On Being Southern Baptist…

*As a warning, this is a longer post than usual.*

First and foremost, I am a Christian. I have been blessed to be raised in a loving, bible-believing home with parents who consistently sought God’s will and wisdom in teaching, leading and correcting me through the years. This heritage is invaluable and I hope to pass such along to my two boys and other children that God may see fit to entrust to Jo and me.

Secondly, I have been raised in a Southern Baptist Church and have continued to serve in such churches since entering adulthood. I love the Southern Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Churches and their strong heritage of promoting evangelism at home and sending out missionaries to the unreached and underserved people groups of the world. It can be argued that, as a cooperative of churches, the SBC has done a lion’s share of great commission work throughout it’s lifetime. I am currently liscensed into the ministry by a SBC church and have been ordained into the deacon ministry by the same SBC church. I consider it a duty and an honor to be licensed, ordained, and connected to the SBC and it’s global mission.

That having been said, the SBC and the churches included within the SBC are not perfect. The SBC does not “govern” churches, but in actuality is a cooperative of independent congregations seeking to pool resources for a common goal, this common goal most readily being missons through the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB). Through this post, I do not intend to state that the SBC is perfect – there are “kinks in the armor” and I hope to be a part of the healing, if God wills such.

I would like to link to three blog posts which I have recently read (here are the first two):

An Open Letter to My Calvinist Friends in the SBC by Alvin Reid
An Open Letter to My Non-Calvinist Friends in the SBC by Nathan Finn

I am undecided where I lie in the Calvinism debate. Like Mr. Alvin Reid, I struggle with the Calvinists views of “particular redemption” or “limited atonement,” and I would agree that I might “nuance ‘unconditional election’ and ‘limited atonement’ in a way that would separate me from some of my Calvinist friends”. Aside from limited atonement, I’m ready to get on board the ship. This having been said, I find great biblically-based preaching/teaching in the ministries of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, D. A. Carson, Mark Dever, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and am becoming introduced to Matt Chandler, C. J. Mahaney, Thabiti Anyabwile and a host of others. My wife argues that my reading list would imply that I lean toward the Reformed side of Christianity. I love to discuss/debate, but I’m not interested in fighting over these issues. I would agree with Mr. Reid and Mr. Finn that we need to present the gospel clearly and correctly and call people to “repent and believe”. Let’s use biblical language and get rid of idioms, shall we?

Third Generation Conservatives in the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 1 by Steven A. McKinion

I read this article last night. I have thought that I am just “odd” within the SBC for my age, convictions, curiosity, intellectual searching, etc., but Dr. McKinion describes me to a “T”. He describes two sets of SBC members under 40 and I clearly fall into the latter category. It’s good to know that I’m not alone! Perhaps things are looking good for the SBC in the future! Among more specifics, Dr. McKinion describes this group of under-40 in the SBC as, “The heirs to the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC are those young men and women who are gospel-centered, missional, and convictional Great Commission-Conservatives”.

I hope I can live up to such a description. Praise be to God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His love, mercy, and grace which will sustain us as we seek His glory and not our own…

Set before you is blessing or cursing, life or death… choose life!

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendents may life…” Deuteronomy 30:19

I have been, of late, both reading and listening to many “reformed” or “calvinist” thinkers and teachers. I’ve heard some speak of an “illusion” of choice. Certainly God wills certain things and can/does control all things, but does he not desire a willing heart? One who accepts God’s will, embraces the future, and chooses to place themselves under His authority and leadership? In his book, True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer uses a term “active passivity”, specifically turning to Mary as an example. When Mary was told she would bear the Christ-child into the world, born of the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:38 records her response: “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.'”

Mary had a choice: a) she could have accepted that she would bear the Christ child, married Joseph, and then sired the “Christ child” through the marriage. b) She could have revolted, yelling and screaming at God at how unfair it was for Him to make a choice for she and her body; after all, it was going to be quite incovenient! or c) she could have willingly accepted God’s plan and actively submitted to it (which, of course, is what she choose to do as demonstrated by her statment quoted above).

God calls; God asks us to make a choice. I suppose the question arises in whether we actually have a choice at that moment: does it really matter?

Choose life! Submit to God’s authority! Accept that you cannot do this life on your own! Submit to God with an “active passivity”…

Choose life.