before greensboro, remember memphis

Before I take off for the Middle Eastern desert for the next 18 days, I thought I would post the Memphis Declaration as a kind of meditation leading up to the convention. I have already given my explanation of why I signed this statement here.

I would ask all who have not read it to carefully consider it - and all who have read it before to carefully reconsider it. I know this document has already recieved plenty of print and attention and I certainly don't need to add to that. I am only putting it out there again as something that will sit on this site for the three weeks leading up to the convention to remind us that it is not about our glory- but HIS.

1. We publicly repent of triumphalism about Southern Baptist causes and narcissism about Southern Baptist ministries which have corrupted our integrity in assessing our denomination bureaucracy, our churches, and our personal witness in light of the sobering exhortations of Scripture.Therefore, we commit ourselves to a renewed pledge to integrity demonstrated by accountability in our denomination, both before God and each other, lest in preaching the meekness of our Lord to others we ourselves will be found guilty of wicked, sinful pride.

2. We publicly repent of an arrogant spirit that has infected our partnership with fellow Christians in the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, without the hearing of which men are incapable of conversion.Therefore, we commit ourselves to a renewed pledge to partner with Great Commission Christians for the glory of Jesus Christ, who is proclaimed with power when his disciples are at peace with one another.

3. We publicly repent of having condemned those without Christ before we have loved them, and that we have acted as judge of those for whom Christ died by failing to live with a redemptive spirit toward them.Therefore, we commit ourselves to engage culture actively at every level by living redemptively as the Body of Christ in the world.

4. We publicly repent of having forsaken opportunities to reason together with those who share our commitment to gospel proclamation yet differ with us on articles of the faith that are not essential to Christian orthodoxy.Therefore, we commit ourselves to building bridges where there have been none, in listening more and talking less, and in extending the hand of fellowship to all who share our confession of Christ and our commitment to extend His Kingdom.

5. We publicly repent of having turned a blind eye to wickedness in our convention, especially when that evil has taken the form of slanderous, unsubstantiated accusations and malicious character assassination against our Christian brothers.Therefore, we commit ourselves to confront lovingly any person in our denomination, regardless of the office or title that person holds, who disparages the name of our Lord by appropriating venomous epithets against our brothers and sisters in Christ, and thus divides our fellowship by careless and unchaste speech.

6. We publicly repent of having misplaced our priorities on the building and sustaining of institutions of secondary and far inferior importance than the local church.Therefore, we renew our pledge to the local church as the primary focus of our ministry and service to advance the Kingdom of God and bring glory to his Son.

7. We publicly repent of having disrespected the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by falsely presuming that our strength as a people of God is found in uniformity rather than unity within the parameters of Scriptural authority.Therefore, we commit ourselves to honor our identity as people of one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, whose affirmation of biblical authority does not necessitate absolute uniformity on all matters of doctrine or practice.

8. We publicly repent of our inattentiveness to convention governance by not seeking to hold trustees accountable to the body which elects them to preserve our sacred trust and direct our entities with the guidance, counsel, and correction necessary to maintain the integrity of those entities.Therefore, we covenant with one another to assist in the preservation of our convention's sacred trust and fulfill our biblical responsibility to hold those trustees elected to serve our entities accountable, and to pray for them as they seek to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities.

off to the middle east

I am taking a break from blogging for about 3 weeks as several of us go to the Middle East for a mission trip. I can't disclose our whereabouts or the nature of our trip because I dare not compromise the platform of our missionaries there. The couple we are partnering with are some close friends who I met a couple of years ago while serving on the NAME committee of the IMB (NAME is short for North Africa Middle East). We are very excited to be a part of their ministry. This is a dynamic young couple who are in love with Jesus and are totally committed to bring His glory to the nations!

I am excited that my wife and son are going with me. (My 12 year old is staying here with a friend. And for my friend Ray Sanders who tells me I should never say on my blog that I am leaving town because of all the nutcases who may read my blog and want to break into my house, if you are a nutcase and want to break into my house, you need to know that my house is occupied by former military who is trained to kill!) We appreciate your prayers for our daughter as we are away from her.

I also appreciate your prayers for our staff while I am away. I always worry about leaving the church for an extended trip out of the country. Thankfully, we have an incredibly competent staff that I fully trust to handle whatever situation may come up- but we could all use your prayers.

Our team will be working with a people group that is very strategic throughout the middle east. Pray that we will be a HUGE help to our m's there. Pray that God will use us to open doors for them. Our main objective is to be a big blessing and help to them and establish a long term relationship as they implement their strategy.

I regret that I am missing the IMB meeting in Albuquerque this week. I am praying for calm nerves and clear minds in our last meeting leading up to the convention. We will be electing a new chairman of the board in this meeting. I pray that the new chairman will live above the fray and see the perspective of not just elected trustees but will have a broad view of all Southern Baptists and will recognize the dynamics at play with missionaries around the world. I am finding that just as our convention is a broad tent of conservative Baptists - our missionaries are a diverse group as well. They need a board that has big vision and common sense. I am praying that a man will lead our board who is not caught up in convention politics but is passionate only for the name and fame of our Lord.

We need a chairman who:

1. Supports our president
2. Supports new directions
3. Is a big Kingdom guy
4. Wise enough not to obsess over the minors, but majors on the majors.

A board our size can quickly get stuck in quagmire if we are not careful. It is like the fight between brer rabit and the tar baby. The more we punch and swing, the more we get stuck in a mess.

A wise chairman will just leave the tar baby alone.

I will be living in Bedouin tent for a couple of weeks without electricity, so I will not hear read or see news of the convention until I climb out and get on a plane in 18 days. I am somewhat looking forward to that kind of freedom for awhile. I am praying for spiritual renewal and many days in prayer and ministry with people I care for deeply.

I appreciate Neil Franks preaching for me for the next two weeks as we begin our study of the book of Jonah.

I look forward to being back in the pulpit on June 10 to preach a sermon on Jonah chapter 3. It is a story of a weary missionary. A story of second chances. It is a story of genuine repentance and change and of God's great compassion and mercy.

It is a story for all of us.

the Lord gives, the Lord takes away

This morning I am reflecting on yesterday.

Yesterday morning Chris Wall called me to tell me about the benefit concert for Lynlee McClure we had at the CUBE Thursday evening. For those who don't know, Lynlee has been awaiting a lung donor, as her fibrostic lungs were only 20%. Thus the concert,raising money to help. Many of Lynlee's family are in our church, including Steve and Georgeanne Duty, who are in our community group. Our group has prayed for Lynn weekly for several months.

Teri and I couldn't make the concert because of Taylor's (incredibly loooong) soccer banquet. We wanted to be at the concert and not at the .... I won't go there. So I was anxious to hear how the night went.

Chris told me God showed up in BIG way. The concert was packed, many different churches participated. Jami Smith and Kristi Starling were incredible. But the kicker- toward the end of the concert during a very special moment of worship, Lyn's beeper went off.

Her donor lungs are on the way to Baptist Hospital.

The crowd gathered around Lynlee, laid hands on her and prayed. She and her family rushed to the hospital. The crowd continued to worship and give Him praise. God in His bountiful mercy and sovereign grace chose the moment when her friends and family were gathered around her in worship to give her this precious gift.

After hanging up with Chris, I went to the bedroom to give Teri a report. I had trouble finishing the story.

Dang that soccer banquet, both of us agreed.

On my way to Baptist to check on Lynlee, I get a tearful call from my mother. Bill Smoot, mom and dad's close friend and small group leader, body racked with cancer, is closing in on death.

Bill is one of the God's choicest servants. Hall of Fame OSU wrestler. Godly father, husband, servant of Jesus. A man's man. Bill is the kind of guy who never complains... loves everyone. He loves his family, his friends, his church. He loves his pastor.

I am not ready for Bill to go.

At the hospital the McClure/Diefenderfer/Duty family is ecstatic. The surgery is a success. She has major hurdles to overcome but so far so good. Lynn's lungs are at 98% capacity! We pray, we rejoice. We give Him praise. The doctor pulls out pictures of the before lungs and the new ones. The contrast is shocking.

The old set of lungs are lumpy, diseased. The shape reminds me of molded caulfower. The new set is healthy and clear. We are in awe. It is a miracle that she made it this far.

Thank you God for your goodness and your timing.

From the hospital I go the see Bill. He is unresponsive- only hours away. I pray with Dewanna and Bills two sons. On the way home I reflect on my conflicted emotions. Bill is ready to go. God is calling him home. The family is lovingly releasing him.

There is another family at the hospital that is holding on and trusting God for His miraculous healing and His will.

There is still another family we don't know who has suffered deep loss, and yet there selfless donation in a time of grief has saved a life.

The LORD your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17).

The song Jami was singing when they got the call was "Wash Over Me":

Wash over me wash over me
Wash over me wash over me
Rain down Your favor on us
Lavish Your love upon us
Pour out Your presence on us
Let me taste Your mercy in the rain

Only You can take this heart
Only You can take this mind
Only You can take this life
And make it look like Jesus

A few minutes ago I got the word that Bill has gone home.

The Lord gives. The Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

hymns that hit the spot

Angela's comment on the last post gave me an idea- post your favorite lines from hymns, anthems or choruses. The ones that really nail it for you.

Here is an example from John Newton that I gave on Sunday:

Our pleasure and our duty
Though opposite before
Since we have seen His beauty
Have joined to part no more.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And to hear His pardoned voice
Transforms a slave into a child
And duty into choice.

spirit and truth

Several of us on staff are at the "Reform and Resurge" conference in Seattle. We have heard some great thinkers including former Southern Seminary professor Ed Stetzer, currently with the North American Mission Board. He has written several great books, including his newest book Breaking the Missional Code. Ed told me he reads my blog so I promise to only say nice things about NAMB from now on.

In all seriousness, Ed gave some powerful lectures that I hope to dialogue with him about in coming weeks. We are very blessed to have talent like this at NAMB. I am also hoping that one day Ed will come to CRBC to lead a conference.

Tim Keller has given some amazing insights in his lectures over the past two days as well. Yesterday he quoted a John Newton hymn I did not recognize- so I looked it up. The words are rich and poiniant. One of the refereshing things for me about the conference has been some of the classic hymns that have been utilized in our worship. Such rich theology!

To all of you young artists out there who are gifted in writing music, consider the theology of Newton and how it informs the believers mind:

Come, my soul, thy suit pre-pare:
Je-sus loves to an-swer prayer;
He Him-self has bid thee pray,
There-fore will not say thee nay.
There-fore will not say thee nay.

Thou art com-ing to a King,
Large pe-ti-tions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ev-er ask too much.
None can ev-er ask too much.

With my bur-den I be-gin:
Lord, re-move this load of sin;
Let Thy blood, for sin-ners spilt,
Set my con-science free from guilt;

Set my con-science free from guilt;
Lord, I come to Thee for rest,
Take pos-ses-sion of my breast;
There Thy blood-bought right main-tain,

And with-out a ri-val reign.
And with-out a ri-val reign.
While I am a pil-grim here,
Let Thy love my spi-rit cheer;

As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,
Lead me to my jour-ney's end;
Lead me to my jour-ney's end;
Show me what I have to do,

Ev-ery hour my strength re-new:
Let me live a life of faith,
Let me die Thy peo-ple's death.
Let me die Thy peo-ple's death.

megachurch lampooned

Jayme Thompson sent me a video clip of a recent episode of "King of the Hill". In light of my ongoing posts on membership, I thought it could serve as a humorous interlude.

Although I have never caught a full show before, this one reminds me that sometimes art (I know- I am using the term loosely) can expose spirituality in ways we find difficult to express.

for whom are we repenting anyway?

As many of you know already, I participated in Memphis with some fellow SBC pastors from many different stripes along with some concerned laymen and women to dialogue our thoughts, prayers and ideas for the SBC. All of us have had direct involvement in the convention either as pastors, board members, seminary students, seminary or college employees or in editing Baptist publications or blogs.

The result of the meeting was a document now referred to as the Memphis Declaration. As you read it you will see that it is primarily a statement of repentance and commitment. We did not presume anything on our fellow Southern Baptists or ask the convention to take any kind of action or pass any motion. It is not a political statement.

"Then why bother?", you might ask.

The reasons I believe are twofold:

1. We all believe something is inordinately wrong in our convention. It occurred to me about half way through our meeting that this was the reason we were all there. We were a very diverse group. From five point Calvinists to Old School evangelists; from emergent church types to traditionalists; from seminary students to university administrators. There were men, women young and old. There were some who had been in the conservative resurgence from the beginning and others who were just now cutting their teethe in SBC life.

But we all had some reason to invest in the group. Every single one of us had experienced either first hand or had been directly affected by something occurring within our convention that did not resonate with His Spirit living in us. I am not just talking about the minor stuff that inevitably happens in a large body of people. I am talking about habitual institutional sin.

We had all seen or witnessed things within our convention politic that checked our spirits. Some had even participated first hand. Others had been on the receiving end. All of us had been touched by it and all of us agree that cannot exist in our awareness of it without making some kind of statement about it.

2. We don't' want to be a part of it anymore. Some will question why we felt the need for repentance. Read the document carefully. Notice our closing statement,

"if God in His providence chooses to sustain our witness..."

Folks, it is only by his providence that we even exist as a convention. We are nothing special in and of ourselves. He is the one who gets the glory. God is patient in His mercy but He is also patient in His judgment. Our arrogance and deception must stop somewhere.

If you do not believe us when we say that something is wrong with us as a convention, consider that the ink was not dry on this Memphis document before one in our number was accused of supporting the Alcohol industry. And why? The possibility of his nomination for president of the SBC. This kind of thing is almost automatic the culture of SBC politics.

You see, we are not repenting for what was done as if we were personally each and all of us culpable for each specific sin. We are repenting for existing in this environment without making the proper commitments for change.

We are simply saying that our identity is as Southern Baptists; and because we have chosen this as our identity even after knowing what we know, we are in fact involved in the sin for every moment we allow it and do and say nothing. The lie is not just the one that is TOLD, it is also the one that is BELIEVED. When I believe a lie, I am perpetuating it.

When I allow my brother to continue in his sin, am I not also responsible for enabling his sin? Are we not a spiritual community? A city of God?

Tom Ascol gave an excellent devotion on Wednesday morning. He pointed out that self deception, the most common of all of our sin, is the malady that keeps us from living in biblical community. As long as we live with the lie, we will not truly fellowship.

Do not mistake our statement as a confession for everyone. There are some who will question our motive and others who will track with us and say AMEN.

Many more will simply know nothing about the Memphis Declaration.

Sobeit. We are only one group of Southern Baptists who are simply saying, "We love being Southern Baptists. We love what we do as a convention. But we will like the one that is truthful and repentant about our corporate sin much better."

magnify His glory

Jolie Britt is one of our college kids (freshman, excuse me SOPHOMORE at OSU). I would encourage you to read her latest blog. An excerpt:

This whole week I have been thinking about God's glory, and what it means to fully respond to it. To use an illustration of one of my favorite teachers, John Piper, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. He describes God's glory as so great and so wonderful, that our human, finite, time-driven minds cannot fully comprehend it. All of human life is spent reaching for His glory, striving for His passion.

Our response should be one of trying to reveal the little bit of glory that we can comprehend now, to the rest of the world. In short, we are to magnify his glory to the world. Now there are two ways to magnify something. You can use a microscope or a telescope. A microscope is used to make something that is really small bigger.

As a church, we cannot try to magnify God in this way. If we do, essentially we are saying, "Oh God, you need our help. You are far too small. These people can't see your work everywhere on this planet, in their DNA, in their daily living. Let me help you, for God you are too small." In saying this, we make ourselves above God, an reduce Christianity to a spritualized version of secular humanism. However, there is another approach.

One can also use a telescope to magnify something. When one uses a telescope to look at the stars, one does not see an amplified version of a small thing. One sees more clearly what the stars truly are. HUGE THINGS that we cannot see unless the images are reflected and refracted into our finite understanding of them. If magnify God to the world as a telescope, we will essentially let others see God's HUGENESS and MAJESTY in a way that is applicable to their lives. And when they look through us to see God's hugeness, we fade away. And only Christ is there. Overwhelmingly loving and purposeful and righteous.

Good stuff Jolie.

reflections on the weekend with dr. scott caroll

Our time with historcial antiquities professor and archeologist Dr. Scott Caroll this weekend was priceless. There are very few people who could hold a couple of thousand people spellbound for hours at a time, Scott is such a man. His command of historical data from around 1,000 B.C. to about 400 A.D. is nothing short of astounding. I certainly wish our entire congregation could have made all 7 sessions we had with him.

Of course, his props weren't bad either. Dr. Caroll lectured (up and down the aisles of our worship center) with a large display of ancient manuscripts and priceless biblical texts laid out behind him on long tables across the front of the auditorium. We did not just benefit from his dynamic lectures, but were able to personally interact with ancient biblical materials. In making points about how biblical material was preserved, he would simply run to the table and pick up a artifact as an example. I have never been a part of a learning experience quite like it.

I do not think any of us will soon forget what we experienced. My 15 year old son remarked plainly when we said goodbye to Scott and his crew on Sunday night, "I am sad to see him go..." A remarkable statement from a teenager about an antiquities professor!

Here are just a few nuggets I picked up from this weekend:

1. The "Da Vinci Code" is not just a gross misrepresentation of actual historical Christian history, it also grossly misrepresents Gnosticism. The Gnostics, for instance, did not have a high view of women (despite the claims of Da Vinci Code).

2. The historicity and wide acceptance of the four gospels (and no other accounts) were already ancient history by the time of the 325 Council of Nicea. Irenaeus, the disciple of Polycarp who was the disciple of John the beloved wrote, "There are four gospels as sure as there are four winds".

3. The deity and humanity of Jesus was already accepted doctrine and therefore only affirmed by the 325 Council of Nicea.

4. Brown claims in Da Vinci Code that around 400 A.D., "thousands of documents chronicled Jesus life as mortal man." He also claims that because Constantine wanted to change the religion, he had documents destroyed; and that before that time, Jesus followers saw him not as deity but as a mortal prophet. There is ABSOLUTELY no proof of this in history. In fact, the earliest followers of Jesus are well documented on this and their historical veracity is unquestioned. Polycarp, Irenaeus, Turtellian, Eusibius all never questioned either Jesus' deity or His humanity (they championed the Christian docrtine that Jesus is all-God and all-man). There are NO documents that predate the early Christian documents that make the incredible claim that early Christians thought of Jesus as merely a mortal prophet.

5. The actual heresy (Arianism) dealt with at the Council questioned the humanity of Jesus, not His deity! His deity was a given. Further, Gnostics believed that anything material was evil, so they could not perceive that Jesus had ever been a man!

6. By the time of the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., the makeup of the New Testament was already a foregone conclusion. The Council merely gathered to confirm what had been accepted for hundreds of years.

7. The so called evidence from earlier followers who did not believe Jesus was deity came from the Gnostic gospels. These documents were discovered in Nag Hammadi in central Egypt (thousands of miles from Jerusalem) in 1946. They were written in Coptic (not Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic). They date to 250-350 A.D.

8. When you challenge someone who believes this wild theory about the early church as to why there has not been a single document found before the 3rd or 4th century, they will typically respond "you Christians destroyed them all". Caroll's response, "I was too busy trying not to be fed to the lions to hunt you down and destroy your evidence!" At this time in church history, Christians were weak politically; poor, despised and marginalized by the Roman empire. How convenient to be able to say that my lack of evidence is evidence. Dr. Caroll makes this observation, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". It is not evidence of anything.

9. The fact that most of this stuff was made up by Dan Brown and presented as historical conspiracy in his popular novel has not stopped many Christians from believing it. 40% of evangelicals who have read this book have said that they were influenced by it. Great line from Caroll, "Christians are so gullable, you don't see Buddhist WWF or Hindu Nascar. It's only Christians who do that kind of stuff."

10. The church is in worse shape today than at any time in history to deal with this kind of heresy.