David Platt as the New IMB President: Two Positives and Two Negatives

Although I'm no longer a Southern Baptist, I still care very much for the convention. In particular, I love the International Mission Board (IMB). My wife Alice and I briefly served with the IMB in 2006-2007, before cancer hit our family. Throughout our ordeal various members of the IMB showed us great care and concern. I will always be grateful.

I try to keep up with the happenings at the mission board. The recent big announcement is that David Platt has been elected as the new president of the IMB. Platt is the now former pastor of The Church at Brook Hills. He is also the author of several books, the most well-known being Radical.

I see two positives and two negatives about David Platt being the new president of the IMB. The first positive is that Platt clearly has a heart for missions. Almost everything I've ever heard him say shows this to be the case. He has been personally involved with various missions activities in the church where he pastored. The book Radical discusses multiple ways The Church at Brook Hills cares about missions. The second positive is that David Platt seems to be a genuinely humble individual. I write "seems" simply because I do not know him. From what I have both seen and read, Platt shows quite a bit of humility despite the notoriety he has gained through Radical.

This brings me to the two negatives. First, David Platt is one in the growing long line of evangelical superstar pastors. I do not believe Platt desired this, but it occurred nonetheless. He has been invited to speak at various conferences with other famous pastors and seminary presidents. This stems directly from Radical. The obvious irony is that becoming an evangelical superstar is about as far from radical as you can get. Again, I do not think Platt had any intention in this happening. However, it did. Being a superstar should not automatically exclude someone from a leadership position, but it is tiring to see the same faces in lights over and over. It would be nice to occasionally see someone unknown elected to a significant leadership position. Maybe some day.

The second negative is that David Platt has not served overseas with the IMB. I could be wrong about this, but I do not think he has served overseas for any significant length of time (please correct me in the comments section if I am incorrect about this). Platt is going to have to make some extremely important decisions; if he had served overseas he would be far more prepared to do that.

Let me be clear on one further point: I believe the positives in this situation outweigh the negatives.

I hope David Platt is a good choice for the IMB. I hope he does very well and that more and more people around the world come to Christ while Platt is IMB president. I will continue to support the IMB however I can. I will also pray for David Platt in this new venture. I ask you to pray for him and the entire IMB as well.

Bingo!

Some of these made me laugh out loud. Enjoy.

Thankful for These Experiences

I'm thankful to God for providing me with numerous experiences that have challenged the way I think about Jesus Christ and His church. It has been quite an array of different people and places that has shaped what I now believe and who I am. I share these not to boast in any way, but to thank God for His great grace in allowing me to be a part of these things:

I was raised in Houghton, NY. Houghton is a small town in western New York State that is home to Houghton College and Houghton Wesleyan Church. In this environment, I met many missionaries serving around the world. Since Houghton College is attended by Christians of almost all evangelical denominations, I was able to talk to many people about why they believe what they believe.

When we moved to Georgia in 1996, we began attending the First Baptist Church of Springfield. This was our first exposure to Southern Baptist doctrine, life, and tradition. After four years at FBC-Springfield, we moved to another local SBC church. That church, Emmanuel Baptist, had a much different worship style (contemporary vs. traditional), but much the same structure and beliefs.

Please Just Be Fair to the Original Text

It appears that we will soon have another English bible translation. Unfortunately, this one is yet another with theological/political bias. To read about this, click here.

Several modern translations lean to the left theologically and/or politically (for example, the TNIV and NRSV). Now there will be another - except this one swings to the opposite extreme - too conservative.

It is entitled the Conservative Bible Project. The project's on-line home is Conservapedia.com.

According to Timothy Paul Jones, a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a critic of this project, "This is not making scripture understandable to people today, it's reworking scripture to support a particular political or social agenda."

Dr. Jones goes on to say, "Ironically, there's a long tradition of the liberal twisting of scripture. Scholars have rightly deemed those translations illegitimate, and this conservative Bible is every bit as illegitimate."

Here is my plea: if you are going to translate scripture, PLEASE be as fair to the original text as is possible. I realize we all carry biases and should be aware of these. However, we ought to, as best we can, just let the original languages speak for themselves.

Maybe this is another reason why we should become at least familiar with the original languages (I have really got to brush up on my Hebrew!!)

My Ten Favorite Blogs - #8

#8 - Between the Times

BTT is an excellent blog that is published by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (where I went to school).

At first, the thought of reading a seminary blog may seem as exciting as watching the grass grow. However, this blog is much more than just dense theological discussions and debate. BTT deals with real-world issues. For example, the writers have recently addressed the salvation of infants, how to prepare for corporate worship, and gospel-centered missions.

One thing I really like about this blog is that the writers, who are all Southern Baptists, frequently challenge the typical Southern Baptist status-quo. This is refreshing.

Another bonus to BTT is that the contributers are genuinely good writers. They do a good job of engaging difficult issues in a manner that makes you want to read what they have to say. On top of this, there is a spirit of humility to BTT that is, I believe, God-honoring.

Take a look.

Embracing the "Great Commission Resurgence"

There is a growing desire within many in the SBC for a resurgence of Great Commission zeal and practice within our churches. Count me in as one of those.

I am very happy that this effort is picking up steam. In fact, a Great Commission Resurgence website has just recently been launched. This website describes in detail what this effort is all about.

The GCR has put forth a declaration which has many positive statements in it. If embraced by our churches, this statement could have great impact.

A few of the highlights from the declaration include:

"Jesus Christ must be our passion and priority and we should aspire to both know Him and love Him more fully."

"Gospel-centered living will help ensure that the bloody cross of a crucified King is the offense to non-believers rather than our styles, traditions, legalisms, moralisms, personal preferences, or unhelpful attitudes."

"We must be willing to alter our practices to better accord with a robust Baptist identity, including in many churches a more responsible baptismal policy, a recovery a redemptive church discipline, a healthier balance between pastoral leadership and congregational authority, and a commitment to an every-member ministry."

"We must be willing to alter our practices to better accord with a robust Baptist identity, including in many churches a more responsible baptismal policy, a recovery a redemptive church discipline, a healthier balance between pastoral leadership and congregational authority, and a commitment to an every-member ministry."

"We must take steps toward simplifying our denominational structures in an effort to streamline our structure, clarify our institutional identity, and maximize our resources for Great Commission priorities. We should ask hard questions about every aspect of our Convention structure and priorities and pray for God’s wisdom and blessing as we pursue wise answers to those questions."

"We believe that distinctively Christian families are characterized by a deep love of Jesus Christ above all things and a desire to honor God as a family. We believe that Biblical truth is loved, taught, and lived out in healthy Christian homes. We believe that godly families cast a vision for spiritual greatness and equip every member, including children, to live for God’s glory and pursue great things for His name’s sake."

I strongly agree with these statements. My hope is that this effort will bear fruit within the SBC and beyond. However, it will do nothing if the people in our churches do not rally around it. Let's pray that God will use this effort to stir up the passion of our people to live as Christ lived, to love and serve others, and to proclaim the glorious gospel of Christ.

"People of the ook"

There is a saying that Southern Baptists (of which I am one) are "people of the book." The claim is that Baptists are people who live by the bible. I'm guessing that it is Southern Baptists who most often refer to us this way.

When I think about this claim, I wonder what basis we use to say this. Do we really believe that we have things so figured out that we can say that we live by the book, and at least imply that others do not? For example, are we absolutely certain that we are correct about baptism and others (such as bible-believing Presbyterians) are not? Are they not trying to live by scripture as well?

Additionally, and more troubling, there are many areas where we as Southern Baptists as a group fall short of biblical standards. One of the most glaring areas is our ecclesiology. The more time I spend in Southern Baptist churches, the more I realize that the way we live as the church of God is often driven much more by tradition than by scripture.

In the bible, we see the church as a united body of believers in Jesus Christ living together, sharing their lives together, caring for the poor and hurting, and boldly and lovingly proclaiming the gospel to the lost. When we look at many (not all) of our Southern Baptist churches, we see people who love each other, but do not necessarily share life together. We see people who gather more for worship than for edification. We see much ceremony, but often times little substance. We see expository preaching, but lack of reaching out to the poor and hurting. We see our folks learning step-by-step plans of salvation instead of just living out a lifestyle of evangelism.

I realize these are generalizations. There are some SBC local churches that are really trying to be biblical. They are striving to follow not just what is commanded in scripture, but also what is modeled.

Regrettably, most churches within our convention appear to be unwilling to even ask hard questions of themselves. They just won't change to be biblical in practice because it would be too uncomfortable.

Since this is the case, we need to not be so fast to proclaim ourselves to be "people of the book." It seems that we are trying to live by the parts of the bible we choose. We are living by only segments of the book.

Maybe we should instead call ourselves just "people of the ook."