This afternoon as I was studying for Sunday’s message, I was listening to a podcast from Southeastern Seminary. The seminary president, Dr. Danny Aiken was preaching a message calling Southern Baptist to refocus back towards a “Great Commission Resurgence.” As I listened to Dr. Aiken, I found myself captivated with his proposal. This is exciting! A little bit of information would give you insight into my viewpoint and why I found this message so captivating.
I did not grow up in a Southern Baptist Church. My heritage brings me from a mainline denomination into the Southern Baptist Convention. Originally, I become a Southern Baptist out of pragmatics. The local Baptist church was the only church which had a fully integrated youth ministry, so in order to hang out with girls I ended up at the Baptist church. After surrendering to Jesus, I involved myself in the local Baptist church youth ministry while still attending the mainline church with my parents. As time progressed, God’s sovereignty brought a wonderful pastor into my life who mentored me and discipled me. His commitment and belief in me is a key reason that I am where I am today. I will always be thankful for Bro. Randy Kuhn for the hours he has spent with me and the countless prayers he has offered on my behalf.
After high school and in college, I began to flirt with different beliefs and with different denominations. I have studied with Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. At the end of the day, I felt strongly that the Southern Baptist Church offered me the most consistently Biblical expression of my beliefs. I deeply believed in local church autonomy and cooperative support for missions as well as the authority of Scripture.
That was almost a decade ago. As I have now “become a Southern Baptist” leading a cooperating Southern Baptist Church I have found myself frustrated with the shape of this convention, almost to the point to do what so many young SBC guys do; send our check into the CP and stay out of the junk and in our local church. From State Conventions stuck in the 60’s to Paige Patterson and his agenda to rid the SBC of what he considers inappropriate for good Southern Baptist boys, I consistently find myself embarrassed to call myself a Southern Baptist when attemtping to reach this POMO culture. I have been frustrated with the way we present ourselves to the culture around us, being seen more for what we are against rather than who we are for and the Kingdom we represent. I am not liberal, but just because Richard Land says it on Meet The Press does not mean that I stand behind his words or that he speaks for me. For the past few years, I have found myself clinging by a string to the SBC because I fundamentally believe in local church autonomy and cooperating together to do missions along with the fact that I believe the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is a solid confession. I could write a better one, but could not we all, that is just a revalation of our depravity. Mine is better than yours. We never really grow up.
I believe in inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. I preach with all my heart the substitutionary atonement of the cross. I believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. I believe in the virgin birth, deity of Christy, and sinlessness of his life. I believe the book of Genesis is an actual account of real life events with real life people. I believe the ax head floated as well as all the other miracles of Scripture. I believe in the Trinity. I believe we can only be saved through saving faith. I believe saving faith is surrender to the Lordship of Jesus resulting in a new life. I believe in a real hell. I believe Jesus is coming back bodily. I believe we are saved by grace through faith. I believe baptism is an outward expression of an identify change. If I forgot anything it’s because I forgot what I wrote. Suffice it so say, I am a conservative through and through.
I am not a fundamentalist.
As I listened to Dr. Danny Aiken, I was thankful for a leader within our convention outline what we are and who we are and what our purpose is. I was thankful for a man who hears the cry of younger leaders. I was thankful for a vision! Dr. Aiken outlined the following points.
1. A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship
2. A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness
3. A Commitment to the Great Commandments
4. A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency
5. A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center
6. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches
7. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching
8. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed
9. A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure
10. A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families
I can sign my name to this list. I can get excited about this movement within the convention. Here’s the link to listen for yourself. http://www.greatcommissionresurgence.com/media/ Thank you Dr. Aiken.
I probably won’t make the convention this year, but if this attitude prevails, I might go one day. The best comment in Dr. Aiken’s message in my opinion is awesome, “The little boys in our convention need to sit down and the men need to stand up and lead!”
2 Comments
May 5, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I am learning about some things that trouble me…my understanding is…and I am doing a thorough research on this…that Dr.
Akin and others are advocating eleminating the
State Conventions and the Local Associations…it that is the case, I am removing my name from the signature list…without those entities, we lose the personal help and face-to-face ministry that has helped me over the past 20 years…Do we need reorganization — YES — but to cut out that portion of our missions program would cripple much of what happens on the local level. I worry that we are getting another power play for control of the convention…what we need is revival and a deeper commitment for spreading the gospel, not more control and a top down governance. SBC is a denomination that is supposed to be controlled from the bottom up…if they think we have a bureaucracy now, think what that kind of organization would be.
May 26, 2009 at 11:49 am
Regarding what you believe . There cannot be a direct benefit for any person solely by Jesus having been crucified. The rule of God, Gen. 9:5 NIV, by mandating the requirement of giving an accounting directly to God relative AFTER the fact of any human male’s life lost by bloodshed only confirmns that Jesus’ death was not in place of yours. It is not an under stataement by Jesus that only a few ever find the small narrow gate into God kingdom.