Now You Can Be Part Of The Fun

The audio from the Text and Context conference in Seattle is now online. I want to take a little bit to say here that this was an absolutely life changing conference for me and these are the messages that God used to do that. In them, you will find extremely challenging statements and probably more than once find yourself with your head swimming.

They are not light. They are not easy. And as a general rule, they are directed at men who will are or will be leading a church. If you are on a church staff, wanting to be on a church staff, or looking at planting a church, you need to listen to these. I'll link to them in the order they were preached. Right click on the link to download the Mp3.

Putting Preachers In Their Place - Mark Driscoll
Pastoral Character And Loving People - CJ Mahaney (GOD ROCKED MY WORLD THROUGH THIS ONE)
Why I Trust The Scriptures - John Piper
Fear And Trembling In The Experience Economy - Jim Gilmore (THIS GUY IS BRILLIANT)
Preaching The Gospel From The Center Of the Evangelical World - Matt Chandler
How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry - John Piper
Vision Of A Church Planter - Matt Chandler
How Do I Distinguish Between the Gospel and false gospels - John Piper
Decoding The Future - The Phoniness - And The Shifting Sands - Jim Gilmore

Driscoll ended with a Q & A time that I don't see online anywhere. Hopefully that will be available sometime in the future. Take a listen, you won't be sorry you did!

Missouri Baptist Convention (VI) – It’s a Wrap

At least for me. We headed home yesterday even though most of the crucial voting in the convention is set to occur today. For those who don't know, what is happening at the convention is of tremendous importance not only for Missouri Baptists but for the national SBC as well. Many states are looking at Missouri right now and observing what is going on. For those who need a primer:

• The conservative resurgence happened in Missouri as well
  
• The conservative resurgence (in the opinion of some) has gone too far in its legalistic stances on methodology, Acts29, alcohol, and other secondary issues and must be replaced by a more moderate, less antagonistic direction for the Missouri Baptist Convention (better known as Save Our Convention)
  
• That shift began taking place yesterday with a landslide victory by Gerald Davidson over the incumbent Mr. Green. Today's votes will carry significant weight as the rest of the officers are elected. It will either signal that a shift has truly taken place, or whether Davidson won on name recognition. Quite frankly I think a shift is underway, and I think you'll see that today.
  

So what to make of all of this. Rather than write paragraphs, I'll share brief thoughts in bullet form:

• It's time that alcohol consumption be dropped as a front and center issue for Baptists. We are clearly given liberty in Scripture for its consumption. We are warned of its excesses but we are warned of all excesses in Scripture that would result in idolatry. We have more central things on which to focus our time and energy (namely lost-unregenerate people).
  
• Some have said that they think David Tolliver took the high road in his address Monday night. I do not. I think it was a cheap shot across the bow and ill timed given the events that were set to take place the next two days. I do not know Mr. Tolliver, but after having listened to his address, I (along with many others at the convention) found it to be disingenuous and bad exegesis.
  
• I agree whole heartedly with Micah's first bullet point here. And I look forward to the second one as well.
  
• After observing the conference for two days, I am greatly concerned about how out of touch most folks are about the world they find themselves in.
  
• Having the chance to hang out with Acts29 guys who have actually planted churches was great. I look forward to being a colleague of theirs in the near future.
  
• I am more appreciative of Lane and Dennis and what God has done at LifePoint.
  
• Bobby Shows is awesome and I am proud to have him as a spiritual grandfather.
  
• Eternity may have just found a home the last two days….stay tuned.

Missouri Baptist Convention (V)

Mark Dever finished the 9 Marks portion of the MBC convention with a message on leadership based out of Acts 6.

He opened the address with a pointed support of mega-churches saying that:

The church at Jerusalem apparently had 1000's of members and we see nothing inherently un-biblical about it.

Mark also covered some interesting tangents as he worked his way into the leadership portion of the message. He talked about racism undermining our belief in the Gospel by not believing that it can overcome every barrier. He also cautioned pastors that division between people who would naturally be divided in the world eclipses the Gospel and shows our natural division to be more powerful than the Gospel. I had to let that one sink in for a while before I caught it but it was a great point.

He then returned to the main theme of his earlier address by reminding pastors that the apostles realized that ministry entrusted to them was more important than quick resolutions to conflict. Their priority was the ministry of the Word. He then went on to give a pretty thorough treatment of Elders, Deacons, and Congregations. He did so with good clarity and usually Dever skill.

He hammered home being able to manage priorities and keep the main thing the main thing. He championed the plurality of elders approach to church leadership. He re-introduced in a way the role of the congregation in church government. Overall, he did a great job.

It was also a big highlight of the trip to meet Mark and to spend some time talking with him about what he's up to and where's he headed over the next few months. I'm looking forward to seeing him in April at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville.

Stay tuned. Highlights and thoughts from today's sessions at the MBC are yet to come.

Missouri Baptist Convention (IV)

Matt Schmucker brought the right after lunch message on membership / church discipline. Matt did an OK job in a tough timeslot. This is tough stuff to deliver a sermon on so to speak so it came across as more of an academic address than it did a message aimed at motivation to change.

Gary Scott Lamb has a good roundup of the address over at his Thoughts And Adventures blog.

I'll highlight here Matt's twelve step recovery program to recovering biblical discipline and church membership:

1. Regularly proclaim the Gospel
   
2. Use a congregationally agreed upon statement of faith
   
3. Require membership classes
   
4. Interview your potential members
   
5. Think before baptizing and admitting children to church membership
   
6. Realize that admission to membership is an act of congregation
   
7. Publish membership directory
   
8. Give active pastoral oversight to the members
   
9. Create a culture of discipleship in your church
   
10. Limit some activities to only members
    
11. Consider reviving practice of church discipline
    
12. Recover the grandness of God's blessing
    

Missouri Baptist Convention (III)

Jonathan Leeman, Director of Communications for 9 Marks ministries, wrapped up the morning with an address on conversion and evangelism. He did a good job in the address, helping us see that preaching and evangelism are not distinct animals but rather one in the same. He talked about how preaching the Word helps three very distinct groups of people in our congregations:

1. Non-Christians – Here we must learn to apply sermons to their lives that will seek repentance and faith. Jonathan made a great point about not winning their approval but rather their lives with our preaching.
   
2. Nominal Christians – This is where he talked about the groups that I think I have been the hardest on in my blog and how we take way too much for granted with this group assuming that they have a grasp on the Gospel and they don't.
   
3. Christians – Even this group needs to hear the Gospel regularly to increase their understanding of it and to learn how to increasingly integrate it with the rest of their lives.
   

Jonathan then went on to talk about that conversion IS NOT:

1. Reciting a creed
   
2. Reciting a prayer
   
3. Walking an isle
   
4. Emotionally heated experience
   
5. Reaching a certain age
   
6. A journey
   

In contrast to what he believes conversion IS:

1. Turning from path your on
   
2. Turning from self-justification to Christ's justification
   
3. Turning from idol worship-god worship
   
4. Turning from self-rule to God's rule
   
5. He created the first time – he creates us the second time.
   

He then spent some time talking about a subject that quite frankly has plagued and is the biggest issue with the MBC and SBC. He said that misunderstanding conversion will cause our churches to be filled with serious pronouncements but not with people who have experienced a radical change. OUCH. He's absolutely right and that is the exact diagnosis that is wrong with a lot of churches in America today.

Jonathan did a good job. He had a lot of content and delivered it well. More to come on the afternoon sessions.

Missouri Baptist Convention (II)

Mark Dever was the second speaker of the morning. For those who don't know Mark Dever, he is the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC. He wrote 9 Marks Of A Healthy Church and has been responsible for the creation of 9 Marks ministries

Dever started out by clearly stating what his whole sermon would be about:

If you're going to be God centered – that means you need to be Bible centered. And being God-centered doesn't mean giving your people what you think God tells you but rather giving them what God has given to us, namely the revelation of Himself through His word.

And in typical Dever fashion, he then went on to speak for forty minutes on the centrality of expositional preaching. He certainly showed some animosity toward para-church programs and publishers with this little zinger:

People always ask me what we are doing at Capitol Hill to grow our church. And I always tell them that we use the Jesus program. Now the Jesus program may not be very popular because nobody at Wheaton, Nashville, or anywhere else makes money off of the Jesus program. But that's what we use.

He then went on to challenge the current normative thinking that we need to focus on how to best engage the culture by arguing that it is not the degree to which we understand the culture that will make us successful, but rather the degree to which we are different from it. He argued that the quality of a church's life together is what will set us apart. He argued that the current generational deception is that figuring out the culture is the way to reach the world. Rather, he argued that the best way for us to reach the world is for them to see the Spirit's fruit lived out in the life of the congregation.

He then moved into completely disintegrating pastoral faith in statistics and judging success based on statistics. He basically argued that he who lives by the numbers will also die by the number but rather faithfulness should be the mark of success. Once again he took a swipe at the para-church business market by saying:

They are nothing more than economic interests that want to sell us stuff. We're an ideal market for folks to tell us that we'll have a successful church if we use their products. That's not true. What's true is what is in Scripture. By preaching the word. Telling them about sin. Grace shown us in Christ. Share the Gospel. We must preach the truth of God's word to God's people. That is how we will have a healthy successful church.

He then went to champion expositional preaching which he defined as:

Sermons which expound the text. Sermons that take the point of the passage, and make that the point of your message, and then apply into the life. EP is not to have your own novel thoughts about the point of the passage. It asks what is the point of the passage. It asks how you bring that point alive. It asks how that applies to their life. It is not tied to style or personality. It is not necessarily verse by verse. It could be an entire chapter. It could be and entire book. But the point of the passage is the point of your message.

He then made a great point about a distinction of preaching:

You are not called to preach. You are called to preach God's word. The minute you get away from that, you are just talking. You stop preaching God's word, your commission is gone. The truth you're talking about needs to be the truth of Scripture. Joyce Meyer can quote the Bible, but not say what the Bible is saying.

He then went on to talk a little about topical preaching:

Topical preaching will slant us toward saying what we want to say. The main point of text will not be main point of sermon. Topical preachers might lead people to be Catholics – where they depend on the preacher and not on the book.

Now I don't care who you are. Those are strong words. But if you think about it long enough, you'll discover he's right. Dever then went on to share his thoughts on pastors' and the length of service most of them have at churches:

Get rid of your bag of tricks, grab your Bible, and stay at your church. I'm not saying it's wrong to leave a church, but the faithfulness I'm talking about seems absurd and too slow. Or your view of ministry may be wrong. You may need to make a commitment to shepherding God's people.

He finished up with several things, but I think the most important was just some general advice on preaching:

Give people an idea of where the text falls in the Biblical storyline. Don't treat the Bible as a Chinese fortune cookie. Tell people how the text fits in the entire story otherwise a lot of the Bible will look and sound silly. And also, you need to have the Gospel in every sermon. Try to address non-believers and the way they are thinking in your sermons. Remember that the point is not to show your mastery of homiletical technique or to make your congregation the most learned. The point is share God's word with God's people.That's why you have a pastor and not a video feed. They see your life and they can imitate you. They know you and you know them. It's in that context that he has gifted you to apply God's word to those individuals. Also remember that the Gospel is not just individual but communal and has applications for your church as well as the individual.

Overall, a very strong address and a typical Dever message. Solid, to the point, and applicable. There are some things here that I'll pick through later, but you'll get the gist.

Missouri Baptist Convention (I)

We're meeting at lovely Tan-Tar-A resort at the Lake of the Ozarks. We arrived a bit late for the first speaker this morning Matt Schmucker – Executive Director of 9 Marks Ministries. I caught the last few minutes of his address but I think it was basically this:

The pastor's job is to preach the Word. Don't try to be relevant. Listen and preach the Word of God. Stay faithful to the Word of God and make that your soul focus.

That was the gist of the last 10 minutes of it. And it was well received by the pastors in the MBC. It'll be interesting to hear from Mark Dever to see how he follows that up. More to come…