Tag Archives: seminary

The Value of State Conventions

Posted on August 18, 2016 | 2 comments

The Southern Baptist Convention is organized through state conventions. (Though some of the “state” conventions combine multiple states.) I suggest to you that these state conventions play a helpful, but underappreciated role in the work of our faith and denomination.
I’ve heard people predict or even advocate the demise of state conventions for years now. Are they necessary? Do they add a level of redundancy? That sort of thing. While I always appreciate efforts to make our work more effective and efficient, there are some benefits to the work of our state conventions that ought to be considered. Here are just a few.
1. They keep us locally focused. I appreciate a big picture approach to SBC life. But that big picture is made up of many smaller portraits. State conventions have the pulse of churches in their region that national entities can’t. No one knows more about the needs of my state better than my own state convention staff. The very fact that they live and worship here allows them to understand our needs in church planting and revitalization and discipleship in a way that is difficult for others. Continue reading →

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Whither the Cooperative Program?

Posted on October 20, 2015 | Leave a comment

Whither? At least I didn’t say “ye olde Cooperative Program”. But sometimes it feels as though the Cooperative Program, the primary means by which Southern Baptists have funded their missionary and educational responsibilities for decades, has been relegated to an unnecessary relic of the past. Is that a good thing?
The percentage given by the average SBC church to the Cooperative Program (CP) has dropped over the years to just over 5%. Is that a good thing?
Some churches have, instead, adopted a more societal approach to missions. They tend to do direct mission work (or support those who do) instead of the more cooperative work of the CP.
There are several reasons given for this. “There Continue reading →

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Posted in baptist, cooperative program, missions, southern baptist convention, southern baptist convention, Uncategorized

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The Future of the Southern Baptist Convention

Posted on June 3, 2015 | 32 comments

I’m neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. That’s a bad start for confidence in my predictive powers. But let me speculate on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention with whom I have been associated my entire life.

In many ways I am describing what is more than what will be. Perhaps this is more of where we are than where we are headed. While it seems likely we will have more of what we currently have, God can change things dramatically. Perhaps we will have a great revival. Perhaps we will have ruin. But here is where it seems we are and where we are headed. (Keep in mind the “neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet” part.)

1. We will be less Continue reading →

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Unsolicited Advice for Seminaries

Posted on July 31, 2014 | 3 comments

Seminaries have tremendous influence in church life- for good or for bad. I prefer the good. (Does that make me a legalist?) So, with that in mind, here is my unsolicited advice (which is about the only advice I am usually allowed to give) for seminary leaders and professors.
1. Be practical. Seminary needs to be about more than imparting information. We can be educated, intelligent, knowledgeable and still be terribly ineffective in ministry. Don’t forget that that the goal of the M.Div. is more than just training students to get a Ph.D. Help us prepare to become pastors and staff members and missionaries. Make Hebrew practical. How does it help us preach to a diverse congregation? How can it help us translate the OT into the language of an unreached people group? Go beyond imparting information. Help us apply that information to hands-on ministry.
2. Teach leadership. (See point 1 for more information on why.) Pastors can leave seminary woefully unprepared (yes, woefully, I say!) to give the leadership that will be needed by them in the pastorate. They will be called to give leadership in congregations with great diversity of opinion. (I haven’t noticed any shortage of opinions on what a pastor should do.) Ineffective leadership can lead to dictatorial mandates or waffling indecision or unhappy power struggles. Ministers do have leadership responsibilities so teach us some basic principles that will help us to lead in an effective and Christ-like manner.
3. Recognize the twin dangers of Continue reading →

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What Education Can’t Do

Posted on January 6, 2014 | 4 comments

I spent a lot of time getting educated.  Perhaps I needed more of it than most?  I am so thankful for my educational opportunities and commend education to you.  But let me note some inherent limitations.

1.  Education doesn’t make you wise.  My favorite definition of wisdom is “seeing things as God sees them.”  Education can make you smart, but that isn’t the same as making you wise.  Want some tuition-free advice?  Seek wisdom.  (See the book of Proverbs for additional tuition-free advice on the importance of wisdom.)

2.  Education doesn’t make you godly.  Godliness–seeking to be Continue reading →

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Lessons learned from Dr. Roy Fish

Posted on October 15, 2013 | 3 comments

   I said at the funeral for Dr. Roy Fish last year that I believed him to be the most beloved seminary professor in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention.  I’ve thought of him often in the last year and wanted to note some lessons he still teaches.

Lesson 1-  Talent gets you admired; goodness gets you loved. Continue reading →

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Posted in Christianity, Church, evangelism, faith, preaching, southern baptist convention, Uncategorized

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When I am the Dictator of the SBC, part 2

Posted on September 26, 2013 | 3 comments

   I am not the dictator of the Southern Baptist Convention… yet.  But, in preparation for that eventuality, I have additional mandates which will be observed during my dictatorship of the SBC.

   First, Continue reading →

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