Category archive - church

BOOK REVIEW: Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition

Purves, Andrew. (2001). Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press.

This little book seeks to address the author’s concern that the practice of pastoral care “is, by and large, uninformed by historical practice.” (5) Purves identifies the need for “a profound reappraisal of core working assumptions in pastoral theology,” (5) and to this need, seeks to apply wisdom gleaned from five figures in church history: Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, Martin Bucer, and Richard Baxter.

His selection of these five was directed by the fact that they wrote directly about the work of the pastor, rather than addressing specific issues of theological debate. Read more

BOOK REVIEW: Simple Church

Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger, Simple Church. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group 2006. Pp. 257. $19.99. Hardcover.

Bringing their experience and research to bear on the organization of the local church, Rainer and Geiger argue that less is more. Specifically, they argue that a church that does less, but does so with a clear focus on their process for the making of disciples is more effective than a very active church that is not intentional about moving people to greater levels of faithfulness in their walk with Christ. This effectiveness is measured by consistent growth in worship attendance. Read more

Dreadfully bored with theology

I wonder if readers can identify the source of this quote, in which the speaker is asked to explain why churches are growing:

Two ways. One is a demand answer; one is a supply answer.

The demand answer is simple. There are so many young, educated people who are struggling with ambition and isolation. They come out of a blue-collar background or a farm background and find themselves working in the jungle of Los Angeles or Cincinnati. They need something to offset that intensely competitive, high-pressure, high-stress environment. They need something that they may not be conscious of, but something that restores balance and sanity. They need community. Read more

Cruise Directors and Other Officers of the Church

I recently had a Facebook conversation with a pastor friend in another city who was sharing his frustrations over difficulties he was having with a staff member. Apparently his youth pastor was leaving after a short tenure because “God was telling him” it was time to leave. Leaving aside my skepticism for anyone who claims to be getting direct revelation from God, this conversation caused me to think more about the kinds of relationships churches often have with ministers other than the pastor.

Of course, there is no mention of a “youth minister” in the Bible. But I know they exist, because I used to be one, and it is a curious relationship. Each of the four churches I served in this capacity insisted that I meet the biblical qualifications of an elder as laid out in the pastoral epistles, yet none of them viewed me as someone serving in the role of an elder. In fact, I’m convinced that some of them desired me to function more like Julie McCoy on “The Love Boat.” Read more

VBS and Invitations

Last week my son, who is six years old, responded to an invitation given at a vacation Bible school he attended at another church in our community. From what I understand, there were many who responded, and he left there expressing confidence that he was now saved because he had prayed a prayer. My boy is asking some very good questions concerning the gospel, and I believe that he is moving toward the point of having saving faith, but I don’t think he has an adequate understanding of his own personal guilt, the punishment it deserves, and Christ’s work in bearing that punishment in his place. By God’s grace, he will get there. He’s headed in the right direction.

But this episode has caused me to think about the practice of VBS invitations, and I believe there is much more caution needed than there is caution exercised in our churches when it comes to this issue. Read more

Let It Snow!

I was asked by my Director of Missions to write a letter to my fellow pastors in the Frisco Baptist Association about our church’s involvement in the Christmas in August emphasis. Below is the text of my letter.

Dear Pastor,

I’m writing to ask you to consider putting a critical need before your people: the budget shortfall at the International Mission Board. The 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering fell some $30 million short of the goal, and according to a friend who is a trustee, the immediate shortfall they’re facing stands at $13 million. SBC President Johnny Hunt has called on churches to celebrate “Christmas in August,” and Trinity Baptist in Valliant will be participating. I plan to preach mission-themed messages each Sunday of the month, I’m working on lining up a guest speaker from the IMB for one of those Sundays, and we’re even going to have Christmas dinner on August 30, the fifth Sunday of the month. We’re not planning to set a goal for this special offering; we’re simply emphasizing the need and trusting God to lead us in how we can contribute.

Will you consider leading your church to participate in this very special emphasis? Dr. Thomas White, Vice-President for Communications at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, is leading an effort there to provide participating churches with materials to aid in its promotion. In addition to the logo you see on this page, there will be promotional videos and other materials available for use by churches. They’ve established a web page where these materials can be accessed: http://www.swbts.edu/christmasinaugust. If you don’t have internet access, or aren’t sure how to access these resources in a way that’s usable in your congregation, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll be glad to help.

This is the first time in the history of the International Mission Board that otherwise qualified missionaries could not be deployed to the field due to a lack of resources. Let’s join together in Frisco Baptist Association to contribute to the meeting of this need, so that no one else who has committed their lives to missionary service will have to be told that we don’t have the money to send them.
God bless,

Wes Kenney

Catching Up

Well, obviously I’ve been a little busy lately. I was able to take a vacation with my family following the convention, and we had a great time (with the exception of that little transmission incident). We had some great experiences, from being nearly deafened by Phil Keaggy to having a laugh with Bill Gaither (he actually laughed later). I’ll be blogging here about these in coming days.

Before we left, our church conducted a one-day Vacation Bible School using a previous year’s Club VBS cirriculum (it was free, which is nice). So until I can write more, enjoy our Jungle Jaunt highlights:

To Sunnyvale

Tonight I will be taking a group of my church members to a commissioning service for new IMB missionaries. This service is being held at the First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale, Texas, a suburb on the east side of the DFW metroplex.

I’ve been closely following events in our convention, and specifically related to the IMB, for more than two years now. There have been great friendships built, there have been challenging and difficult moments, and there have been some great times as well. Without question, one of the greatest of these great times was when I was able to attend a commissioning service in Albuquerque, New Mexico in May of 2006. There can not be many experiences more humbling and challenging than to hear from those who are leaving all that they know in order to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, simply because God said, “Go!”

I’m looking forward to hearing these testimonies, and to hearing a challenging message from Dr. Jerry Rankin. And I’m excited about being able to share these experiences with some of the people of my church this evening.

Local Church Baptism

Wade Burleson has written a post today regarding an article in a Memphis newspaper about Bellevue Baptist Church‘s mission work in India. His post contains the following paragraph (emphasis original):

Though I am not sympathetic with the anti-missionary viewpoint of the article’s author, I was struck by a little detail or two related to baptism and ecclesiology. It appears that women from many villages across the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh came to a training center run by an Indian evangelist named Sathuluri who hosted a training program for village women that was fully – and solely – sponsored by Bellevue Baptist Church. During the course of the training event, at least one village woman, and implicit within the article – many more women – were baptized. There was no local church involved in the baptism. Women from all over the state were baptized by an evangelist, but they did not become members of any ‘local’ church that day. The women identified themselves with Christ – baptized at the hands of the evangelist who led them to Christ. This non-local church based baptismal service raises questions of inconsistency when juxtaposed to Dr. John Floyd’s, Mid-America’s, and the ‘new’ (2005) IMB Baptism Position Paper that all posit an inflexible insistence that proper baptism is to be conducted only as an ordinance of the local church.

In this paragraph, it is stated as fact that “there was no local church involved in the baptism.” My first reaction upon reading this was, “You mean, other than Bellevue?”

I am firmly convinced that, as the Baptist Faith and Message states, baptism is an ordinance of the local church. I do not believe that this means the only valid baptisms are those conducted in a heated pool inside a brick building by a man with a certificate of ordination hanging on his office wall. Rather, it means that there is no scriptural baptism outside the authority given by Christ to the local church. The church may authorize anyone it wishes, from the pastor to the custodian to a missionary member, to baptize converts anywhere, from the baptistry to a swimming pool to the Indus River.

So when I read about these baptisms, my natural conclusion is to assume that one sent by Bellevue Baptist Church to carry out the work of evangelism is baptizing converts under the authority of Bellevue Baptist Church, which is perfectly within their right and perfectly consistent with the IMB baptism guideline which Wade seeks to undermine with his post.

But this was just an assumption. In order to find out whether my assumption was justified, I contacted Steve Marcum, who serves as Minister of Missions at Bellevue. I found out that my assumption was not, in fact, justified.

Rather than baptizing under the authority of Bellevue Baptist Church, Steve told me that the baptisms referred to in the article in question all took place under the authority of local churches in India. So despite the fact that Wade repeatedly tells his readers that no local church was involved in these baptisms, it just isn’t true.

Another thing that is misleading about Wade’s post are the gymnastics he goes through to link Bellevue Baptist Church with Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, where IMB trustee chairman Dr. John Floyd is employed. I can only assume that the reason this connection is necessary is to try to show some inconsistency in Dr. Floyd’s position on baptism, an inconsistency that evaporates when the sunlight of truth shines through.

My conversation with Steve Marcum revealed that there is no official connection between his church and the school. It was not founded by Bellevue, and though they have supported it financially through the years and continue to do so, many other churches, ministries, and individuals do this as well; Bellevue is not unique in this regard.

It took me about three minutes to locate the name and phone number for Steve Marcum, who returned my call within the hour. It took another five minutes on the phone with him to confirm the information I have presented here. But rather than check the facts for himself, Wade published a post that contains false and misleading information in order to make a point.

Moving Your Letter

The title of this post represents a practice in Southern Baptist life that has always concerned me. Contained within this phrase is the idea that a person’s membership in a local church somehow has its substance in a “letter” that can be moved from place to place. It is not a covenant relationship, but a clerical exercise. But is this practice in any way biblical?

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

- Acts 18:24-28 (ESV)

This passage seems to be about as close as one can come to a biblical argument for our practice of “letters of recommendation,” although it strikes me as more of a ministerial recommendation that one for membership. And I don’t think I would be at all uncomfortable with a practice by that name if it had any real resemblance to the mental image that the phrase “letter of recommendation” creates in most people. One could reasonably expect that, in the case of a member in good standing, there would be some discussion about a person’s contribution to their local church, their giftedness, and their ability to serve the local church. The person would have discussed their need to join another congregation with the leaders of their present church, and everyone would be aware of the impending move. A letter would be drafted detailing the person’s experience of salvation and baptism, their history of service, and the current church’s good wishes to the sister congregation. But our practice of granting letters really isn’t anything like that.

In my experience, the granting of letters is a footnote in a business meeting wherein the clerk reads the name of a member and the church requesting a letter, someone makes a motion, and the “letter” is granted (sometimes after a discussion in which someone suggests that the person may, in fact, be dead). The clerk then fills out a card (available here), and the person is removed as a member. There is no discussion of whether the person even gives evidence of being a Christian, much less whether they are someone who should be the subject of a “letter of recommendation.”

In the two years I have served as pastor of my current church, I have made a handful of phone calls to pastors, either when receiving a request for a letter or when someone I know to be a member of a nearby church shows interest in joining here. In each and every case, I have been treated quite dismissively, usually after the pastor with whom I am talking gets over their surprise that anyone would even waste a phone call on such a matter. Needless to say, these experiences have been discouraging.

I leave for the comments a couple of questions. First, do the things I have written about here even constitute a problem? And if so, what are some practical solutions? Cyle Clayton has written an excellent piece on this subject over at sbc IMPACT! which spurred the thinking that led to this somewhat rambling post. I encourage you to read and interact with what he has written as well.

There seems to be a growing resurgence in SBC life of a concern for authentic church membership. What part does this practice of “moving letters” play in the degradation of the integrity of membership in a local church?