sbc IMPACT! blog Set to Launch on September 1

Friends,

I wanted to make you aware of this new, helpful blog for Southern Baptists. I have been asked to be a contributor and am excited about this new forum. As a contributor, I will be interviewing different SBC folks and also writing stories about exciting things happening in the convention - including a story in September on NOBA! Please join us in the discussion at www.sbcimpact.net whenever you are able to do so. Here is the official invitation:

sbc IMPACT!, an exciting, new collaborative blog site, will officially launch on Saturday, September 1 at www.sbcimpact.net.
sbc IMPACT! is the vision of a group of Southern Baptist bloggers who desire to host a truly edifying, thought-provoking, civil community for the examination and discussion of issues that affect Southern Baptist churches.
Instead of dwelling upon SBC politics and personalities, sbc IMPACT! will be a place where issues, even the tough issues, can be discussed and debated in a God-honoring manner. It will be a place where Southern Baptist ministries, churches, and missionaries can be highlighted and lifted up. It will be a place where differing views can be stated in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
In short, the contributors at sbc IMPACT! want to work to bring Christ-like character, honorable speech, and real ministry to the discussion of Southern Baptist issues in the blogosphere. Our contributors are SBC pastors, ministers, lay-people, and bloggers. Take time to visit our Contributors page and get to know us. Take time to send an e-mail of encouragement.
Tell everyone you can that an exciting, new blog community is coming to SBC life. Add us to your blogroll. Come and visit when we launch on Saturday, September 1. And please do not hesitate to join in the community and conversation. We value your ministry, your kinship in Christ, and your views. We know that you have something valuable to offer your fellow Southern Baptists.
We’ll be “tweaking” the site and making a few changes between now and the launch date, so be patient with us. Hopefully, if you will take a careful look at our Purpose Statement and Standards for commenting, you will truly understand our hearts and desires for this endeavor. Meanwhile … if there are any topics or issues that you would like to see discussed in this forum, just leave us a comment.
God bless all. We’ll see you on the 1st!

Roger

Contextual Ministry and Reaching Courtney

Courtney is 28, single, educated, attractive, slim, and has never attended church, though she has several questions about church that make me squirm. She transferred to our area nine months ago from Roanoke and received a sizeable salary increase.

She is buying a condo and leasing a yellow ’06 Porsche Boxter. (She had a Mazda Miata but it got hit in the side.) Oh, and she also has a cat. (I don’t know what kind. I don’t really care for cats.)

Courtney has never been to an SBC church, has never heard of Lottie Moon, the BF&M, or Morris Chapman. She thinks that Baptists do something with snakes, but is not sure what (or why).

She had an abortion in 2001. Last Sunday at Kroger she saw a woman with a really young infant. It made her feel strange – maybe some guilt there. (She doesn’t talk about it.) Her parents are divorced and her dad has never known about the abortion.

Courtney likes reggae, genuine relationships/sharing, “meaning” in life, and she wishes that she could do something about poverty, hunger and/or AIDS. (She once sent $50 to one of the organizations that pledges to help hungry children. She wonders if the money really got to them.)

There are 1000’s of people like Courtney in our area. (Forty-six percent of Boone Countians were born outside of KY.) Perhaps they didn’t all transfer from Roanoke, but most would not feel “right” in a lot of our churches.

Associations who help their churches learn to relate to the Courtneys of the world have a promising future.

Associations who cannot or choose not to address these challenges will increasingly talk about how great the 60’s were and will become less and less effective.

Rick Robbins, DoM
Northern Kentucky Baptist Association

Are Para-Church Groups Spiritual Adulterers?

What would your response be to a person that says:

• I like you, come over anytime, but please don’t bring your wife?
• I love you, but I refuse to spend time with you if your wife is present?
• I can’t stand being around your wife, let’s go spend time together without her?

The hair on the back of my neck stands up just to read such statements. Most of us would find such statements reprehensible. Those would be fighting words if said to us, wouldn’t they?

Are para-church groups that claim to be lovers of Jesus Christ, but do not connect persons to the church (the Bride) spiritual adulterers? How can you say you love the groom (Jesus) and disregard the bride (the Church)? Again, the hair on the back of my neck stands up when I think of it in those terms.

When we support para-church groups or persons that aren’t connecting converts to a local fellowship of believers, it is like supporting a relationship with the “other” woman instead of the bride. How can we even imagine leading people to enter a love relationship with Jesus and not help them to love spending time with his bride, the church?

Are these para-church groups’ spiritual adulterers? The “other” woman? Vying for the affections of new believers?

Ed Stetzer recently asked: Can You Love Jesus and Ignore His Bride? (Read his comments here). He was addressing recent research about the huge number of young people that drop out of church after high school. When they land on a college campus, they often find groups that want to “love Jesus” together, but they don’t intentionally connect the students to the local church. How can that be?

Are these and other para-church groups’ spiritual adulterers? If they don’t encourage those who love Jesus to love His Bride (the Church), it would seem to be the case.

What do you think?

Bobby Gilstrap, DoM
Huron & Southeastern Baptist Associations
Michigan

Associations Will Die ... Or Will They?

If your association ceased to exist how long would it take for area churches and members to notice you were gone?

There is great debate in some circles as to the real value of the local association. Can it survive? Some say “yes” while others have cast doom on the association's future. Are you aware that well known futurist have forecast that a multi-level denominational structure like the Southern Baptist Convention cannot survive in today's post-denominational environment? Most have said that either the association or the state convention must be eliminated from the SBC denominational structure. (For supporting articles, click HERE and HERE and HERE.)

Because of the funding structure in most new work (mission) areas, the state conventions have the ability to "fund" or "not fund" local associational missionaries. Several states are now moving to "phase out" associational directors and are proposing to replace them in some fashion with state convention representatives. Will the churches in those areas notice the difference?

What do churches in your area value about the local association and its ministry?

Will associations be the ones to suffer demise? OR will state conventions fall by the wayside? OR are futurists totally off base ... not seeing the value of the SBC maintaining both levels within its structure.

I CLOSE BY REPEATING: “If your association ceased to exist how long would it take for area churches and members to notice you were gone?”

Bobby Gilstrap, DoM
Huron & Southeastern Associations
Michigan

What Exactly Do You Do?

Shortly after becoming a Director of Missions, I was engaged in conversation with the president of a community college and he asked a simple question: What exactly do you do?
Following my attempt to provide a satisfactory answer, his response went something like this--"Well, I was just curious. In the academic field, we take someone who can't teach and make them an administrator. I thought maybe in Baptist circles they take someone who can't preach and give them an administrative job."

In time, I learned that the college president was quite adept at the use of humor. I like to think that he was just having a good laugh at my expense that day. Regardless of his motive, I think the question deserves to be honestly asked and accurately answered--"What exactly does a Director of Missions do?

A standard response may refer to a three-fold role of the Director of Missions as represented by the letter M: Minister, Missionary, and Manager. Call me strange, but I kind of like the letter L: Lover, Learner, and Leader. Take the first dimension for instance--lover of God, lover of others, lover of family, the Bible, the church, missions, etc.

Why stop there? A Director of Missions functions in a wide variety of roles: administrator, advocate, builder, catalyst, change agent, chaplain, communicator, community leader, coach, confidant, consultant, coordinator, counselor, denominational representative, director, educator, enabler, encourager, equipper, evangelist, executive, facilitator, fundraiser, historian, innovator,
journalist, leader, manager, mediator, mentor, minister, missionary, pastor, organizer, planner, preacher, planter, reconciler, referee, resource person, supervisor, team leader, teacher, trainer, vision-caster.

What functions would you add to the list? Extra points are awarded for words that begin with Q, Y, or Z. Also, you have permission to use this list in discussions with your Personnel Committee concerning merit raises.

The work of the Director of Missions has its share of joys, privileges, frustrations, and heartaches. It is easy to identify with the apostle Paul when he acknowledged "the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches" (II Corinthians 11:28, NASB). The mother of Dr. Jimmy Draper expressed it well when she remarked, "In one sense you belong to everyone and in another sense you belong to no one."

What do you consider to be the three most important roles of a Director of Missions? What do you enjoy most about the work? What brings you the greatest sense of satisfaction and accomplishment? What is your greatest frustration?

What exactly do you do?

Allan Nix, DoM
Jones County Baptist Association
Laurel, MS

Connecting People to God through Corporate Prayer

I asked an SBC Colleague if I could share these insights with you. He is currently Illinois Baptist Prayer Ministry director and served as a pastor and interim Executive Director for the Chicago Metro Baptist Association. He has ministered several times with us in Austin for Associational meetings, prayer leadership and he has facilitated our City Impact Roundtable for the past 5 years. Find more prayer resources by Phil Miglioratti by searching by the KEYWORD “Prayer” on the NoBA website.

David Smith, DoM Austin, TX

________________________________________

From: Phil Miglioratti

Thank you David for this opportunity ... I am truly blessed to know that our associational leadership is in dialogue about the issues that will revitalize our 300 year old system of cooperative ministry among congregations. May God grant this learning community strategic insights on how to guide, guard, and govern the work of Christ in our cities and communities.

You know by my mission statement ("connecting people to God through corporate prayer") that saturating congregations and associations with upward and outward (rather than exclusively inward) prayer is of vital concern to me. As I travel our state and connect with three dozen SBC state prayer leaders, I hear more mention and recognition of prayer, and that is encouraging. Implementation? That is another story. Most pastors and directors seem satisfied with small incremental steps, which is possibly better than nothing.

What would I suggest (how nice of you to ask)?

I'd welcome response, pro or con, to what amounts to an expanded outline for an upcoming training session: Prayer That Changes Churches (and Associations!)

• We need a change in leadership - A recognition that we (directors and pastors) must be the prayer champion in our context. More than preaching on prayer, we must lead the church (or team or group) into the place of prayer. This is not an administrative position; it is a calling to call the Church to prayer. And to be right in the middle of the praying. Churches (and associations) change when their leader stops talking about prayer and starts leading them into prayer.
• We need a change in our lists - Prayer meetings have died (the rest seem to be on life support) because all we do is pray down-the-list as we predictably go around-the-circle.Our praying needs to be a Spirit-led conversation based on the issues and needs that are on he heart of God, not merely on our hospital list. Churches (and associations) change when they begin to pray for neighbors and neighborhoods, by name and by need (issue need, not merely illness need).
• We need a change in our location - We should never stop praying in our church facilities but we must start praying in unexpected and especially unwelcomed places. Seasons of prayer must be incorporated into every committee and class, every meeting and ministry, every group and gathering. Sessions of prayer must take our people out of their seats and into the streets. Dark corners and hot spots in our communities must be bathed in the light of God that is prayed out from the prayers of his people praying onsite. Churches (and associations) change when they break the holy huddle (necessary for our quarterback to cal the next play) and move the ball down the filed toward victory.

David, I am praying and asking God's people to pray we will have model associations that are led by prayer champions, appoint a prayer coordinator, develop a prayer ministry team, hit the streets with prayerwalks, equip the believers through prayer workshops, gather pastors for a prayer summit, flood their churches with prayer resources ... Why? Because prayer is the one spiritual action we can take that will fuel our worship, our evangelism, our commitment to missions, our everything that makes us Great Commission associations. We marginalize it at our own peril.

Phil Miglioratti
phil@nppn.org

Tune-Up

http://ibsaprayer.blogspot.com/search?q=%22tune+up%22

Resources for Prayer Leadership

http://www.prayerleader.blogspot.com/

Help for Pastors

http://www.prayingpastorblog.blogspot.com/

_____________________________________________________

Our Changing World

The church of twenty-first century America faces an exciting new challenge: namely, how to present a timeless message to a culture that often feels the church is irrelevant? You do not have to look far to discover that the cultural landscape of America is drastically changing. Companies such as Sears, Chevron, and Goodyear have been removed from the Dow Jones Index and replaced with high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and SBC Communications. Maps are being exchanged for GPS, mail for email, calling for texting. VHS for DVD, CD’s for iPods, and books for Google. As technology has increased, the rapidity with which cultural renovation can occur has become staggering. In some ways it’s a missiologist’s dream.

My experience has been that the North American church is keenly aware of its new cultural challenge; we know the world is changing. The problem has been what are we supposed to do about it? If you listen carefully, at this point in my article, you may hear the crashing sounds off your grandmother’s high-heels and hymnal colliding with your son’s flip-flops and guitar! Because, frequently, in our efforts to respond to changing culture, North American churches have crashed and clashed into and over 1 of 2 extremes.

1. We retreat into our stained glass monastery by turning the Great Commission inward, as we indolently rest in arms of truth and purity.
2. We charge the fringes of our culture recklessly exchanging evangelism for compassion, holiness for relevance, and theology for philosophy.

I believe the answer to the problem of culture screams out at the church from the starlit stable in the dusty town of Bethlehem. It’s called The Incarnation! The Word became flesh and He dwelt among the people. The incarnation brings life to the crippled, while reminding the healed to “go and sin no more.” The Incarnation rises with the sun in prayer anchoring His soul in truth before challenging the shackles of legalism. God’s calling is not a call to hopeless defeatism that bleakly seeks to endure until His coming. The good news by its very nature lives among people and discovers life eternal in the midst of death. It is an extraordinary mix between one’s vertical relationship with God and horizontal relationship with others. It’s a call to the truth of the gospel balanced by the love of the gospel, holiness and love, grace and justice, creativity and tradition, passion and purity, zeal and wisdom. The incarnation is seen in Matthew the Tax Collector, Simon the Zealot, Peter the Leader, Paul the Planner, Martha the Servant, Mary the Worshiper, and John the Thinker. The call of the first century is the call of the twenty-first century church: a faith-filled call to authentically live in the skin God gave us while experiencing the adventure of sharing and living the good news of truth.

Posted by
Lash Banks, Director of Missions
Grayson Baptist Association

Acts 1:8 Challenge OR Acts 1:8 Commitment

There is a lot of rhetoric in our denomination about ACTS 1:8 but there is no real unified strategy to implement an ACTS 1:8 Mission Strategy. I attended a conference in Tampa, Florida, in 1999 where the ACTS 1:8 Mission Strategy was previewed. SBC Agencies, State Conventions, Associations and Churches were represented and the discussion was exciting. The idea was to have ACTS 1:8 State Conventions, ACTS 1:8 Associations, ACTS 1:8 Churches and ACTS 1:8 Individuals. I came back and shared the concept with our Executive Committee and we voted in January of 2000 to become an ACTS 1:8 Association. I didn't know what all that entailed but I knew that God was inviting us to a greater involvement in His worldwide vision.

As I sought to implement the ACTS 1:8 Strategy in our association, it became apparent that if we wanted to challenge our churches to be ACTS 1:8 Churches, then there needed to be some level of expectation and commitment in order to qualify as an ACTS 1:8 Church. I asked at every level of SBC life and no one had any suggestions so we came up with our own. Then a few years later, the SBC voted to issue an ACTS 1:8 Challenge and assigned it to the North American Mission Board. Any church or person could simply sign up their church to be an ACTS 1:8 Church. I knew a lady at our State Convention who signed up a fictitious church and received all of the computer-generated emails back congratulating the church for accepting the ACTS 1:8 Challenge. What a farce!

The point that I want to make if that if ACTS 1:8 is to be a Mission Strategy that will make any real difference in our world, then our Agencies, our State Conventions, our Associations, our Churches and our people need to get serious about a unified strategy that will move us from a "Challenge" to a real "Commitment". God is at work in an unbelievable way in calling out His people and His Church to be engaged in world missions in new and unique ways. What will all of this mean? Nobody really knows but journey could be very exciting. I believe it is time to have a unified ACTS 1:8 Mission Strategy that will require more of us than we have been willing to make up to this point. Our denomination can lead us in this great adventure with God or sit around and continue to talk about ACTS 1:8. I think it is time to get busy!

What do you think?

Sid Hopkins
Executive Director
Gwinnett Metro Baptist Association
Lawrenceville, Georgia

Any Two People Genuinely Seeking God CAN Work Together

In a sermon preached at Ridgecrest immediately before I became a Director of Missions I heard Jimmy Draper state "Any two people genuinely seeking God can work together." His words were spoken as he preached on "The Single Priority of Christ," using the testimony of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 1:21 (and associated verses). I took note of those words and have used it as a guide in my work as a Director of Missions/Associational Missionary.

It burdens me that we (as believers) debate and argue on so many issues and harbor such ill will toward one another as a result of past hurts. While we read and respond to this post, hundreds of people will leave this world to eternity - most without Christ. As those committed to being Great Commission/Great Commandment people (and in our positions leading countless others in that same effort), it appears to me that we should make extra effort to work together for the cause of Christ.

I believe God's Word teaches that the world will know we belong to Him by the way that we "love one another." I believe God's Word teaches that we are to do all that we can to "preserve the unity" of God's church. I believe that God's Word teaches that we are to work together as a body of believers to reach a lost world for Christ.

Cooperation
Draper stated that the Apostle Paul was able to state Philippians 1:21 because he had learned to live by the SINGULAR priority of Christ. The world encourages us to "get our priorities in order." For most of my life I have shared that philosophy. Today I would tell you that I missed the mark when I proclaimed that philosophy. I should have preached prioritY and not prioriTIES. In Matthew 6: 33 Jesus taught us to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" and declared that all these "things" shall be added as well. I am called of God to be like Him, therefore that should be my message as well. I must stop putting "things" ahead of Christ.

When I state my opinion on issues of importance - they are my opinions and not God's Word. When I work diligently to advance my agenda - I must work hard to insure that my agenda is in tune with God's Will for His Kingdom. When I look to my "friends" or my "enemies" and am swayed one way or the other by their comments, I must look to God's Word and meditate upon it to insure that I am not being swayed by just any "wind of doctrine" that comes my way. That's why Draper's comments hit home that day - am I genuinely seeking God for the advancement of His kingdom or am I continually ignoring God's Word and His Call upon my life for the purpose of building my kingdom?

I commend Dr. Frank Page and those who planned our SBC this year for their efforts to call us to prayer. I believe God is calling His church to repent/turn from our wicked ways and genuinely seek Him. If and when we genuinely seek God together, we will begin to genuinely reflect who He is in the way we live our lives/conduct ourselves. That's what the world around us needs to see in us - a reflection of the Living Christ that offers to those in despair the help, hope, fulfillment, deliverance, and salvation that only Christ can bring into their lives. If we are not careful we turn people away and they remain eternally lost while we are engaged in debate over that which is important to us but may not be quite as important to God.

God is inviting us to join Him in His work - to become engaged in evangelism - sharing His message so that people will hear and come unto Him; to become engaged in discipleship - walking alongside new believers and helping them in their daily walk with the Lord and being there for them when they stumble; to become engaged in fellowship - which is far more than our potluck dinners on any given day of the week in Baptist life; to become engaged in ministry - caring for the needs of one another as part of the body and caring for the needs of our neighbors as Christ would have us to be caring for the needs of our neighbors (His definition not ours); and engaged in genuine worship of the one true God - not just playing church like little children or "going through the motions" of doing church.

The question before us is "will we join Him in His Work" and will be commit to genuinely seeking God together so that we can work together to accomplish His purpose? The QBQ (Question Behind The Question) is - are we willing to lay down ourselves for the cause of Christ, pick up His Cross, and FOLLOW Him? I remain convinced - "any two people, genuinely seeking God can work together."

Dougald McLaurin, DoM
Tar River Baptist Association
NC

Are There Dangers in the Emergent Church Movement?

There appears to be great confusion among American religious leaders between what is really happening among some of the younger generation’s expressions of their faith. Is there a difference between “Emerging Church” and “Emergent Church” groups? If so, what is the difference and what is the impact on local expressions of faith through the church and cooperative associational ministry?

Read the following news summary and then let’s ask a few more questions about this movement.

• Emerging Church Dangers Go Far beyond 'Style Issues'
  OneNewsNow.com reports that John MacArthur believes most Christians are not aware of the dangers posed by the "emergent church" movement, which he says is counter to scripture in its underlying theology. MacArthur's new book The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, says while the emergent church talks of reaching people by appealing to the culture, emergent church leaders do not have a high regard for the unchanging truth of God's Word. And too many Christians aren't aware of the problems associated with that. (SOURCE: Crosswalk.com, Religion Today Summaries - June 21, 2007)

Do you have “Emergent Church” or “Emerging Church” leaders in your ministry area? Is there a difference? Are they deceived? Do they value the truth of scripture? Maybe they are on target trying to reach their culture and McArthur is off base? Which is it? Can it be both?

What must we do as associations to effectively minister to these young leaders? Do we defend them before other older church leaders in our area who do not understand this movement?

What should our position be in this movement?

bobby gilstrap, DoM
Huron & Southeastern Associations
Michigan

Welcome, baptist association bloggers!

Well, here goes. This is our first posting on the Network of Baptist Associations blog. I am honored to get the chance to moderate and host this blog for NOBA, and glad to be a part, with all of you, of witnessing a new day in the work of baptist associations. This blog will serve as a running commentary and place of dialogue on the issues associations are facing, and hopefully will provide (in the postings and in the comments) some insight and wisdom on the task before us. Anyone is welcome to comment here, but we especially welcome Southern Baptist Directors of Missions and associational staff who are members of NOBA. We appreciate your willingness to cooperate with other associations to help all of us see and meet the needs and opportunities of the future.

With that in mind, let me introduce myself. I am actually not a DOM, but am a part-time Church Planting Strategist for the Gwinnett Metro Baptist Association in Gwinnett County, Georgia northeast of Atlanta. I am also planting and pastoring a church called Woodland Creek (http://www.woodlandcreekchurch.org) , and I serve on the NOBA Communications Team. And from time to time I get to serve as a worship leader and breakout leader at events like the NOBA Summit. My passion is church planting and leadership development, especially in the next generations of the church. I am fascinated by associational ministry and what it can mean to the churches and community and am looking forward to learning from all of you as you share your comments and thoughts.

I know many of you are new to blogging, so might I suggest the helpful primer on the subject found at this link: http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/001127.html. And let me encourage you to set up a website or blog for your association. I have been doing a little research and only about half of our baptist associations even have a website. So let me open the blog with these questions: how does your association communicate with churches? Do your association use email, websites, blogs, phone calls or visits to pastors? What works best for you? How is your association adapting to the new tools around us and to the use of technology to connect?