SBCOutpost

… of organizatinoal reconciliation between batpist Christians in America in this generation.

(In 1985 our family moved to Dallas to attend Seminary. We visited a number of churches. A good friend suggested I visit a church in far southwest Dallas. Not a year later, I was asked to serve on staff of this church and would do so for three years while finishing the M.Div. at SWBTS. Dr. Rick Davis served the church as pastor. He would become my mentor. Now more than 20 years we continue to mentor one another. Rick served in evangelism as the Evangelism Director for the BGCT before moving to FBC, Brownwood, TX. I have asked him to write from time to time as an “Interested Outsider.” Rick writes at Aintsobad.)

I was invited to a wedding. A friend’s daughter is to be married. He said to me, “You may not wish to come. They are using an SBT church for their wedding.”

SBT stands for Southern Baptists of Texas, a convention split from the old BGCT structure to maintain closer ties to the old SBC structure. A known BGCT guy like me is on thin ice when in an SBT setting. Of course, with my recent habit of questioning the BGCT leadership, I am on thinner ice with them.

Perhaps I should take up ice fishing. At least then there is the promise of some reward when one punches a hole through the surface.

Sigh. I remember when a friend’s daughter’s wedding involved finding where they were registered, buying a place setting and getting to the church on time for cake. There are so many considerations these days.

I am going to the wedding, of course. Friends are friends.

Maybe that is the hope. Friend are friends.

I will not sign your SBC 2000 BF & M in order to do business with you.

You will not cross my CBF inclinations to commune with me.

Ok. I get this.

But, when a person has a heart attack, don’t the little blood vessels immediately start to try to put out feelers to get things back together and heal the organ? Maybe the bigger, blocked vessels never operate the same again. Perhaps the organ itself has damage. Still, the little vessels can help the body function, despite the heart damage.

Reach across the aisle. Perhaps there is a hand extended to you. Maybe neither of us can see it because of the haze of battle smoke.

Posted on Aug 30, 2007 | by Morris H. Chapman NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–I recently gave a statement to SBCoutpost.com, a web site upon which a small group of young Southern Baptist bloggers regularly contribute their opinions about a number of issues in the Southern Baptist Convention. Almost immediately thereafter, my statement was removed because the predicate upon which I offered it (a more-Christlike tone in the exchange of ideas) was not satisfied. I was careful to assure that my comments were removed, and having done so, considered the matter closed.Throughout the years when problems have arisen among Southern Baptists, I have most often tried to answer questions and resolve issues quietly, but definitively. In this instance, I at first felt a more public statement would take the matter to a level that the occurrence did not justify, causing even more confusion among the members of our Southern Baptist family. It has become obvious to me that my reluctance to make a public statement has offended some, and I believe they deserve a more public response. Read the rest of this entry »

In Oklahoma it’s not uncommon to hear that there are only two sports: football and Spring practice. Since we are a part of the Southern Baptist Convention and since college football reigns supreme in the south - yeah, verily, approaching Sabbath observance - we thought it would be fun to hear from our readers who your favorite college football team is and what your prediction is for their game this week. We will, of course, make exceptions for those states considering themselves to be southern which do not have football teams - like North Carolina and Kentucky. If you root for a team that is not in the south we still welcome your predictions, recognizing that those teams don’t really play football. For others who’s favorite school does not have a football team, but who would like to make a prediction anyway, feel free to jump in. Yes, that means you people at Oklahoma State and Baylor. Alabama fans are welcome to mail in their predictions from the RV park.

If you will spend your day tomorrow shopping for a fanny pack, please disregard this post.

If you are a Notre Dame fan you will banned immediately.

Public confession of sin takes many forms. It is never easy to watch a man evade his own culpability or obfuscate the gravity of his offense. What do these videos say about the right way and the wrong way to confess sin? Is there any difference in how politicians and preachers deal with the fallout of their publicized vice?

[Conversations with Marty Duren led me to ask if he would write a short piece chronicling the story of New Bethany and how they are living into the “mission dei.” Marty Duren is the founding editor of SBCOutpost and now an occasional contributor. His desire in life and ministry is, “To see the glory of God displayed through all the peoples of the world.” He is passionate about his wife, Sonya, and his children, Beth, Timothy and Abigail and he considers himself exceedingly, abundantly blessed to be the Lead Pastor of New Bethany Baptist Church in Buford, GA. He loves to hike and backpack, read and hang out with new believers who have not figured out the “Christian thing.” He is the sometimes exasperated owner of a collie, Amos, and two cats, Ginger and Scully. He now blogs at ie:missional, where a narrative of this story is recorded.]

A couple of months ago, I stepped up from SBC politics having decided that I had given as much as I could afford to the effort to reform the SBC. Time is short and, as my calling is local church ministry, I wanted to remove the distraction that SBC involvement had become for me. It was the right move and the right time.

A little over a year ago, a couple in our church sold a piece of land in a developing residential area. Since their names were not Ananias and Sapphira, they actually brought “so much” and gave it as a tithe to the Lord. It was a very large amount of money, in fact, more than our entire budget receipts for all of 2006. Our Finance Team was very judicious to set virtually all of it aside, split about 50-50 toward future remodeling/building projects and community/international missions. From this amount, we designated a portion for an Unreached People Group project.

For several months we considered what we were to do. I attended, with two others from our church, a West Africa Summit held at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, sponsored by the West Africa region of the International Mission Board. We were very impressed with the missionaries, but, due to mounting concerns over narrowing trends supported by that regional group of trustees, were hesitant to become involved there. That proved to be the right decision.

Earlier this year, a team from our church was in a former eastern bloc country teaching business English to university students. There they were involved with an M from our church who has been in country for about 5 years. One of our team shared with him our goal to “adopt” an Unreached People Group in some region of the world. In the ministry activity of our M there, he had occasion to speak with an IMB M who was in his area. Their conversation turned to our goal of adopting, when the IMB M mentioned having just met a person from an UPG in Siberia.

That information was relayed to us and we decided to plan a vision trip for this August, the same trip from which we returned and which is chronicled at ie:missional. In addition to the way God obviously worked in the process, at least one more thing was demonstrated: God can and does use existing (and growing) networks of people to get things done outside of denominational channels.

It is my opinion that American Christians in particular can no longer depend solely upon the resources or guidance of any mission board or agency to fulfill the Great Commission. We are the wealthiest nation on earth and have the ability for ease of travel that is not enjoyed by 2/3 of the world. We speak the international language of business, which puts us in a position not unlike those writers of koine Greek in the 1^st century. I have a growing conviction that we will give an account if our answer to the missio dei question is “CP, NAMB, IMB, ANNIE and LOTTIE.”

We have unprecedented opportunities for mission that could have only been in the dreams of our forefathers. We have unprecedented responsibility for mission that was not expected of our forefathers. Shall we have a greater percentage of American Christians answer the call to the world when travel was a hardship than in our day when it is so much easier? When in 28 hours I can be in a time zone literally half a world away–a trip that once would have taken weeks if not months to make? Shall we sit luxuriously by and allow the pioneers of mission to accomplish more with less?

I have to echo the words of Keith Green who said, “How about us not sending our money this time; how about us going?” And while God does not call each and every believer to leave home and transplant into another culture, local churches (individually and through partnerships) can create a long term presence in which strong relationships are forged, rather than two weeks and a hearty, “Hasta la vista!” and “I can’t wait to show these pictures to everyone!” Budgeted with the missio dei in mind, there is virtually no American church that cannot have a Kingdom impact on an UPG somewhere in the world.

My encouragement to every pastor and every church would be to actively seek the will of God for individual and corporate involvement in those areas where there is little to no access to the gospel. And, that we begin working toward local church budgets that reflect God’s priority of worshipers from every nation, tribe, tongue and nation, rather than more and more pumped up empty “busy work” that, while making sound and fury, signifies nothing.

Southern Baptist leaders retract endorsements of collaborative blog

By Hannah Elliott

Published August 29, 2007

NEW YORK (ABP) — Several well-known Southern Baptist leaders have rescinded their previous endorsements of a controversial blog that provides news and opinion related to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Jerry Rankin, David Dockery, Thom Rainer and Frank Page all initially offered enthusiastic endorsements of SBC Outpost (www.sbcoutpost.com) after it was launched in June. The site is a collaborative effort by several reform-minded Southern Baptist pastors, theologians and laypeople.

At the time, Rankin, president of the SBC’s International Mission Board, called the blog a “significant channel of communication [that] can serve Southern Baptists.”

But each of those Baptist leaders has subsequently withdrawn his approval. As of Aug. 28, Morris Chapman, the SBC Executive Committee president and another early endorser of the site, had yet to make a public statement about his endorsement, although it was removed from SBC Outpost removed by site editors along with the others.

Page, the SBC’s current president, said in an Aug. 22 column run by the SBC news service that he retracted his endorsement because the blog “degenerated quickly into a place of personal attack against denominational leaders.” Such Internet-based attacks are part of a trend of church websites detailing allegations, accusations and complaints against leaders, he said.

“Lost people are seeing the deep division and sometimes hatred that is flowing forth among churches and among those who are involved in convention discussions,” Page wrote in the Baptist Press column. “For Christ’s sake, stop!”

Rankin said in a similar column that the blog “has not fulfilled its intended purpose.”

“This had the potential of being a forum for an objective interchange of ideas and opinions that would contribute in a constructive way to the Southern Baptist Convention,” Rankin wrote. “While I continue to endorse and advocate the value of open communication and understanding that comes from a free exchange of ideas, I am retracting my endorsement of SBC Outpost as the place for that to happen.”

Rainer, president of SBC publisher Lifeway Christian Resources, said in an Aug. 17 BP story that he had gladly endorsed the blog as an opportunity to focus the denomination on missions and evangelism. That didn’t happen, he said.

“My words, instead, were construed by some to be an endorsement of every article that followed, particularly those articles that were critical of other entity presidents,” Rainer said. “That was unacceptable. I was wrong.”

Other widely-read Baptist bloggers, such as Bart Barber and Geoff Baggett, have removed links to SBC Outpost from their personal sites. They’ve done it because, “rather than being our SBC blog edition of Newsweek, it comes off as a bit more like National Enquirer,” Baggett, a Kentucky pastor, said.

Action and reaction from blog contributors has been mixed. In fact, former SBC Outpost host Micah Fries announced Aug. 17 that he was backing away from the blog as well.

The St. Joseph, Mo., pastor said his level of passion for denominational politics led him to be “too involved” with the blog and had reduced the time he spent on local-church ministry. But Fries also seemed to express some dissatisfaction with the SBC Outpost itself.

“I envisioned this site to be a place where substantive dialogue could happen in a Christ-like manner,” Fries wrote. “That has happened in tremendous ways at times. Unfortunately, however, I have also been disappointed to watch folks on both sides of these divides who simply don’t play well with others.”

On the other hand, the remaining editors posted a response to the removals that said united fronts among Baptists will not be regained as long as the “issues raised by bloggers are dismissed because of the tone occasionally adopted by them.”

“Blogging has merely shouted from the housetops what has often been whispered in secret,” the Aug. 25 response said. “To publicly rebuke bloggers for having addressed directly and passionately the questionable actions of some convention leaders, and to refuse to rebuke those same leaders whose actions have precipitated the blogging dissent, is unbalanced.”

“Respected leaders” like Page should unite voices and influence to address the “shameful actions of some who lead the convention from the highest levels of institutional office,” the post continued.

The site continues to boast robust numbers. On Aug. 10, site editors said they had received almost 8,000 page views that day and had published more than 120 articles that month.

Benjamin Cole, soon-to-be associate pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., has addressed concerns posted on the site about “the prudence of denominational statesmen having publicly identified, albeit tacitly, with the individual opinions expressed by our authors.”

In an Aug. 2 reply, Cole said the blog operates best if contributors are free to disagree with convention policies and question administrators. Outpost editors have said convention leaders have a higher priority to represent all Southern Baptists than to “affirm” any one forum, he said.

“We will not deny ourselves any occasion to speak our minds as honestly, forcefully, and even controversially as we deem necessary,” Cole wrote. “Ultimately, our freedom to dissent is of much greater value to our Baptist identity than is our need for magisterial affirmation.”

Another major contributor to the blog, Marty Duren, said it is just as well that the so-called celebrity endorsements were removed. In an Aug. 27 comment to blog readers, the Georgia pastor said that although he initially sought the original endorsements, they actually restricted the blog editors from writing freely.

“The endorsements … would make it difficult for us to be completely free to report or comment on activity or statements potentially made by one of those who provided endorsements,” Duren wrote. “At the worst, we would be accused of treating them with kid gloves if they were not hammered as others have been.”

According to the blog, the editors have no plans to publish several additional endorsements that were scheduled for later release.

-30-

As with my previous posts, if you would like to leave a comment, please do so at my personal blog here. Before you do, please read this.

*******

Recently, I wrote a seven-part series called “Issues Inside and Outside the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.” After I laid out my series conclusions, I received a kind comment from David Rogers, which I will cite below.

But, before doing so, I am going to reproduce the final part of the conclusions from the BFM2000 series (in which I also focused on the progression from the 1925 and 1963 versions, to the 2000 reworking):

“Where only a generation ago, the BFM was considered–at least for the most part–a ’still life picture,’ if you will, it is now anything but. Please carefully ponder the following descriptions of what the BFM2000 has become in the era of increasing Conservative Resurgence (CR) control of the SBC: Read the rest of this entry »

(In 1985 our family moved to Dallas to attend Seminary. We visited a number of churches. A good friend suggested I visit a church in far southwest Dallas. Not a year later, I was asked to serve on staff of this church and would do so for three years while finishing the M.Div. at SWBTS. Dr. Rick Davis served the church as pastor. He would become my mentor. Now more than 20 years we continue to mentor one another. Rick served in evangelism as the Evangelism Director for the BGCT before moving to FBC, Brownwood, TX. I have asked him to write from time to time as an “Interested Outsider.” Rick writes at Aintsobad.)

I have the papers sitting around here to sign up for the Episcopalian priesthood, the Methodist pastorate, the DOC ministry and one, I think, that would allow me to join a coven. I keep them the way we all used to keep typed resignation letters in our files to sign each Monday, so we could throw them away on Wednesday.

Let me spare you the clichés of the old SBC churches who nurtured and nourished me. They are gone, as gone as gone can get, quite because of some changes in them and many, many changes in me. I can cherish their memory as I do memories of my father’s big old Ford car. I would not drive one and I would not go back to the same old SBC type church of my childhood.

Let me skip over most of the usual platitudes about how the state conventions and local associations meet our needs better and more effectively than national conventions once did for us. My local association does what my state convention does for me. They hold endless, poorly attended old model meetings to appear busy, issue updated but hopelessly outdated mission statements and ask for another one per cent of my budget. Read the rest of this entry »

On today’s edition of “Calling For Truth,” SBCOutpost.com regular contributor, Paul Littleton, was the guest. In the hour-long radio broadcast, Littleton addresses issues facing the Southern Baptist Convention and the nature of discussion in denominational conflict. The topic, “Biblical Discourse and the Blogosphere,” grew out of the recent retraction of SBC President Frank Page’s endorsement of this blog.

Listen to the archived broadcast here.

The following first appeared on Alan Cross’ personal blog Downshore Drift last Friday. We thought it was so good it was worth a double-post over here as well.

*******

So says Eugene Peterson as quoted by Michael Spencer from Peterson’s book, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. This perspective is important not just for pastors, but also for Christians who are serious about what their relationship to their church and the Lord should look like. I have heard people who come to our church of around 200-250 people say, “I love the preaching, teaching, worship, fellowship, and sense of spirituality and focus on Christ that you have here. My children made friends and we love their Sunday School teacher. We have made friends and have never been in such a warm, loving spiritual environment where the Bible is taught and people take their relationship with God seriously. We just don’t know if we can be in a church this small. Read the rest of this entry »