I really liked the resolution that has been up on the Founder’s Blog, and will certainly support it by voting in favor if/when I attend the SBC this summer. The link won’t take you straight there, but you’ll be able to read it for yourself if you are not pleased with my own copy and pasted job below.

Resolution on Integrity in Reporting…revisited

The Southern Baptist Convention website has very clear instructions on how to submit a resolution to the annual convention. You may submit one either electronically or via regular mail as early as April 15.

Last August, in response to a suggestion made by Gene Bridges, I put together a resolution on church discipline and integrity in reporting statistics as a possibility to submit to the 2006 Resolutions Committee. There was not much response to it then. But I am posting it again to see if there is more interest now that the SBC annual meeting is only 2 months away. If enough people express support for this resolution, perhaps it might make it out of committee and be recommended to the convention for a vote. I don’t know exactly how such support can be registered with the Committee on Resolutions, but I am sure there must be a way.

If you have suggestions, please let me know. I plan to submit it April 15.

_________________________________________________________________

Whereas this 148th annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention marks the 26th anniversary of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention; and

Whereas at the heart of this resurgence has been a determination to return to an unashamed commitment to the inerrancy and infallibilty of the Bible as the written Word of God; and

Whereas the Baptist Faith and Message states that the Scriptures are “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried” (Article 1); and

Whereas the inerrant, infallible Word of God instructs us not to bear false witness (Exodus 20:16), but to put away lying and to speak truthfully to his neighbor (Ephesians 4:25); and

Whereas in 2004 the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Church Profiles indicated that there are 16,267,494 members in Southern Baptist churches; and

Whereas well over one half of those members never attend or participate meaningfully in the life of any local Southern Baptist church and are thus no different than non-members; and

Whereas the ideal of a regenerate church membership has long been and remains a cherished Baptist principle; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED that the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, June 13-14, 2005, urge Southern Baptists to repent of our failure to maintain responsible church membership, and be it further

RESOLVED that we urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to repent of the widespread failure among us to obey Jesus Christ in the practice of church discipline (Matthew 18:15-18), and be it further

RESOLVED that we plead with pastors and church leaders to lead their churches to study and implement out Lord’s teachings on this essential church practice, and be it further

RESOLVED that we encourage denominational servants to support and encourage churches that seek to recover and implement our Savior’s teachings on church discipline, especially when such efforts result in the reduction in the number of members that are reported in those churches, and be it finally

RESOLVED that we commit to pray for our churches as they seek to honor the Lord Jesus Christ through reestablishing integrity to church membership and to the reporting of statistics in the Annual Church Profile.

Well, this one is really interesting, at least it is for me.

I enjoy identifying myself as a reformed thinker. I am not Roman Catholic. This alone should be enough. I love how the group known as Reformed Arminians are, at least by their name, seeking to preserve some of the original etimology of the term reformed. To be reformed does not necessarily mean to be a 5-point Calvinist. Sadly, the terms have become equivical today.

That said, my not being Roman Catholic is not all I mean when I call myself reformed. I think like reformed people do in systematically trying to work out doctrine and theology. I hold to a reformed epistemology, and generally agree with John Calvin’s views, which have in some ways been distorted (at least the emphases) by those claiming to be his followers.

However, I am extremely sympathetic to those who would disagree with my current position, for I was them for over three years. And I wasn’t the average, uneducated evangelical who punted sovereignty becuase I didn’t like it or becuase I ripped Romans 9 out of my Bible. My friends and I actually had stronger, more academic arguments (both Biblically & philosophically) against some versions of Calvinism prevelant among Southern Baptists today. Scot McKnight has begun to expose some of these issues we used to discuss at length in this article.

I am glad that there are scholars out there who are honest enough to deal with the biblical text apart from theological presuppositions that aid reading into the text, eisogesis, instead of pulling out of the true meaning of the text, exegesis. This might lead to some strange places, but we can hold onto the doctrines that are most important to us while structuring them systematically in a different way, thus, perhaps the term Post-Calvinism?

Check out this article for a brief synopsis of what Dr. John Piper calls “Christian Hedonism.”

I disagree with this terminology…too much baggage. I do understand and appreciate what he’s trying to communicate, though. I am not generally in agreement with the things that Piper continually over-emphasizes, but I completely agree with everything in this particular interview, and must further add that these truths have proven incredibly valuable to me in my own relationship with Jesus.

As he himself admits, if you’ve read one of his books, you’ve read them all. There are, of course, exceptions, such as his mini-biographies in “The Swans are not Silent” serious are altogether a different genre for Piper. But, insofar as Piper is unique, he is one in a very small minority articulating the experience of joy in believers. For a more detailed account of his take on the Christian life (repackaging Jonathan Edwards), pick up Desiring God, or, the introductory, “cliff notes” version, The Dangerous Duty of Delight. Also, just a plug, his new book God is the Gospel is unparallelled for devotional literature regarding the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ in the Christian life as far as recently written literature.

I hate this controversy. It seems to me that people are more concerned with power than they are world missions. People will not be reached as a result of the current political controversy within the IMB and its Board of Trustees.

I don’t have time to explain the entire conflict and its history, and, more than likely, most of you are already aware of this situation, as it has been brewing for several months now. However, I would recommend the following sites and blogs for those of you who are interested.

http://www.missionsblog.com/ - my friend Michael

http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/ - Wade Burleson - Board member of IMB

My own, more detailed thoughts I reserve for later… Suffice it to say, for now, I agree with Wade.

So, there wasn’t a tremendous amount of response to my question: What doctrines are essential, necessary to Christianity, and what teachings are peripheral?

I believe these are going to be the essential questions with which we must interact, and come to real conclusions. Over the last 6 months, I’ve devoted quite a bit of time and study to the “Emergent Church” movement, also known as Post-Modern Christianity. This article by Scot McKnight demonstrates to me that this is not something that we can just ignore.

I appreciate how Dr. McKnight has interacted with the EC folk and not just written them off as so many others have done. As an individual who has read nearly a dozen books related to Postmodern Christianity, I am impressed by a lot of what they have to say. Don’t mishear me…I still maintain that there are serious problems with these folks. However, we (evangelicals) have a lot to learn from them, as in, they are the only people that I know of who are saying some of the things that we need to hear.

More to come on this in the not so distant future.

So, I’ve discovered that I’m not nearly as smart as people think I am, and that I’m not nearly as smart as I think I am.

I’ve come to recognize that very little of what I think is truly original thought. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense, nor is it in a spirit of humility, for me to post my own thoughts for others to read. Therefore, (at least for the most part) what I intend to do on this site is to point people to material (i.e. - books, articles, other blogs, music, sermons, other literature, etc.) that would, by the grace of God, edify those who partake of it. I expect my own thoughts (at least original ideas) to be posted very rarely.

Some things that I hope to pay particular attention to:

1.) Theology
2.) Politics and World News
3.) Missions and Missiology
4.) The Emerging Church and Post-Modernity
5.) Practical applications and ramifications of all these things

This should be interesting. I hope not to be too offensive, but also promise not avoid issues simply becuase they are controversial. That spoken, don’t get your hopes up that I’ll write on every controversial issue known to man. This is a place that I hope to share thoughts regarding issues that are currently important to me (that is, at the time I’m blogging on any given topic at any given moment).

I’ll also update people on what I’m reading, and whether what I’m reading is any good or not.

So, as I said when I started this thing a couple weeks ago, here goes nothing.

Let’s start interacting around a question…

What doctrines are essential to Christianity (orthodoxy), and what doctrines are important, but non-essentials?

May the dialogue begin,
ben