12 Witnesses

Today is Jimmy Rogers’ 13h birthday. Welcome to being a teenager in America. I pray you cling to God with the zeal you have shown in your life thus far. It is my privilege to be your father and to call you my son.

And now, the traditional here’s the good stuff I got for my birthday picture.

Included, along with money is a ball that is an outdoor, man powered ice cream maker, an iPod nano, charger and case for said nano, gift cards to Sonic and Barnes & Noble. This is just the initial wave. The rest of the family comes later with more. Spoiled rotten.

The church’s influence in America has been waning for the latter half of this century. We find America’s confidence in the church within one point of it’s lowest recorded point ever, registering at 46% of Americans who have a high degree of trust in us.

Americans’ Confidence in the Church Reaching All-Time Low | Christianpost.com

Look at that. The entire population of American culture, all 301 MILLION of us, seems to have been trustworthily evaluated by surveying a mere 1,007 adults.

I wonder if people will now arise to challenge yet another proven research body - Gallup - with faulty research due to a small sample. They could then argue that the people they know trust them and the church really doesn’t have any problems reaching American culture because their perspective is clearly definitive.

[HT: Kevin Bussey, Todd Rhoades]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2007

ST. JOSEPH, MO — On Monday, July 2, 2007, the online conversation concerning the future of the Southern Baptist Convention will move forward as a group of prominent bloggers merge their efforts to provide a forum for ministry ideas, missionary support, church revitalization, and denominational reform. SBCOutpost.com, previously administrated by Pastor Marty Duren of New Bethany Baptist Church in Buford, GA, will be launched as one of the premier sites for Southern Baptist news and commentary.

Little doubt exists that blogs have dominated the conversation in Southern Baptist life for the previous 18 months. At times, the conversation has engaged substantive issues of theology and ministry. At others, the dialog has been shrill and divisive. With the launch of a newly reformatted SBCOutpost.com blog, the chance for elevating the meaningful dialog and limiting the intensity of contention will arrive for all Southern Baptists.

Intentionally designed as a bridge for the diverse constituencies of Southern Baptist life, SBCOutpost.com will bring together denominational executives with rural pastors and church planters, missional pastors with traditional pastors, seminary theologians with Sunday School teachers, and field missionaries with their prayer partners. The day has passed for monopolies in news and information. SBCOutpost.com will seek to supplement, not replace, the excellent coverage of Southern Baptist life already offered online through Baptist Press, Associated Baptist Press, and various Baptist state papers.

SBCOutpost.com is singularly unique, however, in the chance for reader interaction and commentary, offering a forum for the discussion about the future of culturally-informed, Christ-honoring witness and ministry paradigms for the Southern Baptist Convention. In addition to this unique format, SBCOutpost.com will launch with the largest aggregate readership of any alternative news source dealing with Southern Baptist issues. The mission statement of SBCOutpost.com is “to provide interactive, substantive, and reflective dialogue for Southern Baptist churchmen and women to participate in shaping the future of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The stated intention of SBCOutpost.com is to become the number one choice for discussion of Southern Baptist news and commentary, and the blog editors would like to encourage all Southern Baptist entities to include SBCOutpost.com as a part of their regular schedule of recipients for all press releases, news updates, and other statements as they are released to major media sources by emailing editor@sbcoutpost.com.

I was on my way to the hospital today and had yet to eat. I mean at all - no breakfast, no nothing. It was raining and I was in a bit of a hurry for many reasons. The food places on the way to the hospital left something to be desired and my home, also on the way, didn’t have anything worth stopping for, either. Just as I was about to commit to visiting the hospital first and grabbing something to eat later - 1:30 ish - I saw a new sandwich shop on the corner that I had seen before, but hadn’t tried.

When it comes to food, I’m not that adventurous. I prefer the tried and true, especially if I am going to pay for that food. I hate to feel I’ve spent money and then decide it was a waste.

Nevertheless, of late I have been trying things that I don’t usually try. I don’t know why I am doing it, but my wife seems both confused and pleasantly surprised. Not to belabor the point, I think this newfound desire to explore drew me into the “Which Wich?” sandwich store at 61st and Memorial.

The hook on this store is that they have about 10 different categories of sandwiches and several varieties of each category. Under the big menu is a rack of paper sacks, different sacks for each category. First you pull the paper sack and then you mark the sandwich and fixins on the sack with a red permanent marker. At the bottom, you write your name. You walk over and hand the sack to the person working the register, pay for the sandwich and whatever else you care to buy, and wait for it to be made. All sandwiches are $4.50, no matter what sandwich you get.

I guess I was awash in experimentation, as I got a sandwich I have never before ordered and waited. In a few minutes the sandwich maker yelled really loudly, “I’ve got a hot ‘wich’ for Art! Art!” I jumped up and grabbed it before he hollered my name that loudly again.

I walked over to a table and sat down with my hot “wich,” a drink and some baked chips. You know the “healthy” chips. It was raining and I sat and ate by myself while watching the rain.

It amazes me where your mind is able to go when you aren’t watching tv, listening to music or even just being around another person. I had the idea for about four enormous blog posts in about 20 minutes while I ate. The sandwich was good, too.

I’m going to start with this post for several reasons. First, it is the easiest to write. Second, the others will make more sense if you understand the whole background of “Which Wich?” and how it works. Third, it was the first thing I thought of as I sat down.

As I sat to eat, several people, perhaps not as gifted with the intuitive nature that I so easily displayed in processing my order, came in and asked what to do and how to do it. I listened as the workers there explained the ordering process, then repeated it for the next group. Select a sandwich from the menu, get the appropriate bag from the rack, mark the individual stuff you want on the sandwich with the pen on the bag, write your name, then pay. All you have to do is wait, then hot deliciousness will be soon forthcoming.

It works for sandwiches. It was pretty good, too. You don’t have to struggle with too much information or interaction and it doesn’t take long for your meal to show up. They shout your name as if you were a rock star and then you get fed. Not a bad price. I highly recommend you give it a try.

For a meal.

The disturbing thought that crossed my mind was just how much this reminded me of the prayer time of the average Christian. I know, because it reminds me of my prayer time.

I have a journal that I write in during my devotional time. When it comes to prayer time, I write out sections of prayer and then pray through them. I spend time in worshipful adoration, confession and thanksgiving. Honestly, though, the bulk of my prayer time is often caught up in my list of requests.

How often do we treat time with God as an order form with really little interaction?

Here’s my list, God. I’d like this answer to prayer with these specific toppings and a side of “help this guy out,” too, with a drink of “bless the missionaries.” While you get right on serving up my hot deliciousness, I’ll wait just over here. Just waiting. Patiently, because I know there are a lot of things going on and Your timing is best and all, but I am still just waiting. Hovering near the place where I am to pick up my order. You didn’t lose it did you? I see the sack hanging on the wire and I know my order is up soon.

I’ll just be over here.

How patient is God to even allow us to approach Him - even if this is the way we are doing it?

Time with God is not means to an end, but the ultimate end in itself. That God blesses us and answers our needs, hears us express them and meets with us in that time is one of the smallest of our privileges as His children.

The richness of our blessing is that we get to talk to Him about our thoughts - just to express them - and who we are, but the biggest part of our blessing is that we get to listen to Him. Not just listen for answers to pleas for direction, but also just to listen to WHATEVER HE WANTS TO SAY.

I am amazed at what He says to me when I don’t set the agenda, either by bringing an order to fill or just talking about my concerns.

I’ll tell you about that sometime, but this thought brings me to my next several posts: Experience, the Bible, Soren Kierkegaard and the Christian walk. I’ll get to those soon.

Well, you know me and my current fascination with clock towers. This one marks the entrance to the town where my Mom now lives, Trophy Club, TX. It’s a bedroom community north of Ft. Worth and rapidly being enveloped by the growth of the metroplex. Here are a couple of views.

Wide angle, sepia toned shot from near the base.

Full color shot from across the street and through the trees near sunset. I thought about cropping the dead branches that are hanging down, but put it up as is. What do you think? Should I crop?

I am compelled to direct you to Dr. Morris Chapman’s blog.

As you know by now, I have committed to lay off the politics of the SBC here at 12 Witnesses. You also probably know by now that I have been prevailed upon to be a contributing editor at the new SBC Outpost. That site is to set to become the one stop shopping place for all the political issues in the SBC, yet it is not launched in it’s new form. That is due to come out on July 2, 2007.

Since the Outpost is not yet ready, this is timely, I originally said that I would cover the SBC here for at least another week and since I feel that Dr. Chapman deserves to speak for himself on this issue, and not be liabled as some are want to do, I reference you to this article.

In it, he discusses the motion to adopt the EC statement, Calvinism, PPL and Water Baptism and how these things are all addressed in the BFM. It is a must read.

m o r r i s c h a p m a n . c o m

Further, could I note that Dr. Chapman refers to the Executive Committee as the “EC,” my chosen abbreviation, and not X-Comm, Marty’s chosen not so abbreviated abbreviation? Just saying…

Oh, and one more thing. The BFM is the BFM. Whatever our current version adopted by the convention is the BFM. By constantly calling it the BFM2000, BFM2k or anything else, we elevate the previous version as the standard and this one the interloper. Conservatives across the convention give actual moderates (as opposed to conservatives liabled as moderates) who still prefer the 1963 version the high ground concerning the validity of the BFM. Just call it the BFM.

Now before anyone accuses me of breaking back into SBC stuff, let me head you off at the pass. I said that I would address the SBC here as it came in contact with my life and ministry.

Bob Roberts is one of our most forward thinking minds in the SBC when it comes to missional engagement. When he read Bob’s latest book, Glocalization, Marty Duren confessed that he did not know anybody in the Southern Baptist family that was thinking this far outside of the traditional box when engaging our world wide culture.

I have been reading Glocalization for a few months now. I have to read about a chapter at a time (sometimes its not that much) and then put it down to process everything in light of my church and how we are or are not engaging. Recently, I was invited to meet their Director of Global Engagement (Missions Pastor, for all you traditionalists out there, but more than that), Dennis Jeffares. Dennis is a 10 year veteran of the IMB and now directs Northwood Church’s engagement, where Roberts is the founding pastor.

A few months ago, I wrote a piece about my local association, Tulsa Metro Association of Baptist Churches entitled The Missional Association?, in which I explored the degree to which an organization such as this can, if fact, be missional. My conclusion was that the individuals and their local churches can be missional, but organizations can only facilitate or hinder that missionality.

David Phillips contacted me yesterday and told me to get over to Bob Robert’s blog and read his post. Lo and behold, Bob had taken on a similar thought process in regards the national convention and our Cooperative Program.

Some quotes that might pique your interest:

Our early Baptist ancestors got it. That’s why we had a church planting movement in the 1800’s - we didn’t call it that - we didn’t even try to label it - we were just in flow with God. We are what we are today because of spiritual ancestors in the 1800’s. We are not 16 million because of us - but because of them.

So as I’m sitting there, at the SBC last week a spiritual child and descendant of all these people, my heart began to break. What are we doing with all we’ve been given? How are we making the world different? How are we changing with the times so that we will be a convention that one hundred years from now will have more than a hundred million constituents? What would it look like if the SBC one and only mandate was to extend and live out the Kingdom of God in all domains in the entire world mobilizing the entire body of Christ? These are questions I focus our church on and our church planters on and other groups I work with. What if you focused 16 million people on that - but alas - others have tried to do the same thing, and it winds up being programs, and etc. and so on and so on and so on.

They can’t just send in their money and read stories of what other people are doing. Our greatest days that planted the greatest seeds were done without the Cooperative Program - it didn’t come on the scene until 1925 - long after our decades long movement had been going. It was a great program - it centralized things and allowed everyone to get to play a role. BUT, the world has changed. Everyone is connected, and everyone wants to play, and theologically as Baptist especially with our belief on world evangelization and congregational life we more than any group on the face of the earth we should do all we can to engage every Baptist to reach the world. The old paradigm of pray, give, and some go must change - and it is changing with new and younger pastors across the country - and as the early 20’s come into leadership it will change even more because they are more global and hands on than any generation we’ve ever seen. This is good not bad for us - it insures we’ll have a narrative and leaders - if we allow them to play ball.

The CP has become very expensive for local churches wanting to do missional things. It comes to feel like a tax, I don’t think we’ll ever see a Baptist tea party - I do think young pastors will just quietly ease out in favor of playing ball with other networks and groups that allow and even encourage local churches to engage aggressively.

All emphasis mine, naturally.

I could quote the whole article, if I were of a mind to, but I’ll just encourage you to read it for yourself.

By the way, you might be thinking that this guy sounds so much like some of us, that he is in some political alignment with us. Quite the contrary. You can find evidence of this in that Bob refers to the SBC as 16 Million people. I don’t anyone in my line of thinking that would do that.

When I met with Dennis Jeffares, it was the Thursday after the convention, and I was driving back to Tulsa. He had just returned from Viet Nam. He asked how things were at the convention, and I wondered just how deep I should go with this report. I gave the brief overview, and tried to gauge his interest. It wasn’t much. He then mentioned that he thought his pastor had gone and asked where it was held this year.

Yeah, this church is focused on active engagement of the lost world. The politics of the SBC are far from their concern, so don’t think that Bob wrote this as a political piece. Rather, he has taken the engagement strategy that has Northwood Church sending mission teams across the ocean passing each other in the air and applied it to our denomination. It just happens to resonate with me.

the Glocal Trekker Blog

By the way, I tried to link the Glocalization book to the Lifeway website, in case you were interested in ordering it, but it looks like Lifeway doesn’t have it. Sorry. I had to link to Amazon instead.

I got tagged by David Phillips for a 5 things I dig about Jesus meme. Just in time. I needed something to talk about, since the SBC is moving away from front and center here at 12 Witnesses.

Here are the rules:

1. Those Tagged will share 5 things they dig about Jesus.
2. Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers.
3. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here of their meme so that others can read them.

So here goes.

1. I dig that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, the essence of His being, the radiance of His glory. No doubts about who God is after you learn to understand who Jesus was on the earth, who He is at the right hand of the Father and who He is to be as He returns to judge the quick and the dead, when all His enemies are put under His feet. Do we need to go further after that? Ok. We will.
2. I dig that Jesus cared for people that were hurting and devalued by the world around them.
3. I dig that Jesus loved the world to which He came, even though it did not recognize Him.
4. I dig that Jesus was willing to be separated from the Father during that time between His actual death and the time that the Father raised Him bodily from the dead. As much as the physical brutality that He suffered was a great price, that the Trinity was separated for the only time in all eternity past and future had to be the real burden over which Jesus sweat great drops of blood in the garden.
5. I dig that Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time. It’s just mind bending and I dig that I can’t wrap my little brain around it. It makes me feel small while He is very big. That’s a good thing.

Ok, so I tag:

1. Marty Duren
2. Alan Cross
3. Micah Fries
4. Paul Littleton
5. Bowden McElroy

The reason I started blogging SBC politics was because of the restrictions placed on our missionary candidates in the areas of baptism and having a private prayer language. Actually, it was because of Wade Burleson’s public stand and the knee jerk reaction to kick him off of the Board of Trustees for saying publicly what some wanted to keep quiet. They retroactively handled that by creating yet another policy - this one restricting Trustees from speaking negatively about any decision the majority makes.

Anyway, the move to kick Wade off was quickly thrown in reverse when the blogosphere erupted with objections. In fact, the creation of the SBC blogosphere as we know it can be traced back to that monumental mistake.

All that has followed has been orbiting the issue that we like to call “the narrowing of parameters of cooperation.” Amazingly, this little phrase has made its way to the highest of leaders among our convention. Many of these leaders perceive things in the same way and have used this little term of ours. I think Marty actually was the first I read using it, but it was picked up by so many, so quickly that I have no idea who first coined it.

Still, today it remains the issue driving our dissolution. Will we, or will we not, allow each other to actually be conservatives and still LEAD and SERVE in the convention without agreeing on every jot and tittle of Biblical interpretation?

If we are to survive, we will cooperate. If we do not, then I predict an exodus.

Do not be mistaken. This is not about outlandish behaviors nor unorthodox theology. This is about control.

Let me sound this final warning to those who seek to make the SBC over in their image. If you lose, you lose, but if you win, you really lose. When control is the agenda, it is a lose/lose proposition.

If you lose, you don’t have control and you are frustrated and angry.

If you win, you have control of an organization that begins to hemorrhage leaders, workers and money because people don’t care to be controlled.

When I say things like this lately, I get folks commenting that they don’t see that happening. Brilliant. The dreaded “Nuh-uh” defense. Or is it the Ostrich head in the sand defense? Nevertheless, there is never any supporting argument, just the anecdotal observations of those unwilling to see otherwise.

Let me give everyone one final lesson in human behavior.

People don’t like to be controlled. There are a few who prefer it, but understand that they are not well. Something’s wrong in the wheelhouse, if you get my drift. The SBC is not made up of these people either. Baptists are “rugged individualists” and, as such, they prefer to make up their own minds about things. Which brings us to what we have in common.

If the word minimal can appropriately be applied to the BFM, then it must be done in this way: This is the minimum consensus that we can honestly expect to achieve in our varied interpretation of the Word. In other words, pretty much everything else that we agree on is a bonus, but not a test of fellowship.

Because Baptists don’t like to be controlled, we tend to press back when people try to control us. Blogging this last year and a half has been a part of that process. It will continue. It is not, however, the only way people will press back.

It is ludicrous, by the way, to suggest that people will not push back. It shows a complete lack of understanding the human nature. Therefore, it is ludicrous to think that folks won’t blog the SBC.

It is equally ridiculous to think that blogging will be the only way that Baptists who are feeling controlled will push back. The next most likely way is to simply take the ball away from the ball hog. This is otherwise known as rerouting missions monies, leadership and servant participation from churches away from the offending mission boards and toward other networks. Some might accuse those who do so of being “take my ball and go home” kind of babies. Maybe they are, but it is not really applicable when they turn around and play with that same ball with others.

It’s not about getting their way. It’s about being who God called them to be without having to apologize, hide or feel like a second class citizen among a people who are all supposed to be meeting at that level ground found at the foot of the Cross.

My prediction, based on the evidence of human behavior, as well as first hand accounts given to me by pastors throughout the SBC, is that the money and human resources that is now flowing to the IMB will begin to divert away from the IMB, NAMB and SWBTS and toward other networks, if the “guidelines” (or whatever everyone is calling them at their particular institution) are not rescinded. No. I am not so foolish as to think that this is about to happen tomorrow. I only hope and pray that it will.

Instead, I fear that the missions cooperation that we now enjoy will flow around the restrictive policies of the SBC and its various entities, just as a swarming flood overflows the banks of a river and rushes around a beaver’s dam.

Keep in mind, I am not for this. I just know that many deem it easier to build new networks than to try and rescue the old ones. It is easier - for them. Not for the missionaries on the field nor the lost people groups they are already in position to reach.

In light of my river analogy, though, I see a wake of destruction. When a river overflows its banks, much is destroyed and when a new channel is routed, the old one, and all that has drawn life from the water therein, falls into desolation.

Our missionaries depend on the offerings we put together and send to them. If the offerings we regularly contribute are rerouted, then what will happen to those missionaries and our program? Desolation.

In light of that fact, we have upped our cooperative giving at our church. I don’t want to be guilty of undercutting such a great reach toward the lost.

On the other hand, if we are continuously ignored, I see many SBC churches reaching the tipping point and turning away from our goal, when we really are so close.

Now, if you just don’t see this happening, it is because of one reason: you don’t want it to happen. You would like things to continue as they are and everybody keep giving. That’s very rosey, but not very real.

You say that we are continuing to reach new heights in our giving? Not really. When you consider the rate of inflation, we are losing ground. The SBC is shrinking and there is no denying that. Can we really afford to alienate so many honest conservatives?

The answer is “no,” but that doesn’t mean we won’t do it.

Well, that’s it. The political analysis is shifting away from this blog. Tomorrow, I am going to talk about my faith.

Be alert. New things come from old.

I shake my head at the constant back and forth going on in the blogosphere and in the the real world concerning the adoption of the EC report concerning the BFM and the agencies and entities of the convention.

Whatever you do, don’t bother arguing your interpretation of that statement here. I’ll delete it.

It is obvious that however you choose to interpret the statement, your interpretation is almost certainly governed by your predisposition. What is it you want it to say? More than likely, that’s what you interpret it to say.

Into this broiling confusion and heightened tension the Southern Baptist Convention has now been thrown. Are we to relive the “wars” of slander and abuse of yesteryear, where the ends justify the means? It seems that there may now be no other alternative.

Aside from walking away.

It further amazes me that so many have now begun to decry the use of parliamentary procedure and coordination as “unchristian.” Really? Where were you when I published the SBC Primer last year? Did you decry the coordination of questions for the SWBTS report? Do you decry Bart Barber seeking and receiving advice from Ben Cole on how to get the Seminary Professors’ Salary study to the floor of the convention? Did you decry the use of the same system by those leading the Conservative Resurgence? It seems that the problem with using parliamentary procedure only occurs when it is used to accomplish something that is not well received by the complainer.

Does everyone realize that the Committee on Resolutions had numerous opportunities to bring a statement to the floor of the convention that dealt with the issues at hand in one way or another, but chose not to do so? Using the system that we have, the convention was denied the opportunity to speak to the issue in any other way.

Still, I am amazed at the comments that I have seen that said we should have simply made the motion to the convention as it stands. Hello? Many did, from both sides. The Committee on Resolutions denied the resolutions. You know what happens then. Look at Tom Ascol’s Resolution on Integrity in Reporting - a resolution on integrity that was voted down by 1/2 of the convention present. If the CoR chooses not to bring something out and chooses to speak against bringing that resolution out - despite the fact that they have yet to produce a credible reason for not bringing it out: 2006, our church members are prospects; 2007, resolutions interfere with autonomy - then it will not make it to the floor, no matter how good it is, no matter how much the SBC needs to address it, no matter how many Southern Baptists know and understand the issue.

Too many simply do what they are told, and that is THE problem. We are not a top-down organization, but we are often run that way and many among us like it that way.

The only other way to get the issue to the floor of the convention was to adopt the report. It was not out of order, or it would have been ruled so and easily dismissed. It could not be referred, or it would have been referred. It needed to come to the floor and it did.

Now then, having adopted a report that everyone understands the way they choose to understand it; having come to the point of turmoil; having entered into the point where “Christian brothers” have threatened physical harm and verbally taunted those who sought to bring this to the floor of the convention…

How have we come to this?

Many would love to point to me, Marty Duren and others as the source of our mutual discontent. Still others would like to point to the so called “mastermind” behind it all, Ben Cole. More would like to point to Wade Burleson as the dissenting voice of the IMB who took his concern to the blogosphere.

I would say that these men, we all, have personal motivations and desires from which our actions have stemmed, but personal advancement and throwing the convention into confusion and disarray were not ever among them.

Rather, for most of us, we have willingly sacrificed our reputations for the sake of REACTING to restrictive policies that we believe are beyond the bounds of clearly articulated Biblical doctrine.

If the policies of restriction weren’t created and enforced among our entities and institutions, then there would have been no reason for us to address them, either on blogs or on the floor of the convention. Let us not forget, either, that the ad hoc committee report from the IMB cited that there were NO systemic issues on the field that these guidelines, as they are now called, addressed. They exist for whatever reasons their authors created them, but a specific problem on the field is not among them.

I would warrant that the same would be true for NAMB and SWBTS, if a study were done. There were no systemic issues left unaddressed. Pointing to Dwight McKissic? Don’t you think that pulling the video of his sermon and the subsequent statements of the President of SWBTS significantly addressed that issue?

We are here because we have been pushed by people seeking to create and enforce rules that were never necessary and have alienated many in the convention. What their motivations may be, whether they are sincerely worried about Pentecostal theology, desiring to ensure the longevity of their theological viewpoint or seeking to undermine our IMB President, I can not say with certainty, though I obviously have my suspicions.

Nevertheless, we are here, not because some of us have pushed, but because we have pushed back.

In so doing, we have revealed a schism so deep that the Southern Baptist Convention may not be able to reconcile without a specific move of God that will bring genuine repentance to EVERYONE in the entire convention process.

If people now lament the situation in which we now find ourselves, then we can all certainly point the finger and find a guilty party, no matter where that finger aims.

In the end though, I think that those Trustees at all three of our entities who have pressed the issue despite their being no real need for it, have to look in the mirror and ask themselves if the state of confusion, acrymony and division was the fulfillment of their fiduciary responsibilities to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Or was it something else?