Blog Archive

Time flies when you’re writing papers and reading books! Has it really been almost a week since I’ve written on this thing? (Perhaps a more interesting question would be if anybody really knows its been a week…)

The interesting story of this week came out of my Practice of Ministry class. We learned about baptism this week… by baptizing each other, that is! Yeah, we went to a church in the area, put on our swim suits, and got in the baptistry 4 at a time. Then, we took turns “baptizing” the other three people in our group. Now this was funny.

One of the guys that “baptized” me forgot the fact that you’re supposed to make sure the person goes entirely under the water. My head stayed completely dry. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I started to walk back to the steps but then I just busted out laughing and told the guy my head didn’t go under. So we tried it again. You see why its a good idea to practice a few times before you actually have to do it in front of a church. I know that guy was sure happy to get a few dry runs… (sorry that was terrible…)

Until next time…

Southern Baptists somehow manage to stay about 50 years behind the rest of the world in a lot of ways. One example of this is the conservative resurgence in our convention that began in 1979. We are probably the only major Protestant denomination to reverse a trend toward liberalism. The conservative resurgence was truly an amazing victory. We did, however, fight the battle about 50 years behind most of the other denominations. This isn’t a bad thing. The success of the resurgence was partly because of this fact. We had witnessed the horrible condition of the denominations that had submitted to liberalism. We could more easily identify liberal theology by this time. Roe v. Wade had deeply stirred conservatives in this country and the conservative resurgence probably owed some of its success to this sentiment against liberalism in our culture and denomination. The conservative resurgence may not have been possible earlier in this century.

As with anything in history, even great events usually have some negative consequences. Let me see if I can explain what I mean…

Coming off the heels of the resurgence in the SBC, we have had leaders in nearly every denominational position who were quick to emphasize the inerrancy of Scripture. Bad? Of course not. We are thankful to God that these men have been willing to stand firm on this essential principle. Inerrancy is and should be a non-negotiable in the Southern Baptist Convention. So how has this hurt? I think it has often left the impression that anyone who believes in inerrancy is a suitable candidate to be held up to a leadership position, whether denominational, pastoral, or otherwise. There are more than a few bad preachers who are inerrantists. There are even more than a few heretics that claim to hold to inerrancy. (Open theists claim to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.)

Let me be clear, inerrancy should always be a litmus test for Southern Baptists. Someone who will not assent to the inerrancy of Scripture should not hold any position in our denomination. But we have to move past inerrancy. Inerrancy should be one of our presuppositions. Anyone not sharing this presupposition is ineligible, but once determined that someone does hold to it, we still have a lot of work left to do.

Pastors must not only pay lip service to a high view of Scripture. They must stop taking verses out of context. They must treat the Word of God with utmost respect through careful study. Too many pastors proof-text their way through sermons without ever really dealing in detail with what any particular passage teaches. This leads to shallow sermons which, in turn, leads to shallow churches and shallow Christians. Pastors must educate people to study the word for themselves and model the virtue of being a student of Scripture.

Seminary presidents must push for faculties who will instill in students the fact that they are not in seminary mainly for a degree, but for an education. Our seminaries graduate far too many who come to turn in their work and get a diploma and do not make use of the time of preparation God has given them. Our seminaries must push students to become lifelong learners. They must force students to dig deep wells from which they will draw throughout their entire ministry.

Agency heads must examine the methodologies of their agencies and make changes where needed. LifeWay Sunday School material should be the highest quality available. NAMB and IMB have to commit to missions methodologies that stress effectiveness over innovation. Ethics and Religious Liberty must find ways to reach the average church goer and engage individual churches in impacting the culture.

The battle against liberalism in our convention, at least for now, is over. We must remain vigilant that it never becomes a problem again. But we have new battles to fight. These battles are no less important than those fought by earlier generations. May God raise up new leaders who will build on the strong foundation already laid.

What are these new battles? I’ll try and get to that in the next entry. This one’s long enough 🙂

So I was reading this dissertation earlier today. It was on the history of the “sinner’s prayer.” It brought up a couple of interesting points, but there is one that has been coming to mind over and over again today. It seems like all evangelism or preaching today aims at getting a sinner to accept Christ. Its put different ways of course… Ask Jesus into your heart, pray to receive Christ… all basically meaning that we are ready, at that point of our lives, to accept Jesus.

However, if you read evangelistic literature before the middie 1900’s or so, it is somewhat the opposite. Before that time, the sinner was admonished to ask God to accept him! It was assumed that we were the ones who needed acceptance. One prominent example is during the First Great Awakening, the greatest revival America has ever known. People under conviction of sin are said to have wailed aloud and convulsed for fear that God was not ready to accept them. They had a sense of the reality and weight of sin in their hearts. They knew God had to reach out and accept them! Some of these sinners under conviction would go for weeks in a state of near depression for fear that God had not yet accepted them. Until one day they would “obtain a hope” and be assured of their good estate with God.

What a contrast!

Now I’m not saying they were perfect in that time period, but it seems they may have had a lot right. Maybe more than we do. Maybe our focus in evangelism should be less on convincing someone to accept Christ, and more on convicing them they need to be accepted by Christ.

Ten pages is a LONG book review! I’m a little over half done, but the good news is that its not due til Thursday! Look at me, getting a head start. I’m trying to get better at getting my work done ahead of time. There’s no doubt that lowers the stress level of seminary quite a bit. So far so good, we’ll see as the semester goes on…

I really can’t complain though. I love the work I’m doing, the books I’m reading, the issues I’m getting to spend time combing through. There are some ways that I can’t wait for seminary to end… you know to get out there and do the “real work” I’ve been studying to do. Then there’s a part of me that wants to stay here in the safety of theory. I guess its the question of whether or not all these ideas and conclusions that I’m coming to now are really going to work.

I see so badly the need for improvement in our churches, but I always wonder if I’m really going to be able to do any better. It’s apprehension, really. The tendency to think that pastoring is about me and my “success” as a leader. Its so easy to forget that the church is about the glory of Christ. What a temptation for pastors! We all want to do great things for the kingdom of God. But how easy it is to let pride quietly infect this good desire! May God deliver me from pride so that he might use me to be truly effective for him.

Just a few thoughts… back to the book review…

Well, I can tell you what I’ve been doing this Saturday… Setting up this website. Since I last published a website, I’ve switched computers, platforms, and web-publishing programs. It’s to be expected that it would take a few hours. Hopefully, I’ll be able to spend some time updating content soon.

Other than that, I’ve been reading all day. Taking 15 hours in seminary is plenty to keep you busy. (Reading is what I did pretty much all day yesterday too.) But on a happier note, all that reading has done me some good. I finished 4 books this week. Here’s the list in the off-chance you’re interested:

Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance by Os Guinness. A great book! It was only 119 pages, I read it in 3 hours. Definitely worth your time if you have any to spare.

Letters to Timothy: A Handbook for Pastors by John Bisagno. For my Practice of Ministry class. Very helpful.

Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion by Stephen L. Carter. For my Church/State Relations class.

According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible by Graeme Goldsworthy. For my New Testament Theology class.

It feels good to finally finish a few! I feel like I don’t do anything but read around here. But its good for me, that’s why I’m in seminary, after all.