With so much talk about who Southern Baptists really are historically and what theological stream we fall into (or are birthed from), I am inclined to remind us all that we are neither Calvinist nor Arminian nor even are we all somewhere in between. Emir Caner’s recent essay that can be found in the Christian …
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” What do we make of that verse? Too many people in the church have taken the term peacemakers to mean peacekeeper. The two are distinctly different. Peacemaking is active and necessary when peace is not prevalent, peacekeeping is …
Is your church healthy? Most of you who will read this have heard the numbers time and time again. Eighty percent of SBC (and other evangelical denominations) churches are either plateaued or declining. My concern is that we’ve heard that number so many times that we really don’t allow it to sink in. Recently, I …
In the Video below, you will see a crash test between a 2009 Chevy Malibu and a 1959 Chevy Bel-Air. The head to head test was created and performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to highlight the advances that have been made in vehicle safety over the past fifty years. Practical wisdom would …
Missional is a big catch-word in church growth circles these days, and in the SBC. In conversation with some friends recently, I suggested that maybe the divide between many churches was ideological in part and could be defined along a missional line, ie. missional verses non-missional churches. The problem, as pointed out in that conversation, …
Though it may be a stretch to say that the SBC is a church since it is a collection of autonomous churches, it might not be so far-fetched to suggest that the current decline (plateau at best) in which we find ourself as a denomination mirrors the decline that many churches within the SBC are …
I found this from J.D. Greear this morning and thought it was very good. Hopefully you can benefit from his insights. Greear writes: “In Joshua 2:8-11, ex-prostitute Rahab explains that a “fear of God” had come upon all the inhabitants of Canaan. This fact made Israel’s military exploits much easier. For the most part, military …
I had to read Thom Rainer’s The Book of Church Growth as an assigned read for a project I’m working on right now. To be honest, I was not motivated about it. After devouring it in three days, however, I have to say that I was wrong. This book is great. Not only is it …
J.D. Greear addressed five obstacles to effective evangelism at the South Carolina Baptist State Evangelism Conference yesterday. Greear used 1 Corinthians 9:19-26 as his text and I think he did a great job. I’ve listed his five obstacles below. 1. Being satisfied with Biblical faithfulness and not effective ministry (v. 22). 2. We don’t know …