SelahV Today

Change Is Inevitable. Go with the Flow Or...

2012-02-23T10:43:07-06:00

swim against the tide. Each carries its own set of obstacles. Each has its own challenges and opportunities. We each have been given everything we need to meet the obstacles, challenges and opportunites before us.

With God as my strength, Jesus as Lord of my life, and His Spirit as my guide, I am able to do all things through Him to accomplish the plan He has set before me. It does not matter what the status quo does. It does not matter how many "yays" I receive--nor how many "nays". With faith and perseverance, I will complete the task set before me if I desire to be in the center of God's will. Me. Personally.

I am a fortunate person. God has not given me the task of seminary president, of theologian, of professor, of trustee or statesman. Nor has God given me the task of shepherding a flock, or accounting for another's spending habits. God will not hold me accountable for an abortionist's hands, a thief's exploits, or a friend's choices. He holds me accountable for me...for what I do and say...for what I do not do, and do not say as an ambassador for Christ.

He won't judge me based upon Dorothy Patterson's awesome hospitality abilities, nor will He judge me based upon my step-mother's failures. He will not judge me by Beth Moore's popularity or Joyce Meyer's following. He will not reward me according to their success or failure--their pride or humility.

I cannot stand before God and explain what others did that kept me from my own actions or inactions. I cannot stand before God and blame the status quo, the majority or the minority. I can only account for myself. My attitude. My actions. My words. My silence. My inaction. What do I do to ease another's pain? to meet another's needs? to quench another's thirst? What do I say to another's harshness? another's anger and bitterness? What do I return for hatred I encounter? for unkindness I find?

Whether I go with the flow or swim against the tide, life is going on--changing with or without my say-so. This day, this hour, is mine to squander or invest in the kingdom of God. It is my deepest prayer that I be found faithful to Him, to His instructions, to His Word...come what may...no matter what another does or says. selahV

[WHAT CONCERNS ME...link]

If I Cry "Uncle"...

2012-02-22T05:00:00-06:00

If I acquiesce and claim the new nickname of Great Commission Baptist, will folks stop insinuating I am a "whiner" and a tad racist? Will I be less likely to fall into the nostalgia of "idolatry"?

If I raise the white flag, and sing "I Surrender All" as I march to Zion, will folks think better of me?

If I renounce my "southern" roots in the Southern Baptist Convention will that make me less "southern"? less Baptist? more "great commission" oriented? and a more spirit-filled, loving, disciple of Jesus Christ?

Will folks like me more? Hear my testimony more clearly? Accept Jesus as Lord more often?

I don't know. I'm just mulling this whole thing over. After all, someone in my Sunday School class is bound to ask me what's going on when they read about this in the state Baptist paper. Should I tell them it is just a "nick-name"? It's optional. That it doesn't mean all that much? It's not all that important? It's just so churches in areas beyond the Mason-Dixon Line don't have to divulge that they are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and thereby avoid being a stumbling block in their area?

It doesn't mean we "Southern" Baptists are "bad" or "less than" all that. Some just don't want to be a hindrance. They think we need to move past our past and forward into this new day and time.

Ya think if I join the choir and sing in harmony with those who don't like "Southern Baptist", that things will be better in the world and more folks will come to our church? Or more kids to VBS this summer? Or will we have to change First Baptist East to First Baptist "Neutral" to accomplish that? selahV

by the way... HOW ARE YOU KNOWN? /link

Easier to Explain Great Commission Than Southern ?

2012-02-21T17:15:00-06:00

That's it! We wanted something that could make it easier to explain why we love people and want to help them like Jesus said. We wanted something to explain why we'd be willing to go out in freezing, rainy weather to visit them and pray with them about their needs. We wanted something to explain why we give up the comfort of our recliners and feed them countless meals when their homes are destroyed by hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. We wanted something that makes it easier to explain why we care? why we go to the uttermost parts of the earth to dig wells, teach English, fix their teeth, care for their broken-hearts when abused and abandoned by parents, set up Pregnancy Resource Centers, and support seminaries to train pastors to shepherd flocks.

We needed something that more readily explains our mission to "go", to "tell", to "teach", to "baptize", to "make disciples" in the name of Jesus.

We wanted something to make it easier to explain why a bunch of "southern" Baptists who believed in the great commission took it to heart and obeyed their Savior's voice to go beyond their geographical areas and plant a church in Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Alaska, New York City, or China, for that matter. Will a name-change make it easier to explain why a bunch of "southern" folks wanted to send missionaries around the world.

Will a name change make it easier to explain why the media camps out at our conventions in order to find something to stir the proverbial pot of controversy in the world, as collectively we try to make decisions that affect our communities and churches and missions in a positive way?

I wonder.

Will the controversies that embody the Southern Baptist Convention be no more? Will the "northern" Great Commission Baptist churches grow faster now? Will they have less to explain? Or will they have more apologies to make before they can effectively reach a lost world for Christ? Does a name change make it easier to "obey" the Great Commission? I don't know. I'm just asking.

Then again, perhaps it's just time to "Well, Shut My Mouth"/link. selahV

Call Me, Uh...

2012-02-21T09:24:09-06:00

Shall I be a Great Commission Baptist or a Southern Great Commission Baptist? or a North of the Mason Dixon Line Great Commission Baptist? or an Southern Oklahoma Great Commission Baptist? Well, uh...I think I'm just a Christian in a convention of Southern Baptist churches who believes Jesus said to go into all the world and tell others about Him and to baptize them in HIS name and teach them to observe all things He said and did, so that they will also go and tell.

Maybe we oughta be "Go-Baptists". Or Go-and-Tell-and-Baptize-Disciples.

Should I say I'm not a Southern Baptist 'cause well, they use to believe in slavery?

And I'm not a Southern Baptist because they offend folks with their narrow-minded stubborn adherence to Scripture?

And I'm not a Southern Baptist because well, they argue too much and they just aren't perfect?

Yeah! I wanna be identified with a group of Believers who are perfect. Oh, wait, not one of us is righteous...outside of the righteousness of Christ. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. But...there is hope.

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Call me, uh...selahV today. I'm not finished yet.

Dr. Paige Patterson Addresses SBC Name Change

2012-02-20T23:32:23-06:00

Some will take a deep breath and sigh with relief. Some will gasp. Others will simply sigh. Even though several Baptist state papers relayed the news of a task force being formed by SBC President Bryant Wright, many are unaware of the business coming before the Executive Committee of the SBC tomorrow in Nashville, Tennessee.

Perhaps it will help some to read in full, what Dr. Paige Patterson, President of SWBTS, had to say on the proposal to consider a name change for the Southern Baptist Convention:

(Used by permission)

Address to the Executive Committee of the SBC

February 20, 2012

When President Bryant Wright telephoned late last year asking me to serve on a committee to provide counsel to the president about a change in name for our beloved Convention, my initial thought was, "Mr. President, why do you hate me?" My life has been spent, too much of it, in controversy, which contrary to popular wisdom, I thoroughly despise. In fact, my life verse has become Jeremiah 15:10.

Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.

My love for and devotion to this fellowship that we call a Convention and to its churches and mission causes is by now, I hope, apparent. Soon, if God wills, I will attend my 60th annual meeting without a miss. While I seek neither sympathy nor applause, my family has paid a high price for faithfulness as we understood it to Christ, the Bible, and to the faith of our Baptist Fathers. For thirty- six years, I have led three different institutions to train your missionaries, pastors and evangelists. For fifty-five years I have faithfully preached the unsearchable riches of Christ mostly in Southern Baptist churches and mission points. Haltingly and often poorly, I have sought to be a personal witness to the saving grace of our Lord.

So what is your point, oh hoary with years? Just that in the pedestrian words that I am about to utter, I sincerely hope that my motive and intentions are pure even should you find my logic flawed. From my vantage point in the forced march to the summit of Nebo, the twin concerns that rivet my heart are seven billion lost people on this globe and the care of the churches that serve as the launch pads for the dissemination of the gospel.

Since I was a boy-preacher somewhere back in the Pre-Cambrian era, I have been concerned that Southern Baptists needed to change our name. Every time the issue arose, I cast a losing vote contrary to that of some of my dearest friends. The logic that appealed to me then was as simple as the mind that assessed it. (1) We were no longer regional and (2) If the regional moniker were an offense, a barrier to some, used in turn by the Enemy to keep them from Christ, then we should remove the barrier.

Please note what I did not say. While I recognize that some of our own are offended by our Southern Baptist history of sometimes fierce clashes, of our moral stands against abortion, gender confusion, the dissolution of the family, the devastating effects of gambling and alcohol on our families and the social order, and even belatedly the more politically correct, but in this case biblically correct stand against racism, while I regret that any are offended, I view all of this as noble, even if in our flesh we were sometimes ignoble in our approaches to these issues.

Neither do I think that the name on the shingle has much to do with evangelistic success. History is replete with the objections of the establishment to the evangelization of the lost. When God's people seek His face for His mighty hand to move and then when they witness as though they were in the fourth quarter, I know for a fact that the baptismal waters will be stirred far more frequently than Bethesda.

Consequently, I am not ashamed of the Southern Baptist name. Indeed, I love and treasure it for what it represents in terms of doctrine, ethics, shared mission, response to human need, and world mission endeavor. But my brothers and sisters, if at least a descriptor could be found which focused on the nature of our mission, how could that be a bad omen?

The recommendation which our distinguished Baptist statesman, Dr. Draper, will now bring is one that satisfies my conscience on all levels to a degree I never thought possible. I support it enthusiastically. I have just two requests of you my brethren. First, let us seek God's face with ardent supplication to see if the committee's report is an amazing solution given by the Spirit of God. Second, if at the end of the process, you do not agree, that is fine. This is why you are a Baptist, a dissenter, and why I am not your bishop, cardinal or pope. But may we agree that we will debate and decide the issue without recourse to a discussion of motives and intentions of the heart which only God can see and know.

Whatever the outcome, I remain confident for the future. The gates of hell will not conquer the church of Jesus the Christ. The Spirit and the Bride say come. Southern Baptists say come. Let whosoever wills come and slake his thirst with the water of life. Such remains the mission of Southern Baptists until Jesus comes." Dr. Paige Patterson

As a blogger who is known better by my moniker ("descriptor") than my legal name, I wonder how long it will take for folks to understand just what "Great Commission Baptists" are all about. It's more than sharing the old, old story of Southern Baptists marching to Zion or singing Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus, just as we are--warts and all. It is sharing Jesus with hearts filled with love and mercy. It is spirits yielded to the Holy Spirit's guidance and convicting presence. It is minds focused upon the mission to cooperate with other Believers in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In days ahead, it should be interesting to hear what others have to say. The task force thinks it is a Win-Win. A compromise. For those determined to rid us of "Southern", of "Baptist", of "Convention", it may not suffice. Others may not like the "descriptor" at all. I do not doubt we'll have a few jovial remarks, and perhaps more than a few satirical jabs in the discussions. C'est la vie. That's life as usual as a Baptist, I suppose. selahV

[Special thanks to Dr. Patterson for permission to post his address tonite.]