Southern Baptists: An Unregenerate Denomination?

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In Major League Baseball, 38% is outstanding.  If you can hit .380, you will be an All-Star and if you can do it year-after-year, you’ll be a Hall-of-Famer.  Sadly, the same may be true in the church. If your church brings in 38% out of its members every week, as the average SBC church does–according to the “SBC 2008 Annual Church Profile Summary”–it may be regarded as a thriving mega-church and the pastor a successful soul-winner.  Yet beneath the active veneer (or trendy website), something more pernicious may be at work.

Revelation 3:1 warns, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead,” and in his article, “Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination,” Jim Elliff explains why this warning to Sardis applies to the churches of the SBC.

Elliff writes honestly about the condition of our Southern Baptist Churches, and calls for churches to stop playing number games and to find the millions that are missing.  Appealing to the New Testament church, not the neo-evangelical church, he shows from Scripture how every author of the New Testament warns of false conversion and spiritual deception.  He makes the case that if a church is healthy and regenerate, attendance should outnumber membership.  And he points to our baptists forefathers as prime examples.  Citing the work of Greg Wills, he writes:

In the Philadelphia Baptist Association Minutes, our first association, our initial American statistical record shows that five times as many people attended the association’s churches as were on their rolls. Greg Wills in Democratic Religion in the South (Oxford University Press, 1997, p.14) reports that three times the number on the rolls attended Baptist churches, then located mostly along the eastern seaboard when surveyed in 1791 by John Ashlund. In 1835, the Christian Index of Georgia recorded that “not less than twice the number” of members were in attendance.

Today, in rough numbers, it takes 300 people on our rolls to have 100 attenders. In the 1790s, it took only 33. Or, to put it in larger figures, it now takes nearly 3000 people, supposedly won to Christ and baptized, to result in a church attendance of 1000. Then, it took only 333. Our potency has diminished to such an extent that we must “win” and “baptize” over 2,000 more people to get to the same 1000 to attend.

Churches today, who possess the same Holy Spirit, should expect nothing less.  And in truth, we should long to follow in the wake of these Great Awakening churches.

While his article points out a number of depressing features about the health of churches in the SBC, he also points out the possibility for great recovery if we will be honest about the problem and return to preaching the Word of God and applying its principles of church discipline and evaluating sinners according to biblical standards, not decision cards.

Consider, for instance, Elliff’s comments about preaching on regeneration:

It was the preaching of regeneration, with an explanation of its discernible marks, that was the heart of the Great Awakening. J. C. Ryle, in writing of the eighteenth century revival preachers, said that they never for a moment believed that there was any true conversion if it was not accompanied by increasing personal holiness. Such content was the staple of the greatest of awakening preaching throughout the history of revival. Only such a powerful cannon blast of truth could rock the bed of those asleep in Zion.

Love for the brethren, longing for the Word, and desire to serve others are necessary marks of the genuinely converted.  Failure to assemble is a mark of God’s judgment (cf. Heb 10:25-39).  Thus 38% attendance bespeaks of our great need for humility to be honest about our numbers and the condition of our churches.  Only once we properly assess the problem, can we petition God for the solution — a fresh outpouring of his Spirit and a harvest of lasting fruit.

Though it is a bitter pill to swallow, Jim Elliff’s argument points us in the right direction, as he points us to the mirror of God’s word.  The glory of Christ’s church is at stake, as well as the souls of millions of missing “believers.”  May we labor with contrition and confidence for the sake of Christ’s church.

To read the whole thing, see his CCW article “Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination.” For more on the nature of a healthy church see Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church and Thabiti Anyabwile’s What is a Healthy Church Member?

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Don’t Despise the ‘Plain Things’ of Life: What the Lord Uses to Prepare His Ministers

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Thinking about ministry and concerned about your ‘theological’ preparation?

Consider that some of the greatest “pastor-theologians” (biblical authors) were entrenched in mundane occupations and the plain things of life for decades before God opened the door to ministry.  For instance, consider Jeffery Niehaus’s words that remind us of Moses’ calling and equipping:

When Moses flees to Midian, he learns to be a husband (Ex 2:2), a father (v. 22), and a shepherd (3:1).  These [plain things] are theologically important facts for him, because he now encounters the God who chooses to become a husband (Jer. 31:32; Eze 16:1ff–both reflecting the Exodus events), a father (Dt 1:31), and a shepherd (Ge 49:24) to his people (God at Sinai: Covenant & Theophany in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, 185).

For 40 years, Moses learned the plain things of life–caring for a wife, leading a family, and tending a flock.  Each of these prepared him for his ministry to Israel, and his ability to record God’s Word.  Likewise, for us, marriage and work, the common but significant lot which all humans enjoy (or despise), prepare us greater Christian service.  In fact, 1 Timothy 3 disqualifies ministers who fail at home.  Thus marriage (which pictures Christ’s love for the church), fatherhood (which reflects God’s love for his adopted children), and vocation (which requires thoughtful creativity, organization, and physical strength, resemble God’s work in the world), all demonstrate aspects about God and his gospel. And thus, all of these “plain things” prepare you and I  for more fruitful service.

Moses example teaches us to stop fearing insufficient training and to recall the fact that for those who God has called, he will use all of life to prepare us for our “received” ministry (cf. John 3:27; Col. 4:17). So, while we ought to look for ways to further our knowledge of god (cf. Ps 111:2; 2 Pet 3:18), we should at the same time realize that all of  life points to God, and prepares us for useful service–with or without “theological training.”

In the plain things are hidden the main things, if we look at them with eyes of faith and minds renewed by God’s Word.  In this way, God reminds us that he is the one who uniquely prepares us for his service, and that our plans are accomplished according to his steps (Prov 16:9).  May we seek God and see him in all of life, so that we may better communicate the divine truths of God’s word as we encounter the daily regimen of life.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

A Display of Glory: The Wizard of Westwood, The Wisdom of God, and The Witness of Your Church

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On June 4 of this year, coaching legend John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood died at the age of 99. He holds the unique place in college basketball history as the only coach to win 10 National Titles–including 7 in a row– and 4 undefeated seasons. At one point, his UCLA Bruins won 88 games straight.  He is hailed as college basketball’s greatest coach. No one has accomplished on the hardwood what John Wooden did.

But here is what is interesting: All of his exploits were accomplished by other people. As a coach, he never once, stepped on the floor, picked up the ball, or checked into the game. As a coach, he never had a triple-double, made a game-winning shot, or came through with a clutch free throw (though he could have: in his playing days, he once made 134 in a row). As a coach, he called the plays and led his team, but his authority was from the sidelines. So, his achievements, indeed his glory, was accomplished by and through others.

So it is in the church. God’s glory is not seen directly. We do not come to church to see God descend in a cloud or pillar of fire. We do not look for a mystical vision to experience God, nor do we anticipate a voice from heaven splitting the sky. That is not how God reveals himself in our age. Rather, when we speak of seeing God’s glory, Scripture calls us to see it in the life and ministry of the church.

This was Paul’s point in Ephesians 3:8-10. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives us some amazing insight into God’s intention for the church. And the first thing he says about the church is that it exists to display the grace and the wisdom of God.

In Ephesians 3:8, Paul says that grace was given to him as an apostle, so that he would preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. In this singular statement, you can see three keys elements of biblical theology–grace, the gospel, and glory.  Grace to proclaim God’s message, the message of the gospel, the gospel of God’s glorious riches in Christ. Paul continues and says that the reason why he was to preach the gospel of Christ was “to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”

Here Paul uses a term that he uses only in a couple places. The term is “Mystery” and it means something that was once hidden but now is revealed. It is not something mysterious or unknowable. The word should not be associated with a Whodunit novel or the “mystery meat” at your school cafeteria. Rather, it has to do with God’s plan of redemption which has finally been revealed in Christ and the church.

Ephesians 3:10 says, “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.” In other words, God’s purpose for the church is to broadcast his grace, wisdom, and power into the world. And not only to the world but to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. In other words, angels subscribe to TBN, or at least the church channel. As 1 Peter 1:12 tells us, “angels long to look into these things.” They are watching what Christ is doing in his Church, and they are learning about God’s glory.  Because remember: Angels cover their faces in the presence of God (cf Isaiah 6:1-8). In their sinless perfection, they cannot stand to behold his glory; it is too great. And for the those fallen angels, their appreciation is even less acute.  So “rulers and authorities” watch in amazement the church, some in awe, others in honor, but all watch to see the unfolding mystery of God’s wisdom in the church, a wisdom that reflects the glory and grace of God.

Therefore, as Christ’s church, we are called to live life as though we are in the display window of Christ’s department store. How we live will determine whether or not the world and our children want anything to do with Christ or not. This is no small matter!  How we constitute, assemble, and participate in our churches is not a peripheral item on God’s agenda.

God intends for us to display his glory and wisdom in our local assemblies, so we ought to do all we can, in the power of the Spirit, to be High-Definition, 3-D Wide Screens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and not a Black & White TV’s, with Rabbit Ears, and bad reception. Because the problem is not in the message of the gospel (cf Rom 1:16), but it may be how we receive it and display it on a weekly basis.

Here is the bottom line, if we are going to reach the lost, it means living more radical lives for Christ. And radical doesn’t mean bigger, cooler, and more events, programs, or activities. It doesn’t mean changing formats or improving advertising. It means picking up our cross daily and following after Christ– loving one another, doing life together, and carrying the message of the salvation to everyone we meet, losing our lives so that others might gain life in Christ.

If we do that, we will display the wisdom of God as all of our daily activities testify to the gospel of Christ and give off the pleasing aroma of his grace.

May God be pleased to purify his bride in our generation, as we seek to display his grace and wisdom to a watching world!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Silas Graeme Schrock

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At 3:07pm, God blessed our home with our second son: Silas Graeme Schrock.  Our little guy, weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19.25 inches.  He and mommy are doing well.  Here are a couple pictures, which do not disclose the fact that he has dark, wavy hair :-)

To God be the glory for giving us a healthy son, dss

The Gospel and Wisdom: Learning to Apply the Gospel to All of Life

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This evening, our church will look at the Book of Proverbs in our ongoing study of the Bible.  In preparation this morning, I came across this helpful reminder by noted Biblical Theologian, Graeme Goldsworthy, that the gospel of Jesus Christ necessarily includes the conversion of the mind and the application of the gospel to all areas of our thought life (cf. Rom 12:1-2;  2 Cor 10:3-6).

Listen to what Goldsworthy has to say,

The Christian mind-set comes about through the gospel, and so we must come to think of Christian wisdom as a conforming of the mind to the gospel.  If, then, we understand the gospel only in its basic terms of Jesus dying for us, we will probably wonder how this can affect the way we think totally.  We need to remind ourselves that the simple gospel is also profound.  The truth, ‘Jesus died for me,’ actually implies everything that God has revealed in the Bible about his relationship to humanity and to the created order. Growing as a Christian really means learning to apply the fact of the gospel to every aspect of our thinking and doing (Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Wisdom in The Goldsworthy Trilogy [Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2000], 341).

May we as Christians continue to turn from the pernicious patterns of this world to the mind-renewing truth of the gospel that informs every aspect of creation, wisdom, and life.  For in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col 2:3).

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Why then the Law? : Counter-Intuitive, Gospel Logic

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“Why then the law?”

In Galatians 3:19, Paul poses that question, and in the rest of the chapter, he sets out to explain the purpose of the law.  To answer his own question he says that the law came to increase sin (v. 19; cf. Rom 5:20; 7:7ff) and to imprison all mankind under sin (v. 22).  Why would God do that?  Why would God do something that would increase law-breaking in the world?  If God knew that adding law to the world would increase sin, why wouldn’t he do something else to help rehabilitate his people?

Because God is not in the business of rehabilitation!  His aim is to destroy the works of the devil, defeat death, and render powerless the curse of the law. So…

God sent the law to enfeeble and imprison all mankind–Jews and Gentiles–in order to that all who are held captive by the law would feel the effects of its shackles, so that the sinners woudl be spurred to long for the gospel of grace.  In God’s wisdom and according to God’s word, it appears that God instituted his law to crush us in our self-confidence, to reveal our wickedness, and magnify our unworthiness, so that in the end, you and I would look away from ourselves, disgusted by our sin, and to gaze upon Christ, the only one who can free us from the law, sin, and death.

Like chemotherapy, God’s law does not make us better; it makes us worse, so that our lives might be spared as we turn to the Great Physician.

Hear Martin Luther’s stunning commentary on how the law tills the soil of our heart, preparing the way for justification, but not accomplishing justification itself:

The Law with its function does contribute to justification–not because it justifies, but becasue it impels the promise of grace and makes it sweet and desirable.  Therefore we do not abolish the Law; but we show its true function and use, namely, that it is a most useful servant impelling us to Christ…; for its function and use is not only to disclose the sin and wrath of God but also to drive us to Christ [Amen!]… Therefore the principle purpose of the Law in the theology is to make men not better but worse; that is, it shows them their sin, so that by the recognition of sin they may be humbled, frightened, and worn down, and so may long for grace and for the Blessed Offspring: [Jesus Christ]!” (Luther on Galatians, quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians, p. 137).

When was the last time you heard something like that?  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” namely that God intends  to “humble, frighten, and wear you down” so that you will find grace in time of need (Heb 4:16).

The law shows us our need, our weakness, and our God-forsaking sin.  It points us to Christ, the blessed redeemer and the one who is full of grace and mercy.  He is a sympathetic high priest, who extends to us God’s hand of favor, when we look to him in faith.

May we embrace the law with its terrifying vision of ourselves, and may we flee to the gospel where we find forgiveness and freedom purchased on Calvary’s hill.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Think Well!

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Desiring God has put up a new video challenging American evangelicals to think and to think well.  The first two minutes are worth a look (and so is the rest, as it begins to promo their upcoming conference: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God).  John Piper reminds us that our love for God is dependent on our thought life, and that failure to cultivate the mind leads to “diminished” worship, joy, and love for God.

May our thinking charge our loving of God and others!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Redemption in the Key of D(avid): A One-Page Guide To Reading the Psalms Canonically

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Yesterday I taught through the Psalms.  150 Psalms in about an hour.  It was a fast-paced survey of how the Psalter moves…

from the suffering and glory of the historical David in Psalms 1-72…
to fall of David’s house and Israel’s exile because of their covenant breaking in Psalms 73-89…
to a YHWH-centered interlude in Psalms 90-106 which promises redemption and recovery of God’s people because of God’s covenant faithfulness and steadfast love…
to finally the messianic hope of another greater David to come in Psalms 107-150.

Overall, reading the Psalter as one glorious story of redemption– “Redemption in the Key of D(avid),” you might say– is an illuminating and I would argue the most biblical way to read the Psalms.

It is evident that the Psalms are more than the ancient Israelites equivalent to a WOW Worship CD.  It is not a random compilation of the best hits from the Temple.  The (chrono)logical arrangement of the Psalter is impressive. As Old Testament scholars are helping us see, the content of the Psalms tells us the story of redemptive history, looking back to the David of history and anticipating the eschatological David to come who is God himself (Psalm 110:1; cf Psalm 45:6,).  In other words, while each Psalm is captivating in its own right, set in its own historical, put together,  it becomes evident that a larger story is being told.

To help my church and anyone else who is interested, I have put my notes online, which include a one page outline of the Psalter according to its canonical arrangement.  If it can serve you as a helpful ‘bookmark’ or ‘roadmap,’ please print it out and stick in your Bible to help see how the Psalms fit together to point us to Christ.

It is amazing to see Christ in all of Scripture, and anything that pastor-teachers can do to show how all the Bible leads to Christ will always encourage the faith of our people.  Here are the notes:

Psalms: Redemption in the Key of D(avid)
A Canonical Reading of the Psalter.

For more on this subject see, John Walton’s JETS article (1991), “Psalms: A Cantata About the Davidic Covenant,”Paul House’s chapter on the Psalms in his Old Testament Theology, and Stephen Dempster’s section on the Psalms in Dominion and Dynasty. I bet Jim Hamilton will also have a great chapter on this when his book, God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment comes out this Fall.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Pre-Engagement: 5 Questions to Ask Yourselves (RCL Booklet 1)

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What could be more delightful than answering questions with and about the one that you love?  To the young couple dreaming about a life together, few things would make them happier than to answer questions about their love.

Yet too often, too many couples go into engagement and marriage unprepared because they did not know the right questions to ask.  Sadly, many marriages have suffered and others have broken because of unforeseen challenges that could have been avoided or softened by a thoughtful season of question-and-answers prior to engagement and marriage.

To help facilitate this inquisitive discussion, pastor-counselors David Powlison and John Yenchko have provided couples looking to marriage with an insightful diagnostic in their 36-page booklet, “Pre-Engagement: 5 Questions to Ask Yourselves.”  In “Pre-Engagement,” they lay out five questions, and give young lovers much to think over as they make plans to enter into a covenant legitimately broken only by death.

Here are the five questions.

  1. Are You Both Christians?
  2. Do You Have a Track Record of Solving Problems Biblically?
  3. Are You Heading in the Same Direction in Life?
  4. What Do Those Who Know You Well Think of Your Relationship?
  5. Do You Want to Marry This Person? Are You Willing to Accept Each Other Just as You Are?

Of course, these questions don’t get to everything, but with the follow-up questions that supplement these main questions, Powlison and Yenchko do a superb job getting to the heart of each couple.  Moving their readers to consider more than their personal love for one another, they challenge couples to consider marriage in its larger framework (see Ephesians 5:22-33; Luke 14:26).

So, if you are getting married, doing marriage counseling, or anticipating a phone call from a child or grand-child saying “He asked…I said yes,” let me encourage you to pick up, read, and pass along this little book with 5 Questions.  For yourself or for someone you care about, this set of diagnostic questions could save years heartache and ensure a well-informed, biblical process of answering the question, “Is he (or she) the one?”

May the Lord bless those who are getting married this summer, and may God use this book to help others discern the wisdom of popping the question or answering in the affirmative.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Responsibly Submitting to God’s Sovereignty

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I was not convinced of God’s “exhaustive, meticulous sovereignty” (to borrow Bruce Ware’s phrase) until September 11, 2001.  I had been wrestling with the matter all summer.  Conversations piled up.  Readings on God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility proliferated.  I had entered the summer as an ignorant open theist, had been confronted by a number of friends who argued from the whole counsel of Scripture for God’s unerring and unswerving sovereignty, and by the fall I was theoretically convinced of God’s perfect control of the world (cf Psalm 115:3; 135:6; Job 42:2; Isaiah 46:9-11; Daniel 4:34-35; Ephesians 1:10; Revelations 4:11).

But to turn theory into embrace took something more.  It took two terrorist planes slamming into New York’s Twin Towers to convince my heart of the matter that “God Reigns,” and that I am not in control of my life, any more than I can control the events in NYC.

Thinking back on that infamous day, I will never forget walking up the stairs into my dorm.  I had spent the morning glued to the television watching the horror unfold in New York.  Ascending the steps, I remember telling a friend, “Unless God is totally sovereign, I do not know how to make sense of that act of terror.”

I don’t know why in that moment, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart the conviction of God’s sovereignty, but I can mark it to that day, that God, in his sovereign grace, invaded my heart with a love for his divine control. I submitted to his sovereignty.

Such a reaction to the claims of God’s sovereignty are not uncommon.  Many Christians I have spoken to have articulated a similar journey–from arguing against God’s sovereignty to embracing it as one of their greatest comforts.

Marking his own journey towards sovereign submission, Jonathan Edwards writes:

From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty…. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I remember the time very well, when I seemed to be convinced, and fully satisfied, as to this sovereignty of God….

But never could I give an account, how, or by what means, I was thus convinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God’s Spirit in it; but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the justice and reasonableness of it. However, my mind rested in it; and it put an end to all those cavils and objections.

And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, in respect to the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, from that day to this; so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it, in the most absolute sense…. I have often since had not only a conviction but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first conviction was not so (Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative,” in Jonathan Edwards: Representative Selections, ed. C. H. Faust and T. H. Johnson [New York: Hill & Wang, 1962], 58–9; quoted in John Piper, Desiring God [Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003], 38).

I suspect that anyone who arrives at delighting in God’s sovereignty, did not do so naturally.  It was aided by the Spirit of God and prompted his Word, a revelation that is filled with inescapable claims of God’s complete control.

Consider just a few: The Bible speaks of all creation existing under his and being sustained by his powerful word (Job 38-39; Psalm 135:5-7; Acts 17:27-28; Heb 1:1-2), kings and individuals are directed by God’s invisible but omnipotent hand (Prov 16:9; 21:1; Dan 4:34-35), nations, good and evil alike, accomplish his intended,though often unintelligible, purposes (Psalm 33:10-11; Isaiah 10:5ff; Habbakuk 2:1ff), and that every roll of the dice at the river boat bounces as God intends (Prov 16:33).  All things happen according to his will (Eph 1:11).  Even the world’s greatest evil–like September 11–is mysteriously governed by God (Isa 45:7; Lam 3:37-38), in a way preserves God’s absolute innocence and purity (James 1:13) and yet maintains that even the gravest tragedy will be turned for good (Rom 8:28; cf. consider the unlawful murder of Jesus, ordained by God before the foundation of the world, Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; 1 Peter 1:19-20).

Even with the testimony of Scripture mounting, embracing God’s sovereignty grates against our fallen condition.  Ingesting the fruit in the garden put within every human being a penchant from liberty apart from God.  Our innocent freedom was traded for bondage to sin (cf Romans 5, 8).  Consequently, our human nature revolts against the idea that we are not sovereign in our own lives.  We long to be God and to suppress the truth (Gen 3:1-6; Romans 1:18ff).

The irony about embracing God’s absolute sovereignty is that it does not make us robots, it makes us more human.  Men raging for their own sovereignty are less than human because they are denying the position God gave them as ‘created beings’ under his rule (cf Gen 1:26-28).  Why is this so hard to accept?  Because the effects of the fall still poisons our hearts and blinds our eyes.  The Bible renews our minds, mends our hearts, and opens our eyes to see the world not from our fallen human condition, but from God’s omniscient position.

Jonathan Edwards was exactly right: Embracing God’s sovereignty is not natural.  It is an act of submission, a denial of self, a willingness to give God back his crown.  Yet, in so doing, mankind is made most like its creator, submitting to his sovereign plan and purpose, one that is unstoppable in turning independent men and women into slaves of righteousness who find their greatest freedom in servile obedience to the King of Glory, the Lord of grace and truth.

May we humble ourselves and embrace God’s sovereignty.  Why?  Because that’s our human responsibility.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss