The “Everything That” Goes Church: In Response to Sunday’s Stroller Column

Several people in my church asked me to read this column by Mr. Fred Thompson in our local paper’s community section.

Spartanburg Herald Stoller Column

After reading the column it seemed good to respond to this column with a few thoughts about Mr. Thompson’s observations, and also offer an overall though about the task of faithful gospel churches. We should all take note of some of Mr. Thompson’s observations.

• No doubt, the methods of the modern “anything goes” church have not produced the revival that anyone hoped. This should convict us that church growth is not the same as being a faithful disciple-making church.
• The fact that churches no longer guide or influence our nation should put on display the utter ineptitude of the church to guide other institutions. This should convince us that God called the  church to disciple and discipline individuals not institutions.
  

  Light the church with Neon? Anything Goes

• The past thirty to forty years has seen the church youth group our children into spiritual death. Separating youth and children from the rest of the church does not make disciples! Without youth, adults lose vital energy. Without adults, youth lose vital truth.

As a pastor, nothing grieves my heart more than the thought that I might sidetrack or shortchange “the pattern of sound words” that I received. 2 Timothy 1:13-14 tells me that my greatest duty is to repeat, not alter or make more attractive the words I receive, guarding this good deposit entrusted by the Holy Spirit to me.

 

What Makes Me a Baptist? – Part 5 Baptized into Congregational Fellowship

Last week we began looking at how Baptist understand the core tenent of their identity, namely the ordinance known as believer’s baptism. As was stated, Baptists sought to faithfully practice the convictions they understood the New Testament to teach. This forced a reformation of the practice of baptism in two areas. We covered the first of those areas last week. Each person who asked for baptism did so in order to celebrate the regeneration they received upon becoming believers in Jesus Christ. Infants, children, citizens of a Baptist domain could not celebrate baptism until such a time as they had been personally regenerated by the Lord Jesus. Baptism did not confer grace, but rather celebrated God’s supernatural work of grace.

Today as we begin to move into the second area of Baptist convictions concerning baptism we do not leave behind this crucial first conviction. Rather, as we move forward, we simply turn this conviction to see it from the viewpoint of the church family as a whole. To do that, let’s try to answer a very familiar challenge to Christianity. If you’ve been a Christian any length of time you probably have heard someone say, “You don’t have to be a member of a church to be a Christian.” In fact just this week my wife showed me a Facebook funny page that said, “You are no more of a Christian by going to church than you are a car by standing in a garage.” Is this true?

 

What Makes Me A Baptist? – The Lord Gives Us a Faith to Profess

Previous Articles:

Lordship

The Lord Calls with His Word

 

 WHAT IS A PROFESSION OF FAITH?

When someone mentions the word profession, what comes to your mind? If you are like most in our world today, you probably immediately think someone’s job. This definition has become so prevalent  that translators of the Bible more often than not do not use this word often anymore. Even so, if you are a Baptist, then you have probably heard this word be repeated as often as someone joins the fellowship. New members are recommended to the church based upon their profession of faith. So what do we as Baptist mean when we say profession?

First of all we do not mean that our walk of faith is a job. Since we have already seen that Baptists view their spiritual life as a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, to also claim that we express that relationship in the same way we go to work seems absurd. Baptist understand profession in its older more nuanced sense of practice. For instance years ago lawyers and doctors did not have jobs, but practices. The reputation of the doctor’s practice so closely identified with his own character that people saw the doctor not as doing a job but as practicing a whole demeanor or bedside manner. Lawyers in days of old had a similar type of profession so much so that in days of old people began calling  them legal counselors. Baptist understand that Jesus has given to us a faith that regenerates or transforms life so much so that our whole demeanor changes to be more like Christ. For the rest of life we practice or profess Christianity.

 WHAT MAKES A PROFESSION BETTER THAN A CONFESSION?

 

How Many of Us Seek the Honorable Mention?

As I sat at my daughter’s Success Day in May, I found myself wondering why school systems chose to change the name and format of that type event from the Awards Days of my childhood. All I could surmise revolved around how an Awards Day celebrates the individual accomplishments of a child who excelled in a certain area of the curriculum. Success Day on the other hand meets the demand from parents for their child to be honored since it celebrates the accomplishment of what is required from promotion.

In this simple example we discover a lurid secret about our inner man. After all which parent among us wants to show up at an Awards Day at which their child would not receive any award but perfect attendance? Who sets out to be the recipient of an honorable mention ribbon at a science fair or field day? Every one of us has a deep inner desire for recognition from those around us. Such a desire may not be sinful initially, but quickly such a desire spirals out of control as we begin to demand recognition, and then forcibly ensure our recognition no matter what the cost. When this occurs, the desire for honor has taken over our lives!

How serious a problem can we say honor seeking actually is? Consider how important awards must be to the parents who expend every effort to make sure their children make the team, the traveling team, or the all-star team. Think about what television shows like “Toddlers in Tiaras” teach as the most important aspect of a your girl’s life. Perhaps consider even the fact that certain luxury items like iPads can debut consistently at over $500 a week’s pay for some people and never have trouble selling. Even when we attend national conventions for our denomination, what does it say when not one of the past five or so presidents of the SBC led a church of any less than 1000 members?

 

Should We Be Trying to Forgive Ourself?

Forgiven by Thomas Blackshear II

One of the most crippling phrases we face as believers comes from today’s pop-psychology world. It raises to a level of foremost importance the need to forgive ourselves. With the rise of such thinking comes a refocusing of  our efforts to actually deal with offenses towards others to a more introspective, pseudo-spiritual self-forgiveness.

Does the Bible tell us that God expects us to forgive ourself? To put it plainly no. In fact, the Bible’s aim is to encourage self-examination but not self-forgiveness since sinful man always acts to gratify rather than harm the flesh. Without Christ, we are not offended by our actions but by God’s action to rule what we do as harmful to others and offensive to Him.