as guilty of this as anyone else.  I think the controversy is interesting.  I bet that next year’s SBC is the best-attended in a while.  Not just because it’s in Orlando and we can sneak out to Sea World (not Disney though ;-) ), but because of the controversy that seems to be swirling around the GCR Task Force.

That’s my two cents.  I’m glad we are not fighting, but it’s not nearly as interesting as the controversy.  Maybe next year I’ll make a motion for some controversy.  I already have one in mind.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month

I appreciate my Pastor.

This post is nearly identical to last year, feel free to skip it.

I am a very critical person, and I find that I am very often critical of Pastor Weeks.  Much more than I should be.  I want to take this opportunity to say publicly that I appreciate him.  he is n excellent pastor and in the 5 years I've known him he has been nothing but good to me.

Even though he is nearly 60 he still is willing to  learn.

He loves our church.  If anyone needs him, they know they can call.  If you have a birthday or an anniversary, you can count on a phone call.

He loves his family and knows they are his legacy.

He loves the Bible, and has regular quiet time and does his best to communicate it to us each week.

He loves missions.  More than any pastor I've ever known, he emphasizes missions prayer, giving, and going.

Thanks for allowing me to ramp & rave :-)

You have set Your glory above the heavens

1 O LORD, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens....

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 8

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg]

A Conversation I Keep Having

In the last 3 months I have repeatedly had conversations with my (conservative) Christian friends about tattoos.  For many of my friends tattoos are absolutely morally indefensible.  I, however, do not share their convictions.  The purpose of this post is to explain my position. I’ll start with putting my biases on the table.  I have no tattoos, but many people I know well have them.  I don’t understand them on any level.  Fashion and style trends change, but tattoos don’t.  I've never seen a tattoo that I thought was attractive. Nor have I ever seen a tattoo that I thought enhanced the looks of the tattooee.  I have, however, seen tattoos that I think are really neat.

So here is the question at hand; are tattoos morally right or wrong? It is my position that they are morally neutral.  In fact, I can envision a scenario in which not having a tattoo would be wrong.  Imagine if you will, a mission scenario in which to have an audience with those God has called you to minister to, you must get a tattoo.  Let’s say it marks you as an adult and therefore worthy of respect.  If you refuse it, you also refuse to be an effective witness and are disobedient to God’s call.  Is this not a situation where getting a tattoo is morally proper?

When students in my youth group ask if it is wrong to get a tattoo (which they rarely do anymore) I always ask them why they want it.  It may come as a surprise to you that most teenagers haven’t thought this question through fully.  Most of the time they answer that they want one because tattoos are “cool.”  They rarely attach any morality to it whatsoever.  My answer to them is why do you want the tattoo?  If it is so guys will look at your body, it’s wrong.  If it’s so that you can rebel and say, “Nobody can tell me what to do.” It’s wrong.  If it is because you just have a couple of hundred bucks in your pocket and can’t figure out what to do with it, it’s a really bad idea.  You think this kid is gonna regret this? Otherwise, I say it is something you need to really think through, not just say “Tattoos are cool.  I need one.” (I would actually say this chart is pretty accurate (be warned – it has swears.))

I believe that most people are opposed to tattoos are really opposed for cultural reasons.  They associate them with certain immoral types of people.  However that is no longer the case.  My survey from yesterday was interesting.  For one thing [and off the subject], from my comments I would have guessed that more women than men read my blog, but more men voted.  I was hoping to show that more than half of 20-35 year-olds are tattooed and that more women than men have them.  My very unscientific survey didn’t reveal that.  It did show that tattoos are more common for women than men, which is anecdotally my experience as well.  This study from Pew research says that about 40% of that age group is tattooed.  Even though that number is lower than I expected, it is still enough to make my point.  Tattoos are not just for bikers and prisoners anymore, and getting one does not say you want to associate with them.

Whenever I say to my friends that their view of tattoos is an issue of preference and not necessarily one of morality they invariably quote Leviticus 19:28 to me.  I then am forced to ask them why there is no fence on their roof, if they like bacon, what about their jacket, are mules sinful, or where is their beard.  Christ came to fulfill the law and we are no longer bound to it.  We have no need to be ceremonially clean for the temple because we have the great high priest.  (This may bring up another post altogether - why do we follow some OT laws but not others? If you think it’s necessary for me to answer that in a post, let me know in the comments.  I’ll answer that as well.)

As always feel to tell me why I’m stupid in the comments.

Youth Sunday 09

Apparently this has become an annual post for me, but it is important enough to be said regularly. Yesterday was youth Sunday at LaGrange Park Baptist Church.  The one Sunday a year where our youth are in charge of every aspect of the church day.  They teach the adult Sunday School classes and then lead in worship.

I spend my life in ministry working with students.  Working with students can be a very frustrating undertaking at times.  Sometimes it seem like all I ever do is say "put your chair on the floor" about a hundred times a week.  But at other times I am so proud of them I can hardly express it.  We have a small youth group, but each of them was willing to serve in some capacity yesterday.  I am proud of them for their willingness.  Also I am proud of them for listening to God's voice in their lives.

If you follow my twitter feed you know that we videotaped a skit for use in yesterday's worship service.  It is hilarious in its badness, but I still want to share it with my blog readers.  The acting is not bad, they did fine, but the editing is funny.  Feel free to laugh and consider that the battery on our camera was dying toward the end of the shoot, so we didn't get multiple takes.  (The students didn't want the video put up on Youtube so I uploaded it to myspace where it's not fully public.  Hopefully it will embed successfully)

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.859328&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D61776164%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0]

Also, yesterday marked the second time ever that I filled the pulpit.  If you are a fan of the word "uh" or "umm" then I did a great job.  I'm putting it here so you can hear it if you are interested.  It is also available on our church website.

[audio=http://lagrangeparkbc.org/audio/08.09.09.mp3] Jeremy Mathis - Youth Sunday 09

A couple of good videos

First up is this video that all youth ministers should enjoy.  Some of it is so accurate and hilarious.  I very much enjoyed this video [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKI63tWSFyg]

Secondly, this video from this morning's minister's meeting at my association. Be sure and watch the songs at the beginning.  The guy on guitar is amazing.  He pretty much tears the guitar up.  The audio is pretty bad, but I think you'll get the idea.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.856761&w=425&h=350&fv=loc%3D%252F%26autoplay%3Dfalse%26vid%3D1919790]

The Drought is Over

I have written a couple of posts about how I recently have had the first year of my ministry (all in small churches) when none of my students came to Christ even though I have been faithful with the gospel.  Well, that drought is over.  Just thought I'd praise God here on my blog for that and say that He is always faithful. w00t!

Also, here's my current favorite song.  It's called "You Know My Name" by Detour 180 (I'd link to it on amazon but I live in NC and they canceled my associates account so I refuse to link there)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJbw4kfu32I]

On Camps, Retreats, Revival and the Real World

I have just returned from Centrifuge/M-fuge at North Greenville University.  And in fact as a youth minister, I regularly attend multi-day events.  For me there is youth camp, conferences (like Strength to Stand in January), mission trips, and retreats.  These events are a normal part of every youth ministry I know of, and to some degree they are regular to the life of all American evangelicals.  For the church at large there are often revival meetings and mission trips as well. There is a phenomenon that is common to all these events.  We often call these events "retreats" because at them we retreat or escape from our normal lives.  We back away from many of our relationships (with school friends, coworkers, etc.), and remove ourselves from the media that saturates our lives.  At the same time as we retreat, we spend much more time in worship and Bible study.

In fact, for many American Christians it may be the only time we really study our Bibles.  All of this exposure to God that is foreign to us causes us to hear His voice.  And Christians generally want to please God so we make commitments and experience what I believe is genuine revival.

But then something happens

We go home.

And we return to the same environment that kept us from God before.  We experience the same frustrations at work and school, the same ungodly friends, the same media, music, and images.  I bet you have been there - What happens next?

Sadly, the newfound commitment fades.

I should say again that I believe the revival we all experience during these retreat experiences is genuine.  But if it is genuine why does it not last?

It doesn't last because we return to our normal lives.

So how do we prevent this seemingly inevitable decline?  We prevent it by continuing in the things that brought about the revival in the first place. Spend time daily with the Lord.  Have your quiet time, study the Bible, pray, and meditate on the Scriptures.  If escaping from the media is a big factor for you, be sure to replace that media with something.  Listen to Christian music rather than whatever you were listening to before.  Maybe cut out Desperate Housewives, or Friends or whatever drags your thoughts away from holiness.  Attend church regularly.  For most all evangelicals there are multiple times per week to worship.   While at church, worship God properly, in spirit and in truth.  If you attend church with the wrong attitude or in an unworshipful spirit, you will not benefit.  The Scriptures make it clear that God cannot stand false worship.

I really believe the key to keeping the fire that kindles during these events is that simple.  Keep the commitments you make to God, have regular quiet time and spend time in the fellowship of the saints and corporate worship.

An open letter to the GCR task force

This topic has been written about before by people with actual readership, but I want to make my voice known because I have had this conversation with a few pastors, and we are basically all in agreement. To the Great Commission Resurgence task force –

First of all, I realize that you are not charged with making the entire SBC become more great commission oriented.  In fact due to the structure of our denomination, churches are not subject to anything that you actually declare.  I also know that if there is to be a great commission resurgence in our denomination, it must be brought about by individuals in individual churches.

Next, I am praying for you. and Dr. Hunt. I hope that God directs your committee to truly affect the kingdom with your decisions.  I hope that the convention in Orlando is as amenable toward your work as the Louisville convention was toward your appointment.

As I understand it, you are charged with evaluating our convention structure with the goal of determining whether or not we are optimally organized to carry out the great commission.  I am on board with whatever you may choose to do. If you explain your position I would be willing to hear reasons for combining our mission organizations (although I believe it’s not a particularly good idea), or for renaming our convention, or for any number of other suggestions I just haven’t thought of yet.  I truly hope that state conventions, local associations and churches are agreeable with whatever recommendations that the annual convention in Orlando passes.

There is one exception to my previous paragraph.  I will never be able to consider currently non-cooperative program missions giving as cooperative program giving.  Planting a church, co-sponsoring a church plant, sending an individual missionary, or digging a well in Bihar India are all great things and need to be done, but those things should never be considered cooperative program dollars because they are not cooperative. I cannot even think of another way to say that.  The SBC is, by and large, a convention of small churches.  The cooperative program is the only way that our small churches can have the sending power that we have.  If we allow other giving to count as CP giving then we take the “cooperative” (and the strength) out of the cooperative program.  In that case we might as well be independent Baptists.

Also, designated money is not cooperative program money.  If money is given with the purpose of doing an end-around of the executive committee or leaving out a seminary or one of our agencies, then it is not cooperative program money.  The reason for the efficiency of the IMB and NAMB is the coordination of all our agencies, Lifeway and Guidestone included.  Maybe you will determine that the sending organizations are not efficient.  Imagine how much worse it would be if everyone designated their offerings.

For simplicity, let me summarize my position.  I support the work of the GCR task force and will prayerfully consider any recommendation you make.  However, I will not be able to support considering independent mission giving to be cooperative program giving.

I welcome any comments.  However, I am currently at M-fuge so it may take me a few days to get them moderated.

SBC Pastor's Conference Day 1

It's late and I'm tired.  All you are getting is one quote each from the 3 speakers JD Greear "If your church died would your city be sad?"  -In reference to Dorcas

Mac Brunson "There are too many satellite buffaloes in the SBC" - This is a worthless quote without context, but I'm tired

Chuck Colson "The Great Commission is not to make converts but to make disciples"

My Recent Redesign pt. 2

Yesterday I began writing about the recent redesign of our church website, what platforms I considered and how I chose Joomla as our CMS.  Today I thought I’d write about the actual process of the redesign and move to Joomla.*  I will share the challenges and the things that made the move easier. Challenges

I should say that most of the challenges didn’t remain challenges for long, because the support for Joomla is truly amazing.  On 2 occasions I twittered about my frustration before I went to bed and when I woke up, there were @ reply answers.

Installing Joomla – I didn’t really know what I was doing and had never used Joomla at all.  So I started with the “Getting Started” articles on Joomla.org and I read the absolute beginner’s guide.  It was helpful.  I was originally planning to move our host, so I was reading up on other shared hosting when I happened across this article.  This made installing Joomla so simple it was unbelievable so I stuck with Go Daddy.  It would have been easy to do manually, but a bit more time consuming.  My only real fear was setting up the MySQL database.  The moral of the story is, Go Daddy set up Joomla for me.  All I had to do was tell it what directory.

Choosing a template – I said yesterday that there is a staggering number of free templates available for Joomla.  And there are several that cost just a few dollars.  I chose the template called Jamba from Joomlashack because I liked the modules and because it seemed very flexible.

Learning my way around the template – This was really the most difficult part of the entire process for me, things were just not quite as intuitive as I expected.  Mostly it was an exercise in trial and error.  I would change one parameter and reload the page to see what it did.

In particular I had great difficulty figuring out how to edit the footer.  Reply #5 on this post was helpful to solve that problem.

The only outstanding problem I have is in the twitter feed module.  It makes improper line breaks within web addresses and often flows over the boundaries of its enclosure.  I’d be glad to accept any help I can get for that one

Making iFrames and javascript work – This was by far the most frustrating issue I dealt with during the redesign.  Our messages page has a javascript player built in to each entry.  Joomla’s default was not to allow any code.  So the code of the script and the player’s parameters were just showing up as text on the page.  I read great things about a plugin called jumi.  All I can say is that it didn’t work for me.  It would hide the code from the script, but it didn’t actually process the code.  One night I twittered about this and went to bed.  When I got up I had a reply from @saadiallan recommending a plugin called Sourcerer.  It worked perfectly allowing me to embed the javascript player as well as the google map and calendar.

Installing plugins – I did not realize just how powerful joomla really is.  There are plugins to allow almost anything I desire and it is amazingly customizable.  If you use the dashboard, then installing plugins could not be simpler

Moving to the root directory – This was by far the most frightening thing to me in the site build.  Once I got to the point that I was ready for the public to see the new site I needed to move it all from the test directory to the root.  I copied everything to my hard drive then I moved the entire database to the root directory.  Then I edited the configuration.php file.  (there are many instructions in many forums about how to do this, but basically I edited every line that had http://domain/olddirectory to just say http://domain/)  It was also necessary to clear the cache, but with only one small panic I got it working.

Helpers – This is where I received the help that made everything do-able and pretty smooth

• The forums at joomla.org are teh awesome
• Ryan Thomas who designed our logo and generally gave design guidance
• Paula Durand our church secretary who is keeping the Google calendar up to date and keeping content current
• The readers of this blog who gave me editorial advice.  Especially Caroline who gave me 4 pages of copy edits which I am still not finished with
• churchwebsitehelp.com who did a review of the site.  I haven’t implemented all his suggestions yet, but the review was very helpful and it was free.

* I know that much of this post is written in gibberish for most of my readers.  I'll try to get back to writing in English tomorrow.

Are Associations Still Necessary? part 2

Because this is associational emphasis week in the SBC, I began yesterday to explore the answer to the question; are Baptist Associations still necessary?  Today I intend to give my answer.  I find it interesting that the first two responses to this post at SBC Impact happen to express opposite opinions on Baptist associations. Before I answer, in the interest of full disclosure, I should let you in on my bias today.  I serve on my associational youth team, I am an associational messenger from my church, and I participate regularly in associational ministers meetings.  (I even spoke at one.)

My church is a member of a very large association.  The NSRBA has over 100 churches spanning 3 counties.  To drive from The Bridge Community Church to Union Grove Baptist Church (one end to the other) would take well over an hour.  Many of our churches are extremely rural, and some of our churches are quite urban.  All of this diversity should benefit everyone, but there are still those who feel the association is unnecessary.

As I see it, here are some of the weakpoints of the local association.

• Big churches don’t participate – this is obviously not a hard and fast rule, but during my 12 years of ministry in 3 different associations there are very few big church pastors who feel the need to be active in the association.   I’ve never been in leadership of a church that averaged more than 150 in Sunday school so I can’t speak with certainty, but my thought on why large churches don’t participate on an associational level is that they don’t need the resources that the associations can provide
• The flat world means that small churches now have less need for what associations can provide – The training, resources in the form of media, curriculums and technology, guidance, and even the financial assistance available through associations can all be procured elsewhere
• Some associations are just not good – There are associations with poor leadership who do nothing, or who pander to every complaining pastor.  There are associations that take in churches that are cast-offs from other associations because of theology or disagreements.  And there are associations which make no effort to impact their local area for Christ

Despite those problems, I still feel that associations are viable and worthy of continuing into the 21st century. Here are just a few things that associations offer.

• Fellowship for pastors – Pastors, as God-called leaders of their congregations, need someone with which to fellowship.  Obviously they need to be a part of their church’s community, but occasionally there needs to be someone outside the church who shares the same sense of calling with which to discuss common issues and decision making.  I realize that this could be done apart from the association, but the association makes this easy, and you will find a distinct lack of this sort of fellowship when you move to independent church situations.  (Youth ministers also, are notoriously poor at this type of fellowship.)
• Vision for the community – This is where local associations can truly thrive.  Associations are broader in their ministry scope than local churches are.  But much more focused than a state convention could hope to be.  And even in an association as diverse as the NSRBA, the association can have a vision of ministry for greater Fayetteville that no single church should be concerned with.  This should guide where church plants are needed, and where specific ministries can best be focused.  This is a function that the state convention could never hope to carry out.  (Also, state conventions have a tendency to focus outside themselves and look to inter-state partnerships and even international partnerships for ministry opportunities.)
• Cooperating allows for greater ministry – This is the entire concept behind the cooperative program.  (I’ll add here that associational money is not CP money.)  The simple fact is that we can do more together than we could ever do alone.
• Cooperative local ministries – There are many worthy ministries that would be too large a task for any one church to carry out.  For example, in the NSRBA we have a ministry to the workers at the Cumberland Co. fair.  One church may be able to provide bottled water, lunches, and some counseling, but this ministry also provides a dental bus and lasts the duration of the fair.  That would be a huge burden for even a very large church.  Without a dentist and a few hygienists in membership it would not even be possible.  There are also ministries to migrant workers, a Christmas toy store for needy families, and two thrift store / food pantry ministries.  These things would simply not be possible by any single church.

The state convention could simply not do any of those things.  Fellowship with a group too large is not possible.  It could never see the need for ministry at the local level, and even if it did, coordinating thousands of churches would be too difficult.

My conclusion is that the local Baptist association is still very useful and will serve a Great Commission function into the 21^st century.

Are Associations Still Necessary? part 1

This is Associational Emphasis week in the Southern Baptist Convention.  So I thought I would write a couple of posts dealing with the following question: Is the Baptist association still needed?

One of the things being brought to our attention as Southern Baptists with the Great Commission Resurgence is the inefficient spending of cooperative program funds.  Specifically, people have a problem with the duplication of efforts.  This is a valid concern.  It is both an issue of good stewardship and responsibility.  And let’s just be honest, is there really a need for church growth experts, or evangelism trainers, or church resource specialists at the state, SBC and associational level?  I recommend listening to the most recent Insight Podcast which is an interview with Johnny Hunt.  In part 1, the host quotes Dr. Mike Day from the Mid-South Baptist Association.  Dr. Day relays an example of the same function being performed by the three levels.  This is just a real-life example of why the question should be asked.  Are associations necessary?

The most significant reason why there would be a change in the need for associations would be because the world is flat.  Allow me to explain what I mean by the flat world.  The flat world concept comes from William Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat.  The thesis of the book is that technologically and politically we have reached a point in which a place on the other side of the country or the other side of the world can be reached instantly.  We have globalized nearly everything and the distance between us has shrunk to a negligible amount.

So what dies this have to do with Baptist associations?   In order to answer his question, I’ll need to explain what the purpose of a Baptist association is and how it works. The Baptist association is a gathering of cooperating churches to do ministry on a local level.  Interestingly, because of the strongly held Baptist view of church autonomy, this is the same definition for a state convention or the SBC.  (They are just different geographically)  This connection of churches cooperate to carry out ministry on a local level and to help one another with training, resources, and historically, even finances.

This is the same definition of the SBC and the state Baptist conventions.  With the flat world making distance less significant, that explains the duplication of functions.  Many people feel that the weakest of the 3 levels is the local association.  Hence my question.

Now that the explanation is out of the way, tomorrow I plan to actually answer the question, are associations still necessary.

Before I get there, I would like to hear from you in the comments.  Do you think the local association is still needed?  Even though the world is flat?  Even though many of the same functions are performed on the state and SBC level?

Your Help Please

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I have been in the process of redesigning the church website.  I needed to move it to a content management system so that others besides just myself could update it .  I chose Joomla because of the amazing plethora of free templates, and the flexibility.  Also because I tend to think of wordpress.org as being just a blogging platform.  I will have a post later about the move, but in the meantime I need your assistance. I am close to going live with it, but it needs a once-over.

I'm not as far along as I thought I would be by the time of this post.  Some of it is unfinished, I think those parts will be obvious to you, (Like the ministries page which I've decided to reformat but haven't) but let me know your thoughts on the template, the functionality, how it can be improved, and obviously any errors or proofreading mistakes.  You have been very helpful to me in the past

I would like your suggestions of any way that the site can be improved, either through design or through content.  It's pretty easy to change things now that I have a feel for this template.

The new-and-improved site can be found at lagrangeparkbc.org/new. Check it out. Hit me with your suggestions.

Also.  I'm in the basement for a few days, so if comments need moderating it may take a while.

Great Commission ressurgence needed

I am frustrated as I write this, so the tone may not be what I am hoping for.  It may come across as a polemic rather than an illustration about the need for a great commission resurgence within the SBC. I’ll begin with some context.  Just over a year ago, the city of Fayetteville’s Dogwood festival passed a ban on all booths that promoted “religious or political views.”  Effectively this shut out all churches from the festival.

So last year the churches of greater Fayetteville made a big deal about not being allowed into the Dogwood festival.  We even held a political action rally.  This rally did not exclusively address the Dogwood Festival, but that decision was the impetus for the rally.

In response to the outrage, the board, rightly in my opinion, reversed the decision.

Political action working, right?  Yep.  We got the desired result, churches are now allowed at the festival.

Obviously then, this year, there were many churches there representing Christ, giving out free water (rather than selling beer) and telling people the life changing message that Jesus saves.  Right?  Wrong.

Three churches participated. They include, the largest church in town, a small Presbyterian church (PCA), and one church that was apparently fundraising.

There are 100 churches in the Baptist association which encompasses Fayetteville.  Many of these churches were represented at the political action rally last year.  Now let’s do the math, 100 churches in the association, zero churches participate in the festival after they hear our voice and change their policy.  That number, again, was zero.  Now, to be fair, not all 100 were at the rally, but many were.

Here’s the question; does that make us look inept, or hypocritical, or like we only want to cause trouble?  I’m afraid it sends the message that we have no time to witness because we are too busy complaining about people who will not let us witness.

To me it definitely says that we are not nearly as concerned about the gospel as we pretend to be.

By the way, my church was at the rally but not at the festival, so I am not merely casting stones.  Actually I want someone to tell me why I'm wrong to think this way.  I believe in political action, I’m glad the board reversed its decision, and I don’t expect every church in Fayetteville to be there.  I do, however, believe that we put way too much energy into fixing social issues and not nearly as much effort into spreading the gospel, even though it is the greatest message that could ever be told.

I believe that this is the perfect example of the need for a great commission resurgence. We need to have churches that focus on what's really important, the gospel.  It seems that we are currently out of whack.

(BTW - I really wanted to post this comic here because it is funny and goes with the last line.  But usage rights cost $25, which is ridiculous whenever you can just follow this link and see it for free.)

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have a post coming that is a followup to what I think is the best post I've ever written.   Essentially I am interacting with that post and a recent news headline from my local paper. If you would like to read that post, here it is.  Today, however, I will simply outline my argument from that post.  Let me know if you agree or disagree, but think on it, because I really want the opinions of my readers tomorrow.

The argument I am articulating goes like this:

-  Christians often say, "We have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long." I have never heard this statement questioned.

-  What people mean when they say this is that Christians don't make their voice heard on social issues facing our country.

-  I say - we do make our voice heard, and we do it very well.  Every American knows the predominant evangelical view of nearly every social issue.

-  I say - this does not fix the problem because it is only treating the symptoms.  It's as if the doctor diagnosed you with Swine Flu but only gave you aspirin to get rid of the aches and pains.

-  I say - we have been silent too long...with the gospel message.  If people's hearts are changed, their political views will change.  Otherwise, lost people will behave like lost people.

Tomorrow I plan to demonstrate my point with a recent headline from our local paper and some context.

Yet another post about the SBC's declining numbers

This is the fourth and final in this series of posts all on the same topic - the bad news that came to Southern Baptists last week. I am a Southern Baptist who is proud of my denomination.  I am proud of our stance on scripture and our history as the only denomination to come back from liberalism.  (Just think how far our decline would be if we had progressed in denying the Scriptures.)  I actually enjoy the convention itself.  The business and the preaching is enjoyable to me. I want to see the convention grow, but I only have control over one Southern Baptist - myself.  Likewise, I only have influence in one Southern Baptist Church - LaGrange Park.

So today I am sharing with you a portion of my newsletter article I wrote for May 2009.

Last May I reported to you that the Southern Baptist Convention baptized fewer people for the third straight year, that number is now 4 straight years and for the second year in a row we saw a decline in overall membership.  I would like to offer you a challenge.  Let's not let LaGrange Park be a part of this trend. We are already well on our way to baptizing more people than we did last year, but it will still be a difficult task.  We can, however, accomplish this goal, which is certainly God's will, if we make sharing our faith with our friends, coworkers, schoolmates and family a priority.

This is my prayer:

Father, would you give our church a burning desire to share our faith?  Convict us of the need to live differently from the world (Rom 12:2), to tell others why we have the hope that we have (1 Pet 3:15), and to be winsome and encouraging to the lost world around us.  Burden us the way you burdened Jeremiah (Jer 20:9) because we know that there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11) Thank you for the gift that is salvation, and let us not take it for granted.

What I will do in light of the SBC's declining numbers

Yesterday I put together a list of things I would not do in light of the declining numbers in the Southern Baptist Convention.  Today, a list of things I will do. I will witness

I will be faithful those whom God has given me to minister to

I will be proud of my convention

I will affirm the Baptist Faith and Message

I will be a proud signatory to the Great Commission Resurgence statement

I will realize that my message is being pushed further into the fringes of society

I will be willing to speak the truth in love even if it hurts a bit

I will be willing to speak the truth in love even if it hurts a lot

I will attend the SBC as long as my church allows and I can afford it (anybody need to share a hotel in Louisville?)

I will pray before I vote for convention leadership rather than simply voting for the pastor from the largest church

I will share my faith

I will honor those who helped bring the convention to where it is

I will continue believe that the Bible is true in all that it declares

I will pray for the convention leadership

I will listen to those who are wiser than me

I will remember that the gospel is not just about the afterlife but that it instantly makes life better

I will tell others about what Christ did for me

I will encourage other under-40s to participate in denominational life

I will encourage my state convention to pass as much money on to the SBC as possible

I will continue to support the CP

I will remember that God is in control

I will make the gospel central to my message

I don't have any plans to make any further comments beyond this list, but if you want something clarified just ask.  Also feel free to add to this list in the comments

More News That Bothers Me

Longtime readers of this blog will remember a post from last April 23rd called News That Bothers Me.  Everything I said in that post still applies to this year and I won't rehash it.  Just follow the link and read it again for a refresher.

Here is the bad news.  With the publishing of the newest ACP is is official, The Southern Baptist convention baptized fewer people for the fourth consecutive year, and for the second year in a row overall membership has declined.  This is very bad news and it really bothers me.  What follows is a bit of commentary on the subject.

I do not want to overanalyze the convention, but I do want to maybe diagnose it based on what I know.

I will begin with a bit of optimism.  I am very encouraged by the movement towards a great commission resurgence.  I suggest all Southern Baptists go to the website and read the resolution.  Sign it if you are so inclined.

Secondly I'll say this, I am sure that there are no churches that purposefully avoid evangelism.  Every SBC church I know anything about would say that evangelism is a key tenet of the faith; that evangelism is necessary.  I believe that what happens is that there are a lot of necessary functions of the church, and it is easy to get distracted by finances, politics, and internal issues so that we find ourselves dealing with these things rather than witnessing.

I also believe that most preaching is gospel preaching.  I believe that the message of hope in Christ rings from most SBC pulpits on any given Sunday.  Admittedly however, Churches have less impact within their communities than they once did.

Why then do I think the convention is declining?

I believe that, at the core, this problem is really a youth problem.  I am not just saying that because I am a youth minister.  What I mean is that there is a problem with the graying of congregations.  When a church has less youth and children it will baptize fewer people.  It's that simple.

Who do we blame for this graying of the church?  We certainly don't blame the children who cannot come to children's church when parents won't bring them.  Do we blame those young parents?  Maybe we blame the young parents' parents.  They obviously didn't instill in them the importance of passing on the faith to the next generation.  Maybe we blame the church and its old-fashionedness, or its out-of-touchness.  Maybe we blame the publishers of the hymn books.  Don't they know that hymns are too boring to be worthy of worshiping the 21^st century God?  Maybe we blame all the hypocrites.  You people should be ashamed of yourselves. :-)

I said last week that I think a worldview problem is responsible, in large part, for the lack of evangelism.  People have accepted the idea that there can be no claim to religious truth.  Acceptance of this world view has lead to the graying of churches.  Why pass on what you believe about the world and salvation to come if it is no more true than whatever your children decide to believe?  When parents fail to teach their children about God they teach them that God doesn't matter.

Although the culture is shifting further from Christianity, one thing I'm sure of is that the basic problem is not a failure to relate to culture.  In fact I believe that we have just the opposite problem.  We are far too worldly and far too culture-driven.  Do you honestly think the people in the 50% of SBC churches that baptized no one in the last year would not be able to have a conversation about American Idol or CSI: Montpelier with their lost co-workers?  Look at the books on your shelves, or the DVDs you have.  Are they products of the out of touch church?  Not likely.  They are almost certainly products of the culture we live in.  And they almost certainly teach messages that you would disagree with.

Another thing I'm sure of is that the problem is not that the message of Christianity is irrelevant.  In fact, the message is inherently relevant.  There simply is nothing more important to the lives of people than the peace, hope and purpose that comes from knowing Christ. What was our President's campaign slogan?  One four-letter word - HOPE.  That message was incredible powerful and popular.  That fact should tell us something.  People are looking for hope.  Christianity, or rather, Christ offers real hope that won't fade.  Hope in the government is pointless and will ultimately fail, but the hope from our salvation is real.

Do I have any solutions for the depressing news at the beginning of this post?  The same ones I had last year.

Take this test.

• Do I know somebody who doesn't know Jesus?
• Do I know somebody who doesn't know Jesus that I haven't witnessed to?
• Do I love this person?

If you answered yes to these questions, you are officially part of the reason for this news story. I have been deeply convicted lately that I don't witness enough. And I wanted to share.

BTW: If you are reading this and don't know Jesus please read here or here

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.

Evangelism and Offense

This post is brought about by reading this.  This is not intended as an interaction with that post.  That post merely started the wheels turning in my mind. First, let me say that I believe the most important duty for a Christian is to evangelize, to make other Christians.  But this post is not even about that command or necessity.  This post is about answering the question, "What is the most loving thing to do?"  This answer would be the same whether you are a Christian or a Jehovah's Witness, or a Mormon or a Wiccan.

Now, to my point.

The fact is, if I deeply hold a belief that is so important as Christian faith, then I am obligated to share it with those whom I love.  I might add here that it is even more important than just life after death.  Faith in Christ and His sacrifice for my sins gives me peace and purpose in this life, as well as a certainty about my future in heaven.  If I knew where people could obtain a million dollars with no strings attached, I would certainly tell my loved ones how to do that.  Why?  Because I love them and it could make their lives better.

I don't really want to be the five millionth blog to post the Penn Jillette video, (click here to see it) but in fact Penn, an atheist, understands the necessity of evangelism better than many of the Christians I know.

Why is it that so many Christians don't share their faith?  I believe that it is a combination of things.  First, I think that many of us don't really think about the gift of salvation as we did when it was new.  Next, I think we don't live with urgency, understanding that life could be over for any of us very soon.  Finally, I think that many of us are so worldly that our thinking is warped.  Survey after survey shows that Christian church-goers deny the truths of the faith.  Not because they don't believe them, but because of the illogical notion that there is no such thing as religious truth.  This post is not about apologetics but I will say this.  If there is any such thing as truth at all, then there is religious truth.  (Everybody believes in truth and they certainly want a banker who believes in truth.)

Another symptom of this worldliness is that we are worried about offending people to whom we witness.  I understand their view, if there is no such thing as religious truth then how dare I hold my view as certain.  Again, I'll say this, if I'm not certain, then why bother?

After saying this let's look at my hypocrisy meter.  Do I get annoyed when the Mormons or Jehovah's witnesses come knocking at my door?  Sure, but I am not offended, and I always pray for them when they leave and I understand why they are there.  I believe that they have a message that is false and ultimately hopeless, but they believe it deeply and are right to share it.

Any religion worth having is worth sharing. Share Christ with someone this week.