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Saturday July 18, 2009 ~ 4 Comments
I am sitting on my back patio looking at my wife. Great view! But, she is working on her calendar and some trips we are planning this fall. So, it inspired me to finish this week's "Saturday is for Seminars." Here are a few updates, with some extra info thrown in (using my typical ADD writing approach for a Saturday morning). Santa Fe, NM As I mentioned last week, I am at Glorieta (near Santa Fe, NM) this week. And, it is GREAT to have my family along with me. More info about that here. I will be preaching each night, Monday through Thursday, if you want to come and visit. Decatur, AL
Looking ahead, I thought I would share something coming up in August. The Alabama Baptist Convention is hosting a one-day regional conference for church staff and leadership on "The Missional Church." The last time I went to Alabama it was to watch a football game with Thom Rainer, so I am still in recovery from that experience. I am hoping that this is more my world than going to an Alabama football game and meeting Bart Starr. In other words, I am hoping there is no sports trivia contest as part of the day. ;-) (And, yes, I had to ask Thom, "Who is Bart Starr?" He mocked me. Again. Sigh.) Anyway, Rick Lance is the Alabama state exec. and is the most followed state exec on Twitter. Follow him on Twitter here: Rick Lance. He has done a good job using Twitter to keep in touch with pastors and church leaders. And, Rick has a blog as well. Speaking of state execs on Twitter, honorable mentions go to Fermin Whittaker (California), who has been on Twitter longer than any other exec. and to Jim Richards (Texas) just because I like him and we follow each other on Twitter. ;-) I am sure there are more, but those are the three I know. If you know of any other state execs on Twitter, please let me know. Anyway, back to the conference. The details below from ABC's website.
Becoming a Missional Church Hope to see you in Alabama. New Orleans Let me also add something to last week's post about New Orleans. I will also be preaching in chapel at New Orleans Seminary and planning a dialgue with the students after chapel. More details on the dialogue, but my friend Steve Lemke will be hosting it through the Baptist Center and it will be a "bring your brown bag" kind of thing. More on that soon. In the meantime, you might want to read Chuck Kelley's report on how the SBC has become "The New Methodists." You can find it here. It has not received the attention that I think it should in the SBC and it is worth your time. (And, my Methodist readers, take a look at what he says before you get offended. I think it will make sense.) Chuck sees the challenge as what it is, a spiritual problem among many of our churches. Here is a quote from his message: The conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. The stirring of a church and community in revival and awakening is a work of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these works of the Spirit is typical in SBC churches today. We are not anointed. That ‘we' would be you, me and all of us at work in places with little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit. We are so not anointed we have come to accept not being anointed as normal. Read the full story here.
See you on the road...
Posted on July 18, 2009 at 6:24 AM ~ 4 Comments Tagged with: seminars 4 CommentsLeave a comment |
  
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I am glad you are coming to Alabama. There is very little that I see missional here that is reaching the unchurched. We are guilty of swapping sheep and fishing in other church aquariums. Thats why we started Crosspoint - a church for people who dont like church! Reaching unchurched people is messy and ugly but the bride of Christ is beautiful when she is touching the untouchable.
Hope we can connect while you are here
Ed,
Thank you for your reference to Chuck Kelley’s message. I agree with you that it should receive attention and be discussed. I may be giving away my age but I was around during the 50s he refers to. We had Sunday School on Sunday morning and Baptist Training Union on Sunday night. We had prayer meeting and visitation on Wednesday night and the WMU ladies were meeting during the week to study and promote missions. I don’t know if we qualified as being missional or not.
Perhaps you could answer this question better than I but where does discipleship and evangelistic training take place in the mega churches that seem to be the model for the SBC today. I have never been a member of a mega church but it seems like the programs center around large meetings and the senior pastor as the focus. Is that the only discipleship training that that the majority of members receive.
In 1995 Darrell Robinson of the HMB at that time released a survey that stated about 60% of adults baptized in SBC churches had been baptized at least once before. About 40% of those being baptized said that they were being baptized for rededication of life. That should have been a strong warning that we are failing in discipleship to teach them the meaning of baptism or the meaning of salvation if they have to be rebaptized. It also calls into question our baptism totals if it is supposed to be an indicator of how many people our churches are leading to faith in Jesus Christ.
Ron,
I think that depends on the church. However, recent research shows that megachurches do better with this than some have believed.
But, all of us have a way to go on discipleship and we share an appreciation for Dr. Kelley's thoughts on the subject.
Ed
In regard to discipling: there's more than one way--four basic ones, actually--to produce a disciple (from the perspective of Christian educators, that is), and each way has its own strengths and weaknesses. In the setting of the local church, the strategic implementation of all four ways is critical--and not much evidenced in the SBC's congregations, as suggested by annual ACP reports.
The ways are listed below--how are folks implementing them through the church so that believers increasingly taking on the image (i.e., values, attitudes, and actions) of Christ occurs? Someone, please share--thanks!
1. Pulpit-centered (lots of folks, of all ages, hear biblical truth stated more/less well at one time; the speaker cannot follow everyone home to make certain true learning actually took place, and many senior/preaching pastors know little about the teaching/learning process);
2. Program-centered (semesters of several discipling/closed-group courses are offered to the congregation; usually, a hodge-podge of courses with little/no intentionality, like throwing truths at folks and hoping at least some of them stick);
3. Process-centered (semesters of sequential/incremental discipling courses [e.g., 101, 201, 301, etc.] strategically offered to individuals in the congregation so that believers arrive at "on-mission" with God in keeping with their SHAPEs; people resist long-term involvement in a "degree program" approach to their spiritual growth);
4. Person-centered (one-to-one mentoring; very slow, at least for discipling the masses--and too few mentors making themselves available for helping)
Christendom in the U.S. today stands in need of: (1) an evangelist, to call God's people back to the spiritual health we received when trusting in Christ as Savior; and, (2) an educator, to show God's people what to do with that spiritual health once restored--else the assistance of the Christian evangelist will be required again in about 3 weeks!