Why the annual meeting of the SBC is not on my TO DO List

This week the Southern Baptist Convention is having their annual meeting in Louisville, KY.  I recently moved from that city and am from Kentucky originally (although I was born in Indiana).  I grew up Southern Baptist and even went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville for one year before leaving to attend another seminary.  I am currently serving a Baptist church with roots that are SBC here in Virginia.

And yet I will not be at the SBC nor do I care to ever go to an SBC meeting.  When asked what tribe I am I say “Baptist.”  I even refer to the SBC as “they/their/etc.”

Why?

While most of the rank and file within that denomination are wonderful folks they really don’t represent the actual denomination.  Only a minority of the denomination’s 30,000 plus churches will be represented.  Many churches no longer pariticipate except by giving money and that is decreasing as well.

Baptists are 400 years old this year and that is much older than the SBC.  The SBC started in the 1800s when denominations split over slavery issues.  You can read in my archive articles on Baptist history and in particular the SBC but to make a story shorter in time the denomination grew and dealt with it’s racism as a whole and became a strong one.  Baptists are all independent in a sense and only come together for mission/ministry/resources, etc.  But in the late 70s and all through the 80s a political group of folks took over the leadership of the SBC and forced out all those who did not play ball with them.  They said once they did that they’d be stronger and grow.  They said it was about liberalism but I honestly believe it was over power.  In the 90s they rebuilt the denomination to suit their vision and now in the 21st century they are not growing but shrinking.  Now they are looking for other reasons or places to blame but like all religious bodies are facing changing times.

What about Baptists like me?  We did many things.  Some stayed officially in SBC churches and just quit going to meetings (I suspect many because during the 80s almost half the denomination voted against the take over movement).  Those who do this stay busy in the local church and just let the other stuff go.  Others left and went to non-Baptist denominations.  Others formed new groups like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.   Some stayed in their state work but found their state conventions to be the next war and lost those as well.  Only Texas and Virginia remained free from take over.  The Baptist General Association of Virginia (actually older than the SBC) now allows churches outside of the state to join and allows all churches to be VA, SBC, CBF, or a mixture.  In Texas and VA rival state denominations started for loyalists to the SBC.  In VA at the state level you have folks who only work with VA and others that pick one national body or a mixture.  Many churches just let people choose where to send their money and really do focus on the local level and don’t go to many national bodies that are denominational.

We are not in Kansas anymore.

As a Baptist pastor I focus on the work of my local church first and then work with those who I can work with freely and faithfully.  I am active in my state- the Baptist Association of VA because I am welcome here and we are all invited to work together for Christ.  In previous states I was not welcome in state conventions so I didn’t go.  I personally have worked with the American Baptists (that northern branch that split with the south during the 1800s) and I am involved personally and as a church with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.  My local church also allows money to go to the SBC and yet we don’t participate in their national meetings, etc but I personally send no money to the SBC.   We have tried to let Baptists be Baptist and follow their conscience.

Still why don’t I go to the SBC?

I started to list all those reasons again.  I have my issues that are theological and ethical but I would rather just move on.

I’m not angry. I don’t want to form an oppositional force to go against the powers that be.  I have no desire to spend energy that I can spend elsewhere.

I really do wish them well. I hope they can reach people with the good news.  I hope that missionaries will continue to tell the old old story. I hope they can transform congregations with the power of Christ.

But…

I need to be where I can work freely and faithfully. I want to be in a place where I can focus on the power of Christ without fuss.  I figure the job is really big and much work needs to be done so I’m going to go where I can do so without worrying about checking my “t”s and dotting my “i”s.  I want to be in a church that is not afraid to study hard, work with non-Baptists, learn from others, and yet share the good news of Jesus Christ in ways that we feel lead to do so.  I don’t want to get side tracked as a church into politics or other quick sand that might keep us from our mission.

So if I did go back to Louisville it would be to the zoo or maybe the Slugger museum.

I’m glad to be in Virgnia.

Later,

Derik

Star Trek and the Church Today–Rebooting the Church!

SPOILER ALERT! If you have NOT read the new Star Trek and don’t want me to spoil it for you don’t read this until you go right now and watch this incredible movie.

I am a nerd. I love Star Trek.  Right now I’m currently watching Star Trek Next Generation and I’m almost through season 2.  I am enjoying rewatching these classic shows and hope to go through the whole Star Trek world again.   I was inspired after watching the latest movie.

I was nervous about seeing this new movie.  Would they ruin it?  So many movies reimagine movies I love and ruin them.  There is talk of a ‘new’ Footloose and I dread that.  How can you beat the original?  Why not just rent the original?  Anyway this is not a ‘reimagining’ in that sense and it is not a sequel.  It is a reboot.  Wow.

Diane Butler Bass lectured at the festival I recently attended and talked about how this ‘reboot’ is a great example for the church today.  We need to reboot and such and with apologies to her lecture I’m going to give my own take but thank her for the idea and this is where I go with it.  Ready?  Here we go.

Star Trek is a great series.   First we had Kirk and company and after three years the end of the show.  But movies came and the rest is movie magic.  In the late 80s Star Trek Next Generation came along and was highly successful and also led to movies.   Then Deep Space Nine came to TV and later Voyager.    Then the well was drying up and they decided to go before the original series and show us the early days before Kirk and call the show Enterprise.  That series didn’t last long but I did enjoy it.  In fact I enjoyed all series to some extent.  Some hate this one or that one but I enjoyed them.

Enter the new movie.  A new cast is playing the Kirk company back as they started with Enterprise.  If it had just done this it would be a reimagining and the movies would flow with new actors playing old roles and changing things up as if the original shows never happened.  That would have been lame.  I didn’t want that.

They didn’t do that.  What did they do?  An aged Spock (played by the real Nimoy) shows up from the future and meets this original crew (including himself) and has in combat with a villian from the future who now messes it all up.  The bad guy blows up Vulcan and changes the entire timeline.   And so it isn’t a reimaging but an alternate time line.  The original Star Trek, NG, DSN, Voyager, and such can go on in the timeline we are used too (and at Netflix or Blockbuster) but now we have this new timeline without Vulcan and now things are going to be different.  Kirk’s dad dies in this new timeline while not in the original and so on.  And now I suppose a whole new series and whatever the want can happen as they reboot the franchise.  Yet it doesn’t change the history we knew but know we are in a whole new world.

Confused?

Let’s move to the church.   Throughout our history as we evolved and adapted/changed groups popped up who wanted to go back to the beginning and copy it and I suppose ‘re-imagine’ or copy it.  Most reformers in some sense tried that.  But it does not work because our context is different.

So let’s not do that.

But we can reboot and start an alternate timeline.

When we try to restore what has happened in a different context it just gets messy again.

But what if we just hit ‘reboot’ and instead not copy the past or the present but be a bold new church for the 21st century.

I’m not a heretic! Hold on!

I say we go back to the New Testament and to those early days and not copy but take what it means to be church in our own context (21st century).  We can learn from the past (I wouldn’t ignore it) but we don’t have to repeat the same mistakes in new forms.  Let’s be who we are today.

I’m not even sure what that would look like or all the details but it sounds like a conversation piece.

If we reboot we aren’t changing our theology or core but we are saying, “This is what it means to be a Christ follower.  So let’s be one today and not try to be what we were in the 50s, 80s, or whatever.”

We don’t dismiss everything that came before us but we aren’t chained by it.

Be honest in the past there are some bad things- slavery, oppression of women, mixing of politics and state, etc.  We need to reboot and not keep fighting.  Let’s be the church today and tomorrow.

Just thinking out loud but we know denominational loyalty is gone and that most folks believe the church is not relevant today.  So what are we going to do about it? We are now like the early church but instead of recreating the mess let’s reboot and be willing to bold.   I find this interesting because many are simply going back to a dream period.  Case in point is the growing interest among many young adult Christians to reformed theology as done by John Calvin.  Calvin bobble heads are sold in one particular SBC seminary.  Students are loving it and made ‘rock stars’ out of Calvinists like Piper, etc.  They want to be “Reformed Baptists” or whatever their stripe is.  And they see a glory days in Geneva.   I say forget that.   I’m not saying we can’t learn from Calvin but come one.  This isn’t Geneva and it isn’t the 1500s.  Reboot!

Now some would point to dangers.  Does this mean we change our theology?  Does this mean we change how we view Jesus, the Bible, etc etc.   Yes and no.   If we are Christians then that means we are Jesus people and that doesn’t change.  We are NT people and that doesn’t change.  We are the church and so the basics of the faith remain.  But it changes a bit on how we view those doctrines.  What do I mean?  Much of what people believe has been shaped by events and people long after Jesus.  We need to rethink and ponder our beliefs to make sure that we believe them and they are something that makes sense or is it something we’ve been told and never thought about?

This conversation is just that- a conversation.  I’m not even sure how it would even play out but it is one I’m thinking about and pondering.  I might kick it out the shuttle bay door tomorrow and let it float out into the delta quadrant.  Or I might ponder it some more.  It is something to think about.

In the words of Picard.

Engage.
Derik

A New Church for the 21st Century- A Need for Courage

As I continue to think aloud about what it means to be the church in the 21st century we move on to a topic that is necessary for this time in history- courage.   We need to have clarity (first blog) and community (the next topic) but also courage plays a major factor in the church today.

When we think of courage we often think of heroic gestures where someone risks their life for another.  Of course this is a good image of courage.   Firefighters and others have performed bravely to save others and that in my book takes some serious guts.

The church today needs to have a gut check.  Do we have the guts to do what we need to do.   In Matthew 25 we see that powerful passage that reminds us that we are to feed the hungry, care for the sick, etc.  And when we do this we do this for Christ.  Recently a friend told me about Christians who argue that our job is soul winning alone.  I don’t know how such folks read Matthew 25.   Our job is to minister to the whole of humanity.  Evangelism and pastoral care can not be separated.  We are to feed, heal, help, and while do this we share the good news.  We earn the right to be heard by what we do.  We can’t very well except people to listen to what we have to say if we let them suffer.  And even if they reject our message we are to minister anyway.  We leave the results up to God.

As you read the Bible it becomes clear that courage is vital to being a Christ follower.  The life of Paul alone shows how challenges face the believer.   In my church we are currently studying the book of Revelation.  If you are interested in how I read Revelation and understand this complicated text you can find blogs in the archives of this site.  But in a nutshell let me say that I read Revelation as a book that was a letter sent to believers in Asia Minor who were suffering under the heel of Rome.  How does one survive in a world where Caesar demands to be called Lord?  How does a believer handle a hostile culture?  Christians would go through tough times under Rome and in time many would die.  This book is about how God’s kingdom is greater than the kingdom of Rome and that in the end God wins.  It is a book to encourage those first century Christians.  And this helps us today because all kingdoms will fail but God’s.  We must remain faithful even under our own ‘empire’ struggles.  The book of Daniel is also a great book to study.  It was about Jews suffering under Babylonian and Persian rule but was probably written during the time of Greek domination or at least became very helpful then.  The book is one that talks about how even the Greeks will not win.  The prophecies in that book (you can also find my thoughts on this book in the archives) point to the fact that the empires of Daniel’s day and those later (Greeks) will not win.

It takes courage even knowing this.  We may know God’s kingdom is greater and that in the end we win it does not make the present suffering easy.   We struggle at times but we must keep focused as the crowd of witnesses cheers us on (Hebrews) and that in the end God is greater than anyone or anything else.

So the church needs courage.  Churches around us may be floundering and dying.  People may be giving up.  Those around us may not care much about our message or find it useless.  Some churches may preach messages that oppress or hurt others.  We must remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We must love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.  We must have the guts to be the church in the 21st century.

Blessings,

Derik

A New Church for the 21st Century- A Need for Community

I began this particular conversation with the topic of clarity.  As the church strives to be the church of the 21st century another need is community.  Churches that foster strong, vibrant, and healthy communities will survive.  The church isn’t forming a club or fraternity of folks but a network of diverse individuals who want to work, serve, love, and be the presence of Christ in the world.

Our world really hungers for community.  As we think about the crisis in the American church and the death of many congregations and shrinking membership rolls this is an issue that must be dealt with if we are to survive and thrive.

Look around!  People are hurting.  Many biological families are falling apart.  People long for a place to belong and to find support and love.  If our churches will strive to do this and be this we will be surprised at the reception we will receive.  People want this.  People need this.  People long for this.

What kind of community does the church need to strive to be?  I believe that a community of faith for the 21st century will be one that welcomes people, finds places for them to be involved, supports and encourages them, and is willing to accept differences and still be united in purpose and mission.  I enjoy Bible studies were various ideas and thoughts are shared freely without fear.  I am enriched by being in church and getting to know people from various backgrounds and experiences.  I am excited to see people use their diverse gifts in the service of God’s kingdom.  Poets, musicians, artists, carpenters, plumbers, teachers, scholars, and others all have a place in God’s kingdom.  Building a handicap ramp for a family, painting a work of art that expresses faith, composing or playing a song or hymn, writing a poem, repairing the church or the home of a needy family, and many more examples show us how God’s community can bring healing and hope to a desparate world.

If a church plans a study on missions then a few show up.  But if a church actually goes on mission you are overflowing with help.  People want to “do.”  They want to “go.”

Granted it is not “kumbaya” every Sunday.  We don’t all smile constantly and never a disagreeing word is heard.  The truth is that community isn’t always easy.  Sometimes conflict will occur.  Different opinions will be expressed on so many issues.  Tough calls must be made.  But if we are authentic, honest, clear, and upfront we will build community.  Churches that have unhealthy leadership or conflict styles will fall apart.  Sometimes assistance is needed to keep a community strong and work must be done but the rewards are worth it.

In a fractured and broken world congregations that are willing to become a community of grace will have a bright future.

Blessings,

Derik

Violence at the Holocaust Museum

A guard died today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at the hands of a white supremacist.   I’ve been to the museum many years ago and like the scores who have gone was moved at my experience.  I saw the tight security and was sad that we lived in a world where such a place would be in danger.  And yet here we have another shooting by a mad man.

When I visited the museum I went to the children’s area also and saw the notes from kids pinned on a wall.  One child wrote, “I’m a Cherokee and I know what it is like to be hated.”

I remember sees the piles of shoes and the photos.  I remember the box car.  How could anyone hate so much?

75 years ago this past May is the anniversary of the Barmen Declaration where the Confessing Church in Germany spoke out against the efforts of the Nazi party to silence the church.  The Nazis wanted to rid their country of the Old Testament, clergy with any descent that was non Aryan.  They wanted to make Jesus a non-Jew and an Aryan.   Most of those leaders did not stay or if they did they died.  But those Christians forged papers and helped keep Jewish people alive.  They have been labeled “the righteous Gentiles” by some.  Sadly they were the minority.  Many if not most of the churches went along with the Nazi party and supported it.  Some out of fear and others agreed.

Pray this week.  Pray hard.  Pray for love not hate.

Blessings,

Derik

Another Note on Clarity

My conversation on the church for the 21st century will continue but first another thought/comment on clarity (my first posting on this topic).  We have recently had a shooting in Kansas where a doctor who performs abortions was shot to death in the vestibule of his church where he was serving as an usher while his wife was in the choir.  The shooter is a pro-life professing Christian who has been actively against abortion for many years.  Now this is sad moment for the Christian church.  The Scriptures warn us about taking brothers in Christ to court.  How would Paul feel about one shooting  another in the doors of a church?

I realize abortion is a hot topic but it really isn’t an issue in this event.  Really?  You bet.   This is about murder.  One man shooting an unarmed man in the doors of a church is murder.  What about abortion you might say?  I saw an editoral cartoon in our local paper that showed scores of tombstones with “aborted baby” on them and a newspaper about the shooting lying there.  The editor seemed to be implying that there is more shock over the death of the doctor than the abortions.  I found this to be troubling and dangerous.  Crazy gunmen might read these comments and feel justified that the killing of a abortion doctor is somewhat understandable in light of the abortions performed.  Now I’m sure the cartoonist wasn’t saying that but care must given because we live in a dangerous world where nuts exist who shoot up schools, churches, and blow up buildings.  How is shooting this abortion doctor any different than terrorists knocking down the buildings on 9-11?  Those terrorists thought they were doing God’s work and striking against godless sin.  So did the shooter in Kansas feel this way I would imagine.  It is a ‘holy war.’

What does this have to do with clarity?  If you are passionate about the abortion issue murder will not bring any solution and is hypocritical.  This is not how believers deal with such issues.  To borrow from a popular catch phrase, “WWJ?”  Would Jesus shoot him?  Did Jesus execute the tax collector, woman caught in adultery, or anyone else?  What would Paul say about this issue?  Did he shoot the slave owners master when he ran away?  Or did he try and work with the two in a conversation and through reason?

Again you ask what does this have to do with clarity?  In my blog I wrote about universal clarity.  This shooting hurts our witness.  We must as a church be clear to the world that this does not speak of the gospel and we deplore this act of murder.  We will not be post home addresses of abortion doctors or use threatening words or jokes or anything else.  Shouting fire in a movie theater is the same as having a web site posting the address for someone who performs abortions (which has been done).  And what next?  Do Christian soldiers shoot prostitutes in the street?  Do they blow up the houses of drug dealers?   Do they lynch CEOs who rob their employers and destroy the environment out of greed?  Do they kill crooked politicans?  Of course not.

The church gets slammed so much by those looking for evidence that we are crazy, dangerous, or hypocritical.  Let’s be clear who we are and who we are not.

So you say, “But I’m against abortion?  Don’t I have a voice?”  Of course!  Have a voice but not a gun.  Vote, speak, share, talk, teach, pray, but don’t kill!

That goes for any issue.

Blessings,

Derik

P.S.- Next up COMMUNITY!!!!