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Archives For November 30, 1999

Baltimore Oracles: Math makes a difference

Meredith Flynn —  May 28, 2014

COMMENTARY | Meredith Flynn

Editor’s note: Leading up to the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore June 10-11, the staff of the Illinois Baptist will preview the annual meeting in “Baltimore Oracles,” a series of columns about SBC elections and key issues.

Leaders of smaller Southern Baptist churches will be watching closely in June as the SBC Executive Committee considers a change to the denomination’s constitution. The article in question (Article III) governs how many voters – known as messengers – individual churches may send to the Convention’s annual meeting.

Here’s how Article III stands now:

  • Churches in friendly cooperation with the SBC can send one messenger to the annual meeting, as long as the church contributed any amount to SBC causes the previous year.
  • Additional messengers may be sent for every 250 members, or for each $250 given to Convention causes.

Under the proposed changes:

  • Churches may send a minimum of two messengers, provided they meetthe guidelines for friendly cooperation (including undesignated, financial contributions either through the Cooperative Program, toward Convention causes, or to Convention entities).
  • Additional messengers are based on contributions (one for every $6,000 or full percent of the church’s undesignated receipts, whichever results in more messengers).

Whew. What does all that math actually mean for churches? In the March issue of SBC Life, Executive Committee Chairman Ernest Easley explained the thinking behind the changes: The new version adjusts for inflation. The $250 figure was adopted 126 years ago. And the proposed wording is an opportunity to “lift up Cooperative Program as the preferred model of giving to Convention work.”

But what about smaller churches, some asked. Won’t the new giving standards make it more difficult for them to send additional messengers?

“…If the perception is that it will hurt small churches, this is DOA,” Executive Committee President Frank Page told EC members at their February meeting. “My heart is with small churches, and I don’t want anything that even seems to be in some way pejorative toward their involvement.”

The EC meets just prior to the Convention and will decide whether to bring the amendment to messengers for a vote during the meeting June 10-11.

Any debate surrounding the proposal, especially if it makes it to the convention floor, could have some bearing on the race for SBC president. Ronnie Floyd pastors a megachurch, while Jared Moore is from a smaller, rural congregation. Dennis Kim’s Maryland congregation of around 1,700 is somewhere in between.

If the conversation about messenger representation swings the momentum in favor of smaller churches or those in regions with fewer Baptists, Moore or Kim could gain some extra visibility at the Convention. If the measure doesn’t come up for a vote or passes without much debate, Floyd would remain the better known candidate with the most SBC leadership experience.

Math may make a difference when Baptists meet in Baltimore.

Previous Baltimore Oracles columns:
The Southern Baptist Convention’s new ‘traditionalists’
What a single-candidate election could mean for the SBC
Why geography matters

 

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Baptists plan for long-term relief effort in the Philippines

Meredith Flynn —  January 28, 2014
Disaster relief volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention visited families whose homes and livelihoods were disrupted by Typhoon Haiyan. The volunteers listened to the families’ heartbreaking stories and prayed with them, then distributed badly needed food and building supplies. BGR photo, via BP

Disaster relief volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention visited families whose homes and livelihoods were disrupted by Typhoon Haiyan. The volunteers listened to the families’ heartbreaking stories and prayed with them, then distributed badly needed food and building supplies. BGR photo, via BP

THE BRIEFING | Posted by Meredith Flynn

Nearly three months after Typhoon Haiyan, some aid organizations have completed their work in the Philippines. But Baptists are gearing up for a long-term relief effort, led by Baptist Global Response.

“…The need is massive,” BGR Executive Director Jeff Palmer told Baptist Press. “We are initiating large-scale work with communities, local believers and volunteers and will be constantly assessing and gauging the effectiveness of our choices.

“Please continue to pray for our team members and volunteers as they help in the face of overwhelming needs. Pray that we choose the most strategic and effective places to work that truly help people physically and spiritually.”

The biggest repair needs are for water systems, homes and schools, Baptist Press reported. BGR has created a housing kit that will construct a small home on stilts for about $250. The goal is for the construction projects to breathe life into the local job market, Palmer said.

“The community has a labor force needing work, and capable, skilled men will be contracted to work alongside [a] U.S. disaster response team and local volunteer labor when available.”

Disaster Relief chapters from five state conventions – Missouri, California, Tennessee, Kansas-Nebraska, and the Southern Baptists of Texas – have adopted different areas of the Philippines. Read the full story at BPNews.net.

Other news:

Frank Page addresses denominational fault lines in ‘State of the SBC’ speech
The president of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee began a Jan. 15 speech with an analogy about earthquakes. “Fault lines happen even in organizations,” said Frank Page during a “State of the SBC” address at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. “And like on the earth, where the fault lines and tectonic plates come together, pressure builds. If that pressure is not alleviated, then deep damage occurs.”

Page addressed some of the denomination’s current and past fault lines, including the debate over Reformed theology. He also spoke about the task force he appointed to study how Baptists with theological differences can work together. “Do I think that fault line is fixed forever? Hardly. But I said to them in all honesty, ‘I want us to work together so that we can at least win some people to Christ for now. Can we do that?'”

Read the full report by Midwestern’s Tim Sweetman at BPNews.net, and click here for a link to Page’s address.

Church ministers through abortion recovery class
Dr. Chris Midkiff likely didn’t know what kind of bombshell she had just dropped during a women’s leadership meeting at Bethel Baptist Church in Troy. The OB/GYN mentioned an abortion recovery Bible study she’d read about called Surrendering the Secret. Some of the women in the meeting personally understood the need for such a study. Read the story here.

One Baptist prof’s take on the Grammy’s
You’ve probably heard about the 33 couples, including some same-sex pairs, married by Queen Latifah during Sunday’s Grammy awards show. The song performed by Macklemore during the ceremony “took aim at Christians and their views on marriage,” blogged Denny Burk, an associate professor at Boyce College in Louisville, Ky. But the lyrics got one thing right, Burk said: We all come from one creator God. Read his post here.

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My year at the Southern Baptist table

Meredith Flynn —  June 20, 2013

pull quote_MILLERCOMMENTARY | Dave Miller

Editor’s note: Dave Miller served as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention for a year following the annual meeting in New Orleans in 2012. He wrote about his year “at the table” for the June 17 Illinois Baptist. Read it online here.

A little over a year ago, I got a call from a blogging friend who asked me if I’d allow my name to be placed in nomination for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Stunned, I told him I would consider it. After a lot of prayer, I decided to go forward with the process.

No one, including me, really thought I would be elected, but it happened.

One of the reasons I agreed to be a candidate was to raise awareness about the whole Baptist world that exists outside of the mainline Southern states. Being a Baptist in Iowa, or the Dakotas, or Minnesota, or Wisconsin, or Illinois is different than being one in Alabama, Mississippi or Texas. I like serving as a Southern Baptist in a new work state and I wanted to raise a little awareness of the work we do.

I’ve learned a few lessons along the way. First, the SBC, while far from perfect, is led by some pretty competent and capable leaders. I got into blogging a few years ago as an outsider who was upset about a few things and wasn’t afraid to express that displeasure. But as time went on, I realized that while I still don’t agree with everything everyone does in our entities, we are well served by godly men.

Frank Page, president of the SBC Executive Committee, is exactly the leader we need at the helm during difficult days. If you don’t read Thom Rainer’s blog, you ought to. We have some remarkable men as seminary presidents, and leaders at the IMB and NAMB are working to extend the Gospel around the world.

Second, I’m excited about the movement toward greater racial diversity in our leadership. A prominent black leader at our Orlando convention a few years ago: “Dave, there has not been a single black man on that stage.”

I promised him I would join him in calling Baptists to a greater inclusion of ethnic leaders. It was my great privilege to serve this year alongside President Fred Luter. Beyond that, we have seen entity leadership positions show greater racial diversity. We haven’t arrived yet, but we have taken several steps in the right direction.

Lastly, the SBC is truly a grassroots organization. I’m a pastor of a small- to medium-sized church in Sioux City, Iowa. We are at the outer limits of the Baptist world! But, because of the democratic, grassroots nature of the SBC, I had an opportunity that I never thought I would have.

We are part of something wonderful as Southern Baptists. The challenges are great and work is never going to be easy. But we have a firm foundation in God’s Word, and an unequalled opportunity to share, through Cooperative Program missions, in perhaps the most aggressive world missions program in church history. And we have a powerful living God.

I am thankful to be part of Southern Baptists and consider this last year as a convention officer, representing Baptists in the Midwest, to be a great privilege.

Dave Miller is pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, and editor of the blog SBC Voices.

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Meredith Flynn —  June 11, 2013

Luter_gavelHOUSTON | Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter called to order the 2013 SBC Annual Meeting this morning in Houston with a light-hearted moment. When SBC Executive Committee Frank Page handed him the official gavel and told a little about its history, Luter pretended to bobble it. If we could use a smiley face in a news story, we would use one right now.

On the schedule for Tuesday:

– The report of the SBC Executive Committee, featuring a presentation from the Calvinism advisory team appointed to study theological differences in the denomination

-Reports from the North American Mission Board and LifeWay Christian Resources

-The introduction of new Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, and appreciation for President Emeritus Richard Land

-Illinois Baptist pastor Adam Cruse will close the afternoon session with prayer

-Luter will preach his president’s message tonight at 7:20

As of this morning, 4,205 messengers were registered in Houston. Check back here throughout the day for news and commentary from the SBC, and follow the action live at sbcannualmeeting.net.

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Chet Cantrell shares Christian Activity Center’s story in Houston

Meredith Flynn —  June 9, 2013
"God is alive and well in the inner city," Chet Cantrell told attenders at the WMU Missions Celebration in Houston.

“God is alive and well in the inner city,” Chet Cantrell told attenders at the WMU Missions Celebration in Houston.

SBC | Chet Cantrell, executive director of Illinois’ Christian Activity Center, spoke about his ministry in East St. Louis this afternoon at the annual Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Missions Celebration, held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“God is alive and well in the inner city,” Cantrell told women (and a few men) gathered in the Hilton Americas hotel. At the CAC, Cantrell and his staff partner with an army of volunteers to run a daily tutoring and mentoring program that has resulted in a 95% graduation rate among the kids they serve in poverty-stricken East St. Louis. The center, located next to an infamous housing project, is a haven in the neighborhood.

But it wasn’t always that way. When he arrived in the city and asked parents what he could do to help, their answer was “Keep our kids alive.” Cantrell told his audience the playground that now sits opposite the center was once a weed-plagued field. When he set out to mow down the tall grass, a young child told him he couldn’t do that. When Cantrell asked why not, the reply was, “Because that’s where they throw the dead bodies.”

What child should have to grow up in that environment, Cantrell asked. He shared stories of what God has done in the years since, like transforming that field, and turning a street known for trafficking into a place where kids can feel safe. He thanked WMU for their support of ministry centers like his, and encouraged them from Isaiah 45, where God says:

“I will go before you and level the uneven places; I will shatter the bronze doors and cut the iron bars in two.I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches from secret places, so that you may know that I, Yahweh, the God of Israel call you by your name.” (Isaiah 45:2-3, HCSB)

“I would like to tell you that I’m smart and I’m capable, but sometimes God just asks you to show up,” Cantrell said.

“…God was at work in East St. Louis long before I got there.”

Cantrell ended with a challenge: “You want to find God, you come serve in areas just like mine, because God shows up.

“Will you?”

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Cindy Winters’ book reflects on God’s goodness in grief

Meredith Flynn —  April 9, 2013

Tuesday_BriefingTHE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Cindy Winters didn’t set out to write a book. But as she journaled about her grief and pain after her husband’s death four years ago, she realized how healing the writing process could be. And she wanted to share that with others on a similar journey.

Pastor Fred Winters was killed at First Baptist Church, Maryville, Ill., on March 8, 2009, when a gunman entered the Sunday morning worship service and shot him where he stood in the pulpit. Media outlets immediately descended on Maryville, and the story made national headlines. Just days afterward, Cindy Winters extended forgiveness to the shooter on CBS’ Early Show.

“We have been praying for him,” she said. “…We really firmly believe that he can find hope and forgiveness and peace through this, by coming to know Jesus.”

Hope, forgiveness and peace are some of the themes running through Winters’ new book “Reflections from the Pit,” available now on www.amazon.com. Her writing process started simply, when she sat down with pen and paper to express some of the emotions that were overwhelming her.

“I would leave that writing experience with a sense of renewed strength,” Winters said. “Oftentimes, peace would sweep in over me, and then hope. And just a sense of, ‘Ok, you know what, I’m going to be able to make it through the rest of the day.’” Read more at BPNews.net.

Other news:

Rick and Kay Warren grieve son’s suicide
(From Baptist Press) Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren and his wife Kay lost their son Matthew, 27, on Friday, April 5, to suicide. Rick Warren released an emotional statement to Saddleback’s staff, which has since been broadly published:

“Over the past 33 years we’ve been together through every kind of crisis. Kay and I’ve been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Today, we need your prayer for us.”

Among those expressing compassion for the Warrens was Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee and a former SBC president.

Page and his wife Dayle lost a 32-year-old daughter, Melissa, to suicide in 2009.

Page stated via Twitter the day after Matthew Warren’s suicide: “My heart is broken as I’ve heard the news about Rick Warren’s son. Please pray. Unfortunately, I understand that which they experience now.” Read more at BPNews.net.

Haircuts and clean feet in New Orlenas
A team of 24 women traveled to New Orleans last week to minister in partnership with the Baptist Friendship House and missionary Kay Bennett. They served the city’s homeless population with a free health fair, where they offered haircuts, feet-washing stations, and listening ears. The day after they returned to Illinois, volunteer Kim Evrard said she woke up with a heavy heart. “This morning, I wake up and realize I barely slept because I can’t stop thinking about the people I met, and tears won’t stop this morning,” Evrard wrote in an email.

“I am so blessed. My heart is so heavy for the people I met.” Read more in the April 15 issue of the Illinois Baptist, online at ibonline.IBSA.org.

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans own Bible
As History Channel wrapped up its well-watched miniseries on the Bible, Barna and American Bible Society released their “State of the Bible” report, which found the book is still a staple in most households. Of the 1,005 American adults surveyed, 88% own a Bible and 80% said the Bible is sacred; 61% said they wish they read it more. Read more at Barna.org.

SBC’s non-Calvinists host ‘John 3:16’
The recent John 3:16 Conference in suburban Atlanta gathered more than 350 people and several prominent Southern Baptist leaders for a discussion of Calvinism in the SBC. The conference speakers, brought together by Jerry Vines Ministries, focused on the differences with those who identify with Reformed theology, but also emphasized cooperation and unity, reported Baptist Press. Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, Tenn., said Calvinists are not his enemy. “I can work with them,” he said. “There is no need for a takeover. We need to live together.” Read more at BPNews.net.

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Chicago church takes a stand against neighborhood violence

Meredith Flynn —  October 16, 2012

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Pastor Larry Trotter has done four funerals in recent months for victims of gun violence. In his neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, the streets can be very dangerous, especially after this summer, which saw a dramatic increase in the city’s homicide rate.

That’s why Trotter and his congregation from Sweet Holy Spirit Church took to the streets September 30, marching through their neighborhood chanting, “Stop the violence,” and “Save our children.” Almost 200 people participated in the anti-violence rally and march.

“I know that this won’t stop everything, but I want people to grab the passion,” Trotter said, according to Associated Press reports. “If we all join together, we can make an impact.”

According to Chicago police, almost 400 people have been killed this year, and the homicide rate is up 31 percent over last year. Since the extremely violent 1990s, crime has decreased in Chicago, but the recent rise in violence shows there’s much room for improvement.

“The city has gone wild. It’s no longer just gang killing, it’s random killing,” Trotter said. “We have to try and channel that energy and put it in another direction.”

Or march it in another direction. And hopefully it will benefit the generation currently growing up in an environment that can be very frightening. Brandy Lewis was one of the participants in Sweet Holy Spirit’s march. As a mother and someone who works with youth everyday, Lewis told the Chicago Tribune the community has a responsibility to its youngest members to end the violence.

“We’re out here trying to bring attention to our neighborhood that we have to do something to keep our kids alive.”

And prayer plays a key role, Trotter said according to the Tribune. “The message is ‘Stop the violence,’ but the spiritual message is that we’re praying for the … violence to cease.”

-With information from Associated Press, Christian Post, and Chicago Tribune

Other news from Baptist Press:

Allen elected president of Midwestern Seminary
In a 29-2 vote, Jason K. Allen was elected by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees as the school’s fifth president. The vote took place October 15 during the trustees’ bi-annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo. Allen, 35, comes to Midwestern from Louisville, Ky., where he served as vice president for institutional advancement at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and as executive director of the Southern Seminary Foundation. He had concurrently served as senior pastor of Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville. Read more at BPNews.net.

A win for pro-life pharmacists
An Illinois appeals court has granted a victory to pro-life pharmacists who object to providing drugs that can cause abortions. Pharmacy owners Luke Vander Bleek and Glenn Kosirog challenged a 2005 rule mandating pharmacists fill all prescriptions, including those for Plan B and other “morning-after” pills. In September, the Illinois Fourth District Court upheld a lower court injunction that blocked the state from enforcing the rule.

ERLC pres. search goes online
The SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has launched a website to aid in identifying a new president for the agency following the October 2013 retirment of Richard Land. At erlc.com/presidentialsearch, potential candidates can view a list of attributes ERLC trustees are seeking, and a prayer guide for the committee’s work. The site also is the only way by which interest in the ERLC presidency can be communicated to the trustee search committee, who will accept curriculum vitae from prospective candidates through Oct. 31. Read more.

Missionary kid shares childhood through children’s book
Valerie Elliot Shephard, the only child of missionaries Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, has written a children’s book about her early life in the Ecuadorian jungle where her mother told a tribe about Jesus after they had killed her father. Shephard was only 10 months old when her father was killed; she and her mother remained in the jungle several years until many in the tribe accepted Christ and abandoned their savage ways. The October release of “Pilipinto’s Happiness: The Jungle Childhood of Valerie Elliot” coincides with the 85th anniversary of Jim Elliot’s birth. Pilipinto, meaning “butterfly,” was the Indians’ nickname for the girl.

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Southern Baptist Convention gets Calvinism advisory team

Meredith Flynn —  August 21, 2012

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, has named a 16-member advisory team to help him address theological differences – specifically, Reformed theology – within the SBC.

“My goal is to develop a strategy whereby people of various theological persuasions can purposely work together in missions and evangelism,” Page told Baptist Press in August, shortly after he was part of a conference hosted by the Kentucky Baptist Convention to address the Reformed theology debate.

During “Calvinism: Concerned, Confused, or Curious,” held at Crestwood (Ky.) Baptist Church, Page acknowledged a theological divide within the SBC, but insisted Southern Baptists can learn work together peaceably, even if they disagree on Reformed theology.

“We’re talking about and at each other too often,” he said. “When you respect someone, you talk to them.” He added, “If we can do missions and evangelism together … then we can pull this thing together.”

Page’s advisory team consists of pastors, educators and denominational leaders mostly from Southern states, where the debate threatened to reach a fever pitch earlier this summer. Leo Endel, executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, is the lone Midwestern representative. Read more.

What do you think? Does the debate over Reformed theology in the SBC warrant an advisory team to study the issue? Will it be beneficial to the convention, and to individual churches?

Other news:

Penn State campus minister blogs to help students
Southern Baptist minister Johnny Pons has directed New Life Fellowship at Penn State University for 22 years, but the 2012-13 school year promises to be different than any other. Scandal has rocked his school since last November, when a revered football coach was accused of child abuse, and several other prominent university leaders appeared to have helped cover it up.

Pons has been blogging this summer at Ponsanity.tumblr.com, partly to help the students who are away on vacation to know what to expect when they return. By writing about his personal response, the university’s corporate response, and New Life Fellowship’s ministry response, Pons hopes to help prepare his students for the ministry opportunities he believes this fall will bring.

“I do anticipate more opportunities to talk about several spiritual issues/implications of the scandal,” Pons told the Illinois Baptist. “I think the fall will hold some interesting opportunities, but we need to address them with sensitivity and humility.” Read more about Pons’ ministry at Baptist Press.

Stetzer: The dangers of demonization
In the wake of a shooting at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., missions leader and LifeWay Vice President Ed Stetzer blogged about the dangers of demonizing people you don’t agree with. “Respectful and civil discussion of the issues is essential. We must be able to disagree without demonizing or labeling as ‘haters’ those with whom we disagree.” He called on members of both sides to study their actions: Groups that support traditional marriage can’t stay silent when members of the LGBT community are bullied or treated violently, and those who support same-sex marriage shouldn’t label the other side as “hate groups.” Read his full blog post at EdStetzer.com.

One billion living without religious liberty
Religious freedom around the globe is “sliding backwards,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as her department released its annual religious liberty report. “More than a billion people live under governments that systematically suppress religious freedom,” Clinton said. Eight countries are on the State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern” – Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. Read the full story at Baptist Press.

Student Life joins LifeWay family
Student Life, Inc., one of the nation’s largest providers of Christian student conferences, became part of LifeWay Christian Resources in August. The organization’s employees will remain at their headquarters in Birmingham and continue to their identity and conferences, said LifeWay’s Ben Trueblood. “Both of our organizations provide conferences and camps in slightly different ways that meet needs of individual churches and student ministries. Many of those differences won’t change so that we can continue to meet specific needs of individual churches.” Read more at LifeWay.com.

 

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You weigh in: How can the SBC reverse decline?

Meredith Flynn —  July 19, 2012

COMMENTARY | Posted by Meredith Flynn

LifeWay Christian Resources recently released the Annual Church Profile, a statistical picture of the health of Southern Baptist churches and denomination as a whole. There was some good news: slight increases in baptisms, total number of churches, and giving. But also some bad news: a nearly 1% decline in total membership (from 16,136,044 million last year to 15,978,112 this year). It’s the fifth straight year total membership of SBC churches has dropped.

More concerning, said LifeWay Vice President Ed Stetzer, is the rate of decline. In a Baptist Press column June 13, Stetzer wrote total membership has declined 2% since 2007, including nearly one whole percentage point this year. “This trend points to a future of more and faster decline — and it is a 60-year trend.”

Rather than manage the decline like other denominations, Stetzer said, there are some steps Southern Baptist pastors and leaders can take to “fight for our future.” Four steps he suggests:

1. Rally around the things we agree on under the Baptist Faith & Message, and refuse to engage in battles over secondary issues that will only end in further division.

2. Raise up new leaders who represent a variety of ethnicities and generations.

3. Reach more people. “Southern Baptists love evangelism, as long as someone else is doing it,” Stetzer wrote. “But ‘someone else’ is not doing it either. Every year, it takes more Southern Baptists to reach one lost person, as the member to baptism ratio shows.”

4. Plant more churches by equipping and then supporting church planters.

Now it’s your turn: How can leaders, pastors and members of Southern Baptist churches help reverse the denomination’s trend of decline?

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How God removed my theological pride

Meredith Flynn —  July 2, 2012

HEARTLAND | Jim Rahtjen

Editor’s note: Reformed theology in the Southern Baptist Convention became a hot topic earlier this summer, when a group of leaders wrote a statement affirming “traditional” Southern Baptist theology. Columnist Jim Rahtjen explains how he was convicted of his own pride, and convinced that encouraging fellow ministers is more important than judging their views on secondary issues.

John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he is not one of us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” Luke 9:49-50

I had no idea John’s statement and Jesus’ reply would dramatically change my life and ministry, but I’m immensely grateful it did.

I had been preaching through the book of Luke, this was the next passage. The week before, God showed me a mountain of spiritual pride in my life, and this week He would show me it was more like a mountain range.

In Luke 9, the disciples argued among themselves as to who was the greatest (a prideful game that I myself had played in my mind). John changed the subject and told Jesus of the disciples’ efforts to thwart the ministry of this man who was casting out demons but “wasn’t one of us.” Jesus told them to stop hindering him.

What a tragedy! This man had a calling he couldn’t fulfill because the disciples hindered him. The disciples had a calling of their own which they neglected in order to hinder this man.

God showed me myself in this passage when I prepared to preach it. You see, in those days, I defined myself by my theology; consequently, if a brother wasn’t of my theological persuasion, if he “wasn’t one of us,” I’d look down at him with an attitude of superiority. The Lord illustrated this to me the next week as I attended the Southern Baptist Convention.

At the convention, I saw a man who was my mentor in college. He invested deeply in my life teaching me one-on-one how to grow spiritually, have a quiet time, and study and apply the Bible to daily life. He loved Jesus, loved me, and loved to quote his favorite preacher, Charles Spurgeon. I still deeply love this man, see him as a spiritual father and seek his counsel today.

At the convention, I also ran into another mentor who invested in me as I began to serve in ministry. He taught me one-on-one how to faithfully serve as a minister and deepen my spiritual walk. He introduced me personally to Well-known theologians who began to shape my theology. He loved Jesus, loved me, and loved to quote one of his favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon.

Because of their common investment in my life, and their mutual respect for Charles Spurgeon, I thought it would be great for them to meet. I mentioned to my first mentor that my second mentor was at the convention. I told him about some of the men to whom he had introduced me.

He bristled and asked, “Is he a Calvinist? Are YOU a Calvinist?” And over the next few days, without knowing my mentor, he made several unflattering assumptions about him based solely on a stereotype of Calvinists. I thought, “But you don’t know him. You’d love him. He’s one of us!”

The next day, when I saw my second mentor, he had same reaction in reverse. I told him about my first mentor’s appraisal of Calvinists. He bristled and said, “Oh, don’t tell me he’s an Arminian!” And then he began to make inaccurate assumptions of my mentor, based on a stereotype of Arminians. Again, I thought, “No, you’ve got him all wrong. You’d love this man. He’s a brother!”

My mind went back to the lesson from the passage I had just preached. Rather than encouraging a man, the disciples allowed their bias to get in the way. They saw him as an opponent and tried to hinder him, rather than seeing him as an ally in God’s Kingdom.

From that moment, I asked the Lord to help me to tear down that mountain of pride in my life that causes me to judge a brother by his theology rather than know and encourage him. I came to better understand what Jesus said to John: “Stop hindering him. He who’s not against you is for you.”

Jim Rahtjen is chairman of the IBSA Board of Directors.

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