by Bret Capranica | Jun 24, 2009 | Southern Baptist Issues
Today was one of the best days at the Southern Baptist Convention I’ve had in a long time. There was plenty to get the blood pumping – both good and bad. Dr. Danny Akin began the day with a great review of 3 John and an exhortation to those at the Founders’ Breakfast. Here’s his words of caution: 1 Don’t make Calvinism such a priority that you cannot work with other confessional Christians for the Great Commission. 2 Take the high road in your rhetoric even if others don’t. 3 Avoid being a theological elitist. 4 Be known as a Great Commission Calvinist. 5 Cultivate a passion for the nations and go to them. 6 Get involved in church planting. 7 Do not be known more for following Jesus than John Calvin. The next event was the opening of the Convention. The highlight of the morning session was the CEO of the Executive Committe, Dr. Morris Chapman’s report to the SBC. He came out swinging at everyone. While always gracious in his demeanor, he proceeded to attack virtually everyone in the room. The Calvinists seems to take the bulk of his invectives. I do not believe Dr. Chapman is completely ignorant of what Calvinism truly believes, so I have to think that he knew that he was setting up and knocking down the poorest of straw men. He suggested that Calvinism taught that God was so sovereign that man had no responsibility to believe and repent. How sad. He went after those who supported the Great Commission Resurgence and while gracious, nonetheless went off on a tangent. His report...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 23, 2009 | Featured Articles, Southern Baptist Issues
Here’s more on the current trends and debates in the SBC in advance of this week’s annual meeting. Perhaps this is a generationally driven debate. Younger generations (I still wistfully place myself on the senior end of this group) are questioning the viability, reasonability, and rationale of being a part of a denomination that appears more and more irrelevant to the daily life of the local church. I don’t think what I have said is an overstatement. You need only listen to this generation speak of their experiences with denominational life. Other groups are rising up who are more streamlined and focused on what matters biblically and how they can assist churches to accomplish it. The Great Commission Resurgence group is rightly focusing on the downward trend of the next generation’s involvement and commitment to an old and waning way of cooperation among churches. Personally, I believe there are good reasons to remain committed to the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe our cooperative way of funding missions allows us to do much more than we could any other way. Yet, herein lies some of the problem. Doing more tends to bring about more bureaucracy that lessons more action. I think we need to define “missions” biblically and root it fundamentally in the local churches. Yet, if focused and streamlined, I believe our missions agencies could be increasingly on mission and less self-focused and self-promotional. If local churches were headquarters for the mission organization and seen, not merely as a pool from which to draw people and money for their own program, but rather seen as the center for missions,...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 23, 2009 | Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Southern Baptist Issues
Yesterday was a day of travel-not much interesting to report. Justin and I flew in to Louisville on different flights. It was fun introducing him to the Cracker Barrel. His life will never be the same. We picked up Pastor Stephen Jones (his flight came in after ours). Fun stuff, huh. Travel. You can visit the convention web-site for the aftermath from the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference. However, Justin and I did have the opportunity to attend the 9Marks at 9 session this evening. 9Marks is the ministry headed up by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Dever opened the meeting (after 9:30 p.m.) and three decisions crucial for the church to make if it is to thrive: 1: We need to decide if we are going with the spirit of the age and treat the church as if it has ADD or put everything on expositional preaching. God’s word has always made God’s people not vice versa. 2: We need to decide to recover the corporate nature of the church and resist the rampant individualism that is defining modern Christianity. 3: We need to decide to grow our church either by seeing the customer as king or pursue true spiritual growth. We pursue spiritual growth through 3 accountabilities: a. Accountability to each other: expressed through membership. b. Accountability to our elders – Hebrews 13:17 c. Accountability of the pastor to God – Hebrews 13:17 Great stuff. In reality, the Convention has not yet begun. It officially kicks off tomorrow morning. Here’s a brief look at our schedule today: 6:30 a.m. – Founders’...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 22, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry
This week, the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will convene (June 23-24, in Louisville, KY – click HERE for live streaming of the sessions). During this meeting, the normal will be obvious (and I suppose necessary). Messengers will vote for officers, affirm a budget, hear reports from agencies, debate various motions and resolutions, hear a few sermons, and listen to a few mega church choirs sing. LifeWay will have a bookstore almost as large as the convention itself, and I will probably buy very little from it (I don’t have enough money for their prices or desire much of what they offer – perhaps this year I will be surprised). Southern Seminary will be celebrating its 150th anniversary, which should be fun to be a part of. A host of breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings will be held where fruitful conversation over denominational and theological life will be had. However, there is one issue that is beginning to dominate the landscape of this year’s convention. Over the past few years, a group of denominational leaders have been trying to refocus the convention on what they call The Great Commission Resurgence. Many of them make up the first generation of leaders beyond the generation of leaders that fought for and won the Conservative Resurgence, beginning in 1979. With theological liberalism behind the Convention’s institutions, cooperation among Conservatives is now the debate. We will always have such discussions and debates. New (recognizing there is really nothing new) ministry forms and strategies will always create new discussion and debate. The Emergent church, the “missional” mindset, a renewed commitment to social...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 19, 2009 | Twitter
Twitterific is still not working-isn’t life difficult? I supposose I will simply have to move on. To prayer, the word, and sermon prep. # Just got Enfield’s new album “Back to Calvary” on lala.com. Grateful for their ministry, praying for the concert at #resolved tonight. # Listening to Leeland and Enfield while finishing up my sermon for tomorrow evening. # Is the #resolved livestream working? I’m not getting anything on my end. Trying once more … # Cleaning up the home office-finishing up the day. Soon headed to bed. Sunday is always a long but edifying day. # Preparing for the day-prayer, reviewing the passages being taught, a few more tweaks to the sermon-prepping for music. Full day ahead. # Off to church-ready to fellowship with the Lord and His people. # Great day at church-enjoyed lunch with the family. Now for a quick nap. # Listening to: ? Enter This Temple – Leeland http://lala.com/zonI – preparing for the evening service. # ? How Wonderful – Leeland http://lala.com/zyzY- great song! # RT: @Twitterrific: In a holding pattern while we await the approval of Twitterrific 2.0.2 which fixes issues w/ the Twitpocalypse bug. # RT @Twitterrific: Status blurb at the Iconfactory on the 2.0.2 release has been updated – http://bit.ly/99yGW Thanks once again # Home from an edifying time together in worship. I’m so very thankful for the word of God and it’s impact upon my heart. # Up to meditate on the word and pray-reading from Luke, Philippians, Psam 119, and 1 Kings. # To the gym-it’s been too long. This looks to be painful, but I’m sure helpful...
