Great Commission Resurgence

I have just signed the declaration called the Great Commission Resurgence.

What is the Great Commission Resurgence you ask??? Good question.

In the 1980's Southern Baptists experienced what is now called the the "Conservative Resurgence" where the "battle for the Bible" was won. During that time Southern Baptists firmly reclaimed the belief in an inerrant Bible. Fast forward to our day now, some 25 years later, and we find that the Conservative Resurgence thus far has been a failure in terms of producing the fruit it should have produced. Yes, our seminaries are solid again, as those who did not affirm inerrancy were asked to leave, but the Conservative Resurgence has failed to produce a Great Commission resurgence. That is, the Conservative Resurgence has failed to propel our churches forward in their effectiveness of reaching the world for Christ.

Much has been said of the decline of the Southern Baptist Convention. I will not write again what others have already said in a manner better than I can say it. So I will point you to 2 articles that fully explain the extent of Southern Baptist decline.

• Please read this article by Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, written in April 2009.
  
• Also, please read this article also written by Ed Stetzer in April 2008.
  

The basic summary of these articles is this:

• The SBC rate of growth has been slowing for decades. (see chart on the 2nd article) At the end of any growth curve is a plateau. After a plateau comes a decline. Currently, the SBC has just passed its plateau. As a denomenation we have now entered into our period of decline. If we want to avoid our own death as a denomination then we must do something about it!!!
  

We are desperate for a Great Commission Resurgence to send us into a new growth curve.

Below are the 10 statements of the Great Commission Resurgence. Each statement is explained in fuller measure at the website. Go here to read it in entirety, see who has already signed it, and sign if you wish. I have debated whether I will expound on these individually here on the church blog or if I will commit to speaking about them on Wednesday nights later this year. If you have a preference please leave me a comment.

I. A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship. We call upon all Southern Baptists to submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things at the personal, local church, and denominational levels. (Col. 1:18; 3:16-17, 23-24)

II. A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness. We call upon all Southern Baptists to make the gospel of Jesus Christ central in our lives, our churches, and our denominational ministries. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:17-21)

III. A Commitment to the Great Commandments. We call upon all Southern Baptists to recommit to the priority of the Great Commandments in every aspect of our lives and every priority we embrace as a network of local Baptist churches. (Matt. 22:37-40)

IV. A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency. We call upon all Southern Baptists to unite around a firm conviction in the full truthfulness and complete sufficiency of Christian Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. (Matt 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

V. A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center. We call upon all Southern Baptists to look to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel, refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)

VI. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches. We call upon all Southern Baptists to focus on building local churches that are thoroughly orthodox, distinctively Baptist, and passionately committed to the Great Commission. (Matt. 16:13-20, 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5)

VII. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching. We call upon all Southern Baptists to affirm and expect a pastoral ministry that is characterized by faithful biblical preaching that teaches both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)

VIII. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed. We call upon all Southern Baptists to consider themselves and their churches to be missionaries in non-Christian cultures, each of which requires unique strategies and emphases if the gospel is to penetrate and saturate every community in North America. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)

IX. A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure. We call upon all Southern Baptists to rethink our Convention structure and priorities so that we can maximize our energy and resources for the health of our local churches and the fulfilling of the Great Commission. (1 Cor. 10:31)

X. A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families. We call upon all Southern Baptists to build gospel-saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and as our first and primary mission field. (Deut. 6:1-9; Psalm 127, 128; Eph. 6:4)

Coracora Team - 4/23 Report

Hey church...great news from Peru. Check out below the final report from the April team. Thanks for praying.

We made it back to Lima this morning, arriving at the guest house at 9am. What a great trip. We had several discipleship sessions with Yulber and a couple with Edgar. We led 3 to Christ, two were co-workers of Yulber and another was the crippled father of one of his students. We also had a meeting with Yulber, Pastor Jose (from Nasca), and Bro. Porfolio Morales from the baptist church. Edgar was out of town and couldn't attend. We all agree the work in Coracora needs resurrecting and everyone at the table is on board. Bro. Jose has been working on getting a Peruvian missionary from Lima to go to Coracora and commit to 2 years. Churches in Nasca and Ica have offered to underwrite the support needed. So far he has not been able to get this together, but He has a renewed commitment to try. There is still an interest to get into the baptist church building, but all agreed that an alternative location must be found. Bro. Porfolio has a cousin who owns 2 locations near the center of town and he believes we can use one of them. It sounds like the Lord is leading us to revive this work. We all agreed that there two urgent needs. First, to find a place to meet for those we have been working with as well as many scattered believers throughout Coracora. Second, we need someone to step up to lead. Edgar, who I know none of you have met, is the the one I, Greg, and the enhancement team have the most cautious optimism to be out in front. Yulber and Edgar have already begun to talk. We all agreed that we believe a larger, strong church can be built in Coracora which will reach a larger number in Coracora, and be a "sending church" for that region. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe great things are about to break out in Coracora. Pray hard! The enhancement team will be in Coracora for 2 more weeks. They will be trying to keep Yulber, Edgar, and bro. Porfolio in contact with each other and get them to begin meetings, as well as monitoring the meeting location issue.

Book Review - The Pursuit of Holiness

***see the 2009 reading list link on the right sidebar***

The previous book reviews have been a little long, sorry about that. I’m going to try and keep them shorter.

The next 3 books I will be reading and reviewing are: The Heart of Evangelism, The Next Generation Leader, and Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

The Pursuit of Holiness
by Jerry Bridges

Book Summary

The Pursuit of Holiness is a short book on the topic of personal holiness. It is practically written with a focus on how to live it out in daily life. Jerry Bridges communicates the absolute necessity of holiness for the believer and the disciplines that will lead the believer into a holy life.

Book Review

YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!

The Pursuit of Holiness is a short book (approx. 200 pages) with a really powerful punch. If you want to live a holy life then you need to allow Jerry Bridges to help you. Every page of this book is packed with the meat of the Word of God.

Go get it now. Click here.

Coracora Team - 4/19 Report

We have met with Edgar and had one very good Bible Lesson review. He seems to be very mature in his faith. He was leaving today via bus to Lima to buy goods for his store. However all bus lines except Lopez are grounded or otherwise not running so he missed his bus today. We are taking that as God giving us another opportunity tomorrow with him and we already have an appointment tomorrow at 11am Peru time!! We also have two more meetings tomorrow with Yulber. The Spanish lessons are working very well and being well received as a tool for their groups.

We have attempted to contact the couple from the Baptist Church, but they are in Nasca returning tomorrow. Hopefully we will get with them then. We made one attempt to see the older pastor of the Baptist Church who we heard is in CoraCora now. No luck yet.

Things are going well with the discipleship.

No meetings planned with the Mayor as we understand he is in hiding after the bridge collapse.

We plan to see the children and Sylvia tomorrow and check to see how things are going there.

More to come from Peru!

Greg Hodge

Coracora Team - 4/18 Report

I will be copying Pastor Bobby's report from the Google Group that he is part of. The team will be in Coracora today thru this coming Wednesday. Please be in prayer for them. Here's their first report...

We made it to Coracora at 6:30 am. No problems, just long. We met with Yulber for discipleship class at 10. We then met at 1:00 with a man named Edgar who also shows great potential. The Enhancement team introduced us to him. Does anyone remember meeinting him? We ate supper with the team and Yulber. We have another class with Yulber this afternoon at 5pm. We meet with Edgar and his brothers tomorrow at 10am. Romi has invited us to lead a study for her and some of her friends each afternoon at 3pm while we are here. We haven´t found the older couple from the baptist church, but hope to. We are casting a vision with these groups to stay and meet seperately in order to have expotential growth. ´Í will stay in touch.

Book Review - Arminian Theology

***click on the link to the right for the 2009 reading list***

Arminian Theology
By Roger Olson

Book Summary

Olson’s purpose is to defend classical Arminianism through refuting 10 common myths about Arminian theology. He feels that there is widespread misunderstanding of the basic teachings of Arminianism. He is correct (there is also widespread misunderstanding about the teachings of Calvinism). This book is organized in a way that each chapter is able to stand alone as an individual topic. So you could read chapters 2, 5, and 9 without having to read the rest of the chapters if only the topics of those three chapters interested you. Arminian Theology is not an exegetical defense of Arminianism based on the Scriptures. Instead, Olson has taken the route of attempting to clarify what Arminian theology is based on the writings of its’ adherents over the past 500 years.

Book Review

Olson is an Arminian (many Calvinists will write books about Arminianism), so it is good to read a book about Arminianism written by an Arminian. I think that Olson has written a good book, although his experience and perspective of Arminianism seems to be quite different than my experience and perspective. Let me explain.

Olson writes of many people who are looked down upon for holding to Arminian theology and how Arminian theology in general has a bad rap among evangelicals (pp. 20-21, 29-30). So he seems to write out of a defensive position of feeling attacked. This is fine as long as we understand the perspective he is coming from.

I grew up Southern Baptist. My observation of Southern Baptist life is exactly the opposite. Southern Baptist churches are known for firing pastors who hold to Calvinism (I’ve never heard of an SBC pastor being fired for being Arminian). Southern Baptist state newspapers are known for writing anti-Calvinist editorals (as our own TBC B&R has done). Popular Southern Baptist pastors and churches hold anti-Calvinist conferences. My observation is that the SBC views Calvinism as a threat and actively fights against it.

Although I have some basic disagreements with Arminianism, I enjoyed this book b/c it allowed me to learn a lot and to see an Arminian theology explained. Although it was not his purpose, I would have liked to have seen some exegesis by Olson to explain some of the basic beliefs of Arminianism. In pages 15-39 (part of the introduction) Olson lays out what Arminians believe. I have marked these pages up left and right with the same questions, “What Scriptures proves this?” “Show me?” “Where does it say this?”

Recommendation: good book if you are comfortable in theological dialogue/debate, but not for beginners b/c there is no exegetical work to defend positions

Pray for the People of Coracora

I just learned that a suspension walking bridge in Coracora fell at a time when there were 40-50 school children and teachers walking on it Monday after school let out. Please pray for the people of Coracora. This Thursday Pastor Bobby (from Poplar Grove BC in Cookeville) and Greg Hodge (member of PGBC) are leaving for Peru. They will arrive in Coracora on Saturday morning. Please pray for them to have the right words to speak to those who have lost family members. Also, the Enhancement Team (college students serving a year in the Andes mountains with the IMB) is currently in Coracora for the month of April, so they are already ministering to people. Please pray that God will use this tragedy to draw people into a saving relationship with himself. Pray for Yulber to jump in a be ready to speak up as well.

Below is a picture of the bridge, which our team crossed several times, and the article from Reuters.





















Peru bridge collapse kills 8, injures 40 children
Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:32pm EDT

LIMA (Reuters) - A suspension bridge packed with school children snapped in Peru on Monday, killing at least 8 and injuring dozens of others who plunged into a deep ravine, the mayor of the Andean mountain town of Coracora said.

"We've suffered a grave accident, a suspension bridge that goes to a high school has fallen, it has broken in two, and we have a large number of students injured and dead," Mayor Walter Antayhua told RPP radio.

Most of the injured were aged 10 and 13, but reports said several teachers were with the children when the bridge collapsed.

The bridge was 130 feet long and stretched above a canyon that is up to 320 feet deep, the mayor said. The town is about 370 miles southeast of Lima, the capital.

"We need a helicopter because there are children who are dying," Alfonso Paredes, a town resident, said from the poorly equipped hospital from where doctors were hoping to evacuate patients to trauma centers.

At least 40 other victims were taken to the hospital, 13 of them with serious injuries.

"The injuries are grave," said Fernando Valencia, a doctor at the hospital.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino and Terry Wade; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Book Review - Chosen But Free

***click the link on the right sidebar to see the 2009 reading list***

Hey folks...I've read several books but have not gotten the reviews posted. I'll be posting several reviews over the next week. I messed up my listing of the books in the order I was going to read them, so I'll be posting a new order of the next 5 books. Sorry about that if you're trying to read along.

Chosen But Free
By Norman Geisler
2nd edition

Book Summary

Chosen But Free (CBF) enters into the world of the centuries long debate between Calvinism and Arminianism. To be brief, these are two systems of theology with differing views on the process and outworking of salvation in our lives. They can be summarized in this fashion. Calvinism affirms the following 5 things and Arminianism denies them…

• Total depravity – humanity completely dead in our sins
• Unconditional election – God elects unto salvation based on his will
• Limited atonement – Christ died only for the elect
• Irresistible grace – God will save those he intends to save
• Perseverance of the saints – the elect persevere to the end, thus proving their salvation

The subtitle of CBF is “A Balanced View of Divine Election.” Thus the purpose of the book is to try and forge a middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. Geisler claims to hold to a position he calls “Moderate Calvinism” (more about terminology below).

Book Review

CBF is a poorly written book for such a notable author. I will list what I consider to be two of the more significant problems for the book.

1. Terminology. Geisler introduces so many terms that it is practically impossible to know what he’s talking about sometimes. Geisler uses all of the following terminology without explaining what he means: Calvinist, Extreme Calvinist, Strong Calvinist, Less-strong Calvinist, Staunch Calvinist, Moderate Calvinist. Nobody knows what each of these terms means so it makes reading the book incredibly difficult.

The only one of the above terms that Geisler defines is “extreme Calvinism.” On page 47 he defines extreme Calvinism as, “God’s predetermination…independent of His foreknowledge of human free acts.” This is not extreme Calvinism. This is the position of historic Calvinism which flowed out of the Reformation and from Calvin himself. Calvinists believe in unconditional election. That is, election is not based on anything that God foresees in us. It is based only on his will.

He does the same thing again on pages 56-57 where he calls 5-point Calvinism, “Extreme Calvinism.” He is simply redefining terms.

So, my understanding of what Geisler is doing in the book is that he is trying to label Calvinism as “extreme Calvinism” in an effort to make it easier to dispatch of. Think about it, labeling something as “extreme” makes is sound like only crazy people would believe this.

2. Ripping Scripture Out of Context. This was by far the biggest disappointment of the book. Geisler is a well-known scholar, but his exegetical work in CBF is terrible. Biblical scholars with Ph.D.’s know better than to try and prove theological points by taking verses out of context. This makes me think that Geisler’s overarching commitment in this book is not faithfulness to Scripture but rather the maintaining of a theological point-of-view that he has.

The book is chalked full of Scriptures that are ripped out of context, so I will point out only one example to suffice. In pages 32-36 Geisler uses 66 verses in a section titled “What Saith the Scriptures?” in an attempt to show that we have libertarian free will. There is not one lick of exegesis of any of those 66 verses.

On p. 34 Geisler is trying to show that we have libertarian free will before God (what he calls “vertical free will”). Under these auspices he quotes 4 words out of 1 Peter 5:2 as part of his proof. Now in the ESV 1 Peter 5:2 has 27 words. What happened to the other 23? Here is Geisler’s sentence, “Peter describes what is meant by free choice when he says it is ‘not under compulsion’ but ‘voluntary.’”

Any idea what Peter is talking about there??? He’s telling pastors how to relate to their congregations. He’s not talking about whether or not we have free will before God in choosing or rejecting salvation. Here’s 1 Peter 5:2 in its whole, “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly”. Now here’s the question…if Geisler had put the entire verse in his book would it have supported his point??? NO!!! So, therefore, he rips a few words out of context to make it say what he wants it to say. Completely unacceptable.

This type of handling of the Scriptures makes me want to be so careful every time I preach and teach. I want to handle the Word of God correctly. Pray for me church that I can do well in this.

Recommendation: Save your money, don't buy.

What is forgiveness???

VENIA