Category archive - blog

It’s 8:45 PM, and I’m recharging in my hotel room, and getting ready to head for the convention center in time to hear Dr. Ed Young, Sr. preach this evening, then to attend the Young Leader’s meeting.I have had a wonderful day, meeting so real live humans who I have only seen in two-dimensional photos, if at all. I couldn’t begin to list all those whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, so I’ll only mention the one conspicuous by his absence. Although sightings have been reported, I still believe there may be no such person as Art Rogers.In light of positions I have taken and disagreements I have had with so many, it has been a real treat to experience true fellowship today with so many. I am more thankful for the diversity of opinions within a convention of Christians who are committed to the truth and reliability of the Scriptures. It is a good sign for the future of our convention.

I have been especially blessed by those who have not taken a public part in the discussions here in Blog Town, but who have approached me to express their appreciation for how I have written here and how I have disagreed. That encouragement was not expected, and it has been wonderful.

I don’t know what the next two days will hold. I was told today that registration is only very slightly ahead of last year’s pace. If this is true, then the theory behind the illustration in my post titled The Old Guard may yet prove true. But my experience with those who haven’t been participants may show that, while Blog Town may have relatively few residents, it may have a relatively large influence. Time will tell.

[UPDATE]
Not long after this blogger-filled day started, I had a conversation with IMB trustee and fellow Oklahoma pastor Winston Curtis of Highland Park Baptist Church in Duncan. I also had the privelege of meeting his lovely wife.

Pastor Curtis asked me if I would share a message on my blog to the young leaders of our convention, and his message was essentially this (I am quoting from memory, so it may not be word-for-word): “The conservative resurgence was for you. I love and appreciate your passion, commitment to God’s Word, and desire to see the SBC used of God to increase His Kingdom. My sword is drawn toward no one.”

I had talked with Pastor Curtis on the phone, and had met him previously in Albuquerque. While he has disagreed with many in the blog world, I find him to be sincere, genuine, and quite likeable. I enjoyed seeing him again today, and appreciate his desire to communicate with all of us, though he admits to a lack of technical savvy that prevents him from being an active blogger. He did promise that his wife would be reading, however.

[/UPDATE]

Perhaps the most pertinent of all the questions asked in recent weeks has been, “Does the Greensboro Coliseum offer a wireless internet connection?” The answer: “Yes, it does.”I am writing from my seat at the top of section 105. If you’re logging on, don’t use the connection called “Coliseum WiFi.” Unless, that is, you want to pay $89.00 for the privelege. Use the network called “promo.”

[UPDATE]
It seems that section 105 is the center of the usefulness of the “promo” network. I tried it from a couple of different spots in the arena, and only Mr. $89 shows up as available. So I guess that’s where I’ll sit from now on…
[/UPDATE]

It really is frightening to think about all the blogging that will be happening in this big room this week. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

The new word is “Bloggered.” The definition is this: To have your blog entirely messed with by the good folks at Blogger. Not that the folks that run the service are personally to blame, but you know what I mean. Perhaps some of you can even relate.I had been averaging nearly 200 visits per day, until today, when the SiteMeter shows precisely nine visits. I have been on the road all day, and have not had opportunity to check my email or blog most of the day, so I had no idea I had been Bloggered (notice, please, that this new word is always capitalized). Apparently my blog has been invisible to the naked eye all day. Cool if you’re a superhero; if you’re a blog, not so much.I appreciate the free service, and the introduction it provided into blogging, but I think, as several of my fellow Blogtown residents have recently learned, that this is another example that proves the truth, “You get what you pay for.”

Watch for a major adjustment, possibly within the next day or two.

Oh, yeah, I’ve made it into North Carolina (motto: Esse quam videri). In the spirit of Blogtown contests, the first person who is in Greensboro and tells me in person what that Latin motto means in English gets lunch on me. I’m looking forward to sitting under the preaching tomorrow morning of the Rev. Kevin Bussey, then cruising up to Greensboro, checking into my hotel, and hearing some great preaching tomorrow night.

More than anything, I look forward to meeting those of you who I have gotten to know in an electronic sort of way in recent months. If you’re in that group (and you know who you are), please email me a cell phone number or some other way we can make contact. I’d like to be able to put a face with a name, and to sneak a photo of Art with my camera phone.

See you there…

One of the things I found interesting about the process of interviewing with the pastor search committee at the church I now serve was their concern with my future plans. It is understandable that, with the average tenure of pastors in our denomination hovering around two years, churches are concerned that someone not come on the field and immediately begin to look for where they might go next. This kind of stepping-stone mentality obviously does not lend itself to the establishment of effective ministry. I have found that it takes a year or so just to learn everyone’s names and get to know them just at a surface level.

It is also understandable that I would be asked this question because of my resume. The first church at which I served as Youth & Music Minister was a very small church, and the position was part-time. I served there for a year, at which point God opened up a full-time opportunity. That year was a wonderful time of learning, and I and the people in that church were grateful for it; we left with no hard feelings. After that year, I served in three churches in slightly more than five years, and I was at the last one for just over four of those years. I won’t go into the issues that lead to two very short stays; no secrets, it just doesn’t matter to the point of this post. But God used every day of those five years to teach and prepare me for where I am now serving, and the learning and growing continues.My answer to the committee’s concerns was simply that I trust in God. I have seen God use me in a very short tenure to accomplish wonderful things for His glory, and I have seen long stretches where I didn’t see until much later the value of anything I was doing. I want to be where God wants me to be, doing what He wants me to be doing, as long as He wants me doing it. If that means my preschool children leave this parsonage for college, so be it; if we are gone in fourteen months because God is leading, I trust Him to reveal that clearly. God is indeed sovereign, and my trust is in Him, for today and for each tomorrow.

By now, if you’re still with me, you’re wondering what this has to do with anonymity; it is, in fact, the purpose of this post. I call on all those who want to participate in the many facets of our SBC debate to do so prayerfully, thoughtfully, and openly. There has been much damage to trust in our conversation caused by anonymous comments, and this should not be. There has been much-needed repentance, which I deeply appreciate. But there continue to be those who do not have the integrity to place their identity behind their words, and I see this as nothing more than a lack of faith in God’s sovereign care. Of course, I welcome the participation of those whose missionary service in parts of the world where the revelation of their identity would place themselves or their families in physical jeopardy, and I respect this as a legitimate reason for anonymity. But I am convinced that it is the only legitimate reason.

I was not a part of the conservative resurgence in our convention, although I am in agreement with the publicly stated goals of those who led it. I have no doubt that there are those whose actions toward others in the carrying out of our “reformation” leave them in need of repentance, though I myself am under no such personal conviction. I do not question the claims of ungodly treatment that some have made. I do not question the belief on the part of some that if their identity were placed with their statements, they would be targeted for retribution. What I question in those who choose to remain anonymous is their faith in the power of God to sustain them in the trial, or to deliver them from it.

If someone believes that they must say what they have to say, and they are convinced of the truth of their statement, they should be willing to place it before the world openly and allow God to do with it, and with them, whatever He wills.

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) did not anonymously refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. They stood confidently before the enraged king and said, “If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

It would be fair to say that perhaps it does not require the courage of these three for me to put my name behind my words. It may be fair to say that for others who wish to participate in our debates, it does require this courage, although the repercussions I have heard discussed relate more often to loss of employment than to being burned with fire. But the God who delivered then can still deliver today. And if He had not delivered them, they would have died with their integrity, and they would have been remembered by name.