by Bret Capranica | Jul 30, 2005 | Calvinism, Southern Baptist Issues
Bobby Welch, current President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Pastor of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Florida, is very concerned about baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention. He is also concerned about Calvinists within the Convention and what they are doing to the SBC’s baptism ratio. He posts his concerns on his church’s July 10 Newsletter and makes for an interesting read. Regarding Bro. Bobby’s recent cry for one million baptism’s this year, see my previous comments at FIDE-O. Concerning his Cavinistic concerns and claims, see Rob Wilkerson’s post and a post by Tom Ascol [part 1], [part 2], and [part 3]. I too am concerned about baptisms within the Convention. I am very concerned about my own personal evangelism and that of my congregation. We would no doubt be in Bro. Welch’s crosshairs for our lack of water stirred within the past year. I am grieved when the church is not seeing people openly profess their repentance and conversion through the waters of baptism. But, I’m also concerned about many of the baptisms that ARE taking place. In my experience, many SBC pastors [including myself at one time] are ready and willing to dunk anyone who will repeat a prayer after a minimalist [at best] presentation of the gospel. Perhaps we should also be taking statistics on just how many newly dunked professors of faith are also abandoning their confession and their church. I am not convinced that we are merely ineffective in our follow-up techniques and marketing strategies. Pastor Welch did not discuss anything about the gospel we preach, only the numbers he says we should...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 25, 2005 | Ecclesiology, General Theology
Challies.com posts a powerful discussion (linked in the title) on the marketing techniques that have been used by Zondervan and Rick Warren to promote the best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. Not only is the marketing of this book facinating, but the apparent influence Warren placed on publishers to not allow the information to find its way to the general...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 25, 2005 | Ecclesiology, Pastoral Ministry
Always hot on the trail of the latest good reads and tidbits, Justin Taylor points us to the Christianity Today interview with Mark Dever on the subject of church discipline. I am eagerly anticipating his new book, The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 21, 2005 | Ecclesiology
Fire-boy Phil Johnson, posts some good articles this week and last on the downfall of historic evangelicalism. Our favorite pyro-pal suggests that the tolerance cult of our culture has made evangelicalism all inclusive and fad-driven. He even suggests that the state of evangelicalism is worse today than ever. One read of any of these articles and one must agree that the moniker PyroManiac is most appropriate for evangelicalism’s most prolific heresy...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 19, 2005 | Culture, Ecclesiology, Miscellaneous
In an article posted yesterday in The Weekly Standard, author Mark Tooley reviews the intiguing past of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in American history. The once Israel-supporting Calvinists are now bona-fide Israel-hating liberals. While Tooley chronicles the rapid decline in the denomination’s membership, he does note who is one of their new supporters: the infamous SpongeBob Squarepants! Ah yes, a denomination for the cultural...
by Bret Capranica | Jul 7, 2005 | Ecclesiology, Pastoral Ministry
Steve Camp, a contemporary Christian musician (who I have great respect for and enjoy his music) has posted a thought provoking article on his blog today entitled, “It’s the Church . . . Stupid.” His contention is that the seminaries have hijacked training for pastoral ministry and the local church is left with the theological error and poor pastors that result from such terrorism. The subject of ministry training is much on my heart. For the first eight and a half years of my serving as a pastor, I had no formal theological training. By God’s good providence, I was able to attend The Master’s Seminary (TMS) in Los Angeles. Steve speaks highly of TMS in his article and he even served on staff at Grace Community Church (connected with TMS) during my time there. I have been able to live on both sides of the spectrum and see the need for both practical ministry training in the local church and formal theological education. Currently I am pursuing further training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary while serving full time as a pastor of a local church. Steve’s article scratches where I itch. His critique of the majority of formal education is needed. While he seems to lump almost all seminaries into the liberal category (except TMS) for their disconnect from the local church in ministry training, he still hits on a critical issue. Where is the local church in the process of training men for pastoral ministry? In my opinion, Steve offers some good points of critique. What is needed is a practical and effective cooperative effort between...
