ABC News interviewed some young Christian leaders in a piece about “The New Face of American Evangelicalism.” The video is linked above (HT: Euangelion). The most important feature of the interview is not what was said, but what wasn’t said. When asked about the most important issues facing the church, none of the young Christians mentioned the gospel. All of them fastidiously avoided mention of abortion and gay “marriage.” In short, they argued that the “new face of evangelicalism” is a return to the social gospel. My only comment about this piece is that the sampling of young “evangelicals” is unhelpfully skewed. These five individuals obviously hail from the left…
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Acts29 Rap at SBC
A bit of comic relief followed the long and arduous session debating the GCR Task Force Report at the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of the messengers were leaving the hall when this happened, but I was there and heard the whole thing. An SBC messenger came to a microphone and offered a motion to affirm the Acts29 church planting network. But this wasn’t just any motion. This guy offered it in the form of a rap. After he finished making the motion, the chair called for a second, and the place erupted with seconds. I think everyone appreciated the light moment. The motion was subsequently ruled out of order. UPDATE:…
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The Scandal of Southern Baptist Divorce
Today, the messengers at the 2010 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will be debating a resolution on “the scandal of Southern Baptist divorce.” According to Baptist Press, it reads, in part, that “the acceleration in rates of divorce” in SBC churches “has not come through a shift in theological conviction” but rather “through cultural accommodation.” It further says the SBC has been prophetic in confronting assaults “in the outside culture” on God’s design for marriage “while rarely speaking with the same alarm and force to a scandal that has become all too commonplace in our own churches.” Here is the last half of the resolution:
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Initial Reflections on GCR Victory
I have been at the Southern Baptist Convention this week, and today was a big day. Outsiders watching it all unfold probably thought the process looked positively Byzantine, but it really wasn’t. Southern Baptists adopted the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report and thus took the first step in what I hope will be a long journey of renewal for our denomination. I won’t take the time here to narrate everything that happened during the deliberations on the GCR (for that read here and here), but I will make a few observations.
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BP Needs Reform
No, we’re not talking about British Petroleum. It’s the other BP—Baptist Press. In an editorial for the Florida Baptist Witness, state paper editors Jim Smith, Marty King and Gary Ledbetter argue that the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention is biased. They write, “Concern about Baptist Press has arisen among some Southern Baptists… over its perceived lopsided coverage of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force… “The evidence of BP’s bias against GCR is so obvious as to not require an exhaustive listing of the facts. This should suffice: over just a three-day period, BP ran four opinion pieces by Chapman totaling more than 18,000 words opposing various aspects…
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Theology for the Church
In an article today at “Between the Times,” Danny Akin and Bruce Ashford remind us that the calling of SBC seminaries is “to serve the churches of the SBC.” They issue four challenges to that end, but it was number two that caught my eye as an educator in an SBC school: “A second challenge for the seminaries is to produce ministry-minded graduates instead of seminary eggheads. The brutal fact is that seminaries sometimes produce students who can discourse on theological abstractions but who are detached from real-life ministry.”
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Desiring God’s 1% Campaign
If you’ve benefitted from Desiring God’s free online resources over the years (as I have), then I encourage you to consider giving a monthly donation. They are having a “1% Campaign” right now to encourage users to contribute. Here’s a message from Executive Director Jon Bloom explaining the rationale for the campaign. This is a wonderful ministry, and I hope you’ll take time to check it out.
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GCR in a Nutshell
Trevin Wax has a helpful primer defining the issues surrounding the SBC’s “Great Commission Resurgence.” In particular, he summarizes the report from the Great Commission Task Force and how the debate has shaken-out heading into the convention in Orlando in a couple of weeks. Here it is: “GCR in a Nutshell.”
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Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference
Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference is going to be held in Orlando right after the SBC, and they are offering a discounted rate to attendees of the SBC. More info here.
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Gulf Oil Spill and the Evangelical Conscience
Be sure to read Russell Moore’s latest on the Gulf oil spill, “Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience.” Here’s an excerpt: “I’ve left my hometown lots of times. But never like this. Sure, I’ve teared up as I’ve left family and friends for a while, knowing I’d see them again the next time around. And, yes, I cried every day for almost a year in the aftermath of a hurricane that almost wiped my hometown off the map. But I’ve never left like this, wondering if I’ll ever see it again, if my children’s children will ever know what Biloxi was.”