Bravely Onward!

What does it mean to belong to a church? What is the difference between being a church member and just going to church. The difference is a matter of commitment and community.    Last week we saw this difference expressed in the example of the early church. When we look at the picture painted in Acts 2, we see believers who are spiritually transformed people and who give themselves to Christ and to one another. The result was a church family that 1) pursued the scriptures, 2) sacrificed greatly in order to care for one another, and 3) saw God add to their numbers daily. These people did not just go to church, rather they gathered as a community of believers, loved one another deeply, and fulfilled commitments to one another.  What kind of commitments? First and foremost, we know that they were committed to a common faith. As a community of believers, they shared the belief that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord (Acts 2:36). We know they held together the conviction that peo...

 What does it mean to be a Southern Baptist church? This is a very interesting question. A short, albeit loaded, answer is that  Southern Baptists are a network of autonomous baptistic churches which voluntarily partner for the purpose of advancing the Great Commission.  Wow! That's a mouthful. Let's see if we can break this down? Autonomous-  means that each Southern Baptist church is truly independent and self-governed. Local Baptist churches do not receive directives from a centralized denominational government. Instead, the members of each church determine the course for their own church through a democratic process of voting. We do things this way because we believe that Christ is the head of each church and that the church members have the ability to know His will through prayer and the study of His Word. We believe that His specific will for each specific church is discoverable through the voting of its members (see Acts 15:22).  Baptistic-  This ter...

At the Southern Baptist Convention last month, the Executive Committee (EC) presented to the messengers Vision 2025 for adoption. This vision statement articulated five critical steps which Southern Baptist congregations must focus on over the next four years if we want to reverse the present decline in baptisms and membership in our churches. The fourth step listed read, to "turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12 to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years."  The reason why the EC listed this item is that our churches have seen a decades-long slide in youth baptisms. In recent years, we are not seeing as many students saved and discipled. Specifically, baptisms in this age group have decreased 38% since 2000. If someone were looking for a major reason why Southern Baptist total membership has dropped from over 16 million to just over 14 million in just 10 years, the best reason to suggest is that we are not winning our children to ...

  I came across an interesting tool a few weeks ago. It is called the Putnum Circle and it attempts to show the progression of a Christian’s spiritual growth in Christ.  It shows how people go from being spiritually dead before they believe in Jesus (Romans 6:23), to becoming spiritually alive when they trust in Christ (John 3:3). As new believers, we have life, but spiritually, we are like babies. This means we do not know much about God and His Word. We need spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2). Babies in the faith need a mature Christian to teach us to know and obey Christ’s teachings (Matthew 28:19-20). With exposure to the Word and other Christians, we become more like children. One of the risks at this point is that our new-found knowledge of the Lord may lead us to be conceited if we aren’t careful (1 Tim. 3:6). As spiritual children, we struggle with the flesh and being self-centered in our faith. Peter is a great example of this (Matthew 16:22-23). Today, we act like spiritu...

  Today marks the beginning of Passion Week. This is the remembrance of the seven days leading up to Easter Sunday. This week focuses on the suffering of Jesus our Lord and reaches its pinnacle with the cross. It ends with a quiet and solemn reminder that Jesus was dead and in the tomb.  On the surface, Passion Week looks like a disaster. It starts off hopeful with the crowds praising Jesus and apparently recognizing Him as the Messiah, but things turn and by the end of the week Jesus is arrested, deserted, unjustly convicted, crucified, dead, and buried. By the time you reach Saturday night, Jesus' ministry appears to be a dismal failure.  Then Resurrection Sunday happens and redefines the Passion Week. Jesus is raised from the dead and new light is cast on the proceeding seven days. Instead of a disaster, Passion Week is a victory. His death is now understood to be purposeful and effective. It becomes clear that on the cross, Jesus paid for the sins of the world (1 John...