Russell D. Moore

Russell D. Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern Seminary, is one of the featured speakers at the Acts 29 Boot Camp at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Nov. 10-11.

Gregg Allison, professor of Christian theology at Southern, is one of the speakers for the pastor as resident theologian breakout track.

Moore is presenting the seventh main session, “Preaching & Ambition,” with a characteristically-unique sermon title: “Speaking Past Demons: Christian Preaching as Expository Exorcism.” Moore’s presentation at the sold-out conference is at 3:30 p.m., Nov. 11. Allison’s breakout session on church history, which he will lead with Reid Monaghan, is from 1:30-2:20 p.m., Nov. 11.

Acts 29 Boot Camps are church planting conferences that focus on the vision of church planting, calling of the planter, mandate to multiply churches and the theological foundation for Gospel-centered church planting, according to the Acts 29 website.

Gregg Allison

In addition to his duties at Southern, Moore serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church’s Fegenbush campus. Moore is the author of “The Kingdom of Christ” and “Adopted for Life.”

Allison previously taught theology and church history at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., and the Institute of Biblical Studies in Western Europe.

Acts 29 holds multiple Boot Camps each year, with themes that are unique to each event. The Louisville Boot Camp carries the theme, “Ambition,” based on Romans 15:20: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (NIV).

Text/title: 1 John 2:18-29 - “The Antichrist and the Peril of the Unanointed.”

John is writing to teach his audience about the Christian life. He is writing to tell them that those who are Christians have certain changes in their life. Changes that result in a conduct that reflects a knowledge of God, an awareness of God and leads to living unto God.

This book is like a tapestry: it starts and presents several ideas and then returns to those ideas as it goes along, winding them tighter and tighter, until you get to the end and see things that will characterize every believer to some degree. Those who are characterized by these things are born of God.

It is a gracious act of God to remind us of these things, simple things, that we are son prone to forget. The greatest of all knowledge is that we are children of God who know God. Have you woken up in the morning and thought, “I know God?” This is the greatest knowledge: nothing else matters.

Certainty of the success of the anointing

The distinguishing factor between those who are antichrist and those who are not is the anointing. John makes this very clear. We may have flashes of motivation for altruism, for love of neighbor, but eventually we would all return to selfishness, were it not for the anointing.

Jesus is the one who brings all the blessings of God to us. There were some who were denying that Jesus was the Christ, John writes, and those who denied Christ, did not have the Father. John is describing those who are, in some sense, antichrist. And he describes them in this way: there is something definitive in the life of those people that marks them as a group that does not know God.

If this group had been of those who know God, then they would not have gone out from the people of God. As it is, they went out, which made it clear that they did not know God. There is a certainty that those who deny the truth of Jesus Christ will remain with God’s people: those who went out were not of us. If they had been of us, they would not have gone out.

In contrast, those who know God have been anointed by the Holy One.

The reason people know the truth is because they have the anointing from the Holy One. Truth and lies cannot exist together. The Holy Spirit is the one who anoints people. The Holy Spirit always works in concert with the Father and with the Son. The Holy Spirit subjectively applies the anointing to people.

Usually, we think of anointing as something we don’t want any part of. We associate it with being pushed over, forced to the ground, things that we question the validity of. But John assumes that all of us have the anointing. The Spirit coming to us and anointing us insures that everything Christ has done for us will come to us.

By the power of the Spirit, Jesus Himself loved righteousness and hated wickedness. From His conception to His resurrection and ascension, everything that Jesus did, He did by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and all of that has been given to you.

The anointing that we have from the Holy Spirit teaches us everything.

• The Holy Spirit shows us our need for Christ.

The Holy Spirit awakens our mind, showing us our need for Christ and we respond by running to Christ.

• The Holy Spirit gives us a right view of sin.

We have a right understanding of our sin and need for Christ.

• The Holy Spirit gives us a right view of obedience.

We know that those who know God should keep His commandments.

• The Holy Spirit gives us a right view of love.

We see a flowering of the new covenant: we are now able to love our brother from our heart. We have been born again by the living and abiding Word of God. We have a new understanding of what it means to love.

• The Holy Spirit gives us a right view of righteousness.

Anyone who is born of God knows that he is righteous. We know that we have an Advocate before the Father. We develop an increasing distaste for the things of the world. He who has been born of God overcomes the world.

These are things you know. These things that cannot be learned in seminary and cannot be impressed upon you by any preacher. These are things that are impressed upon your heart by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The event is designed to give a voice to the cries of millions of orphans around the world through music and speakers, according to the Orphan Sunday website.

“Orphan Sunday isn’t about charity; it’s about the mission of Christ,” said Russell D. Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern. ”I pray that every Gospel-transformed congregation will observe Orphan Sunday, calling all Christians to our mandate to image Christ by caring for his little brothers and sisters, the fatherless of the world.”

The event is sponsored by the Cry of the Orphan. The 2009 Cry of the Orphan Awareness Campaign marks the fourth annual unified campaign to heighten awareness of the plight of the millions of orphans around the world, according to the Orphan Sunday website.

The Cry of the Orphan campaign is sponsored by Hope for Orphans (a ministry of FamilyLife), Show Hope and Focus on the Family. The Cry of the Orphan and the Christian Alliance for Orphans partner together in the nationwide Orphan Sunday movement.

Other speakers at the event include Jedd Medefind (Christian Alliance for Orphans) and Sharen Ford (Colorado Division of Child Welfare Services). Geoff Moore and the Children of the World Choir will provide additional special music.

For more information, visit www.orphansunday.org.

The $10 discount offer of two tickets is available by calling the Brown Theatre box office at 502-584-7777 and mentioning the code: EKLB.¹ This offer is subject to availability and is not valid on previously purchased tickets. To obtain the $20 student tickets, students must present a valid student ID at the Brown Theatre box office. The “Screwtape Letters” performances are at 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 6 and 4 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7.

McLean to be at LifeWay Campus Store at Southern

The LifeWay Campus Store at Southern welcomes Max McLean at 6 p.m, Thursday, Nov. 5. LifeWay will be giving away two free tickets to McLean’s performance of “Screwtape Letters” on Friday night.

McLean is a well-known actor and the narrator of several Audio Bibles, including the “ESV Study Bible” and the audio edition of “The Valley of Vision.” McLean will be reading from the Bible, discussing his new book on reading the Bible in public and signing his book.

“The Screwtape Letters”

When first published in 1942, “The Screwtape Letters” brought immediate fame to a little known Oxford don whose field of study was medieval English literature. Over the past 60 years its wit and wisdom have made it one of C. S. Lewis’ most widely read and influential works.

The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as “the Patient.”

Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil’s viewpoint. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.²

Fellowship for the Performing Arts has adapted and produced this best selling classic into a thoroughly engaging and entertaining theatrical production. This funny adaptation, which stars McLean as Screwtape was critically acclaimed in New York; had standing room only crowds at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C.; and was called the “most successful show in the history of Chicago’s Mercury Theater” by the Chicago Tribune. Brown Theatre is located at 315 W. Broadway in downtown Louisville. For more information, visit www.ScrewtapeOnStage.com.

¹This offer is subject to availability and is not valid on previously purchased tickets.

²Summary from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters.

Several evangelical scholars, including three from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, answer questions such as these about the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew in the Fall 2009 edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

Journal editor Stephen J. Wellum argues in his editorial that the parables of Christ serve dual functions: they enlighten some to the truths about Christ, but harden others to them.

Wellum serves as professor of Christian theology at Southern Seminary.

The new edition of the journal serves as a companion to the winter Bible study published by LifeWay Christian Resources.

“Parables are used to accomplish what God’s Word does every time it is preached and taught: to give light and life to those who receive Christ and to harden and judge those who reject him,” Wellum writes.

“In this way, the parables spoken to the crowds do not simply convey information, nor mask it, but they challenge the hearers (and us!) with the claims of Christ himself as he comes as Lord, inaugurating his Kingdom, and calling all people to follow him in repentance, faith, and obedience.”

Robert L. Plummer examines the history of interpretation of the parables and provides guidelines as to how they should be interpreted. Plummer, who serves as associate professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern, argues that the proper starting point with the parables is to determine the main point or points. It is equally important not to press the details, he writes.

“There is some debate among evangelical scholars as to whether each parable teaches only one main point (e.g., Robert Stein) or whether a parable may have several main points (e.g. Craig Blomberg),” Plummer writes. “In reality, these two perspectives are not as varied as they may appear … It is important to realize also that not all details in a parable have significance.”

Jonathan Pennington, assistant professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern, examines Matthew 13 - the Parable of the Sower - in close detail. The parable includes three parts and is not given merely to show Jesus as a gifted and compelling teacher, he concludes. The parable is inspired, like the rest of Scripture, to change fallen human hearts, Pennington argues.

“I think the message to us comes off the page quite straightforwardly,” he writes. “First, regarding the Sower and the sowing: This word of the kingdom, the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ as Jesus calls it, is still going forth through us today as Jesus’ disciples. To be a disciple of Jesus means to do the same things he did, to live a life of self-sacrifice, serving others, to minister grace to broken lives, to turn the other cheek when wrongly accused, to be poor in spirit, to forgive others, and crucially, to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom.”

The journal also includes essays by Dan Doriani, A.B. Caneday and a sermon on the Parable of the Sower by Kirk Wellum. Doriani serves as pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Mo, Caneday is professor of New Testament studies and biblical theology at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minn. Wellum serves as principal and professor of biblical studies, pastoral and systematic theology at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

To subscribe to the journal or for more information, email journaloffice@sbts.edu.

1. Why is fervent delivery of expositionally-sound sermons important? How can men grow in developing fervent delivery?

Akin: Fervent delivery is important because though what we say is more important than how we say it, how we say it has never been more important. We live in an age where effective communication skills are essential. Furthermore, we are proclaiming a beautiful Gospel. I find it unconsciousable that we would not proclaim a beautiful Gospel in a beautiful way.

No one has given more attention to this than Southern Seminary’s Hershael York. He has thrown down the gauntlet to men who proclaim the Gospel that there does not need to be a dichotomy between content and delivery. In other words, we should glorify God in both what we say and how we say it. Men can grow in developing a passionate and effective delivery by studying the art of communication and listening to great preachers. Again, Dr. York has written extensively on this and I commend his work very highly.

2. What would you say to Southern Baptist pastors and/or students who affirm the tenets of the GCR, but don’t involve themselves in convention life?

Akin: I would say get off your backsides and get involved! The fact of the matter is, if they want to be agents of change they have to get involved. I would also say to be critical and negative and sit on the sidelines is hypocritical. If you are not going to get involved in helping change the SBC, then you ought to remain silent. You have forfeited the right to speak if you are not going to be involved in helping make changes. I would strongly encourage our pastors and students to be in Orlando next year. I believe it will be one of the most historic conventions in the history of our denomination.

3. What role can seminary students at Southern Baptist seminaries play in the GCR and SBC life?

Akin: First, they can get involved in convention life on the associational, state and national level. Again, I would strongly urge out students to attend the convention in Orlando next year.

Second, they can be very intentional in communicating with leaders at all levels of Southern Baptist life their concerns, dreams and aspirations. In other words, they need to let leaders know what they are thinking and what they hope the future will be. This takes effort and energy, but I believe it is worth it. The Southern Baptist Convention is like a giant aircraft carrier and it will move and turn slowly. However, if there are many hands on deck trying to turn this big ship, I believe good change can happen more quickly and more effectively.

The other thing I would say is listen and learn, a lot! Most of our seminary students are young, and therefore though they have a lot of passion and zeal, they are not yet blessed with great experience and wisdom that comes from a long life. The Bible speaks very clearly to this. So, get involved, but honor those men who have gone before you who have earned the right to lead and to be heard. Hopefully, they will listen back.

Southern Baptists today have much to be thankful for and build upon from their forebears, but must consider structural changes to the Southern Baptist Convention and embrace methodological diversity within the denomination, speakers said at Union University’s Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism conference, Oct. 6-9. The conference was held in recognition of the 400th anniversary of the Baptist movement.

Southern Baptists must address “hard questions,” Akin says

Danny Akin said he is not optimistic about the future of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination but he is “hopeful” - if Southern Baptists will fully commit themselves to the Lordship of Christ and His Great Commission.

But if Southern Baptists are not moved to a complete commitment to missions, “We don’t deserve a future,” Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in his Oct. 8 address on the future of the SBC.

Citing the promise of Rev. 7:9-10 in which heaven will be populated by vast multitude of all peoples, Akin said, “The question that stares Southern Baptists in the face is this: will we join hands with our great God in seeing this awesome day come to pass or will we find ourselves sitting on the sidelines watching?”

To remain viable as a Great Commission-advancing denomination, Southern Baptists must answer several hard questions, said Akin, who previously served as dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Such questions to consider include changing the name of the SBC, overlap and duplication in SBC structure and programs, and the mechanisms for church planting, Akin said.

“I want to challenge us to do simple convention,” he said. “We must streamline our structure, clarify our identity and maximize our resources.”

Akin believes the SBC’s Cooperative Program (CP) remains a useful tool, so long as Southern Baptists remain open studying the CP and “making improvements if possible.”

As Southern Baptists address these hard questions, they should maintain the commendable advancements of their forebears and hold the ground gained during the SBC’s Conservative Resurgence, Akin said.

Praising Southern Baptist leaders like Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers and Jerry Vines who led the Conservative Resurgence during the 1980s and ‘90s to oppose the “poison of liberalism” in the SBC, Akin said these “heroes of the faith” should be honored and not forgotten - and newer generations of Southern Baptists need to be told of their sacrifices.

Southern Baptists must stand upon Lordship of Jesus Christ, the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, a commitment to expository preaching and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a healthy and sufficient guide for cooperation, Akin said.

The question “What is the best way to reach with the Gospel the people I live amongst?” should shape the ministry of Southern Baptist churches and the SBC, Akin said, which will require methodological diversity.

“It is foolish to gripe about organs, choirs and choir robes, guitars, drums, coats and ties,” he said. “It is also a waste of time. It is time to move on with the real issue of the Great Commission.”

Mohler: next generation will shape the future of the SBC

The rise of secularism and the fall of cultural Christianity in the deep South over the past two decades have conspired to make the 20-something generation crucial for defining the mission of the SBC over the next 10-20 years, R. Albert Mohler Jr., told students Oct. 9 at Union University.

Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, said the younger generation of Southern Baptists will shape the future of the denomination, a stewardship it must not take lightly.

“I’m thankful it’s not the inerrancy crisis that we lived through in the 1970s and 1980s, your generation is a generation of beneficiaries of that controversy,” he said. “But you must be a part of forging a new identity for the Southern Baptist Convention. It is going to be yours and you are going to decide what to do with it.

“It (a new identity) is not something we can create with a new slogan, for new slogan will not save us. There is a need for a resurgence of Great Commission passion, vision, commitment and energy in our denomination.”

A refocusing on the Great Commission is going to be costly, Mohler said, because it will require asking questions that have not been asked within the SBC for several generations and dealing with issues not previously considered.

“We were not called simply to receive what has been handed to us in terms of structures and continue it because of brand loyalty,” he said. “We’ve been called to be a church on mission.

“The vision before us is not the perpetuation of the Southern Baptist Convention, but the call of the nations to exult in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Dockery and Stetzer: Right kinds of denominations still have a place

Though church denominations are in decline, Union University President David S. Dockery said he is still convinced of the benefits they provide, such as structure, connections, coherence and accountability, especially for groups like the SBC.

“I believe (denominations) do matter, and they will continue to matter,” Dockery said. “But if, and only if, they remain connected to Scripture and to the orthodox tradition. Even with all of the advancements of our technological society, we still need some kind of structure to connect and carry forth the Christian faith. We need conviction and boundaries, but we also will need a spirit of cooperation to build bridges.”

While the idea of denominations is negative for many people, Dockery said denominations have been important throughout Christian history “to carry forward the work of those who come together around shared beliefs and shared practices.”

Ed Stetzer kicked off the conference by addressing the question, “Denominationalism: Is There a Future?” Stetzer answered in the affirmative, so long as denominations are serving local churches and not assuming a place of pre-eminence in the ministry of believers.

Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence, said churches that belong to denominations have a confessional standard that holds them accountable to orthodoxy. In addition, Stetzer said denominational networking and cooperation is inevitable for churches that are missions-focused.

“Like-minded people will always find ways to associate with one another. One positive reason for this is missional cooperation,” he said. “The vast majority of world missions, church planting and many other forms of ministry are done through denominational partnerships.

“When it comes to global missions, denominations tend to be the tools used by local churches to get the global work done. Some level of cooperation between like-minded local churches is both unavoidable and beneficial for those who want to make an impact in a lost world.”

Stetzer said as we proceed in the 21^st century, one key characteristic of healthy denominations is methodological diversity. While denominations must maintain confessional uniformity, methodological diversity must also be allowed for the sake of cooperation in advancing the Gospel.

Southern Baptists can learn something from ‘doctrine-friendly’ Emerging churches, Devine says

While some Emerging churches do not uphold basic Christian doctrines, others are doctrine-friendly and theologically-sound and from these Southern Baptists can learn and benefit, Mark DeVine said.

DeVine, associate professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School and a Ph.D. graduate from Southern Seminary, examined the role doctrine-friendly Emerging churches can play in the SBC.

DeVine said that perhaps the biggest potential contribution of doctrine-friendly Emerging churches to not only Southern Baptists, but all of North American Christianity, is their engagement with the multiple cultural sub-cultures that now make up the continent.

“No longer can Christian believers and would-be evangelists expect to encounter unbelievers with whom they share a deep, wide and rich cultural heritage across great swaths of geography,” he said. “The cultural diversification occurring in North America matters for those who would see the Gospel advance. Culture profoundly affects the conveyance of meaning and the Gospel is a message with a meaning that must be conveyed in order to be believed.”

DeVine said a failure to understand the culture in which we minister will result in a failure to communicate the Gospel. With the changing cultural landscape in America, he said Southern Baptists must view our own land as a mission field. And doctrine-friendly Emerging churches can help Southern Baptists reach this mission field.

“Where strong and deep theological affinity avails, let us be slow to view those with a jaundiced eye,” DeVine said. “Let’s do shared theology do its work and let’s be patient with these men.”

Wheaton president: SBC must become “less insular”

Duane Litfin, president of Wheaton College made three observations “as an outsider” looking in at the SBC regarding its future. First, he said Baptist polity is well positioned for the decline of denominationalism. Because Baptist ecclesiology prizes local church autonomy, the churches of the SBC are in a good position to maintain the strengths of their cooperation and leave behind areas of weakness.

Second, Litfin said shifts in denominationalism should force the SBC to become less insular. While the SBC has long been able to be insular, possessing its own colleges and universities, source of curriculum, retirement and investment agency and seminaries, shifts in denominationalism may require that the SBC work more with those outside the convention.

“I would encourage you to partner with whomever you can where you can without compromising the truth,” Litfin said. “You can learn from others by hanging out with them and equally you can have a good influence by becoming a part of a broader conversation. Sitting in a catbird seat at Wheaton, I would say we need you. The broader evangelical world needs the voice of those in the SBC.”

Third, Litfin said the SBC should not depend on evangelicalism as a movement. While he has not written off evangelicalism, Litfin recognizes that the movement may not be a viable option for conservative theologians in future years. Litfin exhorted Southern Baptists and all evangelicals to remain Word-centered.

“As an evangelical, I want to keep us anchored in the truth,” he said. “Terms come and go and movements come and go. Stay Word-centered, Christ-centered, Gospel-centered. This is what will keep you useful to the Lord.”

With reporting by Jeff Robinson, director of news and information at Southern Seminary; James A. Smith Sr., executive editor of the Florida Baptist Witness; and Tim Ellsworth, director of news and media relations at Union University.

Text/title: 1 Peter 2:4-10 - “Crying Stones or Whining Rocks? The Living Stone and the living stones.”

Prince began by sharing the story of a middle school athlete. This athlete worked hard in practice, very hard, but never got to play in games. This student’s mother sent a message to David Prince on Facebook: “Is it worth it for him play? He never gets to play: Is it worth it?”

Prince’s answer: Team sports exist because everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

What is the goal? To win the game within the confines of the rules. And everyone has a unique role on the team trying to win the game within the confines of the rules. Thus: it is okay to sit the bench; so long as you are doing everything you can to maximize your ability.

Most of us are role players. Most of us are not in the spotlight. It is okay to be a role player if you are part of something bigger than yourself.

Setting of 1 Peter: Adopt a telescope view of suffering

Peter is writing to those undergoing suffering and persecution. It is not physical persecution yet, but they can feel it coming. They are known as traitors, as oddballs and they can sense that this thing is headed toward physical persecution. They are discouraged, confused, mocked, scorned and passed over. Many of them have lost their jobs. Many of them have families who have turned their backs on them. They are living lives of suffering and persecution scattered throughout Asia Minor.

Peter writes to these people, to these elect exiles, in the midst of this situation. Peter wants his audience to take a telescope and look at their lives and locate it in the midst of God’s plan of redemption in the world.

In chapter 1, Peter speaks of sovereign grace. Peter speaks of an unfading inheritance. Peter reminds his audience that their suffering fits into the purposes of God. The prophets of God longed to experience the day you are experiencing, Peter said. Peter reminds them that their lives are attached to the Word of the Gospel.

Then Peter comes to chapter 2, and he reminds his audience that all of these blessings take place in the context of the believing community, of the church. You are part of something bigger than yourself.

Living stones (2:4-5)

Peter is picking up stone language (Is. 28:16, other texts) and applying it to Jesus. Peter does something interesting, calling Jesus a living stone. A stone in and of itself is cold, hard and of little value. The reference to a living stone, should remind us of 1 Peter 1:3, which speaks of a living hope. We have a living hope because Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus is a living stone because He is resurrected from the dead.

As the Living Stone, Jesus was rejected. He was mocked, spat upon, ridiculed, rejected by men and killed. But He rose from the dead, bodily, because He was chosen by God, the Precious One, the Treasured One. He was the Living Stone that was promised of old.

This picture is painted for this purpose in v. 5: you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

Believers will undergo the same type of suffering that Jesus experienced. We are chosen and precious in Christ. We are not rejected by God, but precious to God. There is corporate imagery: we are living stones, not individual stones. You have to dismiss your idea of rugged individuality.

Notice also that Peter uses different imagery, different pictures (spiritual house, holy priesthood, living stones). Why does he do this? Because Christ fulfills all these realities and we are being built up into Christlikeness. Temple, priesthood, sacrificial system. God is doing all kinds of things into the world in Christ and you are connected to Him. You are connected to the sweep of redemptive history. Don’t you dare think that God has forsaken you. He has connected you to redemptive history from beginning to end.

As I look out, I see a group of people who are going to be scattered throughout the whole world. And I wonder where you are going to get your sense of identity? You must find your identity in the unfolding plan and purposes of God or you will be swept away and destroyed. We must find our identity in the plan, privileges and purposes of God to be sustained.

You may not be applauded by men, but as long as you are obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be a role player wherever He places you.

The Cornerstone (2:6-8)

Peter reminds his audience that they only way they will be safe is if they are protected by the Cornerstone, if they stand on the Cornerstone.

Peter will not relent in reminding his audience of the sovereignty of God. There is one verse in the Bible that tries to comfort people in light of the weakness of God. God is in control. He is unfolding His redemptive plan in history in the world. Everything ultimately is about Jesus Christ. Everything is in line or out of line in relation to Jesus Christ. Everything in the world and everything in the church.

Ministry is all about our lives and ministries lining up with the Cornerstone. We are not just those out doing good deeds, we are those who are out aligning our lives with the Cornerstone. And when we do that, there is an element of invincibility to our ministry.

Crying stones (2:10-11)

We are stones who cry out, proclaiming the greatness and mercies of God. We are stones who are God’s own people, chosen by God, who proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

These are people who are suffering. They are outcasts. How does Peter counsel them? He tells them to look at their privileges and cry out in praise to God. He calls them, exhorts them, to consider what they are a part of.

The danger is that when we are out there serving and we do not get the church we want, or do not get our way on a particular issue in the church, we say, “This just isn’t worth it anymore.” When we do that, we turn our lives and ministries into something that is no bigger than us. We don’t take into account the vast ministry of God in the cosmos through Christ. And when we do that we are less mature than the middle school football player who wants to stay on the team even though he doesn’t get to play.

Whining, grumbling and complaining is not a bad habit, it is evil and satanic. It is anti-gospel. It is a repudiation of the privileges of the Gospel. When you grumble and complain, you are saying, “The Gospel isn’t a privilege when I don’t get my way.” We are living stones, crying stones, not whining rocks.

The Oct. 26, 2009, issue of Towers (accessible online or via pdf) features coverage from Union University’s Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism conference.

• Southern Baptists must address “hard questions” Danny Akin says.
• Next generation will shape the future of the Southern Baptist Convention, R. Albert Mohler Jr. says.
• David Dockery and Ed Stetzer agree that the right kind of denomination will still have a place in the 21st century.
• Danny Akin challenges Southern Baptist seminary students and pastors who might remain on the fringes to get involved in convention life in the 3 questions feature.

Russell D. Moore’s inaugural article at the new Evangel blog at the First Things website is also featured as well as Southern Seminary graduate Owen Strachan’s editorial: “You might be a bad dad, if…”

Text/title: 2 Samuel 11 - The wife of Uriah.

Hamilton prayed that no one in the room would fall to sexual immorality and adultery by the grace of God.

Our culture is awash in sexual immorality and adultery. Our culture celebrates these sins as though they are the path to the good life. But they are the path to destruction. We are weak, but God can deliver us. Owen wrote that even the best saints left to themselves will appear to be nothing. All of our strength is weakness and all of our wisdom is folly. The only way we can stand is by relying on God.

The temptations we face are more powerful than we are.

To overcome them, only the power of God through the Spirit applying the Word to us is sufficient to enable us to overcome temptation. We must know God as more pleasing than the temptations than we face to overcome them.

David, Bathsheba and Uriah

Hamilton said he could focus on many things in this text, including the redemptive plan of God with Bathsheba being in the line of Christ or God’s great mercy, but today he wants to focus on David’s response to Nathan and what we can learn as we fight temptation.

In 2 Samuel 7, God gives David astonishing promises. In 2 Samuel 8-10, David is seeking to cover the land with the glory of the Lord as the dry land covers the sin. Then comes David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah in 2 Samuel 11. From there on out 2 Samuel is filled with sadness.

2 Samuel 11 tells us that in the spring, when kings go to battle, David did not go to battle. Instead, he sent Joab and David stayed at Jerusalem. Then David went up on the rooftop and at this point the battle was lost. David was perhaps coasting spiritually; He was not meditating on the text of Scripture. And he went up to the rooftop and Bathsheba happened to be there and David happened to see her.

Had David known about the devastating effects his sin with Bathsheba would have, he would not have done it. Our sinful desires make us stupid. This is not going to be a pleasant little fling David can have and then move on. This is going to wreck his life.

We should ask God to seal to our heart: our sins will find us out. We must not be deceived by the delay of God’s justice. It will find us out.

Sins like this in the life of David are like going over the edge of the Grand Canyon. It is a rush when you go over, but then comes a devastating crash.

How are you doing with the edges in your life? Are you flirting with the edges? We need to not even go near the edge. We need to not say, “I wonder what is on TV?” We need to not get ourselves near the edges. We need to guard our lives and only go to places and only do things that promote godliness. I don’t think most of us would have done any better than David did, once he saw Bathsheba bathing. The battle is won or lost before that moment.

We need to be wise, we need to be strategic, we need to think on these consequences before the moment comes, we need to think on the fact that we are free from bondage of sin in our life. We must rely on the power of God in our life by the Holy Spirit and know Him to be more pleasing to us. We need to see the consequences, the results, of meditating on the words in the text and the consequences of looking on Bathsheba bathing.

David has disregarded the law and gone over two precipices: adultery and murder.

If you feel like someone is pestering you about your Covenant Eyes report, about multiple conversations you are having with someone of the opposite sex who is not your spouse, consider: maybe the Lord is working in your life through them.

Nathan fears God more than he fears David’s reaction. Are there people in your lives who are willing to say to you: “You are the man?” You need people in your life like that.

One strategy the biblical author gives us for fighting temptation is rehearsing in our lives often the good works of God in our lives. We must rely on God by the power of His Spirit and believe God’s promises. Believe statements like God saying He will meet all of our desires.

The weeds of lust don’t thrive in the soil of thankful, worshipping, believing hearts.

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The Great Commission Task Force is gathering in Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex for important meetings as we continue the work assigned to us by the Southern Baptist Convention.  Please pray for the Task Force to be granted wisdom as we seek to discern what will help Southern Baptists to be more faithful in obeying the Great Commission.

On Tuesday we will be meeting with the majority of the Executive Directors of the state conventions for a very important session. Please pray that we will all hear each other, speak honestly to each other, and hold each other accountable to a Great Commission vision that will require the very best and the very most from all of us.

We face hard questions. Questions of finance and structure are secondary to the missional questions of reaching North America and the world beyond. We are living in a denominational house built long before the revolutions in transportation, communications, and geopolitics that have simultaneously made the world smaller and larger than ever before.

We are privileged to be able to ask these questions — and even to ask what questions we must ask. We are drowning in data.  Please pray that we will be led to the insights, judgments, and proposals that will best serve Southern Baptists as we face the future together.

I’ll report back as we make progress.

1. What are a few things you would like to see happen in the Southern Baptist Convention over the next 5-10 years?

While I am both indebted and grateful to the SBC, I recognize a few areas that I think could be strengthened, or which might be in need of realignment. Greatest among those areas would be a renewed commitment to the primacy of the local church.

I am incredibly grateful for the work of many organizations within SBC life. At the same time, if we are not careful I think we can become satisfied to hand off ministry to others because we convince ourselves that we are too small, too poor or simply unable to engage in it ourselves. The unfortunate result of that behavior is that we can hand off authority to the organization and although we may still call ourselves a bottom-up organization, instead we become a de facto top-down organization. We move from being a convention of churches to becoming a denomination, in the traditional sense. As we think about realignment in our convention, recapturing the authority and primacy of the local church must be paramount.

2. What is God teaching you about pastoral ministry right now?

I am concerned with how invested the local church has become in merely facilitating her own existence. It seems to me that the longer our churches exist in ministry, the easier it is to fill our time by simply perpetuating internal ministry almost exclusively and rarely engaging those who have not yet believed the Gospel.

We often preach a strong commitment to Romans 10:14-17 but our behavior proves us to be little more than eloquent mouthpieces. It should be noted that a significant part of pastoral skill must include a great commitment to serving those within the body, but we should also remember that it can seductive to do little more than that. If I am going to have a great commitment to the Gospel, I must love my own people but I must equally be committed those who are not yet a part of the Kingdom.

3. What role do you see social media playing in local church ministry over the next 10 years?

A few years ago I heard someone say that blogging was the 21st century’s equivalent to the Guettenberg press. While that statement may have been a bit premature, I think it is that social media as an entire medium is creating a significant cultural shift in terms of impact on speed and ease of communication, among other things. For instance it can help create an increasingly educated laity as they have more consistent access to information that previously was difficult for them to obtain or even find, for that matter.

Additionally, social media can facilitate the advance of prayer needs. It can also help create a sense of intimacy with personal contacts on a worldwide scale, which in turn can tighten relationships for the sake of global mission. In my own personal context, I have found it extremely valuable in connecting on a personal level with a number of our church members, many of whom I might rarely have had much interpersonal contact otherwise.

• R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Panelists:

• Russell D. Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern Seminary.
• Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School at Southern Seminary.
• Jonathan Akin, lead pastor of Highview Baptist Church’s Valley Station campus.
• Nick Moore, lead pastor of Highview’s Spencer County Campus.

Mohler asked all of the questions, as the moderator.

Q. Where did the GCR language come from?

Akin: The nomenclature came from the term Conservative Resurgence, which began in the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979. The Great Commission Resurgence is meant to build on the Conservative Resurgence.

Q. Is the GCR a movement?

Russell D. Moore: The Conservative Resurgence was a matter of an already conservative denomination recovering at the institutional level what was already the case at the local church level. There is a difference with the GCR, in that we are calling for a resurgence at both the institutional and local church level. In that way, I think the GCR is something bigger and broader than the Conservative Resurgence.

Q. What is the generational component to the GCR? Is this a season in which the next generation of SBC pastors is deciding whether or not to buy in to the SBC?

Nick Moore: I think this is a critical hour, where young men are making that decision. We, young pastors, if we are called to reach the nations for Christ - and we are - how are going to do that? Are we going to do that by cooperating together in the Southern Baptist Convention? I think we should and that is the decision people are making.

Q. The conservative leadership of the SBC promised that if the convention recovered biblical inerrancy and confessional identity then a Great Commission intensity would result. Moderates say that this hasn’t happened. Are they correct?

Russell D. Moore: To some degree it is. In one way it is not. Thom Rainer showed in a study several years ago that the Conservative Resurgence did not do what was promised in terms of the Great Commission, but he also showed that if the SBC had not been turned around it would be much, much worse.

It is fair in the sense that the Conservative Resurgence did not cultivate the following generations. In many ways, our churches and institutions became ego-driven and it became very difficult to pass on the baton. You have had the older generation almost seeing the generations that come behind as rivals. This is one of the reasons that younger people say you have the same cast of characters at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting each year.

Also, the kind of rivalry and bitterness toward one another that you see not just as the national level in the SBC, but also in local churches, a lack of the fruit of the Spirit that is necessary for carrying out the Great Commission. Sometimes, when I used to go to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meetings, I would want to say, “you are wrong about the Bible and about Jesus, but you are right about us in many ways.”

In order to have a fire for the Great Commission, you must first have a love for one another.

Q. Is it fair to say that the Conservative Resurgence gave us the opportunity for the GCR?

Akin: I would say yes. First, theology must drive missions. Theology must drive method and missions. The Conservative Resurgence represented a stand for sound theology. Second, I would agree that we have the opportunity to carry out the GCR, but we are not there yet.

One thing I would say is we have established a sound theology in the SBC, but we have not changed our structure one bit. Our theology should drive our practice, but it has not changed our practice one bit. We have just exchanged one bureaucracy for another. Our practice has not matched up with our theology. We still have, by and large, two-thirds of every dollar staying in states that are saturated with churches rather than going to a foreign mission field.

Here in the state of Kentucky, which has 4 million people, 63 cents of every dollar that is given to the Cooperative Program stays in the state of Kentucky. My brother serves in a country overseas, in which there are 70 million people, and that has less believers than there are in the state of Kentucky and we still have 63 cents of every dollar staying in Kentucky. We are not living up to our theology.

Q. Do Southern Baptists believe people are lost?

Lawless: The evidence of our actions would say no. Churches become a place to retreat from a world that needs Jesus rather than a place to come to rearm for the battle.

Mohler: The Great Commission is predicated upon a theological structure that is easy to understand. The world is made up of people who are dead in sin. The way that they are saved is to believe in their hearts and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. The logic of Romans 10 is that these lost people will never believe if they never hear the Gospel and they will never hear if someone does not take the Gospel to them. This is what drove the establishment of the SBC. What we have suffered in the SBC is a complete theological transformation in people in the pew, not because they are being taught heresy, but because they are drinking deeply from a secular worldview around them that treats the exclusivity of the Gospel as an unthinkable thought.

Q. How has this happened?

Nick Moore: I think a lot of pastors have assumed that people know what the Gospel is. Because we assume this, we preach a series of practical helps and lifestyles (in our sermons) The next generation thus simply assumes what Christianity is is this practical way of living it out, instead of seeing all of life as being summed up in that story of God sending His Son to rescue us from our sins, and that Jesus coming to redeem the world should impact everything we do, from everything that we preach, to the way that we live, to how see our resources, to the way that we approach methodology. So, making the Gospel the center is essential.

Q. If we are facing a theological crisis and the window is short for recovering this, then what should Southern Baptists have on the forefront of their minds?

Russell D. Moore: We must start with repentance. We must have pastors who are willing to cast another vision for what life in Christ can be like that many people in their congregations have never seen in their lives. We must turn this around internally, so that we can turn it around externally together.

Then it means having a different way of thinking about missions. All of us have seen the missions conferences before in which we see a missionary saying something in the language of his people and says “You really ought to give more to the Cooperative Program.” What this sounds like to the congregation is “You really ought to be more involved in the PTA.”

There has to be a different way to see what is going on in missions. We have a new, young generation of missionaries that we need to see more of in our local churches, who can connect with people back in the United States.

Q. Jonathan, you have two brothers and their families on the mission field. Why don’t we see what the cry of the nations really means?

Akin: Part of it is exposure. People in congregations aren’t exposed to the lostness of the world. Some churches are starting to do more short term missions trips, which is good. Some of it does come back to the presentations in churches that Dr. Moore mentioned. I also don’t think pastors have educated their people about how the money they give is divided up. So, exposure and education is how you must communicate the cry of the nations. Also, we are not sacrificing individually, or as local churches, as we need to. Missions at all levels in the SBC needs to be driven more by the local churches of the convention.

Q. One of the issues we are facing is the success of the International Mission Board. The IMB has established and, in recent days, updated their missiology. They have a defined structure. Because the IMB has done well, Southern Baptists seem to think they have bought a good missions structure, a good program. Have Southern Baptists decided that as long as they keep giving to this program, then they are fulfilling the Great Commission?

Lawless: I think Southern Baptists have equated missionary success with giving to the IMB, to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. And we need to keep giving and give more. But we have defaulted to giving as carrying out the Great Commission.

Akin: I think we need to redefine what it means to be missions-minded. We need to define missions-minded by how many people we send to the missions field, not just by how much we send.

Q. Are we trying to save the SBC? Is that what the GCR is about? Or is the GCR about capturing the energies of a generation for the Great Commission?

Russell D. Moore: Well, I don’t think it is an either/or situation. If the SBC were to collapse right now, it would have a huge impact on all of evangelical Christianity and would be put it in a very difficult situation because they way that the IMB works … it is an incredibly effective way to accomplish the Great Commission. I’m not saying that it is the only way to do it or that there won’t ever be something that is better, but so far in church history this is a remarkably good way to do it. So, simply giving up on that and walking away from 5,000 missionaries across the world would be a tragic thing to do.

Having said that, simply assuming that generation after generation after generation is going to pick up the status quo and do things exactly like the generation before is a false understanding of how this thing is going to work.

So, I see this as a rebuking call generationally in both directions. To the generation ahead, it is saying “get over yourself. Stop being so ego-oriented and invest yourself in something bigger.” And the same thing to the younger generation: “get over yourself. Stop sulking, poking your lip out and saying ‘I’m just going to go do something else.’” Both generations must come together in a spirit of repentance, realize that God has given us this opportunity to reach the world and go out and figure out how to do it.

Akin: I am a product of the SBC. I love the SBC. My mom was raised in a Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. Through the IMB, we have the largest Protestant force in the history of the church. Having said that, I hope the GCR is not about the saving the SBC. I hope it is about the GCR focusing on what the SBC was created to do, which is: local churches coming together in cooperation to do more than they could apart. I want to see a return to the primacy of the local church in which the local church is the body ordained by Christ to carry out His Great Commission in the world.

My concern is that the generation that has gone before us is tightening their grip on the SBC, saying we can’t lose it, and that is causing it to slip away even more. And the current generation, my generation, is responding by saying, “I’ll just go do something else” and that something else is doing something on their own. That is not helpful either.

Lawless: How do we individually and corporately reinvest in my going my neighbor, my city, my state, this nation and ultimately the ends of the earth to taking the Gospel to people? Second, how do we recapture the energy of this current generation and future generations? How do we make sure that those who come behind us have what they need? How do we capture their energy so they can continue to do the work behind us?

Nick Moore: If you mean, by saving the SBC, a series of organizations and buildings, then I hope not. If you mean, by saving the SBC, as Jonathan said, an effort to help local churches cooperate for the sake of fulfilling the Great Commission, I hope so.

Mohler: I think it is a both/and, rather than an either/or. But the SBC has to be seen as the answer to a question. It has to be seen as the answer to something that helps us carry out a passion to fulfill the Great Commission and take the Gospel to the nations. Yes, there is a better way of doing what we do. We can see all kinds of things we look back on and say, “We can do better.” We aren’t starting with a blank slate

I think the average Southern Baptist would be shocked to learn that of each dollar put in the offering plate, less than a penny of it will go to fund international missions. Each local church is probably keeping, on average, 94 cents of every dollar. Of the 6 cents that go to the state convention, 2 cents go on out of the state. And of the 2 cents that goes on the SBC, 1 penny goes on the IMB and the other penny pays for seminaries and everything else the SBC does.

So, we have to go back and say, why are we here and what are we doing? I believe each local church organizes itself by its passions. We are not talking about profoundly anti-missions people or an anti-missions sentiment. We are talking about a localism that is choking a global understanding of the Gospel.

Russell D. Moore: If you fix structurally some of the issue, you are going to be able to show people where money goes. Ultimately, though, it is not a structural issue, it is a spiritual issue, which means you have to have pastors thinking how do I lead people to be on mission? You have to have pastors who are shepherding and saying, remember the people in this congregation, our local context and an international context. Maintaining that balance is hard, but ministry is hard.

Q. What are the structural issues that the GCR task force has to put on the table?

Akin: Does the Cooperative Program reflect our priorities? If people have confidence in the giving program, I think they will give more. Analyzing the giving program needs to be on the table.

I also think we need a viable church planting network. The number one answer that I hear from young pastors on why they are in the SBC is: the IMB. Another entity is not named, ever. The reason they love the IMB is because it has a singular focus on planting churches. And when I talk to guys who are planting churches around the country they are doing it through other means and through other networks. Why do they love other networks? The same answer comes up. Because they have a singular focus: church planting.

Lawless: We have to look at the effectiveness and purpose of state conventions. If we are keeping the majority of dollars in the state, we have to show that there is a reason for doing that.

Nick Moore: There is a generation of pastors asking not only themselves and their churches, but the convention, to streamline, sacrifice, simplify and do the things that are the most effective, and not necessarily the most comfortable. The things that are most honoring to Jesus and effective to reach the nations.

Russell D. Moore: The North American Mission Board doesn’t work. The reason it doesn’t work is because the IMB does a very good job of filtering people out. NAMB does not have that kind of track record. Guys looking to plant churches are looking for a network that will be honest with them to say, either you don’t have what it takes to be a church planter, but if you do we are going to put through a boot camp, literally and metaphorically, until you are able to plant a church.

Mohler: What we are facing is a sense of urgency. I think that is a healthy thing. I think that if there is a reason to hit the reboot button in denominational life we are looking at it. I think there is a real stewardship issue of opportunity here. I can tell you that my greatest fear is we will be given an opportunity here and we will not ask the questions we need to ask or say what we know we need to say.

The expectations for the GCR task force are enormous. The hope of this task force is that we can start the process. There is no way we are going to be able to leave the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando and say, “we accomplished the Great Commission Resurgence. We have a Great Commission Resurgence.” The Conservative Resurgence didn’t happen in 1979, it wasn’t concluded in 1990. It took years to happen and I have to ask if it was completed if we don’t have in our churches a resurgence of piety and passion and belief and doctrine. When it comes to the GCR there are enormous hopes.

We are experiencing a lot of the pains, challenges and groans of asking the right questions. It is going to be up to a generation of younger and younger adults to answer whether or not there is a Great Commission in the SBC if Jesus tarries.

Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, gave his presentation on the life and work of Moon as part of Southern’s  ”Forum on the Life & Legacy of Lottie Moon,” an event organized as part of Southern Seminary’s Missions Emphasis Week.

Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern, followed Mohler with a presentation on the purpose and impact of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Mohler also moderated a panel discussion with Lawless; Greg Wills, professor of church history and director of the Center for the Study of the Southern Baptist Convention at Southern; and Jaye Martin, director of women’s leadership at Southern, on the current state of cooperation for international missions in the SBC.

Mohler said that while Moon is an iconic figure in Southern Baptist life, it is important to be regularly reminded of the beliefs that she stood for and built her life upon.

“Lottie Moon is so close to us and so familiar to us and so much a part of our Southern Baptist history, heritage and nomenclature, that it seems like she is just as known to us as Christmas and Easter,” he said. “Lottie Moon, in terms of who she was and what she represents to us, is just as central to us as what it means to know believers baptism or regenerate membership, because to be a Southern Baptist is to understand Lottie Moon … and yet that is not to be taken for granted.

“Even as we think about the challenge of recovering the model and motivating inspiration of Lottie Moon, we need to think very carefully about why this woman’s name is attached to a Christmas offering for missions and what that would mean to us.”

Moon was born into an aristocratic Virginia family in December 1840. Always a bright girl, Moon’s thoughts on Christianity were greatly influenced by her family, which held several different religious views, Mohler said. In 1858, at 17 years old, Moon attended a prayer meeting with intentions of scoffing its participants. Deeply affected by the prayer meeting, Moon prayed throughout that evening and in 1859, the same year Southern Seminary was founded, she professed faith in Christ and was baptized.

Moon attended the Virginia Female Seminary, a prominent finishing-school, and then the Albemarle Female Institute, an institution founded in part by Southern Seminary founder John A. Broadus and one of the only institutions devoted to the higher education of women. While under the pastoral care of Broadus, Moon’s desire to serve on the mission field was born. Mohler said Broadus thought highly of Moon’s intellect.

“She excelled in learning; at one point her pastor John Broadus described her as the most educated woman in the South,” Mohler said. “That is one of those statements that is absolutely impossible to verify, but what we do know is that she was placed in an elite of well educated young women.”

Crawford H. Toy was an instructor at Albemarle who caught the attention of Moon. Drawn together by a desire to pursue international missions, Moon and Toy began a courtship and intended to marry until the Civil War caused their separation. While Toy was serving the war efforts, Moon began a teaching career since she was unable to enter the mission field as a single-female.

Moon’s sister Edmonia, who also had a heart for missions, was presented an opportunity to join a married couple on a commission to China. Soon after, in 1873, Moon joined her sister in China after learning that she was deeply struggling emotionally and lacking in missionary impact. Moon accompanied her sister back to the states and prepared to marry Toy and begin mission service as a married couple. Moon learned of changes in Toy’s theology - such as rejecting the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and holding to a non-historical interpretation of Genesis - that developed during their separation. She was so deeply troubled by his liberalism that she called off the courtship. In 1869, Toy became Southern Seminary’s fifth professor, a post he held for 10 years. Toy’s biblical criticisms came under scrutiny from the seminary trustees and faculty, ultimately leading to his resignation in 1879.

With her desire to serve the people of China growing stronger, Mohler said Moon journeyed back to China and remained there for the rest of her lifetime, returning to the states only two other times.

From the time she arrived, Moon was in China to love the people she served and share the Gospel with them, Mohler said. Throughout her 40 years in China, Moon wrote letters to the mission board requesting assistance and funding to reach more lost people of China.

Mohler said Southern Baptists, and the SBC as a whole, can learn from the deep sense of shame and embarrassment that Lottie Moon felt towards her own denomination and its lack of support to missionaries. Moon dealt with disease, distance, a lack of communication and support but she never lost her desire to share the Gospel.

“Lottie Moon’s theology was not only rooted in a deep affirmation of Biblical authority, inerrancy and infallibility but also in an urgent focus on conversion,” Mohler said. “Lottie Moon very clearly understood that the Gospel was the difference between life and death, heaven and hell. She understood that all persons were desperately in need of the knowledge of Christ.”

‘Give for the sake of the Gospel until it hurts,’ Lawless says

Each December, Southern Baptist churches across the country collect the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, but what most Southern Baptists don’t realize is how the Lord uses this yearly offering to benefit missionaries and their desire to reach the people of the world, Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern, said in a presentation at Southern that followed Mohler’s.

“We face a crisis in Southern Baptist life. As you are well aware we have a number of candidates for missionary service that are ready to go, in the pipeline, and are unable to go because the funding isn’t there,” Lawless said.

In 1888, Moon encouraged Southern Baptists to start a Christmas offering for international missions. Years later, in 1918, Annie Armstrong, a missions advocate and organizer of the Woman’s Missionary Union, encouraged the SBC to name the offering in honor of Moon.

Lawless said every mission trip he has been a part of has been impacted by Lottie Moon and the Christmas Offering established in honor of her legacy.

Lawless explained that the offering is largely responsible for covering the living, travel and educational expenses that Southern Baptists missionaries incur around the globe and that monies given through the offering go directly onto the mission field and start working immediately for the sake of fulfilling the Great Commission.

Lawless said that as Southern Baptists, we must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the Great Commission. Lawless emphasized that giving money to send missionaries needs to then be followed with giving to support missionaries. He encouraged the church and its members to say “I will give for the sake of the Gospel until it hurts. And when it hurts, I will prayerfully give a little bit more.”

Cooperation, sacrificial giving, needed for mass international missions efforts, panelists say

In a panel discussion on the current state of affairs in Southern Baptist cooperation for missions, Mohler said he is often asked by students, and others, why Southern Baptists have mission boards.

Wills said mission boards are simply the answer to another question.

“The question of ‘Should we have a board or not?’ is really a question of ‘Can two or more churches cooperate in fulfilling the Great Commission?’” he said. “If two churches can cooperate in fulfilling the Great Commission, then they can appoint representatives to meet together and figure out how to do it. If two churches can do it, then 40,000 churches can do it.

Mohler noted that cooperating for the sake of missions becomes necessary when churches want to see large numbers of people serving on the mission field.

“If we were trying to send two or three missionaries I think that [each local church sending its own missionaries] would work,” he said. “But you can’t send 5,000 missionaries that way.”

Lawless expressed concern that the current generation of Southern Baptists does not understand adequately the reason for, and importance of, cooperation for the sake of international missions.

“I am concerned that when my generation is off the scene there will be no grounding anymore in this offering or in supporting international missions cooperatively,” he said. “I have great concern that we are responsible to ground the next generation in a program that works.”

Like Lottie Moon was in her time, Wills said Southern Baptists should be “embarrassed and ashamed at our level of support of missions” and not at all satisfied with the current impact of Southern Baptist missionary efforts.

“It is ultimately selfishness and worldliness,” he said. “Putting our own comforts, desires and amusements ahead of getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”

Wills later added that ignorance is a large part of the problem in Southern Baptist congregations.

“I don’t think we have challenged Southern Baptists yet,” he said. “I think if we present Southern Baptists with the challenge then I think our churches will step up. This is what we must address as pastors.”

Lawless agreed that educating congregations from the pulpit in future days about the value and importance of cooperating together for the sake of spreading the Gospel is vital.

“I do think apathy and selfishness are setting in, but I think Southern Baptists are largely ignorant of the needs of the world. Southern Baptists who are informed I think will do more than what we think,” he said.

Such education should center not on “guilting people” into supporting missions, but on the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ and God’s call to His people to represent His Son in all the world.

“We do that [increase awareness for missions] in part by pointing out the worldliness and selfishness,” Wills said. “But we do it even more by pointing out the great need, by pointing out the call. The reason that the Son of God came and became man and died upon a cross … that is what will get our hearts beating sacrificially.”

Noting that at least 60 percent of IMB Journeymen each year are women, Mohler asked Martin why she believes so many women today have followed in Moon’s footsteps by responding to a call to do missions work. Martin said a passion for making a difference and a devotion to prayer have been the driving forces.

“I think most (Christian) women I know want to be a part of the Great Commission,” Martin said. “Women can share the love of the Lord. They can begin by praying. They can begin by looking around them and raising money to give. They can train their own children and the children that are around them. They can train other women around them.

“As women are challenged to pray, God works on their hearts and they desire to serve. Of course, women who are really following the Lord are going to be under the authority of their husband and pastor and they are going to want to support him to be the minister God has called him to be.”

Postulating on the near future of Southern Baptist cooperation for the sake of international missions, Lawless said economic realities are going to force the IMB to be even more careful in its candidate selection process. Lawless said he also thinks international missions thrusts will more and more be driven by local church initiatives.

“We really will have to look at: what are the most significant positions (on the mission field) that we must fill?” he said. “I think it (the current economic situation) will raise the caliber of those who we send out. We send out great people now, but I would love to see us raise the bar as far as the requirement of theological education before you go out.

“I also think we will see more and more partnerships with local churches that are large enough and financially stable enough that they are sending out their own missionaries with the IMB helping to train them.”

ChuckLawless.com will host monthly podcasts that feature interviews with Great Commission leaders in North America and around the world. Rotating facts about the needs of the world and Great Commission quotes will challenge readers to find their role in meeting these needs. Lawless has also included links to Great Commission resources for readers to take action in fulfilling the Great Commission in their corner of the world and “Great Commission Prayer Moments” to encourage readers to pray with knowledge and passion.

Text/title: Acts 20:27-28 - “The Shepherd, the Local Church, and the Great Commission.”

I want to focus on the pastor today, and the role of the pastor in sharing his life with the lives of the people in his congregation. I want to challenge you, pastor, as to what is your responsibility as a leader of God’s flock.

Be on guard for yourself

The things that you teach your flock, pastor, must be in your heart. Otherwise, your people will know, just like children know when their parents don’t take something to heart.

I could take this text and talk about holy living. I could take this text and talk about disciple-making in the local church. But do you understand as the teacher, as the man of God, in your local church that your role is to take the whole counsel of the Word of God to your flock?

You can have the wrong vision of what it means to be successful. You can have the wrong measurement of what it means to lead your people. You must be on guard for yourself.

Be on guard for your people

You must also be on guard for your people. We must say to our flock with boldness, as Paul did in verse 24, that we count our lives as loss that we may proclaim the Gospel. But if we measure our success only by our programs, then we will come short of declaring to our people the whole counsel of the Word of God.

Who appointed you to lead God’s people? The Holy Spirit. I challenge you to guard your pronouns. You can speak of it as “my church” for identification, but beware, lest you think it is actually your church. It is Christ’s church and it cost him His very blood.

Inextricably linked: the whole counsel of God and the man of God. Inextricably linked: the whole counsel of God, the man of God and the people of God.

Programs and being missional

Accomplishing the Great Commission requires the whole church taking the whole Gospel to the whole world.

How do we do the programming of our church? What does it accomplish? To what end does it go? I have been observing missional churches. Missional church leaders say we are coming up short in our churches of establishing community and in reaching out to the poor and meeting the needs of the poor. And they are right.

I have sought to do something about this. I developed something called “Love Winston-Salem.” I went around to local churches and told them what I was doing and they said, “O: social gospel.” I know about the social gospel. That was when people took a cup of cold water to people and didn’t connect it to the Gospel. That is not what Love Winston-Salem is.

Being missional impacts hurting people and takes the message of the Gospel to them. Can I give a warning? Some people who claim to be missional aren’t taking the message to people. I needed to repent. And I urge you to repent if you are doing that.

I also hear people talking about being missional, but never doing missions. I don’t get that. How can you go to the poor and needy in your community and then have it stop there. If you are truly committed to people worshipping the Lord Jesus, then you will go to your immediate context, to the inner city, but you will not stop there. It is missional it keeps moving, it does not come up short and it finally gets to the mission.

The whole church, the whole Gospel, the whole world.

The whole church: don’t you believe that God has a plan for His church? Don’t you believe that God can do more than you ask or think for your church (Eph 3:20-21)? As the shepherd, you need to imagine for your people how they can see and show and live out the message of Jesus as the Messiah. It better be radical and it better be revolutionary.

Southern Baptist Convention and critical days of change

[[NOTE: This is a live blog summary of Gilbert's message, not direct quotes.]]

I hear you saying that the bureaucracy is too slow and I agree. I hear that we are missing something when we are giving someone else the money and we can’t do it ourselves and we agree. And I hope that when this is over, we must put our resources where our heart is and take the Gospel to the nations.

We have a mission for the SBC and we have given that mission to people and over time it has morphed in some ways. We are seeking to uphold that missions.

It is a painful to examine positions that are occupied by real people, living real lives. When we announce that we are going to do away with a position, with a person, it hurts.

But we also can’t do what makes us happy for the short run if it doesn’t line up with our mission.

No longer can we maintain our programs when they don’t help us accomplish our mission of taking the Gospel to the nations.

Panel members include Mohler, Lawless, Russell D. Moore, Greg Wills and Jaye Martin.  A limited number of complimentary tickets are available in advance from the Office of Event Productions (502) 714-6500.

Bland Mason and his wife Teresa.

Bland Mason is out of critical condition and should be able to leave the hospital by Wednesday, according to an update on his Facebook page at 6:02 p.m., Saturday.

Mason, a two-time graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had a heart attack Thursday that left him in critical condition. By noon the next day, Mason started breathing on his own again and began to understand that he had suffered a heart attack.

Mason was named chapel leader for the Red Sox in January by Baseball Chapel, a Christian organization that has an informal relationship with Major League Baseball and places chapel leaders with each team. Mason is also laying the groundwork for a church plant in the Boston area.

Mason’s wife Teresa put the following post on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon, thanking people for their prayers.

UPDATE- Bland is continuing to improve in an amazing way. He is talking, asking questions and trying to understand what has happened. We (the family) are overwhelmed by the love and support that has been shown toward us. We stand in awe of the GREAT …AND MIGHTY GOD who has truly healed Bland. Your prayers are being answered in our midst. There are no words to express our thankfulness for each person who has lifted us to King Jesus. Please continue to pray for strength and continued healing in the coming days. Bland will undergo further testing early in the week to try to determine the cause of the cardiac arrest. In Christ, Teresa

First position/length: First Baptist Church of Marion, Ark., was my first pastorate. I was there under two years, but the love, patience, and encouragement of that church shaped my ministry for the rest of my life.

Early mistakes/lessons: I fear this will seem arrogant, but I had such great mentors in my life on whom I relied for wisdom and advice that I avoided many typical freshman mistakes. My (spiritual) father, Adrian Rogers, and Tommy Hinson (a local pastor whom I loved) were like a well of wisdom for me to draw from daily. I didn’t displace people, but allowed change to take place naturally. I made evangelism the focus. I taught the Word. I worked hard to get the natural leaders and decision makers on my side. I had a good sense of when to give in and when to stand my ground. Looking back, I don’t have major regrets because I assumed my own ignorance at the time and relied on others for God-given wisdom. My first pastorate was an incredible experience for which I have nothing but gratitude and fond memories.

Words of wisdom: First, have limited goals. Don’t think you are going to change
everything about the church to make it conform to your idea of the perfect congregation. Make your priorities loving the people, preaching the Word and being a good shepherd to them more than teaching your pet doctrine, changing the way they do business or
planting a tulip garden.

He needed to find room 267.

When he got to the door he knocked and stood there, waiting, all the while examining the plaque on the door, which read: “Tom Schreiner, Professor of New Testament.”

The two men had never met.

The door swung open and Vickers spoke first: “Hi, I am Brian Vickers.  I came here to do a Ph.D. with you.  I hope it works out.”

You could say it worked out: today, Vickers serves as assistant professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern alongside Schreiner, who became his mentor and supervisor in the Ph.D. program.

Getting a Ph.D. worked out well for Vickers because he knew what he wanted to study, and who he wanted to study under. But for many students who dream of completing a Ph.D., things are not so clear and many students are troubled about this specialized degree.

Who should pursue a Ph.D.?

Jonathan Pennington, assistant professor of New Testament interpretation, said the Ph.D. is for students who are serious about teaching and research because it is fundamentally a research degree.

“Spurgeon once said about preaching, ‘If you can do anything else do it.’ That is how I feel about the Ph.D.,” Pennington said. “For me I knew that it was what I was supposed to do.  I could not be satisfied doing anything else but teaching.”

Should someone who is a pastor or missionary think about getting one? Wisdom among Southern Seminary’s faculty members varies on this question.

“A pastor typically has to deal with applying the Bible to everything across the board,” Vickers said. “If you are going to do a specialized Ph.D., then you have to ask yourself is this really preparing me to be a pastor.”

Tom Schreiner, associate dean of Scripture and interpretation and James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, advised pastors and missionaries to think hard before committing to the academy-oriented program.

“Usually they (pastor/missionary) shouldn’t,” Schreiner said. “But there may be some cases where they feel called to do scholarly work to help them in their pastorate or mission work.”

Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism, said some missionaries and pastors should consider studying for the terminal degree. There are more opportunities for ministry for pastors or missionaries who have a doctorate, he said.

“For missionaries there are increasingly open doors for someone to teach overseas,” Lawless said. “For a pastor, we are increasingly living in an educated society, so in a lot of cases we end up shepherding someone with a doctoral degree.”

Although many students think that the Ph.D. provides them with additional time to study, professors encourage students not to think that this degree is for everyone.

“A reason not to pursue a Ph.D. is because you love seminary and want to learn more,” Pennington said. “It is a great thing to want to learn more, but many students feel that way.”

David Puckett, who heads the Ph.D. studies department at Southern, said that it is not a good idea to pursue a Ph.D. if you are assuming that it would secure a job at the completion of the program.

“The job market in higher education is already challenging, and will almost certainly become much more difficult as a result of the economic stress we are experiencing,” Puckett said.

Vickers said that the desire for the Ph.D. should not be a desire for a mere title.

“I think that students should prefer the title ‘pastor’ over the title ‘doctor,’” Vickers said.

Shawn Wright, assistant professor of church history, cautioned students against thinking that the possession of a Ph.D. equates with greater wisdom and godliness.

“A student should not assume that a Ph.D. will automatically make him as wise and godly as that professor that he so admires,” Wright said.

Timothy Paul Jones, professor of church leadership and church ministry, said that the Ph.D. should not be viewed as a badge of prestige.

“If what you want is the prestige that comes with having the letters ‘Ph.D.’ after your surname, please don’t apply to any Ph.D. program - and please avoid our Ph.D. program in particular,” Jones said.

What factors go into the decision?

Grade-point average might serve as one indicator, Pennington said.

“If you have less than stellar grades there is not even a question: don’t pursue a Ph.D.  In addition you need to ask your teachers if you should pursue one, unless a teacher pulls you aside and encourages you to pursue further study,” Pennington said.

Bruce Ware, professor of theology, said that there must be a very strong desire that would warrant the time and effort that goes into earning a Ph.D.

All agree that life circumstances are one of the primary considerations for those contemplating studies beyond the M.Div.

“There are lots of people who are gifted and qualified and able to do one, but because of personal circumstances they should not do it.  It is really hard on families; your wife needs to be in 100% support,” Vickers said.

Lawless added that one’s local church should be in support of the student who is pursuing a doctorate.

When Pennington first told his wife that he was thinking about doing a Ph.D., he said she lovingly laughed at such a prospect.

“She asked where we were going to get all the money,” he said. “Over time, God began to provide and she realized this was going to be a good thing.”

How should you prepare for the Ph.D. program?

Ware said Southern’s  M.Div. is broad and prepares many students well to pursue advanced studies.

“I would encourage the default being a student ending his academic career with the M.Div.,” Ware said. “But if you are thinking about getting a doctorate then my advice actually goes in two opposite directions: Try to get the most out of the breadth of the M.Div, but also try to narrow and take a lot of classes in your field of interest.  Take the tough ones too.  Build a solid foundation.”

Jones encouraged would-be Ph.D. students to push themselves academically and to hone their writing skills.

“Read beyond the minimum, especially in the areas in which you want to specialize - and then, write, write well and learn to write better,” Jones said. “Begin seeking an area of study about which you may want to write a dissertation, and - even before you apply for a Ph.D. program - do everything in your power to become the expert in that area.”

Many professors also praised the Th.M. program as a means of preparing students to enter the Ph.D. program.

“The Th.M. is really helpful because it lets a person find out if this is really what they want to do,” Pennington said. “Most M.Div. students should not begin by thinking about the Ph.D., but the Th.M., and Southern has recently revamped its Th.M. program.”

How do you pick a school for Ph.D. studies?

“I based my decision upon who I wanted to study under,” Vickers said.

Pennington, who studied at St. Andrews in Scotland, said a student might consider the differences between a Ph.D. in Europe vs. one at an American school; the former is strictly research oriented, while the latter includes further classwork.

“There are pros and cons of both systems of course,” Pennington said. “In the American system you are entering a program.  In the British system you are applying to a person.  In the American system you take more courses and are prepared to teach out of the shoot.  In the British system you do more research and are prepared to write.”

Each situation is different

In the end whether or not to do a Ph.D. is a case-by-case decision.  All Southern professors interviewed agreed that each student must weigh the strengths and abilities that the Lord has given him. Puckett said the Ph.D. program is one that should be entered only after a time of careful, prayerful thought.

“This is clearly an issue of God’s guidance and all of the wisdom that would be a part of coming to understand His direction in any other area of life applies here,” he said. “Certainly one may have a God-given conviction that this is the course of action one must pursue.”

Southern professors also advised students to examine their motives.

“Every student should ask themselves, ‘Am I looking to further my name or the kingdom?’” Schreiner said.

Said Jones: “It’s my hope that our Ph.D. students long to be not merely scholars but ‘servant-scholars’ - persons of humility who seek to contribute to a field of study for God’s glory, not their own.”

Text/title: Genesis 25:19-34; Hebrews 12:15-17 -Blood Soup: Why the Culture of Craving is Wrecking your Life, your Church, and our Mission - and How Jesus can turn it Around.”

Moore began by presenting the “life cycle” of someone in a Southern Baptist church in his generation: birth; Vacation Bible School, where you raise your hand and profess faith in Christ; high school, where you become wild and rebellious, indeed, where such wildness is almost expected; college, where the wildness only increases; then, finally, you settle down, get married and, if you don’t get divorced, you become a deacon, maybe even chairman of the deacons.

In this “life cycle” the Gospel is seen as the last step after you have exhausted your wildness and rebellion, after you gotten it out of your system. Sort of like a Catholic on Fat Tuesday before Lent.

The only problem is, Moore said he couldn’t find this life cycle in the book of Acts. But he does see it in the life of Esau.

In Esau devouring a mess of potage for an inheritance, there is a warning for Christians. There is a warning, and there is also a message: the Gospel is good news.

Wrestling for who you are

Esau reaches a point of despair when reality does not match his identity as a hunter. He comes in hungry. Losing his sense of identity, losing his sense of who he is, Esau does something in a few minutes that would then define him for the rest of his life.

Esau becomes defined by the sin that destroyed him. I wonder how many of you know a past mentor, who, when you speak of them now, say, “he is the one who committed adultery,” “He is the one who embezzled money,” “She is the one who I used to trust, but who made public everything I told her.”

Esau became known as the one who ate the red stew, the one who are the blood soup.

If you do not see the person and work of Christ as the center of your identity, so that you say, “I am crucified with Christ, I am hidden in Christ,” then whatever alternative identity you have will come to destroy you.

You and I are living in a world and a culture where everybody we see has a craving to be somebody. Most people connect their craving, their identity, to something they do. Some of them want it on a global sense, while others want it on a local level.

Esau’s lack of self-control leads him to no longer see who he is and it leads him to blood soup.

Wrestling for what you want

The red stew was nothing that would ordinarily be tempting to you. But when you are starving, demoralized and discouraged, when you come up after a lifetime of Isaac training you to be a hunger, he is defined by his father’s appetites, which become his own appetites, and what was not compelling is now compelling. It is compelling not because it is significant, but because it seems to be so insignificant. Esau thought he could just eat the stew, go home and hunt the next day.

Satan does the same thing. He will put you in a situation where a thousand small decisions can suddenly lead to one decision, one situation, that could wreck your life.

You are being trained in all kinds of little acts right now, so that one day, after a lifetime of learning to like it and not get caught, whether that is an appetite of eating and eating and eating, or sleeping and sleeping and sleeping or not working hard at Hebrew so that you one day work hard in ministry, so that you will one day turn around and wonder, “What did I do?”

Our Lord Jesus did not offer Himself up on the cross in a nanosecond. He was trained in obedience. There were many times when He went away to pray, when He pleaded with the Father. He was learning how to want, what must be wanted.

And yet we live in a culture where so many people are wanting what they don’t want to want. And there are so many evangelicals who are teaching people to get what they want and get the Gospel to. We are giving people more and more curriculum, more and more shellacked plaques with Bible verses: we are giving them a Gospel of their appetites. We should not be surprised when their appetites destroy them.

It will not be hyper-Calvinism that destroys the SBC. It will be hyper-capitalism that destroys the SBC. When we are in families have a craving to be normal and economically viable we are walking in a way of Esau that will destroy us. You can give a child a pleasant and cartoon-like Christianity that does not give your child the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Just don’t be surprised when your child grows up to live a cartoonish life.

Seeing the despair of Esau ought to remind us just how good the good news of the Gospel is. When people are trapped in the horror of their cravings, you can tell them, “You don’t have to keep living that way.” You can say, “Jesus drank the blood soup for you.” You can tell them “Jesus gave up His inheritance and went the cross for you.” And you can tell them “You can give up your cravings because Jesus gave Himself for you.”

Do we have compassion for those we are seeing all around us, who, though they seem so joyful, have blood soup smeared on their face? Do we have the desire to be self-controlled and embrace the freedom we have in Christ, embrace the inheritance we have in Christ? Do we have the desire to embrace this freedom and share it with others in a world where it is always Mardi Gras and Easter never comes?

We didn’t have room for all of Kevin DeYoung’s comments in our story on him, so here are his thoughts as it relates to discerning God’s will on: (1) circumstances and counsel from others, (2) if following impressions is a matter of obedience and (3) waiting on the Lord.

DeYoung just finished his fifth year as senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich. He is the author of “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will” as well as the co-author of “Why We’re not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be” and “Whey we Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion.”

Q: What role should circumstances and guidance from others play in our decision-making? Does God speak through this means? Does He use them?

Kevin DeYoung: God is always guiding us by His providence. So sometimes we can look back and trace God’s hand: “O, I didn’t see it then, but I see why you sent me to that school so I could meet this person — I see how these things were fitting together.” I am a Calvinist: I believe in God’s sovereignty, I believe in His providence. So, in that sense, He is always guiding us. But it is invisible usually. It is imperceptible. It is behind the scenes. We trust that He is in control.

Now, when people talk about decision making in guidance, they are often asking for something that is visible: “God tell me.” So, while on the one hand, I would agree that God opens doors and closes doors to guide us and get us where He wants us to go. Yet, I think that is a dangerous way of reading what God is up to.

There may be an open door, but the open door, the easy door, is not always the way we should go. It may be that we are lazy and we need to knock on doors. It may be that someone doesn’t have a job because they aren’t really interviewing well, they are not working hard at it, they are not following up. I think that is excusing irresponsibility.

As we go through life, of course, the person that says, “Here I have a job that I think you would be great at. Why don’t you apply?” Ninty-five times out of 100 we are going to try that, we are going to do that. That is how God normally works. In general, I am not opposed to people walking through open doors or saying, you know what it looks like I am not going to get funding to go to that school, so I think I am going to look at that other school. That is how we make decisions all the time.

I just don’t want people to overspiritualize it and think, “Well God must be telling I have to do this, I can’t do this or I should do this.” We don’t know. And God probably doesn’t have one seminary or school or church you need to go to and all the rest are sinful choices. I think that is the problem. So, we look at is as a zero sum game: either I make the right decision or I make the wrong decision and I am out of God’s will.

Q: Do you think it is disobedience to not follow through on an impression you believe was from the Lord? Perhaps an impression to share the Gospel with someone on the street?

KD: I would be very hesitant to tell someone that that is disobedience. Now, it is a little trickier when you are dealing with a general principle you already know is true. It is one thing if you feel like you have an impression to go eat at Pizza Hut tonight. It is another thing to think, “I really should share the Gospel with this person” because we know sharing the Gospel with people is a good thing.

So, if something came up to me and I was their pastor, I don’t think I would say, “You have sinned against God,” but I would say, “Listen to your conscience and if your conscience — now, your conscience can go awry too — is telling you to do a good thing you should listen to it. So, why didn’t you share the Gospel with her?”

So, if there is a sin it might not be so much, “I felt an impression and I didn’t do it. It might be, “I was really afraid or I had the fear of man or I was selfish,” what are the biblical issues at stake that we can discern from Scripture that may be going on in the person’s heart.

Q: The Psalms are replete with references to wait for the Lord. How does your admonition to take responsibility, make a decision and just do something fit with waiting for the Lord?

KD: Often times in the Psalms, a passage like “Be still and know that I am God” or waiting for the Lord, has to do with specific instances, usually in battles, where the Lord has promised to come and defeat the enemies for us.

So, yes we wait for the Lord sometimes: we have to wait for justice, we have to wait ultimately for our final salvation. So, we do have to believe the promises of God and wait on the Lord. We have to wait sometimes when we pray, we don’t get what we prayed for. And there are people who are prone to being impestuous in their decision making and that is why I talk about, you do pray, but you are not praying so much, “God tell me what to do,” you are praying that the Lord would search your own heart, see if your motives are pure, see if you are motivated by pride, greed or lust.

So, you are waiting for the Lord in that sense, but you are waiting on Him to tell you the sort of things that He has revealed to us in the Scriptures. You are not waiting for special messages from God about what to do next.

So we do pray and we do seek counsel. That can be a part of waiting. If you have a really big decision, Proverbs says that there is wisdom in many counselors, so do you want to talk to others. So that is how I would understand waiting on the Lord. A lot of times in the Old Testament I think it has to be with individual situations where the Lord has promised to do something already and they need to trust that He is going to do that.

Text/title: Genesis 37, 39-41; Getting What I Don’t Deserve

There are a lot of average Joe’s in the world. I want to preach this morning about the first average Joe: Joseph, the son of Jacob.

Fourteen chapters in Genesis are devoted to this man named Joe. Joe’s family was the first truly dysfunctional family. Joe’s dad is a con artist. Joe’s dad has five wives, etc. To top it all off, Joe is the favorite son of his dad. And his brothers don’t like it. They don’t like it so much that they sell him into slavery.

Joseph is getting what he didn’t deserve. And Joseph is like every single person in this room. Every one of us will get what we don’t deserve. I want to talk about Joseph in the valley of defeat, because it is going to happen to all of us if it hasn’t happened already. The question I want to ask is this: When you get what you don’t deserve how are you going to respond?

1. God is walking beside you.

After his brothers sold him into slavery, Joseph was really an average Joe. He was a servant. But the text says, “The Lord was with Joseph.”

When Potiphar’s wife tempted him, Joseph did not give in because Joseph knew that God was walking beside him. God is with you even where there is no evidence that He is. Even when you are getting what you don’t deserve, we learn that God is walking beside you.

2. God is working for you.

After Joseph has done the right thing in the right way on the right path, he goes from the pit to the prison. Joseph has been a man of integrity. He has done all the right things. And he is in a prison.

Would you rather be on the beach in Hawaii soaking in the sun, without God or in a prison, in a foreign land, falsely accused of rape, with God?

Despite Joseph’s difficult situation, God was working for Him. Eventually, God moved Joseph from the pit to the prison to the palace and Joseph became prime minister of Egypt.

What we see as stumbling blocks are often stepping stones God uses in our lives.

3. God is witnessing through you.

Potiphar noticed something different in Joseph. Even though Joseph was a slave, he trusted in God and stayed committed to him. Potiphar put Joseph in charge over everything in his house.

The chief jailer noticed something different in Joseph. The chief jailer put Joseph over everything in the prison.

Joseph acted the way He did because He believed that God was walking beside him and working for him. Even in difficult situations, Joseph remained faithful to God.

If we do the same thing, people will notice something different about us. They will notice our faith. If you are walking through difficult times, you will either believe that God is absent and you are on your own or God is present and you are in His care.

There has been much intra-denominational controversy over the years over whether or not Southern Baptists are evangelicals, but Finn argued that Southern Baptists are evangelicals because they have much in common with evangelicals in doctrine and understanding the Christian life. Finn serves as assistant professor of church history and Baptist studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Southern Baptists are essentially evangelicals with a distinctive ecclesiology, Finn said.  He encouraged Southern Baptists to pass on their evangelical and denominational faith to future generations as well as to those of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The use of catechisms - biblical truths taught in question-and-answer format - and articulating the redemptive storyline of the Bible must be central to passing on this faith, he said, whether it is to children or within the context of evangelism to the nations.

“David Dockery catalogs a number of theological truths that must be expounded if the Gospel is to be rightly proclaimed,” Finn said, “including God’s creation of humanity in His image and His sovereign rule over all things, humanity’s rejection of God’s rule and fall into sin, God’s provision for humanity’s sin in the perfect life, penal substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s actual salvation of men and women when they repent of their sins and trust in the person and work of Christ, and God’s ultimate redemption of the entire created order.”

Finn called for Southern Baptists and evangelicals to transmit a “Gospel instinct” to the next generation to help ensure that aberrant doctrines such as inclusivism, universalism, annihilationism and hyper-Calvinism are exposed as theologically fraudulent.

“Developing such a Gospel instinct will also help us avoid the truncated view of conversion that is rampant among many Southern Baptists and other evangelicals,” he said. “There is a tendency among some to equate personal conversion with a mere decision. This is particularly the case among some of those inclined toward revivalism or the church growth movement. Were we to bring Bonhoeffer back from the grave, he would surely say that ‘cheap grace’ has too often become the order of the day among many conservative, evangelistic, Bible-believing Protestants.

“Authentic conversion must include repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ and must never be collapsed into repeat-after-me’s, walking an aisle, raising a hand, attending a class, or yes, even being baptized. Salvation by sincerity is not the same thing as salvation by grace through faith, and jumping through hoops will never justify anyone. I’m encouraged by the serious and I think biblical way that theologians such as Michael Horton have challenged American evangelicals, including Southern Baptists, to recover a view of conversion that is more than simply praying a canned “sinner’s prayer” or affirming a handful of propositions about Jesus. We must also pass on a balanced commitment to activism, including cultural engagement, evangelism and missions.”

This blog is the cover story from the Oct. 12 Towers. DeYoung serves as senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich.

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We have all heard it before: “Man, I don’t know. I think she might be ‘THE ONE,’ but I’m not sure. Pray for me.” Such a conversation often occurs in a college dorm room — sometimes multiple nights per week — in a work break room or via a long distance phone call.

Such a question for a Christian is usually framed as: “What is God’s will?” Should I marry this girl or that girl? Should I major in applied economics or animal science? Is God calling me to go overseas or go back to my hometown to minister? What about buying a house?

While such questions are important, Kevin DeYoung argues that placing them under the banner of discerning God’s will is fundamentally misguided.

“I think living in God’s will is the daily decision to live for Christ, die to self and obey the Scriptures,” said DeYoung, senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich. “It is sort of like what Augustine said, ‘Love God and do whatever you want.’ Now, obviously you need to fill up love God with a lot of good, biblical truth. Otherwise, people will excuse a lot of sinful behavior.

“But I think living in the will of God and pursuing God’s will is not asking Him about every single possible choice you have to face and expecting Him to give you an answer. Instead, it is so being transformed by the renewing of your mind that you are learning to think God’s thoughts after Him.”

DeYoung is the author of “Just Do Something: a Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will” (Moody 2009). Instead of God’s will being about decision making, DeYoung notes that Scripture centers it in growth in Christlikeness.

“1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, ‘This is the will of God: your sanctification,’” he said. “The will of God is for us to be like Christ. The will of God is for us to be holy. So, we need to put away passivity, which we excuse as being very spiritual when often it is just laziness or cowardice.

“We need to be willing to take risks for God and trust that He doesn’t have to show us the future because we trust that He holds the future. And we need to go out and do something and trust that if we are seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness … then we will live a life that is pleasing to God.”

Making decisions: seek wisdom from God, not divine guidance

When it comes to decision making, DeYoung said there is usually not one single right answer. Clearly, if a decision would violate the moral standards of God’s Word then it is out of bounds. But beyond that, DeYoung suggests there are multiple paths each Christian can take.

“I don’t people see in the New Testament approaching decision making questions in that way (pursuing one right answer),” he said. “Most of those decisions are amoral: they are judging between two things that could both be right.

“For example, for marriage — providing you are thinking about marrying in the Lord and you are marrying somebody who is equally yoked — there is not just one person who could be the right answer. That is just living in fear and trepidation in a way that the Lord does not intend. People are well-intentioned, but are often hyper-spiritual with something that I think could be much simpler and more freeing.”

DeYoung said one reason Christians in America are so enamored of a pursuit of God’s will that centers on decision making is because of the abundance of choice in today’s society.

“Fifty to one hundred years ago our grandparents didn’t have 10,000 choices,” he said. “You lived in the same place, married one of the few people in town and worked on the farm or taught in school. It is only with the explosion of choice that this has become such a pressing issue, which makes me think that it is not mainly spiritual. … We make it more complicated by making it this grand spiritual pursuit.”

Of course, there are still decisions to be made. So how should Christians make decisions?

“First, ask ‘Is it biblical?’” DeYoung said. “Second, you want to seek counsel from other people. Third, you pray. You aren’t praying so much, ‘God tell me what to do,’ but ‘Help me see who I am. Help me be honest in this job interview. Help me have a clear sense of where my heart is at.’ Then you go and do something.

“I think one of the main motivations or impulses people should have is they need to think in terms of wisdom, instead of guidance. Guidance suggests that there is a right answer and a wrong answer here, and I might screw it up. Wisdom suggests I am learning, I am seeing my sin, I am figuring out who I am, God is with me, He is helping me in the process and there is not necessarily one right or wrong answer.”

Growing in wisdom

To grow in wisdom, which will lead to sound decisions, people should immerse themselves in Scripture, DeYoung said. James 1 also encourages those who lack wisdom to ask God for it, he noted. In his experience, DeYoung said God has helped him grow in wisdom by walking him through difficult situations where he did not know what to do.

“I think one of the reasons that God does not give us all sorts of special messages to tell us what to do is because that short circuits the process of wisdom and the process of sanctification,” DeYoung said. “Usually, we get in a situation where we totally don’t know what to do and we say, ‘Give me wisdom’ and we fail to realize, ‘He is giving you wisdom by putting you here.’

“So, we need to realize that part of cultivating godly wisdom is trusting God that we are going to have to live through some experiences to get that kind of wisdom and we are going to make some mistakes. God is interested in our whole lives being transformed.”

DeYoung also said God works through the guidance of other people, whether through books or personal conversations, in people’s lives to help them grow in wisdom.

“I think Tim Keller has a line — I am not going to get it exactly right — if you read one author, you will be a follower; if you read two different authors, you will learn and if you read widely from a whole bunch of different authors, you will be wise,” DeYoung said.

“Don’t just read books that are going to tell you everything you already know, everything you already agree on. Don’t just surround yourself with people who will constantly affirm you. Iron sharpens iron.”

The “call to ministry,” feeling a “peace” and mental impressions

DeYoung said he encourages people to get away from the idea of receiving a “call to ministry,” particularly the notion of an internal call.

“I think the traditional notion of a call to ministry is overblown,” he said. “As in the rest of life, most people won’t consider vocational ministry unless they feel like they might like it or be good at it. Is this a call? I would say ‘call’ language is not the most helpful because it makes it sound like this one job is the only possible thing I could do and be obedient to God.

“If we do use the language of ‘call,’ I think an external sense of call is more important than an internal sense. I am more impressed when a church urges a young man to consider pastoral ministry than I am when a young man feels like he should be a pastor.”

DeYoung said that in particularly weighty matters, some people will never feel absolutely certain that what they are planning to do is the right thing. In contrast, easy-going people sometimes feel good about a choice they have no business making. Thus, whether or not someone “feels a peace” about something is not a good barometer, unless biblical convictions and one’s conscience are involved.

“I could imagine a guy going to propose to a girl and she is not a believer,” he said. “People have been telling him not to do it and he wants to do it, but he is not feeling right about it: that could be his conscience. If there is something revealed to us in Scripture, then we need to pay attention to our conscience in telling us that something might not be right.”

While some decisions don’t require extensive thought, DeYoung suggested people should not rely on feelings or impressions in their decision making.

“Sometimes we do go with our gut, where we think, ‘You know wait, I just don’t feel good about it,’ and you don’t do it. That’s fine,” he said. “I don’t want us to be robots who make all of our decisions based on Excel spreadsheets. I would just caution people to not put too much stock into those sorts of things (gut feelings). Not to over spiritualize the sort of messages that you are getting from a peaceful feeling.”

DeYoung said he wants to give people the freedom he believes the Bible extends in the area of decision making.

“The important thing is realizing — as long as we are not dealing with blatant, sinful vocations — that there are many different things that can please God,” he said. “It is going to be in the context of friendship, community and church leaders that people are going to sort through their desires. There are no simple answers, but often I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer.

“We just need to help people be willing to really think about decisions and pray, ‘Lord help me see if I am motivated by the right things.’ At the end of the day, we have to believe in some Christian freedom, that if people have a clean conscience toward a decision to move to Manhattan and work in finance, then they can do that to the glory of God.”

Text/title: Revelation 3:14-22; The Deadly Predicament of the Lukewarm Church - The Letter to the Church at Laodicea.

The letter to the church at Laodicea is a devastating letter. It is a call to repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ writes of the deadly predicament of the lukewarm church.

Laodicea

All you have to say is Laodicea and no one is thinking of the history or culture of a city. We immediately think of a temperature: lukewarm. Neither cold, nor hot.

Of the seven cities to the churches in Revelation, this city was the most self-confident. We know now that the city was also characterized by tremendous self-sufficiency. And we can see that in all of these cities, there was a temptation for the church to match the culture. This should be instructive to us. We must realize that there is always a temptation to look just like the culture around us. The church at Laodicea appears to have taken on the very temptations that characterized the city.

There is a connection between Laodicea and Colossae. The cities were only 10 miles apart. Revelation 3:14 identifies Christ as the beginning of the Creation of God. This is a direct connection with Colossians (1:15-20).

Lukewarm

In the letters to the churches at Revelation, after He identifies Himself, Jesus begins with a commendation. We expect this at the beginning of each letter. But when he speaks of the deeds of the church at Laodicea, He does not begin with a commendation. He begins with the church’s temperature. And He says the church is lukewarm.

Near Laodicea, in Hierapolis, were hot springs. These hot springs were greatly desired. Laodicea was a city that was not known for its water. Also nearby was Colossae, which was known for its water. It had cold water. It had abundant cold water, as cold as the water of Hierapolis was hot. In between these two cities was Laodicea. Once you brought the hot or cold water to Laodicea it was just water. Lukewarm water. Water that someone might spit out of his mouth.

We know that the water is not really about water. It is about the state of the heart. We don’t really need any commentary to reveal this to us.

This church had taken on the characteristic of the water of its city of being lukewarm. Detestable. Not useful.

Considering some of the other things the Lord Jesus Christ has said the critique of being lukewarm sounds more mundane than the issues in the other churches. They don’t hate what God hates or what God loves: they are simply lukewarm.

The sad thing is, they have no clue about this reality. The church surely thought itself healthy. We see this in 3:17, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy and have need of nothing’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

The Lord appears to be making a very clear statement that its theological problem is rooted in the fact that it is wealthy. The church that says it is rich, that is has become wealthy, seems to have the luxury of adopting heresy. It is theological disaster for a church, a congregation, that says, “We have need of nothing.” We have need of everything and woe to the church that says it is self-sufficient.

The church at Laodicea was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked … and it did not even know it. That is perhaps the most chilling reality in this passage. We can give our annual report and say “Everything is fine.” We can have our baptism report, and Monday morning prayer meetings, and youth mission trips and say “Everything is fine.” We can go our annual meeting and say “Everything is fine.” But is it really fine? Things were not fine at the church in Laodicea.

Zeal and Repentance

Jesus says that He reproves those He loves. Brothers and sisters, we must take heed of this. We should see and realize that the Lord Jesus Christ disciplines those He loves. We should respond to His reproof.

To the church at Laodicea Jesus says, be zealous and repent. Our churches can be marked by zeal for all the wrong things, but of far greater peril is that it will be marked by not having any zeal at all.

We claim 40,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. This world would not be what it is, if we had 40,000 churches with zeal. What will your zeal first produce? Repentance. Repentance doesn’t come without zeal. If we truly understand the nature of our sin and we are truly brought by the Lord to detest it, there will be zeal in our repentance.

Revelation 3:20, where Jesus says He stands at the door and knocks, is addressed to a church that thought itself rich, but was poor, that thought itself self-sufficient, but was wretched and miserable. To church that repents; Jesus said He would dine with them. The knocking is a knock of judgment. It is the knock of Lord Jesus Christ who has come in judgment. But if anyone will invite Him in, He will dine with them, and they with Him.

It is tempting to give in to the Laodicean temptation. It is tempting to normalize the experience at Laodicea. We are tempted to be Laodicean churches, a Laodicean institution and a Laodicean denomination. You can chase all the heretics away and be left with a lukewarm church.

JACKSON, Tenn.-The younger generation of Southern Baptists will shape the future of the denomination, a stewardship it must not take lightly, R. Albert Mohler Jr., told students Friday at Union University in the closing address of the Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism Conference.

The rise of secularism and the fall of cultural Christianity in the deep South over the past two decades have conspired to make the 20-something generation crucial for defining the mission of the Southern Baptist Convention over the next 10-20 years, said Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The conference was held Oct. 6-9 at Union.

“When we look at the numbers (in the SBC), all of a sudden, they aren’t going up any more,” Mohler said. “We find ourselves in a situation in which we have to ask ourselves some very basic questions…And they are questions of a denomination headed toward a crisis.

“I’m thankful it’s not the inerrancy crisis that we lived through in the 1970s and 1980s, your generation is a generation of beneficiaries of that controversy. But you must be a part of forging a new identity for the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Young Southern Baptists must not be fixated on numbers or statistics, Mohler said. Rather, this generation must fix its gaze on faithfulness to God’s Word, the task of taking the Gospel to the nations and the glory of God.

“Those (numbers) are not unimportant, but it is the heart of the denomination that is the bigger issue - the clarity of our vision, the essential importance of our mission,” he said. “It is going to be yours and you are going to decide what to do with it.”

The SBC is experiencing the death of cultural Christianity because the faith no longer holds the spiritual franchise it once did in the Bible Belt, Mohler said.

“Any denomination that bases its future on the confidence of cultural Christianity deserves to die with that culture when it dies,” he said.

“It (a new identity) is not something we can create with a new slogan, for new slogan will not save us. There is a need for a resurgence of Great Commission passion, vision, commitment and energy in our denomination.

“The Great Commission was the singular reason why the Southern Baptist Convention came together in 1845. It was the cause of the Gospel that called Southern Baptists together and only the cause of the Gospel will keep us together, only the cause of the Gospel is sufficient as a reason for us to be together.”

A refocusing on the Great Commission is going to be costly, Mohler said, because it will require asking questions that have not been asked within the SBC for several generations and dealing with issues not previously considered.

“We were not called simply to receive what has been handed to us in terms of structures and continue it because of brand loyalty,” he said. “We’ve been called to be a church on mission.

“The vision before us is not the perpetuation of the Southern Baptist Convention, but the call of the nations to exult in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great dynamic of the SBC cannot be to make certain that our statistics are healthy and that our charts point ever upward; it has to be that the glory of God would be evident in persons hearing the Gospel and responding to the Gospel and the establishment of godly churches that are ruled by Christ through His Word and to show all that the church is called to show in terms of the fruit of righteousness and the power of the Gospel.”

The SBC faces numerous challenges, including a generational shift in leadership from older to younger, Mohler said, and the younger generation will largely determine the denomination’s future health. The current generation of students matriculating at Union and in other colleges, universities and seminaries are defined by several realities, Mohler said. It is:

• A strategic hinge generation. It will determine the shape and substance of local churches.
• A generation of social transformation. It will determine the “new normal” in defining the church and its mission.
• A generation of global responsibility. Massive advances in transportation, travel and communications have made the world smaller and have given this generation ready access to the entire globe.
• A generation marked by spiritual confusion. Questions of God, religion and church are not important to young people in America. “You who are committed Christians are going to be providing leadership to a denomination that is going to have to be ministering to people whose basic response may not be rejection of the Gospel, but merely a shrug,” he said.
• A generation of institutional disinterest. Commitment to institutional forms typically does not pass easily from one generation to the next. This generation must not view the SBC and its denominational machinery as ends unto themselves, but must work to ensure that local SBC churches are faithful Gospel outposts seeking to exist for the glory of God, he said.
• A generation of perishable promise. It has a limited window of time - one or two decades - to own the stewardship of faithfully steering SBC churches onto the path of greater faithfulness to God’s Word and the Great Commission.

Cultural Christianity and easy-believism must no longer rule the day in the SBC and in local church bodies, Mohler said. The younger generation must be willing to plant its feet upon sound doctrine and faithful Gospel missions if local churches and the denomination are to have a healthy future, Mohler said.

“Do not give your life to the SBC because your grandmother was a Southern Baptist,” Mohler said. “Please do not invest your energies in the Southern Baptist Convention because you want to save something as an important artifact of American religion and southern culture and whatever else.

“Give yourself to the SBC because you see this really can be a denomination that is transformed by a resurgence of Great Commission passion to reach the world for the glory of God, a denomination ready to ask the hard questions and to let goods and kindred go in order to do what God would have us do in the generation ahead. I am not imploring you to leave the Southern Baptist Convention, I am imploring you to save it.”

Stories include:

• Author and pastor Kevin DeYoung on Discerning God’s Will. DeYoung is the author of “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will.”
• To Ph.D. or not to Ph.D.: Southern Seminary professors respond to the questions: “Who should pursue a Ph.D.?” “How should you prepare for Ph.D. studies?” and “How do you pick a school for Ph.D. studies?”
• Jim Orrick — professor of literature and culture at Boyce College, Southern’s undergraduate institution — editorial on how God calls people.

Also in this issue:

• 3 questions with Micah Fries, senior pastor of Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Mo., and an emerging, young Southern Baptist leader.
• Faculty profile: Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern and president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

No more ‘handwringing’ about future of denominationalism

By TIM ELLSWORTH
Union University

Published October 9, 2009

JACKSON, Tenn. (UU)—Though church denominations are in decline, Union University President David S. Dockery said he is still convinced of the benefits they provide, such as structure, connections, coherence and accountability, especially for groups like the Southern Baptist Convention.

Mark Devine, associate professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School. Photo by John Gill

JACKSON, Tenn. — While some Emerging churches do not uphold basic Christian doctrines, others are doctrine-friendly and theologically-sound and from these Southern Baptists can learn and benefit, Mark DeVine said.

DeVine, associate professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School and a Ph.D. graduate from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, examined the role doctrine-friendly Emerging churches can play in the Southern Baptist Convention.

DeVine identified two major streams of the Emerging church: the first he called “doctrine-friendly” and the second he called Emergent, which he said can be further subdivided into “doctrine-averse” and “doctrine-wary” varieties.

DeVine said his main interest is in the churches he called doctrine-friendly. Such churches are characterized by orthodox confessions of faith and affirm historic orthodox Christian creeds and the central tenets of the Protestant Reformation.

DeVine identified several characteristics of doctrine-friendly Emerging churches that could benefit Southern Baptists. First, he said such churches are fixated on church planting.

“Perhaps the most misinformed comments I encounter about the Emerging Church are those that apply a quick analysis that ends by dismissing and reducing the phenomenon as the convulsions of typical youth rebellion against grandma and grandpas religion,” DeVine said. “Emerging church leaders do tend to be young and young people do act like young people. But the first wave of church planters has aged by 10 to 15 years. … Church planting is not child’s play, neither is church re-planting. It is a fairly impressive way to rebel, I think.”

These church plants usually take place in cities and this commitment to urban or “citified” church planting is another helpful characteristic, DeVine said.

“For many (Emerging church planters), the more citified the context, the more they salivate at the prospect of seeing the Gospel advance,” he said. “As North America, and the entire world, become more and more urban, missiologists tell us and give us numbers showing how forbidding urban terrain proves for would-be church planters.

“Yet, there are many ecclesiologically baptistic and theologically evangelical church planters pouring their lives out to reach the lost with zeal and a willingness to sacrifice comparable to the great missionaries we Baptists have long revered.”

Emerging churches that are doctrine-friendly also bring a healthy emphasis on being missional in nature. While attractional churches focus on what takes place within their walls, DeVine said missional churches make it a point to engage people outside the church walls, in neighborhoods, restaurants and other local community contexts. Missional churches also emphasize the responsibility of every believer to take the Gospel to their local community, he said.

DeVine said that perhaps the biggest potential contribution of Emerging churches to not only Southern Baptists but all of North American Christianity is their engagement with the multiple cultural sub-cultures that now make up the continent.

“No longer can Christian believers and would-be evangelists expect to encounter unbelievers with whom they share a deep, wide and rich cultural heritage across great swaths of geography,” he said. “The cultural diversification occurring in North America matters for those who would see the Gospel advance. Culture profoundly affects the conveyance of meaning and the Gospel is a message with a meaning that must be conveyed in order to be believed.”

DeVine said a failure to understand the culture in which we minister will result in a failure to communicate the Gospel. With the changing cultural landscape in America, he said Southern Baptists must view our own land as a mission field. And doctrine-friendly Emerging churches can help Southern Baptists reach this mission field.

“Where strong and deep theological affinity avails, let us be slow to view those with a jaundice eye,” DeVine said. “Let’s do shared theology do its work and let’s be patient with these men.”