It'll Be Coming Down in Buckets!

When you are just one person, you can only do so much. As a family, you can do a little more. In God's plan for the restoration of His Kingdom here on earth, the instrument of change - gathered and empowered by the Holy Spirit - is the church. A group of imperfect people, flawed but given new hearts for God and for their neighbors, the church led by Jesus is a force for good wherever it is led.

Our church, though small by today's megachurch measurements, does a LOT here and around the world by itself. Our members do a lot themselves - individuals and groups sponsor over a dozen children through Compassion, World Vision, and other groups. I lost count of how many people donated immediately after the Haiti earthquake through the Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, and others. We are givers. But we can only do so much.

20 of the buckets you see in the picture above came from the heart of New Hope. So as a result, we were able to feed 20 families in Haiti for a week or a little more. Awesome!

Our church belongs to an association of local Baptist churches. We're sort of the rebel of the group in that what we do doesn't sync often with what they do. But we hold core beliefs in common, and one of those core beliefs is that we cooperate to do more for people we'll never know. The result of that cooperation - through money, through time, through people - is that we are part of something big that God uses to care for people all around the world. In Haiti for example, over 60 tons of food have already been delivered by the SBC to Haiti. Thousands of medical exams and treatments have been given. Children and their families have been cared for and long term reconstruction teams are working right now to provide long term shelter before the rains come. They are working alongside Christians of all denominations, many of which who are doing the same sort of work. They work with whoever - Christian, Muslim, Jew, athiest, agnostic - is there to help the people of Haiti.

Horrible tragedies bring people together. God doesn't waste the opportunity to get the people who already love Him, and those He loves but don't love Him- together. We'll probably learn in heaven how He has used this event to gather more prodigals into the family.

When we work together, God smiles.


And New Hope's 20, added to our association's 700+, added to Florida's tens of thousands, added to the other state's, mean this - It's going to rain hope in Haiti. It'll come down in buckets. Hundreds of thousands of them. And families will know that God cares for them and has put His people on the problem.

Look friends, you can't do everything. But you can DO SOMETHING.

And as part of a local church, you can do more. Get plugged in. Don't just sit there. Do something!

It's SBC Convention Week

The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting right now in Louisville, Kentucky. Be afraid, be very afraid. I'm teasing, sort of. In years past, the week of the convention meeting has been one where I was afraid to read the newspaper. But since no one reads newspapers anymore, we should be okay.

What?

Oh right, the Internet. Curse you AlGore! (JK again)

So I'm tracking the convention this year through Twitter feeds and have visited the official website a couple of times to see what was going on live. I just finished watching the president of the convention, Johnny Hunt, deliver a message on the future of the SBC. Well, I watched some of the message, like a typical Southern Baptist, I found it hard to stay focused.

We have a fix for that though, Baptist Press, so I went over there to see what has been happening.

When I searched Google for Baptist Press, one of the hits that came up was a news article of a Baptist pastor praying for the death of our president. Now that's some Baptist press, but not the right one,or the right kind.

So I finally found and clicked on the "Baptist Press" link.

The Breaking News story - "The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee recommended in a unanimous vote Monday afternoon that the denomination cease its relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, a Fort Worth, Texas, congregation that has been the source of controversy over its stance on homosexuality."

Then there were hits on disaster relief, and the Crossover Louisville project where thousands were fed.

Sigh...

Maybe next year.

No Church People - EVER

There were a LOT of pictures I could have chosen to illustrate what I'm about to write, but somehow getting ranked below trespassers, trespassing mushroom hunters, and trespassing deer hunters just seemed to fit. What does it say about the message we "church people" have been sending to those outside that we get not only listed as worthy to be shot, but with an emphasis suggesting that he might just enjoy shooting us?

Church people.

There was a time when that delineated those who were the backbone of society. They held down jobs at every level all over America. Some owned plants, some worked in them. They were doctors and lawyers, teachers and engineers. Still are. But instead of being the people who brought to life the foundational values that provide a bedrock for any society, we morphed over time to people who are known chiefly for pointing out the sins of others while ignoring our own.

We have sent untold millions of dollars, and invested thousands of lives into places and people overseas while completely ignoring our neighbors lying in the ditch on the side of the road, or worse, deciding that the ditch doesn't look too bad and checking to see if there's room. (see our divorce rate, etc.)

At the beginning of the church age, the requirements of admission were to deny yourself and your selfish ways, believe in Jesus - the Son of God and salvation of mankind, and take up your part of the work by following Jesus with everything you had or ever hoped to have. This was not missions by proxy, where you pay people to do the work for you. You were Plan "A" and there was no Plan "B". But that was just too HARD. So we created organizations and told ourselves that these structures would help us do more. And they did in some ways, but were devastatingly ineffective in others.

The SBC is one of those organizations.

When it works right, it's very effective at mobilizing individuals and churches for direct mission activities - disaster relief being the best example.

When it works poorly, and it often does, it usually makes front page news in the media and gives rise to signs like our example above. Disney boycott anyone? Tied at the hip to the GOP - perhaps? Pulling away from the local church and demanding loyalty to the denomination? Uh huh.

So many congregations are pulling away from the SBC.

Churches are deciding not to label themselves as SBC churches even if they continue to remain a part. Others are seeking and finding viable missions work outside the SBC and making real the "every member a missionary" blurb so many adopted as an aspiration rather than a lifestyle.

Was reading today about one state convention's efforts.

In 2008 the Partnership Missions office in our Kentucky Baptist Convention made a bold move to re-think local church involvement in international, cross-cultural missions. In previous years that office entered into partnerships with various Baptist conventions or countries, then organized short-term trips into those countries.

Now, however, they have shifted their focus to local churches, and have restructured their office into that of the role of partnership facilitator. Their desire is to help local Kentucky Baptist churches engage in deeper and deeper levels of missions commitment and involvement. Their current strategy involves four designated levels of engagement:

* Level one (Exploring Missions) churches have had limited experience but understand the importance of missions.
* Level two (Increasing Involvement) churches have been exposed to overseas missions and are seeking God’s direction for a greater commitment to missions.
* Level three (Partnering Strategically) churches are ready to commit for a specific time to work with an IMB missionary in a specific region.
* Level four (Fully Committed) churches desire to take full responsibility for an unreached people group or area without direct missionary assistance.

They are headed in the right direction.

New Hope is headed that way too, regardless of what the local association, state convention, or national organization do. We are realigning with people who want to be Jesus to their neighbor across the street or across the ocean. We are redirecting monies and other resources from supporting missions by proxy to doing missions ourselves.

Frankly, as pastor I don't want the label "church people" applied to us.

I like neighbor or friend a lot better.

So stay tuned fans.

"Costs Too Much To Change the Sign"

I heard my youngest deacon explaining to a visitor what they had just experienced last Sunday after worship. Didn't hear it all, but I caught the part where he said "yeah, the sign still says 'A Southern Baptist Church', but that's partly because it would cost too much to change it." His father was an SBC pastor. But he's a guy who wants to see things happen for Jesus, and ready to work to see it. All he's seen from the SBC is fussing and fighting for years.

I've been in a conversation with my friend and fellow Florida Pastor Tom Bryant about the SBC over the years. Tom's at FBC Osprey, and is seeing God move in amazing ways among the community. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more godly and effective pastor. And the church he serves with should be an example of what can happen when people follow Jesus outside.

But this is the Southern Baptist Convention.

No one will notice.

He's in a small church. And though FBC Osprey participates fully in associational, state, and SBC life revolves around famous pastors and their mega-churches.

The SBC began as a way for small churches to band together so as to increase their impact missionally. But over the years it has morphed into a bureaucracy where the mega churches set the program, and where the smaller churches have little voice but contribute their monies. And when the larger entities in the SBC do something like bring out a racially insensitive VBS, or decide that Calvinists are evil, or take on Disney - guess who hears about it? Yep. We do.

The glue that holds the SBC together is the Cooperative program. The CP is dying. Not from lack of cash, but from lack of focused passion. It's an organization. It's separated from the local church so far now by the layers of assoc,state,IMB,NAMB etc that no one at church can tell a compelling story of what their gifts did.

We've become fans of professional Christians and turned missions into a spectator sport.

That should not be.

So if a local church decides that missions by proxy won't cut it, and finds a way to really do missions... well, I'll understand.

...and applaud.

I want people to change the SBC. I want those people to be deep into missions. Until the SBC is changed, they are being good stewards by only giving what's left over. It's a "Mary - Martha" thing. The SBC looks busy, does little that matters to the local church, and that's where the priority has to be.

I've had people like Tom, who I respect tell me, "You need to get involved and be the change you seek." What you are asking is akin to me heading to the beach and building a seawall out of sand. A waste of the limited time and resources I have to get involved with the convention. And even if I brought the max number of messengers with me, one mega church would have dozens more.

You want change? Here's my idea of what should happen.

Sell off Lifeway, make the seminaries self supporting. If they are that good, they'll make it. Work with local churches to keep people in the church serving, in their homes making a living for their families, and bring education to them. Ditch the 30 hours on campus requirement. Replace it with 30 hour internships or mentoring. Tell ATS to take a hike. Train pastors and planters. Work to make them able to serve bivocationally through dual degree programs in education, social work, the chaplaincy - get real. Most churches are small, and a pastor needs to be able to take care of his family, have health insurance, prepare for retirement.

Close NAMB or the state conventions - your pick, pare the bloat. Keep them (State Conv.)in areas where they are needed. But in states like AL,FL, GA??? Please. Churches should be planting churches. Sell off properties that are underused and put all that money into church planter support.

Build direct links between churches and missionaries and missionary action. Give us the same options we have with Heifer.org, Compassion, Samaritan's Purse - and a host of others. Don't make us fight to be involved. MAKE IT EASY!!! NATURAL!!!

And please quit trying to create a Baptist ghetto of SBC events when there are other opportunities you could partner with. There's a reason why attendance is down at SBC events. Why would I want to go to a State Convention when I could go to Catalyst?

Really, this is the most I've spent thinking about the SBC all year. Don't have the time or the inclination to be involved in the petty causes and silly infighting. I'd rather see people changing and lives redeemed.

Newhopian of the week

The man in the center of the picture is named Joe Stoy. He's a deacon, an RA leader, children's church worker, and general all around good guy. Each week, Joe touches the lives of children as he does a children's sermon. No one, including Joe, ever really knows how things will turn out. Many times his props work great. Other times, not so great.

But the kids love Joe, whether the props work or not. And every week, he tells them about God.

When Joe gets to heaven, I'll bet someone else who loves kids will tell him, "well done, good and faithful servant. Well done."

What a blessing to serve alongside servants like Joe Stoy.

Worship @ New Hope 20 Jan 2008

We continued in the "Red Letters" series with a sermon entitled "What You Need To Know" from Matthew 4. More about that later. Main focus from the text was "repent for the Kingdom of God is near" and "Follow me."

Opening song:

Amazing Grace,(My Chains Are Gone) - great treatment of THE classic hymn

Forever

The Potters Hand

Ancient Words

Give Me Jesus (solo by Emily)

Just As I Am

I was trying to craft a set that reflected our need for God's grace and our call to follow Jesus as he said in His Word.

The message: I have been really working hard on examining my work as a preacher in recent weeks, and have read the Andy Stanley book "Communicating for A Change" twice. In it, Stanley strongly suggests that you go with one point and only put into the sermon other materials that directly support that point.

So I decreased the amount of text I put up, and went with visual images to support the message. Then I went a step further and sat on a stool to deliver it. My thoughts were that if I was stationary then I would not be able to rely on gestures and body language and would have to concentrate on the thoughts and concepts I had at hand.

Then I tried to hang that within the frame provided by Stanley.

Me - We - God - You - We

It seemed to help me focus, stay on point, and shorten the amount of words but deliver clearly what God had led me to say. I'll keep working on it.

It's Monday - All Day

I wanted to make the disclaimer right up front, since I'm here on my day off with a Rockbridge assignment due, a sinus infection picking up steam, having slept way too late and finding myself in a just plain cranky mood. I did think that our assignment was worth posting in hopes that it might spur discussion and someone out there to go deeper.

We were asked in the assignment to:

Write a critique of Part 1 in They Like Jesus But Not the Church matching your personal and church experience to what is presented by Dan Kimball in 2-3 paragraphs.

“They Like Jesus But Not the Church” Critique
Dan Kimball was perhaps the first to achieve broad distribution beyond the blogs and narrowly focused magazines of the idea that something was amiss with the way that emerging generations perceived the church as it exists today. The work of Tony Jones, Brian McClaren and others had been out before Kimball’s book, but their observations could be dismissed easier because of their fringe liberal status. Kimball writes in a way that helps people coming in from a traditional heritage or present position SEE.

Kimball’s book is like a mirror held up in front of the church today, and instead of the church making comments like “yeah, we are looking pretty good”, Kimball has people from the emerging generations come up and explain what we really look like. We’ve lost the path, and what’s worse, instead of going back and regaining our way, we’re pressing forward and yelling back at those who aren’t coming with us. A must read for anyone serious about reaching those outside.

Then there's Reggie McNeal's work.

Reggie McNeal wrote, “Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spirituality.” (p. 7, The Present Future). Interact with McNeal’s assertion based on your personal and church experience in 2-3 paragraphs.

Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part One
When I first read the book, coming from a Southern redneck background though tempered with years of both formal education and personal growth, I wanted to run out and shout “heck yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” The niggling little feelings about what we were doing at church I had possessed since before I was called as a pastor had, 7 years later into my first full-time ministry, begun shouting at me “IT”S NOT WORKING!!! THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING TRANSFORMED!!”

We were doing everything we knew to do as church leadership, and kept adding things thinking that if we just provided one more inlet for people to learn, everything would change. I’ll confess that when 40 Days of Purpose came along, I really say that as a hopeful beginning to the sea change I desperately wanted to have occur. But it didn’t. We are doing too much at church. We are doing too much as staff for people. We are not expecting people to progress and start making disciples of their own. We need to teach people to live a cross-centered life and set them free to do it, not yoke them to another program. So yeah, Reggie spoke to me.

In “New Reality Number Two,” McNeal says the wrong question is “How do we get them to come to us?” and the right question is “How do we hit the streets with the gospel?” What question is your church trying to answer if measured by the programming promoted today? Explain in 2-3 paragraphs.

Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part Two
When McNeal asks questions, look out. You will not like the answer. Most of the time because the one you come up with is so completely wrong you feel foolish. When I read it, I bought copies for all the leadership. We have worked to find additional ways to bring the gospel to where people are, instead of always trying to attract them to where we are. (That was our only strategy at that point in time.)

So we have a sno-cone team that goes down to the local park and gives away sno-cones once a month. They also are in demand at other local events such as the Relay for Life that the American Cancer Society holds. We’re taking worship down to the park this summer with a bluegrass band and our praise band. We created off-site affinity groups (they were doing great, but they are proving very difficult to sustain). We have a group of people volunteering at the local elementary school, and that opened the door to our participating with them in the upcoming Relay For Life in Niceville. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it.

I've had some people ask me why I'm still so hard after learning more - even after years in the ministry. It's because I still need to learn. We have to get better at living out our faith and sharing it with people who do not know Jesus. Sure, I'd love to write for a living, would love to teach other seminarians someday online. But I'll never stop wanting to be involved in the greatest work anyone can ever do.

Show Me the Money

I was reading a blog named Missio Dei today and came across this:

Research shows that 90% of SBC churches are plateaued or declining and only 2-3% (Aubrey Malphurs) or 3-5% (Ed Stetzer) will ever recover. What does this tell us about how our resources and energy should be focused? Where do you think our resources and energy is currently focused?

My answer?

On expanding the Kingdom of God.

This is not an either or. It should be a both/and. When you aren't planting enough churches to even cover raw population growth and stay at the same percentage of impact, the problem is "brand" wide. Every plateaued and declining church tells the population around it - "no one here cares. We are willing to sit on this corner and pretend we are making a difference." They "poison the water" and create impressions in the minds of everyone they touch which may never be erased.

We simply cannot afford NOT to vigorously attack this problem as a corporate body. The SBC "brand" is hurting badly. Outside of disaster areas where our relief efforts have born fruit, we are looked on as increasingly detached from the marketplace of ideas. We spent far too much money and time in Washington DC, and far too little meeting our neighbors.

It's funny I read this blog post today, because I had a conversation with a church health expert with another denomination recently. He described their "intervention" method of "turning around" churches. I was greatly impressed with the process he outlined which included a "turn-around pastor" assessment much like that which is routinely done with church planters.

The idea was patterned after a successful campaign among American Baptist churches in the Western US. Dr. Paul Borden has given a great gift to the Body of Christ in this effective and biblical method of turning churches headed to closing into thriving healthy congregations. His Growing Healthy Churches is exactly what we should be doing as a denomination. here's a quote from the website.

Since 1997 over 170 congregation have experienced radical transformation and as a result many are intentionally and successfully reproducing new disciples and leaders.

Take that number and imagine what it would be if applied to the SBC.

You hear that? That was Satan's knees knocking just thinking about it.

Hey coach!

One of the hardest adjustments I have had to make in life as a pastor is the sheer aloneness that goes with the job. When I say "aloneness", I'm not meaning the lack of human interaction. What I'm referring to is the lack of coaching.

When I was in business, I worked with/for someone who as part of their job description had to develop me in my skill set and improve me in my effectiveness. Ah those days with Procter and Gamble where my manager and I would sit at a table somewhere, usually a Shoney's, and haggle over where I fell this year in the measurable job performance categories. Did I "need improvement"? Or was that area one of "Significant Strength"?

Whatever the result of the interaction, we always left with some idea of a development plan that would leverage my strengths and improve my weaknesses. The goals we set had to meet a high standard. They had to be specific, measurable, achievable, and compatible with the goals of my team.

In this role, there are times when I badly need a coach. Decisions need to be made in order to see the church move forward on its mission. Sometimes that action is one I have never considered before and the church has never before taken. Complex interactions are most always part of the mix and Murphy's Law, the Law of Unintended Consequences, and always the law of "We Never Did It That Way Before" all combine to almost paralyze you.

On an ongoing basis, just as in sales, I need to grow in my abilities and skills. My aim is to constantly improve, and toward that end I'm working on two Masters degrees and have an ultimate Doctorate in Education as a prized goal. I read everything I can on preaching, on small groups, on men's ministry, on discipleship - until I have more facts than I know what to do with.

If only there was a system within the SBC to help the single staff guys like me evaluate their context, their effectiveness, and their stated goals and work through a plan to grow.

Personally, I'm very grateful for the Internet and the availability of places like the Pastors.com pastors forum which I was a part of for years, and most recently for the guys I share the Ultimate Pastors Forum with. Having the insight and counsel of men who are actively engaged in pastoral work is so valuable to me. But I know that if they could walk with me through Valparaiso, meet the people here at New Hope, and hear our vision to be more effective in reaching the unchurched, their counsel would be so much better.

Is this an area in SBC life where the association should be, but isn't? Our association is heavy on the big churches, and the smaller ones are all traditional. I would think if a coaching network was to be built, it would almost certainly have to be "affinity" based, with members gathering with like philosophies of church.

If anyone has any ideas along this line, I am all ears. Knowing the challenges of pastoral leadership aren't going to get any easier means I keep working hard to grow. But having a coach or coaches to help that process would be a blessing.

On Baptism

We got to baptize a young man today!

It's always an awesome event in the life of a church to celebrate someone's decision to commit to, and identify with Jesus in baptism. In the small church, every good event matters. There's always a need to remind people what we're about, to point them to Jesus.

Baptism matters.

As I read the accounts of Jesus' baptism again this week, two things stood out.

First, the dedication He had to doing God's will. He walked about 60 miles to be baptized by John.

But something else - that I had never thought of before.

Jesus was there to be baptized with everyone else.

And everyone else there to be baptized was a repentant sinner.

So let's assume that Jesus didn't look like all those English guys that usually play him in the movies, or have that freaky halo/golden plate behind his head. There's no way to tell the Messiah without a program yet.

If you or I were standing there, and we saw a young man in line to be baptized, we would naturally assume he was like everyone else.

That he was one of us.

Even at the beginning of his ministry - in the first act of it - Jesus wasn't afraid to be among, with, even labeled (falsely) as a sinner. His reputation didn't matter nearly as much as doing God's will and living out His purpose.

Think about it.

What Should A Baptist Association DO?

That's a question that I suppose has as many answers as we do associations. Our contexts are so different these days as America's demographics change. Here on the Gulf Coast and in the Choctaw association, apparently the question is valid, as a group within the association is taking up that very question.

Context does matter.

Geographic and demographic contexts matter: Okaloosa County contains the largest military base in the United States - Eglin Air Force Base, as well as some of the finest beaches anywhere. There's a wild swing between the northern and southern ends of both Okaloosa and its neighbor Walton county because of the different influences of beach versus rural or exburb. This led to the creation of a separate association for Crestview and northern Okaloosa county, and to some of the South Walton churches aligning with the Choctaw Asssociation instead of the Walton one.

The Air Force and soon to be larger Army influences mean that there's a larger population of skilled workers who are younger and prone to have families, and a contractor base (and retirees) who are older and have substantially greater income than others do. But move across the bay to Destin and South Walton, and money ramps up considerably as well as the diversity of culture. Then too, just like the tides, people come in and out of those areas for short or long term stays. Snowbirds, condo owners, vacationers, even Spring Breakers all come in and out and affect the churches. The pastor of the largest church in Destin once told me that "the snowbirds are under the mistaken opinion that we should change who we are just for them." So there are pressures inherent within the diversity that exists.

Add to that the mega vs small church tug of war, traditional versus modern, and denominational turf wars and we'll have fun fun fun convincing anyone that we're about the Kingdom of God who isn't already an insider.

Makes you want to run out and become a DOM now doesn't it?

Given our context, I'm going to take a stab at offering some suggestions. They may be stupid in your environment. If so, pay no attention to them. If they are brilliant, then by all means let me know. :)

First: Quit trying to do the work of the local church.

Second: Quit hurting the work of the local church. Every dollar spent on associational buildings and people that cannot be justified by a resultant effect in growing the Kingdom through the work of the local church is wasted. Wasted.

Three: Help our pastors help our churches. I know we're a prickly bunch and not easily led or helped, but we are the people that God called and placed in the churches of the association to help see His will done on earth as it is in heaven. And we are the ones who will have to give an account for what we have done and haven't done. We need help - especially (but not limited to) those of us who pastor smaller churches. Every new initiative we undertake - someone has BTDT. We need the DOM and the association to serve as facilitator and network respectively. Hook us up when we get a wild idea with someone who knows how to pull it off. Help us find the resources to accomplish it. Maybe the association could serve as part file cabinet, part rolodex, part storage building.

Four: Bring Us Together as people walking down the same road. There are so many splits in the people who are outside. So many fissures emerging within the SBC. calling another meeting isn't going to get it done anymore. Inviting two pastors or three to meet for lunch will. Getting to know each other as fellow stragglers will. Pastor's luncheons may be the hardest thing a DOM can pull off and may seem insignificant. But they matter. Personally I'd love to see our association buy a trailer like they use during emergencies to feed people. Self contained kitchen etc., but with a PA system and a few of those "jumpy toys" and stuff like a rock climbing wall so we could do block parties and cross church fellowships. But that's just me.

Perception is that the current system of funding the DOM position makes him far more attentive and reactive to big churches and big church pastors. It ought to be just the opposite. YMMV. I'd love to see that position become a Missionary position again with the small church and church planting through all the churches be the focus. I know there are a lot of DOM's who do a great job of looking after the needs of smaller churches, but not all of them do.

Finally (for now) - Help us see the bigger picture. Fight us to help us see it. By that I mean the DOM has to be working to take what the pastors dream and see if it will synergize into something that will not only allow the local churches to fulfill their calling, but will help other local churches do the same. The Charleston Baptist SC association has a resort ministry arm that works alongside the association with a separate board made up of churches. Ours has a ministry center that does that. We need to see more of that sort of thing but birthed out of what God is telling the local churches, not out of the Lifeway catalog or a DOM association meeting.

For me, this is sort of a final attempt to try to work through what an association ought to be and do. In the small church I serve, we're not going to nod our heads anymore and send our money to anything that doesn't help us do our job more effectively than we could do alone.

/rant off

praying commences again

*edited to remove some of the heat and leave the light - DW

On the SBC

Small church evangelist Les Puryear has had my admiration for a while now. In a church culture that seems at times to shout "Go big or go home!", Les shouts back "House church? I'm up for that!" :) Les is seriously into championing the smaller - ok - the average sized church in the SBC. He's even set up a conference in March to help small church pastors grow. (Les, I'm trying to work it out to get there.)

Recently he wrote a post on SBC Impact that listed some things he'd like to see in the SBC.

I'll list them here, but go read the whole post and the comments.

Things I would like to see implemented in the SBC in no particular order:

* More small church emphasis at all SBC entities and agencies.
* A worship film-making division that would produce worship videos.
* A small church pastor (less than 200 in average Sunday morning worship attendance) be elected as president of the SBC.
* More teaching of practical ministry techniques in seminary, i.e., how to baptize, how to conduct the Lord’s Supper, how to handle conflict in the church, etc.
* Broadman & Holman print a series of books about small church leadership.
* Passing of a Regenerate Membership resolution.
* Revise the method of electing trustees so that rather than voting “yes” or “no” on a nominating committee’s entire list, change it so anyone who wishes to run for the office of a trustee can do so by filing for election similar to the method currently used to elect Town Council representatives. Then the convention messengers can vote for trustees by marking their ballots for each name and the ones with the most votes win. This seems to me to be more democratic than the nominating committee process.
* Spiritual awakening.
* Less storytelling in sermons and more biblical exposition.
* True desire for holiness.
* Love for brothers and sisters in Christ who do not agree with each other on non-essential doctrines.
* More cooperation among local churches rather than being in competition with each other.
* 8,000 IMB missionaries on the field by 2012.
* Pastors live what they preach.
* Explosion of house church planting in the USA.
* Every church member regularly tithing.
* Reaching the lost who are within sight of our church steeples and then reaching the lost beyond that.
* Greater penetration of evangelicalism in the northeast and western parts of the USA.
* The WMU not moving away from the SBC and toward the CBF.

You know, I don't agree with everything Les wrote, but I can sure work with a guy who loves what I love - smaller churches. And rather than hash out the differences, I'm going to make a list of what I'd love to see in the SBC from my context.

* Revamping of the seminaries to make them more pastor - in particular small church pastor friendly. The 30 hour on campus requirement is onerous and nigh onto ridiculous in today's interactive age. It is preventing many people like me from courses and degrees that would help our ministry effectiveness. Train pastors first, not professors.
*Revamp the association and bring back associational missionaries who are church planters and catalysts for action not deck chair rearrangers. In our association we are taking a year to study the need for change when we should be changing now! The DOM being tied to big church money isn't working well for smaller churches.
*Stay out of the newspapers unless you are helping someone. The Richard Land crowd makes me flinch everytime I see their names in print because I know we're about to be outed as "agin'ers". We've stopped being known for what we are for, just what we are against.
*Put some energy, effort, and money into RA's and men's ministries. We are hemorrhaging men. We get programs like men's fraternity that are so expensive and so big church oriented that our guys get tired of trying. Give us a break guys.
*Break the stupid convention into regions. If you want us to actually go, quit tossing darts at a map, look at the cost and timing. Oh and quit deciding ahead of time what we should do when we are there.
*Help us facilitate networks of like-minded churches along missional lines not geographic ones. My church has precious little in common with the FBC down the street but might have a lot with another church 50 miles away. Get Stetzer on it.:)
*Help us train for today's challenges, not yesterday's. We need help with outreach, media, worship, marketing, site selection and maximization. We need training on relational evangelism, or incarnational ministry, not more door hangers and Evangecubes.

I got more, but that's enough for now. I have been an SBC guy my whole Christian life and fought to stay on course when others called. I love the Cooperative Program and our doctrinal distinctives. But we have to keep those while constantly evaluating our methods for effectiveness.

Sweet Tea and Fried Chicken, Oh, and Jesus

Tonight I played a video provided by the International Mission Board as an aid to pastors like me when we are trying to inform and encourage our congregations to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for missions.

This year's focus is on Eastern Europe. One of the people whose lives are spotlighted this year is a Russian named Genady who lives in Moscow. This is his story.



When I previewed it in my office I wasn't prepared for the effect it would have on me. Seeing the man unashamedly cry while admitting that he had no way to verbalize what God had done in his heart, really moved me. In so many cases here in America, we don't see the emotional response to the taking away of sin as a repentant heart meets a loving Savior.

What we get is a reaction like being asked to join the Rotary or the loyal Order of Elks.

Makes me wonder if we are preaching the same gospel. I believe I am. But maybe our culture has been on such an "I'm okay, you're okay" run that people have come to the opinion that God would do well to have them join His organization.

But when I watched Genady, I remembered what I felt that night when I surrendered to Christ and how great it has been to see people since then come to Him too. I read the last part of John to the folks tonight. You know, the part right after the woman at the well?

Jesus is sitting there talking to the woman and the disciples come back and can't figure out what's going on. I mean what's the rabbi doing sitting there with a woman - a Samaritan woman? "Do you want something to eat Jesus?" they ask. "No, I'm good" he replies. "What? Did you pick something up while we were gone?"

"Yeah, I got filled up."

They didn't get it. Most of us don't.

But see to Jesus, talking about the father's love for lost people is better than fried chicken and sweet tea. He'd rather miss a meal than ever miss a person. Cause He knew what really matters in this life is how many people you are going to bring with you into the next.

I'd forgotten just how good that kind of food tastes.

Thank you Lord for letting me see Genady's testimony.

We're going to baptize Sunday. I can't wait!

Maybe this Methodist is onto something Baptists need to realize too

Don’t miss this…because this is important. Understand that once people sense the local church exists merely to raise funds for the corporate Church they feel like spectators rather than players. Such confusion about the role of the local church (and the people in it) topples the first domino in a cascading failure that degrades a denomination from “mainline” to “sideline.” This is a hands-on society comprised of individuals who’ve lost trust in institutions; people today want to do it themselves. There is a deep pool of volunteers with the desire to personally experience meaningful service. They know they only go around once in life and they want to drink deeply of the adventure…not send money to someone else so they have all the joy.

Instead, they will divvy up their offerings among the various organizations bombarding them for money: United Way, Red Cross, Salvation Army, UNICEF, the FOP and the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy research. As that happens, the tithe is pulled from the local church, God removes his blessing and the local church becomes a pale shadow of the Biblically functioning community scripture describes. Congregations become sick and stop growing. Healthy grows.

Mark Beeson, pastor of Granger UMC