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Archives For November 30, 1999

Change, risk, sacrifice and reward

Meredith Flynn —  January 7, 2013

pull quote_ADAMS_jan7HEARTLAND | Nate Adams

This month marks seven years since the IBSA Board invited me to return to Illinois to serve our churches here. At the time, the most difficult thing about saying yes to that invitation was the ages of our sons. Two were in high school, and one was about to enter his senior year.

One of the teenage daughters of an IBSA staff member later told me, “I remember praying especially for Caleb as soon as I heard that you were moving here for his senior year of high school. I remember thinking how hard that would be for him, and I wondered how you could do it.”

Following the Lord’s leading often involves uncomfortable change, risk, and even sacrifice. It’s hard to face those things without faith. And when our own frail faith requires that those we love also change, risk and sacrifice, well, that seems to require even more faith.

In Exodus 33, Moses pleaded with God not to ask him and his people to leave where they were without the assurance that God was personally going with them. They were comfortable, and they felt safe and secure, even though they were really just camped in a desert that God never intended to be their permanent home.

Again and again that seems to be God’s pattern, in the Bible, and in our lives too. Don’t grow comfortable where you are; it was never meant to be permanent. God is leading you to follow His purposes somewhere else. It will seem risky, even dangerous. It may cost you something initially. In fact, the sacrifice may seem great. But don’t make the mistake of staying. Trust Him. He will go with you. If you stay, you may dry up.

Sometimes I see a pastor, or another visionary leader in a church, recognize that God wants to take them to a new place as a church. They see how God is moving or wants to move in their community, to reach people with the Gospel and make new disciples. And with some discomfort, they realize that staying as they are, while comfortable, is not following God by faith to the lost people of their community.

My encouragement to you today is to embrace the change, take the risk, and make the sacrifice. The God who is calling you to trust Him and risk doing something different is faithful. He will go with you, and He has something wonderful on the other side of your sacrifice. In fact Hebrews 11:6 tells us that not only is it impossible to please God without faith, but that He rewards those who earnestly trust Him.

Seven years later, that son whose dad moved him to a new school for his senior year says that was his favorite year of high school. That son who was far from God at the time, beyond his dad’s ability to persuade him, has surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And that teenage girl who prayed for him without even knowing him is his fiancée.

Through a few years of discomfort, and occasional questioning, we trusted that God would eventually make the move to Illinois good for Caleb too. So when I pronounce him and Laura husband and wife in a few days, my smile will have behind it more than just joy at their union. Mine will be the smile of a dad seeing the faithfulness of God playing out before his very eyes. It will encourage me to trust Him again and again, whatever He asks. And it will encourage me to urge pastors and leaders and churches everywhere that they can trust Him too.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association.

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Mission Illinois: Taking it personally

Meredith Flynn —  November 1, 2012

COMMENTARY | Nate Adams

Recently my college alma mater asked me to write an endorsement letter to include in a mailing they’re sending to churches. I said yes because I believe in the school; it had a transformational and lasting effect on my life, and I’m confident it can do the same for students today. I was willing to take the mission of my college personally.

So I wrote about the Christian worldview, lasting friendships and leadership opportunities I found there. I wrote about meeting my wife there. And because I now serve as a trustee of the university, and two of our sons now attend there, I was also able to write personally from current experience about what a special, transforming place it is for students today.

Of course my letter wouldn’t have been complete without a personal invitation to action as well. So I asked the churches to display the college’s poster, and to call the phone number or explore the college’s website. And I invited them to e-mail or call me personally with any questions, assuring them that I simply wanted them to experience the same blessing I had.

As I finished my letter, I realized that I had just done for my alma mater what I too rarely do for my Lord and Savior. I too rarely am willing to take His mission personally.

Why do I not more often choose to enthusiastically but briefly communicate the wonderful way He has transformed my life? Why don’t I have on the tip of my tongue the compelling reasons someone should say yes to Jesus today? Why don’t I more urgently invite those who are far from God to take action now, and receive the same blessing I’ve enjoyed since welcoming Him into my life? Here in the darkness and lostness of Illinois, why don’t I take His mission more personally?

Of course each of us must answer that question before the Lord. But this endorsement letter for my college made me realize something else, something rather simple. I gave my testimony, and outlined the good news that’s available to others, and invited them to act – because someone asked me to.

Someone said it was important, and then formed a simple plan in which I could participate, and then asked me to do my part. Maybe there is something to learn there about our mission in Illinois.

Calling one another out of complacency and into evangelism is one of the most important things we do as an association of churches. You wouldn’t think it is necessary, any more than you would think it is necessary to ask a grateful alumnus to say a good word about his college. But often it doesn’t happen until someone asks.

This year at the IBSA Annual Meeting, we will be asking. The first priority in Mission Illinois, the “point of the plow” if you will, is renewed commitment to passionate evangelism. First and foremost, Mission Illinois must be contagious Christians from healthy churches served by effective leaders running boldly into the lostness of Illinois with the good news of Jesus Christ.

We need to say to one another that sharing Christ is important, and to form simple, reproducible plans in which church members can participate, and then to simply ask one another to do our part. So much more than the college I attended, the Gospel has had a transformational and lasting effect on my life. I’m confident it can do the same for those who are now far from God. Mission Illinois can be so much more than a theme, if we will take it personally.

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Placing a high value on unity

Meredith Flynn —  September 20, 2012

COMMENTARY | Nate Adams

A couple of days after the recent IBSA Board of Directors meeting, I traveled to Texas for a meeting with other State Executive Directors and leaders from the North American Mission Board. Our special speaker during that meeting was Dr. Jimmy Draper, past president of LifeWay Christian Resources and respected Baptist pastor and statesman for many decades.

Speaking primarily from John 17, Dr. Draper focused our thoughts on Jesus’ prayer for unity, and invited us to consider what might happen if we as Baptist leaders enjoyed the type of unity for which Jesus was praying. To be frank, relationships between many state conventions and NAMB have been strained for the past couple of years, as NAMB’s new strategies have reduced funding through state conventions.

During that same meeting, however, a committee of State Executive Directors that has been studying NAMB’s new direction and its impact on state conventions presented a very encouraging report. The committee and NAMB President Kevin Ezell then presented a new plan for state conventions and NAMB to move forward together that met with unanimous approval.

More important than the consensus being unanimous, however, was the fact that it was unifying. And there is a difference. As Dr. Draper shared with us later that evening, Jesus did not ask that everyone agree on everything (unanimity), or that everyone be the same (uniformity), or that everyone express themselves the same way (unison). In praying for our unity, Jesus was asking that our deep and resilient love for Him and for one another keep us together in spite of our differences, harmoniously moving toward a lost world in His name.

Listening to this teaching on unity, and watching it unfold in our Texas meeting, my mind returned to Illinois, and the IBSA board’s recent consideration of acquiring property for a leadership center in Springfield. You can read about that decision in the September 24 issue of the Illinois Baptist (online here), so I won’t recount the details in this post. But what pleased me most about the board’s action was that it also placed a high value on unity.

It’s challenging to know, sometimes, the common direction in which a thousand diverse Baptist churches from all over the state should go. Though most of the IBSA board and staff felt positively about the value and strategy of a Springfield leadership center, we decided to write a letter outlining the opportunity to all IBSA churches, in addition to the information provided in the Illinois Baptist and the IBSA website.

For the next two weeks, about 50 e-mails, phone calls, and personal conversations helped me “take the pulse” of Illinois Baptists on the subject. A majority of the feedback was positive toward the opportunity, but a significant minority expressed concerns or opposition.

The IBSA Advisory Committee and I, who had been studying the opportunity most closely, then faced a challenge. It appeared that both the decision to move forward with the acquisition and the decision to back away from it would be met with some disappointment. We prayed and discussed, and in the end we proposed an amended motion that we believed was a vote for unity, rather than for or against property.

The amended motion, adopted overwhelmingly by the full IBSA board, backs away from the property at the current price, and backs away from borrowing money. At the same time, it leaves the door slightly open for donors to step up with contributions, or for the seller to step down in price, though both of those scenarios are unlikely.

As I wrote earlier, it’s challenging to know, sometimes, the common direction in which a thousand diverse Baptist churches from all over the state should go. We can’t always count on unanimity, or uniformity, or unison. But we can explore new ideas, listen to one another, and make decisions that place a high value on unity, trusting God to keep moving us forward, together.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association.

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Nate Adams: Follow-up notes from New Orleans

Meredith Flynn —  June 28, 2012

By Nate Adams, IBSA Executive Director

I can usually measure the value of a meeting by the follow-up actions I note for myself as a result of it. If I don’t write anything down, the meeting was probably pretty pointless. If the meeting moves me to action or change, it may have been worthwhile.

So let me share with you a few of my follow-up notes from the recent Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, at least as they relate to the major issues discussed at this year’s annual meeting. You can read about these issues in the July 2 of the Illinois Baptist or at IBSA.org.

My notes about the informal name “Great Commission Baptists” as an alternative to “Southern Baptists” could be summarized simply by the phrase “wait and see.” Clearly a large number of churches feel that having an alternate name, even an optional one, is not a positive thing. But the majority that voted to endorse the alternate name gave those who wish to try it out a new tool to potentially reach people for whom the term “Southern” may be a barrier.

For now, I plan to “wait and see” how many churches embrace the new name, especially here in the Midwest. I suspect we will continue using the “Illinois Baptist” identity in our communications more than either of the others.

My notes about the various issues that have the Calvinist vs. Arminian theology debate at their root simply say, “stay above the fray.” Both outgoing President Bryant Wright and SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page served us well, I thought, when they essentially stated that the Baptist Faith and Message is big enough for both strains of theological thought, and that there is more danger in our heart attitudes about either position than in the doctrinal differences themselves.

Some time ago I came to the personal conclusion that Calvinist theology describes salvation more from God’s perspective outside time, and that Arminian theology describes salvation more from man’s perspective within time. I’m sure that those for whom that explanation is not sufficient will continue this centuries-old debate. I plan to try and stay above the fray of that argument, and pray it does not distract us from our far more important Great Commission task.

Finally, you may not think I need follow-up notes from the election of Fred Luter as the SBC’s first African American president. But I found I did. Tuesday night, just after Pastor Luter’s election, I attended a dinner with the African American Fellowship of Southern Baptists that included SBC entity executives and state executive directors like myself from all over the country.

Even during that dinner, I formed several follow up notes for myself: Don’t just sit with people you know – get to know some new African American brothers and sisters. Learn to understand and appreciate the history and the pain, the culture and the passions of African American churches and their leaders, especially those that have chosen to be part of the Southern Baptist family. Relax and enjoy different worship and preaching styles – God wants to speak to you through those too! Recognize how important it is to make sure African American leaders are participating in Southern Baptist life, both in key discussions and in key leadership positions. Develop more personal, not just professional, relationships with African American pastors and leaders.

As I said, I can measure the value of a meeting by the follow-up actions I note for myself. If the meeting truly moves me to action or change, it may have been worthwhile. My follow through on these notes has the potential to make this year’s SBC meeting truly worthwhile. I hope these notes for needed future action help you too.

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