SBC, Shepherding

A year of mixed success for Southern Baptists

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Tony Kummer has just released what he believes are the top ten SBC stories from last year:

1. Decline In SBC Giving

2. Economic Woes Hit Seminaries Endowments

3. John 3:16 Conference Adds Fuel To The Fire

4. Johnny Hunt Is Elected President Over A Field Of Six

5. Resolution On Church Membership Is Adopted

6. Decline In Church Membership Is Confirmed

7. SBC Fails To Move Presidential Election

8. Dissenting Blogs Close

9. Klouda Controversy Is Resolved

10. Kummer’s last item is “You Pick.”I would say top story #10 is the reorganization of the IMB and the appointment of hundreds of new missions personnel. We should always celebrate the laborers God is raising up to enter the harvest field.

I believe it was a year of mixed success for Southern Baptists. On one hand, the 2008 reports on attendance, baptism, and giving were all disheartening. But I believe our denominational decline may actually be a blessing in disguise. It has forced us to get down on our knees in prayer and to redouble our efforts toward the Great Commission.

The election of new leadership, the resolution on regenerate membership, the return of doctrinal discussion, and the humiliation of our past failures may actually pave the way for a new era of gospel work among Southern Baptists.

God has humbled the proud. Now may He give grace to the humble.

Uncategorized

Another year is dawning

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As I was preparing our order of service for last Sunday, I came across the great hymn “Another Year is Dawning.” This song did not appear in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, but has been added back into the 2008 Baptist Hymnal.

The tune is Aurelia – the same as “The Church’s One Foundation.” The lyrics were first written in a New Years Card sent out by Francis Ridley Havergal to her friends in 1874, and are especially appropriate as we enter this new year…

Another year is dawning;
Dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting,
Another year with Thee;
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness
In the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning
Upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting,
Of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service,
Of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training
For holier work above.
Another year is dawning:
Dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in heaven,
Another year for Thee.

Culture, Fun Stuff

Looking back at 2008

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Al Mohler lists ten historical events that occurred in 2008. What a year it’s been!

1. The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
2. America becomes Ground Zero of a global economic crisis.
3. The Bush Administration prepares to depart.
4. Controversy in the Episcopal Church leads to schism.
5. California voters approve Proposition 8.
6. The death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn marks end of an era.
7. Euthanasia is approved in Washington State.
8. John Edwards is caught in a sexual affair — and America cared.
9. Atheists launch public relations efforts.
10. The world takes note of a demographic downturn — Where are the babies?

Here are seven more events in 2008 that were noteworthy for my family:

1. Our daughter Heidi Amelia was born.
2. Dylan was potty trained and has really developed mentally and socially in the last year
3. I reached the two-year mark of pastoring at our church and finally feel as though we’re settling into a routine.
4. We found a nice camp near Big Bear Lake for our family to take short, refreshing vacations. We look forward to making many more memories there in the years to come.
5. Our church started a young adults Bible Study and we have seen a few new families attending the church.
6. Our church developed a mission statement that has allowed us to make some strategic ministry changes.
7. We had a record-level snowfall in the middle of December.

Teaching

The Bible can save your life!

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Our parents are all visiting us this holiday weekend. Earlier today, all the guys (me, my dad, my father-in-law, and my son) headed over to the General Patton Museum east of Indio. It was a nice half-day excursion with lots of tanks, guns, uniforms, and other war paraphenalia on display.

One of the exhibits we saw was a Bible with a piece of shrapnel stuck into it. Apparently, a soldier was carrying the Bible at the time an explosion went off. Were it not for that Bible, a piece of jagged metal would have sliced right through that soldier’s chest. The Bible literally saved his life!

What a great illustration of the life-giving power of God’s Word. Every day, the Bible saves lives by turning people away from sin and leading them to eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path…My life is continually in my hand, Yet I do not forget Your law. (Psalm 119:105, 109)

Never underestimate the life-saving power of God’s Word.

Culture

The real Santa Claus

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Last week at the dinner table, our 3-year old son Dylan declared, “Santa Claus is BAD!! Santa Claus is BAD!!”

We weren’t sure how he arrived at this conclusion, since we’d never referred to Santa Claus as “bad” before, so we probed a little deeper. Maybe, we thought, someone at church had told him this? As time went on, we remembered that Dylan had just watched “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” a couple days earlier, and apparently, he still thought the Grinch was Santa Claus and that he was a bad guy!

As we thought more about it, we realized Dylan had never really heard or seen the classic story of Santa Claus as a jolly old elf who lives on the North Pole and delivers presents on Christmas Eve to boys and girls around the world. So, last week, we watched the 1960s animation “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” as a family. (We’ve reminded Dylan several times that Santa is just a “fun story” while Jesus is real.)

Of course, neither the Grinch nor the elf in the red suit tell us the real story of Santa Claus…

Santa Claus’s roots can be traced back to St. Nicholas of Bari. The son of wealthy parents, Nicholas was born in the fourth century in the town of Patara, Lycia (now part of Turkey). Legend records that when his parents died, the young man took all the family’s money and distributed it to the needy in his hometown. He then accepted the call to full-time Christian service, becoming a monk when he was only seventeen, and shortly thereafter, a priest. … Nicholas must have been a remarkable man, wise beyond his years and exhibiting a maturity that few gain until they are well past forty. (Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas, 159-60)

Gene Edward Veith wrote an article in World Magazine a few years ago that reveals even more about this interesting character:

[Nicholas] was also a delegate to the Council of Nicea in a.d. 325, which battled the heretics who denied the deity of Christ. He was thus one of the authors of the Nicene Creed, which affirms that Jesus Christ is both true God and true man. And unlike his later manifestation, Nicholas was particularly zealous in standing up for Christ.

During the Council of Nicea, jolly old St. Nicholas got so fed up with Arius, who taught that Jesus was just a man, that he walked up and slapped him! That unbishoplike behavior got him in trouble. The council almost stripped him of his office, but Nicholas said he was sorry, so he was forgiven.

Wow. I’m starting to like the real Santa Claus more and more.

Thoughts on Life and Leadership