A few weeks ago SBC president Johnny Hunt released the document The Great Commission Resurgence. Since its release it has received over 3500 signatures and has generated quite a bit of discussion.

On the whole it is a good document. As others have stated, almost any pastor can agree with 98% of it. Most of the controversy has focused on section IX which deals with the need for structural changes in the convention.

Regarding section 9, I tend to think Hunt is right – there do need to be some changes in convention funding, structure, and support. My feeling is we have more bureaucracy than we need. We’ve become the Oscar Wilde quote – “Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” .

I like some of the things in the document. Hunt recognizes the need to adapt to a changing culture, moving beyond programs that worked yesterday and looking for what is effective today. From section 8: “In the past, Southern Baptists were characterized by a remarkable uniformity in both style and substance, but those days have long passed.” Then in section 9: “...the denomination has too often failed to adapt its structure and programs to the changing culture. We are frequently aiming at a culture that went out of existence years ago, failing to understand how mid-20th century methods and strategies are not working in the 21st century.”

Children and families are also affirmed: “Too often we believe that children are a burden rather than a blessing and smaller families are more ‘responsible’ than large families. Too many believe that motherhood is not valuable as a woman’s unique and primary calling and is not as ‘fulfilling’ as other occupations. Too many believe that husbands and fathers are not uniquely called and gifted for leadership in the home and that biblical gender roles destroy authentic equality.” We have three children and someone once commented that we have a large family. That astonished me. Society’s view of children and family has certainly changed, and not for the better.

I have a few little concerns with the document. I wish section 1 focused more on obedience to Jesus and section 2 said more about the Bible as a whole. Section 4 should say more about sufficiency and the need to strive to understand all of Scripture. Section 5 could use a little more clarifying. Section 6, I wish the phrase “Baptist identity” had been left out, though I think I know what Hunt means in the sentence and if so I’m fully in agreement. Section 7 should say a little more about pastoral ministry, and the last sentence of the section is a little quirky. Section 9 is nonspecific enough to cause a desire for clarification.

My main concern is with the overwhelming focus of the document being to seek a resurgence of great commission fulfillment. We need to be carrying out the great commission. We need to be bolder, more faithful in evangelism. But that is not the only, or primary, purpose of the church. The church is given to carry out Ephesians 2:7, to be a sort of trophy room for God, displaying his glory. Evangelism aids in this, so does discipleship. Historically, Southern Baptists have emphasized (though perhaps not carried out) evangelism fairly well but in the past several decades we have been very weak on discipleship. The whole push is to go and tell with little energy left for come and learn and grow. Even those things done as discipleship are often structured to be lures to get the lost into church rather than helping believers grow in the faith.

I appreciate Hunt’s work on this document and his desire to see Christians become more faithful in carrying out the great commission, but I wish the document also called believers to greater faithfulness in studying and knowing and applying God’s Word. I wish that it called churches to increase their discipling work. Many Baptists have declared the Bible inerrant while simultaneously forgetting what it says. I hope we see this change.

What is the God-centered goal of preaching? To borrow language from Piper it is to make much of God. My goal in my ministry – preaching, teaching, visiting, etc – is to help people love God more each day. I do this by trying to help them see more about God, his incredible character, his holy nature, his boundless grace.

The more people love God the more they will desire to serve and obey him. Luther, quoting Augustine, said, “Love God, and do what you will.” (Could someone point me to where those quotes are found?) The idea behind this is not that if you love God then anything else you do is permissible. Luther understood that if you love God then what you will to do is that which is pleasing to God. This is similar to Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” It is not that God says, “Oh, this person delights in me! I’ll give them anything they want!” rather it is that the person says, “I delight in God! The desire of my heart is to live for him, to enjoy him forever!” When you love God your heart and focus change to God himself.

The person who delights in the Lord does not desire a new car more than he desires God. He desires God more than he desires adultery or drugs or possessions or pornography or pride or power or a host of other worldly things. Preaching that focuses on doing rather than thinking and feeling gets at the symptom while neglecting the problem.

Consider Matthew 12:43-45:

To empty a house of demons is all well and good but is ultimately a useless act of the house is left ready for reoccupation. If soldiers on the battlefield clear a stronghold they have done well, but if the stronghold is not secure the enemy will just return in even greater numbers and the problem will be worse than ever. If preaching leads people to change behavior without first leading them to be consumed with love for God then little good has been done. It has probably caused harm, creating people who seem moral on the outside but are dead and rotten on the inside. Teach people about God. Show them Jesus, the image of the eternal, invisible God, in all his glory. Pray for the Spirit to grow in them and for the first fruit of the Spirit, love, to grow wildly for God and then for others.

This is what I want to see happen through my preaching – people loving God, delighting in him, and becoming so filled with wonder at the glory of his goodness and grace that the things of this world grow strangely dim. Teach people to be filled with God. To desire him. To honor him and delight in doing so. That is how the Holy Spirit will work through us in the process of sanctification. That is how disciples are made.

Much has been made about the resurgence of Calvinism in the SBC. More young people, and not a few older pastors, are embracing a theology of salvation that closely resembles that which was taught by John Calvin. 

The label Calvinism is a convenience. Use the word and people (sometimes) know (sort of) what you are talking about, though to my surprise I see several people claim the title Calvinist who really aren’t very Calvinistic in their thinking. But the label tends to imply something untrue: that people have studied the teachings of John Calvin and have devoted themselves to those teachings. The truth is that Calvinists are those who have studied Scripture and have drawn conclusions from Scripture similar to the conclusions drawn by John Calvin.

What we have in the SBC is not a resurgence of Calvinism but a resurgence of Scripture. Conservatives won the struggle in the 80′s and 90′s to move the denomination away from liberalism, but too many conservative pastors did little more than give lip service to the Bible, failing to use the Bible any more than the liberals. I attended a revival service several weeks ago during which the preacher talked a lot about how important the Bible is but he never once faithfully unfolded Scripture. He used a few springboard text and filled his long sermon with personal anecdotes. This can also be seen in most of the material that comes out of Lifeway. I often get angry when I look at how they handle various texts. Irresponsible, shallow, misleading, sour milk, frequently missing the point, using the word of God as a springboard to the things they want to talk about. These things happen too often in the SBC but by the grace of God this pattern just might be changing.

Again, what we have in the SBC is not a resurgence of Calvinism but a resurgence of Scripture. We have people faithfully studying the Scriptures. The end result is their theology looks like that of John Calvin. But these people are also talking about and teaching the Bible with greater faithfulness. This in itself can be a challenge to churches that are not used to well grounded biblical preaching but it is a challenge we must push through if we are to grow in the Lord.

Praise God for the resurgence of the Bible in the SBC. May it continue and may it spread.

Will Willimon is bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and he blogs occasionally at A Peculiar Prophet. Yesterday he posted an entry titled A Faith that is Based on the Testimony of Women. The title itself is problematic – the Christian faith is not based on anyone’s testimony, the Christian faith comes from the work of God in Christ. But Willimon was trying to be provocative with his title, a frequent characteristic of his speaking and writing, so I will give him a little leeway.

More problematic is the content of his entry. For example:

The angel preached the first Easter sermon: “Don’t be afraid. You seek Jesus, who was crucified? He is risen! Come, look at where he once lay in the tomb.” Then the angel commissioned the women to become Jesus’ first preachers: “Go, tell the men that he has already gone back to Galilee. There you will meet him.”

Two issues here. First, the proclamation of the angel was not a sermon. I suppose if we use the term as loosely as Willimon does we could say that any religious proclamation is a sermon. But the angel was not unfolding the word of God to the people of God, he was proclaiming an event. He was testifying. He was evangelizing. 

Second, the women were not then commissioned to preach but were called to do what the angel had done. If we define preaching loosely we could say that anyone presenting the gospel is preaching, but the word is more specific than that.

The women were sent out to spread the good news that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. This is not preaching, this is evangelizing. 

In his attempt to defend the role of women as preachers Willimon misses something more important. Not everyone is called to preach but everyone is called to evangelize. Not everyone is called to stand in the pulpit but everyone is called to do what the women did here, proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Willimon then brings up the Great Commission and reminds us that we are called to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. But he doesn’t seem to realize that this is what the women at the tomb were doing. They were not commissioned to be preachers, pastors, or spiritual leaders. They were told to spread the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In his discussion Willimon includes this lament:

How sad that there are still churches that continue, despite this clear witness of scripture, to deny the testimony of women and to prohibit them from preaching the gospel that God has given to them – but I digress.

Once again he seems to be confusing what preaching is. Giving a testimony about the work of God is not preaching. Men and women alike are called to testify of the goodness of God, in particular the work of salvation by which we are brought from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from darkness to light. Scripture does not limit the call to evangelize. Scripture does limit the call to pastor.

The clear witness of Scripture is that all believers are called to spread the good news. The clear witness of Scripture is also that men and women are different and have been given different work within the church and the world. We share some of the work but not all of the work.

What is truly sad is that many churches have chosen worldly egalitarianism over biblical complementarianism. God created men and women to work together and to complement one another in the work of the church. So much is lost when we try to force men and women into the same roles.

Bishop Willimon, please be true to Scripture. Do not take one example and try to force it to be something it isn’t. And please consider the whole counsel of God, that God made human beings male and female with a particular hierarchy and particular roles. Only when we are ordered according to the purpose of God can we find liberty and joy.

John Piper had better hurry up and get back from his writing break. Soon I’ll be talking about Driscoll more than Piper.

Apparently a new controversy has broken out around Mark Driscoll (mentioned by the Founder’s folks). I don’t know all the details but some of the criticism focuses on his explicit discussion of sexuality. A number of people strongly oppose the amount of explicit information Driscoll is willing to put in public.

Here is my take.

First, consider the medium. Critics are concerned with Driscoll making such explicit information easily available over the internet. I would share their concern except for the fact that a tremendous amount of pornographic material is even easier to obtain over the internet. It is very difficult to spend much time on the internet and avoid seeing things you do not want to see. Today’s young people spend a lot of time on the internet. I guarantee most of them have seen by accident more pornographic material than many adults have seen in their lifetime. I also guarantee that a large percentage of people on the internet – including Christian young people – are not just stumbling across pornographic material by accident, they are looking for it.

With that in mind, I am reluctant to disapprove of churches offering a counter response. Driscoll and others are saying that sexuality is a good thing if handled properly. Want to know how to handle it properly? Don’t go to a porn site, go to church. Young people are more open discussing sexuality than most older people. Biblically, I don’t know how anyone could make the case that Christians should not be explicit when talking about sex. One must be wise, yes, but I think in this case wisdom leans in Driscoll’s direction.

Second, consider the context. Driscoll is pastoring a church of young people in Seattle, Washington. If he were trying to present this material to my church it would be inappropriate. Most of my people are not immersed in culture and technology the way his are. Most of my people do not have the questions about sexuality that his people have. I don’t believe Driscoll has anywhere said all preachers should address sexuality in the way he does. He has his flock with their quirks and their needs, I have mine. There may be some in my church – and are certainly many in my city – who would benefit from his preaching on this subject, but the majority of my people do not need the material he is offering. The majority of the people in Driscoll’s church do.

This does not relativize preaching and practices. Rather it seeks to accomplish the same end through the same means carried out in different ways. The end is glorifying Christ and leading people to live God glorifying lives. The means is preaching and teaching that will help them know how to live those God glorifying lives. Such preaching will guide people to make decisions guided by the Bible and know how to handle issues not clearly spelled out in the Bible. If my people don’t have those issues it would serve no purpose to raise them. Driscoll’s people do have those issues and questions so he guides them to know how to glorify God in those areas.

This is pragmatism of the good sort. All preachers should ask this question: “What do my people need to hear in order to help them glorify God better in their lives?” This requires knowing your people, knowing their needs, and being bold enough to address those needs, whatever they may be. Are your people consumed with racism? Preach on it. Do they struggle with alcohol addiction? Preach on it. Do they cheat on their taxes? Preach on it. Do they want to know how to honor God with how they raise their kids? Preach on it. Do they struggle with how their sexual relationship with their spouse can be glorifying to God in the midst of a culture that sees sex as the ultimate selfish pursuit? Preach on it. That’s what Driscoll has done.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has been called many things. Only recently, though, has he started to be called one of my favorite preachers. In the past I have been pretty critical of Driscoll and his presence at this past Desiring God National Conference is part of the reason I decided at the last minute not to attend. But once the conference ended and the material was made available online I went back and watched all the conference talks, starting with Driscoll’s. I was very impressed with how he handled and delivered God’s Word. Since then I’ve listened to pieces of different sermons of his, some have been better than others but everything I’ve heard has been solid.

A few weeks ago he started a new sermon series called Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. Thus far the sermons have been great. Normally I listen to Piper but he is on a writing break and rather than download sermons from his archives I decided to dive into Driscoll. The timing was good since this new series has just recently begun. If you’re looking for some good sermons to listen to Driscoll is worth your time.

One word of warning. If you are a pastor you might notice Driscoll causes you to become less popular with your people. Driscoll’s sermons usually run right around an hour. It will start to rub off on you. You might have to fight a little covetousness that Driscoll pastors a church that allows him to preach for an hour. My people are starting to get used to the fact that my sermons are longer than most they are used to. In return I’ve reigned in my sermon length to some degree. But I do from time to time turn green when I see how long Driscoll’s sermons are.

Driscoll’s sermons are available on the Mars Hill website and via iTunes Podcasts. Look for Mars Hill Church Audio or Video.

Before you go any farther I want you to hop over to Amazon and buy the book Young, Restless, Reformed by Collin Hansen. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

Done? Good.

I won’t be reviewing this book but I do wholeheartedly recommend it. Even non-Calvinists should find the book exciting as it presents a growing movement of young people energized with a desire to spread the gospel and grow deeper in the word of God. I kept having great moments of excitement while reading the book and it gave a little lift to my step as I consider my own pastoral work. Want to see some of the good things God is doing in the church in America? Get this book.

Al Mohler, quoted in Young, Restless, Reformed, had this to say:

As Southern Baptists, we are in danger of becoming God’s most unembarrassed pragmatists – much more enamored with statistics than invested with theological substance.

I’m tempted to write this on the next Annual Church Profile we get from the convention. Our obsession with numbers is downright distressing.