Stephen Roberts also has salient points on pastor qualifications and education of the youth (and adults IMO). Do any of us need much help to make a list of “issues” in the SBC that result from ignorance?

One problem I’d call on the issue of “too much” church planting in the South and not more overseas comes from the funding issues I think. It is much easier to get support from a church fifty miles away than it is from halfway around the world. So, I’m back from an overseas trip and unable to get official sanction to raise money to get a bit of support for the people I worked with. Why?

Well, my church already had a program going on to give additional support to famine relief in India, then it was Lottie Moon time and now it is support for a local ministry. Maybe I should have tried to schedule the full timer to come speak at my church, but I was under the impression he and his wife already had a busy schedule several hours away from me between trying to visit family and do a bit of “advertising” among local groups.

Thank you. And I’ll be more careful with my comments in the future. Merry Christmas.

Stephen,

You say that I don’t understand how to communicate to a lost world. I’ll try to avoid being defensive in my reply, but, as I mentioned, I am now working on my third church plant and have been doing church planting for the last 12 years. Communicating to the lost is pretty much required in my line of work. Over the years, I have noticed a change in my approach however. In my first plant, I was green and pretty much did whatever the church growth books that were handed to me said to do. I always tried to be faithful in my preaching, but what it was couched in (the Sunday morning service, the evangelistic events) were “anything goes.” I felt that numbers are king and whatever it takes to get them is legit- the end justifies the means. But as I have grown in maturity in my faith and experience, I have found that those methodologies that I once found exciting and “cutting edge” now strike me as empty at best and down right dishonoring to God in some cases. I wince thinking of the things I did on Sunday mornings in the name of being “seeker sensitive.” Jokes, funny videos, skits, puppet shows, I did them all. In retrospect I now see what I didn’t then – a lack of faith in the power of the Word of God. I believed the Word and preached it, but felt that it needed my help in creating the right setting and mood, it needed my help to make it relevant and exciting. Now I try to get out of the way and let the Word do the work and I am finding a generation of college students who have been hungering for this and who are weary of all the techniques that are being tried out on them…they tell me – “spare the videos, give us the Word” which I am more than happy to do. My experience in ministry now is full of a deeper joy than I have ever experienced because it has a greater depth to it and I no longer wonder if whether what I did on Sunday morning went “over the line.” And now I mourn over the things I hear going on in the church today- such as one popular seeker pastor calling those in his church who want to go deeper in the Word “jackasses”- look it up on Youtube to see for yourself. My desire is for the SBC to be full of churches of depth and growth and God’s name be glorified through them.

Brother, I am sorry I misread your comments. After having read your reply, I think I can say that I agree with your main contentions. Thank you for reading our posts and for joining the conversation. Merry Christmas.

Blessings,
Bruce

I wrote a longer response but it has not yet appeared on my browser, so, just in case it got lost, here is a brief response to your comments:

1) First, I had no idea that Dr. Akin wrote a book called “God on Sex” and, thus, my usage of that name was in no way a comment on him- it was simply commenting on the current trend of doing sermon series on sex using tawdry advertising to get people to come hear it.
2) I don’t know JD or your church- I’m sorry I put you on the defensive, and while I don’t agree with multi-site churches, I’m glad to hear that he is preaching truth.
3) I don’t feel I misreprented Dr. Akin because I never represented him in the first place. When I saw Warren’s name, I simply felt compelled to opine and used it as a spring board. I didn’t imply anything concering Akin in anything I wrote.
4) Comment threads can be tricky because you may read a certain “tone” in my voice that wasn’t there. I did not intend to come across as sarcastic, didn’t think that I did, but apologize that it came across that way.

I certainly had no intention on crafting a “sarcastic rant” and apologize that it came off that way. I didn’t feel, and it didn’t seem, sarcastic as I penned it and as I now re-read it, I still don’t see it as such. Often times these comment threads are more hazardous than e-mails because not only do you not see my face or hear my voice as I type (by which you may better judge my heart in the matter), there is a hyper concern for brevity which sometimes causes things to come across harsher than intended.

My comments were in no way a swipe at Dr. Akin and I apologize if he took it that way- I had no idea he had written a book called “God on Sex” by the way.

I was simply trying to give voice to the frustrations of the young men that I minister to and which I believe are shared by many.

I don’t believe that I misrepresented Dr. Akin because I was not representing him at all. I was simply using the fact that Warren’s name and the phrase “solid doctrine” were in the same paragraph as a spring board to share my thoughts. The two in juxstoposition simply compelled me to opine.

Again, I had no idea that Akin put out a book called “God on Sex.” I came up with the title out of my head and it was intended to be a comment on the popularity of the sex-centered sermon series that seem to be all the rage and which are advertised using tawdry imagery which is unbefitting the church of God. I don’t believe that I exaggerate when I say that I think we ought to be weeping over the fact that schools are taking the churches which meet within them to task for producing materials to promote their sex sermons which the school boards deem inappropriate and which they do not want to their schools to be associated with- one principal actually went as far as calling the families of his school to apologize for the materials they had been mailed by the church that met in his school.

I didn’t imply that Akin believed that young pastors are interested in seeker methodologies. My point was that the seeker movement still seems to hold sway at Southern Baptist promoted conferences- at least the ones that make their way to my mailbox- and the younger generation just doesn’t get it. They long for the church to return to solid biblical exposition – a faith worth holding on to- and whether or not it is couched in technological wizardry is of no consequence if they are getting the truth.

Lastly, I never mentioned JD nor your church and am sorry that you felt that you had to get on the defensive. While I disagree with the multi-site model, I am glad that he promotes solid doctrine and that your students don’t need to go to a conference to get it. Which is really getting to my point. They shouldn’t have to.

Once again those are pretty broad strokes. Who are “they” and what are some specific examples of these methods? If these are such great problems, shouldn’t we have more specifics?

First, you state that sound doctrine should drive all that we think and do, and that young pastors need to sit under strong, solid Bible teaching. Amen.

Second, you push back on Akin for mentioning Rick Warren in the same paragraph as “sound doctrine.” It appears that your main point is that younger pastors are not interested in “seeker” methodology or “technological savvy.” OK, great. Agreed. But Akin’s post didn’t imply anything different than that. He quoted one of Warren’s statements that is on target.

Third, later in the post you state, “it is the Gospel that is the power unto salvation not a sermon series entitled ‘God on Sex’.” This appears to be another smart-alec swipe at Akin who wrote a book by the same title. But again, nothing in this post undermines the truth that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Fourth, while there are a couple of good points buried in the midst of your bloviations, you undermine those points by your tone and by your misrepresentations of the author.

Fifth, you take a shot at “multiple site churches propogating impotent doctrine” and mention that you and your 4 college students went to a nice Banner of Truth conference where they didn’t have bands or videos. OK. Great. Banner of Truth has made some fantastic contributions to the Kingdom. But I’ll point out that my church (The Summit Church) is a multiple site church that does not promulgate “impotent doctrine,” although it does make some use of video and worship bands. Our pastor, JD Greear, offers a sound theological exposition every week while 1,400 college students listen and learn. They don’t need to go to a Banner of Truth conference to get their exposition. They get it from our pastor, at our church. JD is a reformed theological expositor who pastors a multi-site church that does not preach “impotent” doctrine, and who has yet learned a couple of things from Rick Warren…

Baptist Church of America or BOA.

Baptists of the United States & Territories or BUST

United States Baptists or USB

Any other suggestions?