Introduction to Great Commission Resurgence

Click here for the Great Commission Resurgence website.

In our introduction tonight we looked at why a Great Commission Resurgence is needed among Southern Baptists. In the mid 2oth century we were reaching people quite quickly, but the first decade of the 21st century has seen Southern Baptists plateau with the 2008 data showing us enter a year of decline.

Here's the graphics we looked at.

This is the word cloud of answers to the question, "What do you think when you hear Southern Baptist?"

















This is the history of Southern Baptist growth since 1950. You will notice the fact that we are now on the plateau of our growth curve as Southern Baptists, so something must be done to prevent our denomination from decline and eventual death.
















So the question of the hour is, "What must be done for there to be a resurgence of the great commission among Southern Baptists?" The church grows through conversions. The great commission is about seeing people converted and become disciples of Jesus.

The proposed manner of the resurgence is contained in the Great Commission Resurgence document. Go read the full thing. We'll be talking about it for the next 10 Wednesday nights.

Leave any thoughts you have in the comments section.

A Good Night

It's morning again, and...we are not morning people. Yet we are up and getting ready for Bible Study at 8am. At 9:15am we have our morning celebration, where we get hyped up and ready to go out and serve.

Here is the varying tracks and groups our crew is part of:

Social Track: Lynda, Jim, Andrew, Jordan
Yesterday this group went to a local food bank. With their track group they managed to box up 18,000 pounds of food for the hungry and in need!

Children Track: Kendra and Lauren
This group is going to the same location all week, the first night they planned out a VBS and are now taking children through the program. Our heart breaks as most of these children have no clue who Jesus is.

Games and Rec Track: Shay and Vic
Somehow Shay has managed to get placed in a track where she can help kids with golf!?! This group is putting on a 'sports camp' for area children. They are using a major draw (sports) to let others know about our Lord.

PCY: Jess, Bradley, and Brett
We three have had the joy of working in downtown Kingston at First Baptist Kingston. The church is beautiful and cathedral like. Yet the church has shrunk to 70 members. We are prayer walking, and repainting just about everything: windows, floors, steps, and doors. Pray for the pastor Kevin, as he attempts to reach the people of Kingston.


We had an amazing night during church group devotion as we lifted each other up in prayer. As I'm typing this it seems to be time for bible study, we love you all, and are so grateful for each of you.

-Brett

Heart for the North

Hello church friends and family,

we will be updating the church blog with all kinds of information and news about all that is going on while we are in Canada. Here is what has happened so far:

After our slow start, we made good time, and spent the night in Carlisle, PA. The following day we made it to St. Lawrence College by 2:30ish PM. The campus is nice, and within five minutes walk is Lake Ontario. The view simply breathtaking.

While the camp is small, the staff is wonderful and encouraging. It was initially not to have a band leading worship, or a band as we know it. Our worship is led by Larri (who is female by the way) on keyboards and Christina on violin! Sounds strange but the Lord uses it to bless us as we seek to bless him and praise His name.

The youth (and adults) are all having a great time. Our track groups are full of wonderful people, and we all went to site today. I'll be posting more information about the various youth and their escapades.

But I'll leave you with this thought. We are here, far to the north, to see God move in a land that has seemingly forgot Him. In all of Canada the number of evangelical churches has been shrinking. There are around 279 evangelical churches here (Tennessee alone has over 3,300). The youth and college have no clue who God is. The fastest growing religion here is Wicca. Our hearts break for these people. We pray that God will use us in amazing ways to reach these wonderful people, that Christ would be visible in our actions, attitudes, and words. Join with us in praying for Canada, and for the missionaries that God is calling here, for their task is great. But we serve an even greater God, and with God all things are possible.

I'll be attempting to update the blog each morning about the previous day and all the wonderful things God has done.

-Brett

Book Review - The Next Generation Leader

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

The Next Generation Leader
by Andy Stanley

Book Summary

This is a short little book for the men and women who are rising up to be the next generation of leaders. Stanley covers 5 elements to being a good leader: competence, courage, clarity, coaching, character.

Book Review

Stanley writes well on the topic of leadership because he is one of the extraordinary ministry leaders of our day. This book is too small to be a very comprehensive treatment of leadership, but it is a good introduction to the topic. The book itself could actually be easily condensed down to a short booklet because it is filled with so many stories, much of which can easily be skipped over. Overall, a good quick read on leadership.

Next 3 books up
1. 10 Great Ideas from Church History
2. Made to Stick
3. Pierced for Our Transgressions

Reminder - AWANA Awards Ceremony

Just a reminder...

The AWANA awards ceremony is this Wednesday at 6:00pm in the Sanctuary. We want all adults to join with us reguardless of whether or not you worked in AWANA ministry. Please make a special note of the time. We are starting at 6:00pm.

Blessings...

Mark

Book Review - The Heart of Evangelism

***click link on right side-bar to view 2009 reading list***

The Heart of Evangelism
by Jerram Barrs

Book Summary

Barrs has written a simple and straightforward book about evangelism and the principles involved in sharing the gospel with others. There are four sections to this book: Mission to the World, The Kindness and Perseverance of God, Barriers in the Way of Communicating the Gospel, Making the Gospel Known

Book Review

I like this book very much. It is Scripture-saturated from cover to cover. If you have been a Christian for long you probably already know the content of the gospel. This book will help you greatly, particularly the final section which deals with principles in sharing the gospel.

Many evangelism books will give you techniques of sharing the gospel. Many evangelism books give you a canned presentation of the gospel that you can just unload on anybody. Barrs does none of this. He is very big on the importance of the individual and the necessity of tailoring the gospel presentation to the person or group you are speaking to. Barrs gives us principles by which we are to work when sharing the gospel. Excellent.

Book Review - Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

***click the link on the right side-bar to see the 2009 reading list***

Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches
By John Hammett

Book Summary

Hammett has written a thorough book outlining Baptist ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). Hammett himself is a member of the Southern Baptist denomination and teaches at Southeastern Baptist Seminary. The book is divided into 5 parts covering the basics of the nature of the church and then diving into Baptist specifics of who the church is, how the church is governed, and what the church does. Hammett concludes part 5 by writing about where we are headed.

Hammett spends significant time dealing with the weaknesses that have crept into 20th and 21st century Baptist churches. He writes at length about regenerate church membership and how Baptist churches can return to what has been a historic Baptist practice, but was abandoned in the 20th century.

Book Review

This is an excellent book. I would recommend that this book be read by anybody who is interested in seeing how a healthy Baptist church should function. Hammett makes no bones about the departures that the Baptist church at large has made from historic Baptist principles.

This is a hard read, but a good read. It pulls in at 354 pages, so buckle down.

Of particular interest should be parts 2 and 3. Part 2 answers the question, “Who is the church?” by addressing the issue of regenerate church membership and church discipline. These are practices that Baptists have abandoned and which have caused our churches to greatly weaken over time. Case in point with our own church…we have 650 members and about 180 average attendance. In centuries past, Baptists would have never allowed this to happen, but in our day it seems to be normal practice. Part 3 answers the question, “How is the church governed?” by stating that Baptists should be congregationally governed (ch. 6) with plural elder leadership (ch. 7) and served by a deacon body (ch. 8). Hammett provides excellent Scriptural and historical evidence for this model. Again, on this issue, modern Baptists find themselves to have departed from this pattern.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book if you have the desire to see how the Baptist church should properly function according to Scripture and history.