My Missionary Summer pt. 2

This is missions week on my blog.  This is part two of the story of my missionary summer.  Part one can be found here: It was a hot day and already in the mid-70s when I left from Nashville early in the morning.  And it was 45° when I landed in Portland in the mid-afternoon.  As you can imagine, I was immediately wondering how I was going to survive this "summer".  I was certainly thinking that I did not pack enough clothes.  (Before you worry, the first 10 days were cold and rainy, and the last 10 days were cold and rainy.  The rest of the summer I may not have seen a cloud.  It was cool and wonderful, the most beautiful weather you can imagine.)

Someone was at the airport with a cardboard sign with my name when I got off the plane.  (This was back when non-passengers were allowed in the terminals.)  As soon as I got my luggage I got out a jacket and prepared for an afternoon in the airport.

Over the next few hours, almost every missionary from the Northwest Baptist Convention arrived.  We had a 2 day orientation at a lodge in the mountains.  Day 2 included a sight seeing trip at the Columbia gorge.

At the end of day two we split up and the groups went their separate ways all over Washington, Oregon, and the Idaho panhandle.  My association had four missionaries.  Two girls, whose names I cannot remember (actually now that I think about it, their names might be Michelle and Karen) were in one group.  They spent nearly the entire summer in the same ministry location.  The other group was David Joiner and myself.  We spent the vast majority of the summer in Longview and Kelso WA.

So what did a typical week consist of?  On Sunday we would go to our host church.  Most were in Longview/Kelso, but we spent a week in Scappoose OR and a week in Castle Rock.  On Sunday the host church would usually want to hear from the missionaries.  So I would give my testimony, and David would sing.  By the end of the summer, David could easily have given my testimony for me, and I certainly had his songs memorized.  Then, throughout the week we would hold some sort of Bible study for community children.  I believe in 8 weeks we did 13 backyard Bible clubs, 2 Vacation Bible Schools, and a youth Bible study.  Most weeks there were morning and afternoon Bible clubs/VBS, sometimes there was an evening event.  Some weeks we worked with two or more churches.

Saturdays were typically travel days.  The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place, however, and many times rather than rest and do laundry, we would go with host families on sight-seeing trips.  We took a few trips to the Columbia gorge, Castle Rock, and Mt. Saint Helens.  We went to Seattle, where, as a kid from small-town KY, I saw things I'll never forget.  We also went to Mt. Rainier on a very cloudy day, where we had a snowball fight in July.

Two weeks were exceptions.  The week of the 4^th of July no church wanted to have Bible clubs or a VBS, so we mostly had the week off.  Our host pastor, Mike Neal, took care of us that week, we floated down the Coweeman River, (It even had a few rapids) and did typical Independence Day activities.  It was a good time, mid-summer, for a restful week.  We even had a cookout and saw fireworks on Lake Sacajawea.

The final week was the other exception.  The convention had a week of children's camp at a place called the Dunes Bible Camp.  It was on the beach, but the water was about 50° so there was no swimming.  The four missionaries from our association plus a mission team from Mississippi, were the staff for this week.  We served as basically the teachers for the entire camp.

So what did I learn from my experience as a Summer missionary?

Before leaving for this trip I had never taught a Bible study lesson.  (Except on youth Sunday as a teenager.)  I had only once spoken in front of a church.  By the end of the summer, I was a veteran.  I will never forget how nervous I was teaching the first Bible study to a group of Children, how great it felt as they paid attention, and some kind words of encouragement from one of the parents after I finished.

I can remember having a conversation with David during our last assignment.  I was looking back and wondering if I accomplished anything.  Over a 10 week summer, we saw no professions of faith, and no one was called to the ministry or to missions.  We didn't build anything or accomplish some great task.  Really I was rather depressed thinking that the summer had been wasted in some way.  Although I knew I had been faithful to God.

However 2 summers later, as I was serving as the interim Minister of Youth at my home church, God called me into the ministry, and I could look back and see how much of what I now knew I could do, I learned in that summer.  I definitely learned to rely on God.  When you go 2500 miles from home, for a salary of $60 a week, to a place where they don't sell Mello Yello, without knowing a single person, before cell phones were common, you must depend on God for your support.  You learn that you actually can depend on God.  In fact, the main thing I learned that summer was that I can depend on God.  He is always faithful.

Looking back, there are few experiences in my life that played as large a part in shaping who I am, as that summer.  There is nothing like a mission trip to teach you things about God that you simply cannot learn at home.  I would recommend summer missions to every college student, especially if you are struggling with God's will for your life.

You can learn about summer missions in North America at this link, and international summer missions at this link.

My Missionary Summer pt. 1

This is missions week on my blog in honor of the week of prayer for international missions.  So I am telling the story of my summer as a student missionary.  I realize that my experience is not with international missions, but it was significant for me and was way out of the Southeast.  Enjoy part 1. I typically refer to the summer of 1995 as my missionary summer.  I was 20 years old in my sophomore year of college and in October of 1994 I had dedicated my life to God in a new way.  It was the first time I ever told God that I would allow Him to be the most important thing in my life.  It was not the beginning of my Christian walk, but it was an extremely important time, and an anniversary I always remember.  It was also my first year away from home.  (I took my first year of classes at Hopkinsville Community College)

After giving God priority, I began to feel His call to spend that first summer as a missionary.  However, at that time I didn't know how to hear His voice and I didn't know what He really wanted.  I can look back now and say He was clearly calling me to give that summer to Him in missions, but at the time I was genuinely torn.

Here's how my decision making process went.  I thought God may be calling me, but I didn't know.  So I decided to simply fill out the application to be a summer missionary, and if I was accepted I would take that as a "yes."  I filled out the form.  It was the pre digital camera days, so I took a picture in a photo booth.  (It was easily a bad enough picture to get a no from the application committee.)  I mailed it in.  I knew I didn't want to do foreign missions at that time, but my thought was if I'm going to go somewhere away from home I might as well go as far as I can.  So I checked Pacific Northwest on the "where would you like to go" box in my application, and left it in God's hands.  (I really struggled with whether or not to put Alaska)

I got an acceptance letter telling me I was headed to the Southwest Washington Baptist association, (DOM Ted Cotton) which is part of the Northwest Baptist Convention.

Then I had to figure out a way to tell my parents what I as planning.  This was 13 years ago so I don't remember exactly, but I do remember my mom being all for it, although nervous.  Dad told me, "I kinda figured you would do something like that."  I wondered why, but he suspected it because of my involvement with the BSU, and the experience of an extended family member.

That went much better than expected.  And so, with no objections from anyone, I made preparations to spend my summer in Washington and Oregon.  I obviously had no idea what to expect.  I got instructions on how to book my flight to Portland and was ready to leave at the first of June.

The flight to Portland was my second ever flight, and it was by myself.  I was obviously nervous about many things, flying, how to pack enough clothes for 10 weeks, what am I getting myself into, what if I'm miserable?  10 weeks seemed like a long time.

Tomorrow, in part 2, I will write about how I actually spent the summer, some of the adventures, what my thoughts were then, and how it changed me.

IMB Commissioning Service

Monday night at the 2008 BSCNC featured a commissioning service for 31 IMB missionaries.  It began with march in the flags of many countries lined the aisle ways as the missionaries worked their way on stage.  Then it concluded with a message from Dr. Tom Elliff.

By far, the best part of the commissioning service was the the time of testimony from the missionaries themselves.  There were 31 appointees.  They ranged in age from their 20s to their 60s and they all had different stories.  They were literally headed to every part of the globe.  Some were called as children in GA meetings, some in college, and some as they were retiring.  Single, newlyweds, widows and grandparents.  It was very inspiring.

My prayer every day is that I will go wherever God wants me to go, Alaska to Africa, as long as I know it is god who has called.  I have a very clear sense of calling, but that commissioning service allowed me to see something I already knew, there is nothing super-Christian about missionaries.  they have simply been called, and said yes.  I have a couple of friends that are missionaries and I admire them for their willingness.

This video of missionaries from West Africa demonstrates this point very well.  Enjoy it, and be willing to be God's vessel wherever he calls you.  He may want to send you to Indonesia, but he also may want to send you to the choir, the nursery, or the nursing home.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsO8BYXzkxo]

Missions Week on my Blog

This week is the week of Prayer for international Missions and the beginning of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis.  In honor of that, I will also make it missions week on my blog. Here is what to expect. Monday: I will have a short post about the IMB commissioning service I attended at the BSCNC

Tuesday: Part one of the story of my missionary summer, 1995.

Wednesday: Part two of that story

Thursday: A poll and a question about Southern Baptist giving that I am extremely curious about

Friday: Best web junk (no need to mess with a formula that works)

What You People Come Here For (November Edition)

This is my monthly list of the interesting searches that brought people to my blog this month.  I put the ones I think are interesting, strange, or just befuddling here.

• can loud noises interfere with your sens
• marriage advice, sex (I have no idea why this one would point anyone here)
• does drinking beer slowly dehydrate you
• keeping eye open following bell's palsy
• bell's palsy pictures weekly
• how effective are the talk to chuck comm
• saying yes to jesus
• bird rabbit rorschach

Best Web Junk (November 28)

Dave Barry's annual gift guide is awesome as always - This year it includes a back razor I said I would support future president Obama at least as long as we could agree on the issue.  Well here is the first issue where he gets my support.

It's posible that I have used this link before, but these are very entertaining and there a LOT of them

This is fake (just marketing) but very neat

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

If that is not satisfactory, enjoy the video I saw everywhere last week.  Cat on a Roomba

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ-jv8g1YVI]

Happy Thanksgiving

I decided to use my November church newsletter article as a Thanksgiving day post. It's a little preachy, so you don't have to read it, but if you want to, here it is: Today we celebrate Thanksgiving.  A holiday that is created for the sole purpose of giving thanks to God for all the blessings that we have. Most of us do very well to say "thank you" to God during this time of year.  However, thanksgiving goes further than merely saying "thank you" to God for what we have.  If we say the words yet behave in an ungrateful manner, we are, in fact, ungrateful.

So what does this mean practically?  If we thank God for giving us the money we have, but refuse to give Him control of it, we are not actually thankful for it.  We have demonstrated that we believe that we somehow deserve what we have and therefore can do with it as we please.  If we thank Him for health or a good mind but squander those things living for ourselves, we are not thankful.  Or, if we say we are thankful for our salvation but never tell others about it we are not thankful.  Witnessing is a key component of obedience with our testimony.

We live our beliefs.  In other words, the things we do are because of what we believe.   James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. If this is true, it should affect the way we live.  We show thanks to God by our obedience.  Would you want your child to say "thank you" regularly but disrespect what he or she has been given?  If he always thought he deserved more, or she always took for granted your gifts, you would be disappointed and you would rightly feel disrespected.  When we treat God this way, we do the same.  Please allow this day to be a reminder that our Heavenly Father deserves both our gratitude and our obedience.

A Thanksgiving Acro

Here’s how it works. I will give you a few letters, and you create acrostics from them.  The acrostics don’t have to make sense, but it’s better if they do.  We may or may not develop a system of declaring a winner, but it should be fun anyway.

T H A N K S

T U R K E Y

Have fun, and have a Happy Thanksgiving

Book Review: Chasing Daylight

Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment was written by Erwin McManus the pastor of Mosaic church in Los Angeles.  Before reading this book, my only familiarity with McManus was that I saw him speak at the SBC pastor's conference in 2006.  And now that I think of it, I believe I saw the profile of his church done by NAMB on TV on a snowed out Sunday morning. The reason for choosing to read this book is that it is on a few of my friends' Facebook lists as favorite book.  Also it was the theme of the Annie Armstrong offering for 2008, and it is similar to the book Wild Goose Chase which I recently wrote a review of.  It has been sitting in my queue of books to read since March (during the AAEO).

The main idea of Chasing Daylight is that Christians have been called to actually do something.  Most of us sit around doing nothing waiting to hear God tell us what to do, but God would have us doing something.

I found this book to be very engaging.  I wrote in the margins (my way of interacting with the book) numerous times in agreement and occasionally in befuddlement.  I would not put it in the class with my very favorite books, but there is no question that I heard the voice of God as I read it.  And it was a great reminder that we are to be doing something for God.  One thing is for certain, we only have a limited amount of time and how we use that time determines our effectiveness.

McManus reminds us that we are the products of our choices.  He then points out some of the problems of the western variety of Christianity.  The main problem is that we hide behind piety and make that an excuse for doing nothing for God.  He says "I am convinced that the great tragedy is not the sins we commit but the life we fail to live." (p. 36)  In other words, we use our comfort at our own level of righteousness as if it were a great accomplishment for God.  He also has a word of warning about materialism.  I will just say that he is exactly right about our stuff owning us.  Also that we must lay aside everything that comes between us and God, even if we think those things are "blessings" from God.

I was particularly struck by a an application he makes from Luke 14:15-24.  I have always viewed this passage as being about salvation only.  But he relates it to opportunity.  He would say that if we do not do the ministry that God has given us while we can, God will use someone else.

One of the weaknesses of this book is common in a lot of recent Christian books.  It is the use of the word "community" to replace the word "church".  I think I'll write a post about that later on.  Maybe it's just a personal issue, but it bothers me.

Also in the weakness category is the "Perils of Ayden" sections used between chapters.  These short vignettes of some fictional story did nothing to make the book clearer or better.  They were confusing and written in a nearly unreadable font.  (Seriously, that font is a major fail.  I was hoping I could link to the Amazon.com preview of these sections, but they are not there.)  Maybe I'm just too left-brained to get it, but I was somewhat befuddled.  Fortunately these sections didn't harm the book or its message.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is searching for how to know God's will for his or her life.  I would put it ahead of Wild Goose Chase by an order of magnitude and say it is worth the short time it takes to read.

A scary video and what's coming this week

This starts off looking fun, then just becomes frightening [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RVuXjf_PJo]

In blogging news.  There will be a post here tomorrow.  A book review that I started about 2 months ago, but never finished.  Then there will be a Thanksgiving acro game and best web junk on Friday.  I will not be around much to moderate the comments.  But feel free to add to the collaborative story.  We've kinda left William in the lurch.

Best Web Junk (November 21)

Japanese baseball drafts a 16 year old girl This is hilariously snarky - man tries to pay bill with spider drawing - found via everywhere on the internet

Here's a giant fish.  Just because you expect me to post this kind of stuff

This story really makes me proud to be from Kentucky.  Seriously, it's worth your time.  How many stories you gonna read about a 35 year old gramma having her house toppled over by the sheriff because it was blocking the road too long

this made me chuckle

[youtube =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwC6LP4lvvk]

And this made me spit my drink - via myextralife

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg]

My blog's busiest day ever*

Weird.  Yesterday was the busiest day ever on this blog, except for the "what's the baby using" flurry.  i can't really see why. Open letter to NASCAR, Big news at BSCNC, and NaNoWriMo project all got good numbers.

My best theory why this was such a high number is that the NaNoWriMo post really generated 2 hits each time, because people went to the rules, then read the story.  And I figure some of you checked in on the [lack of] progress multiple times.

Now a word of encouragement - please write something.  The story won't progress if nobody writes anything.  I'll not share exact numbers, but there are a lot of views for the story, and only one section added.  Doesn't anybody wonder if the old man wrote the letter?  If so you can answer the question yourself.  Or you can have the train derail, or anything else you can think of....that's how it works and why it is can be fun.

Thanks for making yesterday my most visited day ever.

*non-what's the baby using

NaNoWriMo Project

Sometimes on youth trips we play three-headed storyteller.  It's a game I adapted it from "Whose Line Is It Anyway."  It works like this; you get three people and each of them contributes one word to a story.  keep going in a rotation.  They always turn out to be funny. Thinking about that game got me to thinking.  November is National Novel Writing Month, and I have this great forum, I have a bunch of regular readers who are also creative.  Although many of you are too shy to ever post anything I still think we can make this work.  So I want to attempt a project.  Between now and the new year you will notice a new tab at the top of this blog called collaborative story.  (I was going to sticky it, but was afraid it would get too long and overwhelm page 1)  In this tab we will write a collaborative story.  Any and all of you feel free to contribute.  Even if you are a first-timer, or a reader who never contributes, you are welcome to join in.  I will leave the first section very open ended, but sooner or later, some of you will need to fill in some details.

Here are the necessary rules:

1. No one can write two consecutive portions
2. Portions may not be longer than 400 words (for reference, the prior 2 paragraphs were 178 words )
3. Be aware of continuity.  Please read the story and relate your section to the rest.  We don't want this to turn out like Snoopy's novel.   Not too many meanwhiles etc.
4. No quick endings.  Please don't have aliens destroy the world, or some sort of catastrophy to end the story short
5. Please don't negate the contributions of others, (e.g. Then he woke up...it was all a dream)
6. Careful of content/language.  Try to write your portions without swears or non PG-13 content.
7. You put your portion in the comments, I will add it to the body of the post and delete the comment.
8. I reserve the right to edit your portion for spelling grammar and format.
9. Have fun

Finally - Try this. even if you don't think this is your thing or if you aren't creative, write one sentence.  Give it a shot.  I think this might be fun.

An Open Letter to NASCAR

The NASCAR season ended Sunday, and I wasn’t watching. Partly because the race started at 3 and I have church at 5, but also because I wasn’t really all that interested. I’ve been a NASCAR fan since probably the second grade. It is the first sport I remember caring about and the first major sporting event I ever attended was a Bush race at Bristol. Lately I have lost interest to some degree. I am only a fan, I’m not an insider and I don’t work in sports, but I do love NASCAR and I would like to see it improve. So here are some suggestions in the form of an open letter.

I’ll start this letter by addressing the major problem with NASCAR. The season is too long. It begins in mid-February and it ended 11 days from Thanksgiving. That means that December and January are the only months without racing. This problem is not limited to NASCAR, it is a the problem with most professional sports, long seasons make for boring seasons. I’m especially talking to you MLB and NBA. Have any of you ever heard that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or to leave 'em wanting more?

I have put some thought into what can be done about this problem of the 10 month season. Here is my suggestion. I only want to improve things.

NASCAR needs divisions. This actually solves 2 problems. First, it shortens the season. Second, it makes use of some of the tracks that could use a second race (or a first, such as Nashville, Northern Kentucky, or Rockingham) Here’s how I propose it to work. Divide the drivers by the previous year’s standings with a snaking order. (1st place in div A, 2^nd & 3^rd in div B, 4^th & 5^th in div A, etc.) Then both divisions (Petty & Earnhardt?) have quality drivers and regardless which event you attend, you can see stars, just not all of them. Make that a 20 race schedule in the divisions, then put the top 6 from each division into the chase and the top 20 into the races for the chase. This gives NASCAR more television revenue, more tracks get to sell tickets, more fans have opportunity to see races, and the season ends nearly 2 months earlier.

The only real problem I can think of with this plan is how to deal with the Brickyard or Daytona 500, but someone can figure it out.  Maybe even in the comments.

The second suggestion is to put a variety of track types into the chase. Maybe nobody has pointed this out. But a team that makes the chase and is particularly good at the mile-and-a-half quad-oval has a decided advantage. How about a Pocono or Bristol in the chase? If you are going to race stupid road courses, make one of them be in the chase. If weather concerns create the current schedule, take my first suggestion. If the season ended in late September you could race in Watkins Glen, or Pike’s Peak for that matter. But in mid November you are pretty much stuck with Phoenix and Homestead.

If some other teams had a chance it would help as well. Of the 35 races this season, 30 were won by a Roush, Gibbs, or Hendrick team. If you went to divisions, and kept 35-40 teams per race, it would definitely give some other teams a chance to win some races.

Mix in some minorities. NASCAR is no longer a sport of good ol’ boys from the south, but it is lily white. With the exception of Montoya, there is nothing resembling a minority anywhere around the track. I don’t know how to fix that problem, but seriously the future is in jeopardy as long as it remains the way it is. America is more diverse and will become more so. If golf can have a non-white superstar, surely something that’s actually fun like driving fast can as well.

Don’t bow to the environmentalists…yet. The sound of a stock car is unmistakable, and if they switched to ethanol and sound whiny like Indy cars, it would lose some of the magic. (Maybe I’m showing my ignorance here, somebody can straighten me out in the comments. Feel free, as long as you can be respectful.) The day is coming when everyone will get around on some new fuel, but until then, let’s not have silent, hydrogen cars going around the track.

I really like NASCAR and want to see it continue to be great. These suggestions are just my 2 cents to improve it. The outlook is not all bad I took this quiz and got 100% so the sponsors are definitely getting their exposure.

Feel free to comment on this.  I'd like to know my readers' thoughts on this one.  Do you think I'm way off base, or have better suggestions?

Best Web Junk (November 14)

I almost forgot to post this, I usually have my Best Web Junk set to autopost and just wasn't thinking about it. In my never ending quest to improve your vocabulary, I present this link of the 100 most oft misspelled words.

This is a serious education fail

Here is something every college basketball fan needs. Well, it will only work if you are a fan of Kentucky, Northwestern, Arizona, or Villanova.  And you will probably need to change the uniform <update> that link is gone, here is a pic of this awesome piece of taxidermy </update>

Finally, here's a video of a banana scaring people

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGxy3Er0lyA]

<update> here's a funny vid I just saw.  Thanks to @DougFields for this one  </ update>

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-6ph7NWoBM]

Big News at the BSCNC

Earlier today I twittered that I think I'm voting to split our convention.  Here is why. Actually, I think I’ll start with a bit of background for those of my readers who have no idea what I’m talking about.

The Southern Baptist Convention underwent a theological shift during the 1970s through mid-1990s. Before this period, the convention was headed in the same direction as the mainline protestant denominations. This theological shift took place over the inerrancy of scripture, although it manifest itself in many different ways. Let me say that differently. On the 1970’s the SBC leadership was strongly leaning away from a view of scripture as inerrant. During this period, conservatives, those who would say that the Bible is true in all that it declares, began an effort to return the convention to its roots. They were ultimately successful, and today the Southern Baptist Convention is a thoroughly conservative denomination. And I, for one, am grateful to those who were involved in that process. At the end of this process, many theological moderates left the SBC and formed their own convention, known as the CBF.

This same battle took place in the vast majority of state conventions as well. However, for a variety of reasons, it had differing success in different places. In Virginia, Texas, and Missouri, the conventions actually split and the conservatives left to form their own state conventions. North Carolina has been able to remain united partially because of giving plans.

What are giving plans? In 1925, Southern Baptists developed the Cooperative Program. (CP) The CP is simply a method of sharing in mission work by pooling money from the 42,000 SBC churches. Each church sends a portion of its gifts to its respective state convention, the conventions in turn, use a portion for missions and ministry and send a portion to the SBC for missions and ministry. This combined amount makes the SBC able to send some 12,000 missionaries around the world, operate 6 seminaries, and do more than I can list in this paragraph.

Within North Carolina there were churches along the theological spectrum that wanted to contribute to state missions but not to SBC missions. Some want to send part of their money to the SBC and part to the CBF. Giving plans were created in order to facilitate the desires of everyone, and they essentially created confusion.

So today, the last item of business was to get rid of all of the giving plans and replace them with a single plan which had options. A church could still designate funds to the CBF, or it could exclude the SBC, but it was all done under one plan. It was essentially the same thing, but done in a much less convoluted way.

Sorry about that lengthy background passage, here is the news of the day:

When the motion was presented, messenger Matt Williamson, pastor of Oak Forest Baptist in Fletcher (ht - Biblical Recorder for that info) immediately asked it be amended to exclude the CBF. (Actually there was some confusion, but that was the point of his ammendment) That means that if the amendment passed, there is no way for a church to give to the CBF through the BSCNC. In other words, CBF churches would be effectively shut out of the state convention. If they still wish to give to both CBF and BSCNC they would have to write two checks. No big deal it sounds like, but they would now have to go out of their way to support the state convention and the CBF. It would be a formal severing. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of discussion both for and against the amendment.

What did I do? My heart was definitely with the amendment, but I had a fear that it the amendment passed, the unified giving plan would fail and we would be exactly in the same place as we began; a largely divided convention with a horrible system of giving.

Someone finally called the question and it came time to vote. We took two sight-votes (raise your ballots and see if any side clearly wins), but it was obviously very close. So we cast ballots. The amendment passed four-hundred sixty-something to three-hundred-something. Less than 1,000 total. If anyone had suspected that would occur there would have been many more messengers.

Oh yeah; What did I do? I voted for the amendment.

After the amendment passed, the motion to move to one, CBF-less giving plan passed overwhelmingly.

I don’t want to get into prophecy, but this seems to have been the death-knell of the CBF in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Here is the Baptist Press story about the convention

BSCNC Tuesday

Brace yourself for the world's boringest blog post Today everything at the convention went so smooth it is unbelievable.  We were an hour ahead during the morning sesion.  There was no more than one nominee for any officer position, there was no discussion on any piece of business and there was no miscellaneous business. 

We were out for our lunch break at 11:00

After lunch the session was just as smooth.  We got out 15 minutes early.  It is truly amazing, I've never seen a group of baptists get together and have no discussion on anything.  There were breakout sessions in the afternoon, one at 3:15 and one at 4:15.

I attended the session led by Mark Dever on the future of the church.  I'll try to sum up a 45 minute lecture in 2 sentences.  Here goes... The church is going to lose the culture war.  The church will survive by being distinct from the culture.  It's probably unfair to do that, and horrendously oversimplified, but I saved you a trip to Greensboro.

Then I attended a listening session for the proposed changes to the giving plans.  I have always been opposed to the giving plans in North Carolina.  (Which allow the churches to taylor the way they give to the BSCNC.  Even if they exclude the SBC altogether.)  But I was inclined to not support the unified giving plan going in because it is still pretty customizable, and you can still exclude the SBC.  But the committee that put together the new giving plan put my mind to rest.  They spoke with passion and respect for one another.  And it seemed truly bathed in prayer.  I will vote yes tomorrow.

I skipped the final evening session, and am writing this post as it is going on. 

Tomorrow will not be nearly as smooth.  We have a biannual budget to vote on, and the giving plan.  there will definitely be discussion.

Thanks for reading.

Blogging about Johnny Hunt

Today was the beginning of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. This morning and aftenoon, was the pastor's convention and I heard some wonderful preaching.  I was a bit late so I only heard part of the lineup.  I was there for Stephen Rummage, Bob Pitman, Danny Akin, and Johnny Hunt.

All of them were wonderful and I enjoyed the preaching immensely.  Especially, Bob Pitman's story of his GPS and Dr Akin's  political rant. 

But I'm addressing the rest of this post to The president of the SBC, Johnny Hunt.  He said that many Southern Baptist have a great intellectual curiosity.  That "they want to learn so that they can blog"  but that "we should want to learn so that we can do."  Let me take this opportunity to say, I love Johnny Hunt, and I think he is right.  Blogging about evangelism is not evangelism.  Forgive me if I use my blog as a forum to attack, malign or otherwise do harm to the kingdom of God.  

I write this blog as an exercise in how to organize my thoughts, hopefully it will make me a better communicator.  I also write it as part of my daily quiet time ritual.   And I genuinely appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it.  (Fortunately that is a small enough group to keep me humble)

I will post later this week about the IMB commissioning service and how wonderful it was.  That's all for now

Best Web Junk (November 7)

Whatever you do, do not share the buffet. I'm just nerdy enough to be fascinated by this post.

You are going to regret it if you don't click on this link for Olan Mills goodness

If you are a Digg user, this story comes as no surprise to you.

Which came first, the song or the vid?  Either way, good luck getting this one out of your head.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tRzTfgds0UI]

Best thing I've seen in a while

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4]

Five Things We Can Learn From the Election

One of the odd things about having a blog is that, merely by its existence, it implies that people care about what I think. This blog does very poorly when I try to be interactive, so today it’s just commentary.*

I voted for John McCain, not because I am a huge fan of McCain, but because I find so many of the policies of Obama incompatible with a Christian worldview and my view of how America should be. Having said that;

I will be praying for the presidency of Barack Obama.

Here are my thoughts as a Christian about the election and what we know.

1. Ultimately hope is not found in politics – I wrote an entire post about this once, but I’ll reiterate my position. Our hope in not found in government or laws, even if it is a political slogan. Hope is only found in Christ. (Cue Steven Curtis Chapman Heaven in the Real World)

2a. Better laws don’t make better people – I am certain without a doubt that the basic problem with the world is sin. If every law on the books was perfect, we would still live in a badly broken world and still have all the problems we have today.

2b. Worse laws don’t make worse people – See above. The problems that exist in our nation, from crime to a failing economy, are not law problems, but heart problems.

3. God is in control – “He removes kings and sets up kings” Dan 2:21

4. We get what we deserve – To some degree. The simple fact is, we all vote our values. If we value our 401(k), or prosperity more than morals, we vote against incumbents when the economy is down. Fortunately, we don’t get exactly what we deserve, otherwise we would truly be hopeless.

5. We better get to work evangelizing our cities - I think that one speaks for itself.

Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.

* Although I am a staff member of LaGrange Park Baptist Church, the views and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not that of the church. They may not be construed as an endorsement or attack on any candidate or party on behalf of the church. They are my views as an individual.