What makes a liberal…or moderate…or conservative….or a fundamentalist? In other words, what qualifies them as such? In the Southern Baptist blog world I think many of us have long forgotten the reality that we are much closer than we think, theologically. I thought it would be good to state why I think that is so.

As we start, it would be helpful to try and loosely define some characteristics that some might associate with the varying degrees of theological dispositions. I need to state that there will most certainly be differences of opinion about some of these areas but I am attempting to use issues that are commonly accepted as tenets of that portion of theology.

Let’s start with liberal. One could argue that the liberal position, the far left position, within Christianity is almost never seen within SBC life. Typical components within this realm would include the denial of the innerancy of scripture, the denial of many, if not all, of the miracles (i.e. virgin birth, walking on water, etc.), the acceptance of social behaviors such as homosexuality and the inclusion of moral positions such as abortion on demand as acceptable options. The theological liberal will often even deny the deity of Christ and occasionally even the existence of God. While the “liberal” corner of the theological universe is much more diverse than these simple points, it is true that these often can define a theological liberal.

The moderate would be next. While the moderate will almost always accept the existence of God and the deity of Christ, they would also often deny the use of the term innerancy in reference to scripture. They would maintain its value and its truthfulness, but they often will not support its infallibility. The theological moderate often places themselves in the camp which choose to see less of a distinction between the roles of males and females and would often voice displeasure about issues like homosexuality and abortion while still seeing valid reasons for the acceptance of said behaviors.

The conservative is the next choice. Conservative’s will (90% of the time) affirm the innerancy and authority of scripture. They read the bible through very literal lenses. The conservative often chooses to take the difficult road, regardless of social ramifications, because of their belief in the veracity of scripture. The conservative will place equal value on males and females and yet see genuine, distinct differences in the roles that they fill within culture, family and the church.

Finally we come to the fundamentalist. This branch of Christian theology interprets the bible through literal lenses essentially all of the time. They see a great distinction between christianity and culture and often try to separate themselves not only in ideology but in dress, appearance, behavior, and so on. The fundamentalist sees life in black and white and gets very frustrated when some try to inject grey into their theology. The fundamentalist often highly values tradition and sees a great level of difference between the male and female species and wishes not to blur the lines of distinction between the two.

I’ve included a diagram here that helps to visually portray the four levels of theological differentiation that exist within most Christian cultures. It is important, as we disagree over methodology, that we recognize that 95% of everyone in this disagreement falls into the category of someone on the right hand side of that dividing line. We have distinctions, they are real and they may often be many. However, make no mistake, this is not a “fight” between liberals, moderates, conservatives and fundamentalists. This is a disagreement over methodology between varying degrees of conservative Southern Baptists.

I often waver between laughter and astonishment as I read the various blogs that throw around labels like “liberal” and “moderate” when referring to various members of one side or the other of this disagreement. Those are asinine, not to mention uneducated, statements. When the rest of the theological wold, or the secular world for that matter, looks at us and our squabbles, there is never any concern for whether this is a liberal, moderate or conservative fight. No, they consistently recognize that we are united as conservative, Bible believing Southern Baptists, who simply disagree on the application of portions of that scripture. Even those differences of application, I might add, end up on the conservative side of the fulcrum 90% of the time.

I do not care if you are Paige Patterson, Wade Burleson, Marty Duren, Al Mohler, Art Rogers, Ben Cole, Frank Page or Jerry Rankin, all of these men, and the rest of SBC leadership by their own admission falls into the category of someone on the right hand side of this diagram.

It is time that we stopped acting like children who prefer ad hominem attacks when in a disagreement because they are simple, easy to use and brilliant when it comes to blurring the issues and avoiding genuine, Christ-like dialogue. It is beyond time that we stop “throwing down the gauntlet” and start dealing with the issues, from a biblical perspective. Let us agree that some of us need to drop the faulty character attacks and others of us need to stop hiding behind our “ivory towers” and sit down together and address these issues. The Southern Baptist Convention will not succeed if either of these sides “win”. No, our only hope is unity in spite of diversity. The hope of the gospel resides in our ability to lay down our own preferences and prefer the unity of the church, the primacy of the gospel and the vast need of the world over anything else. That, my friends, is a separation worth coming together for.

**DISCLAIMER** This post includes highly subjective material. Please understand that these comments are not intended to be taken as authoritative, but rather should be viewed as descriptive with the recognized understanding that there is room for correction.

Unfortunately my webhost server went down earlier today and and they lost my database for my blog. They had an older version saved due to a back-up but it did not include my most recent post and my most recent comments. I will try and reproduce the post as soon as possible.

**DISCLAIMER** This is a regular series in which I offer some heartfelt cries to pastors in regards to issues that I see that are crippling the work of the gospel and the effectiveness of the church. These are areas that are particularly close to my heart.

Plea #1: Please stay, don’t go!

“God has moved us again.” So says a friend of mine as to the reason why he has left his previous ministry and moved on. It’s nothing unique. I am the son of a pastor who has been a pastor himself for over 4 years and has been traveling and preaching since I was 16 so I have heard it a thousand times. To be honest, I have a hard time buying it. This mystical sense of “God’s call” is a good reason to use when leaving a ministry to go to another one. The best reason that it is a good excuse is because at times it is correct. There is no doubt that God speaks and God directs us to serve in various ministries. In fact I am sure that most of us serving in ministry would admit that the sense of “God’s call” had at least some level of significance in our decision, I know it has for me. The problem, however, with that excuse is twofold. First, it is not objective. There is no measuring stick. There is no way for one to know for certain whether the one making the cla!
im has really heard from God or maybe they just had some roast beef a little too late last night resulting in a “funny feeling” that is more indigestion than it is Holy Spirit. The second reason that this excuse is unfortunate is that there is no way to argue against it. I have watched as too many pastors have hopped from lily-pad to lily-pad following “God’s will” and leaving unhealthy churches and unhealthy families in their wake. The worst part is that I can not ask them to show some responsibility to their ministries due to their use of the claim that “God has called them” to their new place of service.

It is time that we begin to underline the necessity of staying in one place more than just for a quick pastoral “cup of tea” and then moving on to bigger and better pastures. And, let us not kid ourselves. The consistent theme as we move from place to place is far too often not the will of God. Rather it is the lure of bigger paycheck’s, bigger sanctuary’s and shorter drives to visit mama. Ellison Research did a tremendous job researching our reasoning for church hopping among pastors, and God’s will was far, far, far down the list. What is worse, according to their research, is that the moving about is far more significant in SBC churches than it is in other denominations.

There is no doubt that God desires pastors to stay more than they currently do. He blesses tenure. Research tells us, for instance, that pastoral tenure is a significant contributing factor to the growth of a church. Beyond that, Hal Mayer – of Flamingo Road Baptist Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL – has claimed that it takes around 7 years for a pastor to even be seen as a leader by their church. Dan Sutherland, also of Flamingo Road, goes to great lengths to show that pastoral tenure is needed for sustained church success. Most of us have heard Rick Warren’s desire to stay in one church for a lifetime and many of us have scoffed and said things like “of course he would say that, he’s in one of the 10 largest churches in America.” Yet, when we say that we neglect the fact that for many, m!
any years he served in a church smaller than most of ours that did not even have their own facility until they had been a church for almost 15 years. Let us be honest, guys, most of us would never even make it five years in a situation like that.

So, why do we resign and move on? In my opinion it comes down to one very significant reason, that is the love of ourselves more than the love of God or others. We are more concerned with our success and our own ability to “grow a church” than we are whether or not we can be an instrument for positive, healthy change in the place where we are. I hear far too often people leaving a ministry and claiming that they did so because they could not handle it anymore. Again they use the claim that “God’s will” moved them. I would try and argue that God’s will is much more often for them to stay and bring health to a sick church than it would be to leave that church still sick and go be with another sick church. It boils down to our personal comfort. Where can we preach to more people? Where can we make more money? Where can we have a bigger staff? Where can we get away from these people? H.B. London gives 5 main reason why pastors leave their current ministries and what !
strikes me about all of these is that they start with “I.”

Now do not hear me wrong. I understand that there are often valid reasons, out of our control, that cause us to move. I make no claims that I will finish my ministry at the church where I am at, though I would be privileged if God would allow me to. I understand that churches are firing too many pastors. I know that God does occasionally move us to a new ministry. I understand that sometimes family dictates a needed change. These are valid and I am not impugning them. My problem, however, is that I rarely hear these reasons given as the impetus behind a move. I rarely see someone leave one ministry to go to a smaller one, I rarely see people leaving the comfort of the Bible belt after the completion of seminary and/or Bible college to pursue ministry in much more unchurched areas.

Please pastors! We must remain faithful where we are. Understand that I know your temptations. I have faced them before. I am a bi-vocational pastor who works 50 hours a week in a secular job while trying to help a phenomenal church to become healthy and to grow. I know the temptation to pack up for “greener pastures.” I have received the calls on multiple occasions in the past few years from churches asking me to consider coming on staff or coming as their senior pastor, in a few cases even to churches that are larger than 90% of the churches in the SBC. I know the temptation. I feel the temptation. I am pleading with you, however, to not give in to temptation. Plant yourself where you are and truly remain committed that unless God drops a billboard in your front yard you are going nowhere else. We do not need more pastors leaving churches to go on to bigger and better. We need more pastors staying where they are so that they can lead their current ministries to be bigg!
er and better.

If you are interested, here is the document with the most recently released information from the SBC Executive Committee in regards to the Southwestern Seminary Trustee Board. Click here for the document.

Well, I was never much for the excuse that I’ve heard from a lot of people as to why they don’t attend church that “they worship God among nature.” Having said that, however, I will have to admit that rather than be in church today, I spent the morning outside, with my daughter, playing in the snow - and I plan to do more of the same this afternoon. I’m not skipping church, though. We actually received around 5-6 inches of snow overnight and our roads were not safe this morning so almost every church in the area closed up shop today. I’ve posted a few pictures in my new Foto Gallery, and I’ve included a video below that I thought you might like. The video was actually taken last weekend when we only had an inch or so of snow, and a lot of ice. Enjoy!

click here to download

I have often claimed frustration with typical Republican candidates. I have seen positive attributes in Democrats that have been missing in Republicans but the Democrat’s position on abortion, among other things, has caused me to stop short of siding with them. In many ways I’ve found myself to be a person without a party.

Sam Brownback is a local politician who announced his candidacy for President today. I don’t know Brownback other the what I’ve heard or read, but he is intriguing to me. He maintains typical moral positions that are vital to Republican success such as opposition to abortion, protection of marriage, etc. What makes him most interesting to me, however, is his willingness to depart from the status quo in his own party. Brownback has publicly opposed President Bush’s call for more troops in Iraq, he has voiced great concern over the scourge in Darfur, Sudan - even to the point of removing his family’s money from the region. He has made strides towards protecting the economy by putting support behind the effort to stem global warming, and possibly most intriguing is his method of being vocal, !
yet not overbearing, about the way that his faith colors his thought process.

I’m not throwing my support behind Brownback today, I’m not claiming that I will vote for him either. I do, however, find him to be a strong possibility that is more appealing to me than any other candidate and I look forward to hearing more about him.

Below is the video his campaign has put together to introduce him and his candidacy. I would encourage you to watch and consider him.

Much has been made of the emerging church movement within theological circles over the past few years. It’s quite possibly the single most misunderstood stream of thought within, and without, the evangelical realm. I have often found myself wavering between simple sympathy and downright affiliation with the emerging church. I find it to be dead on in some of its assumptions about “church” and how our faith should be practiced. At the same time, however, I find myself strongly at odds with the teaching of some of the more prominent persona’s within the emerging stream (i.e. Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, etc.).

That said, Dr. Scot McKnight who authored The Jesus Creed among other things, has authored a well written piece that sums up nicely much of who the emerging church is and is rightly critical at more than one point. I find myself shaking my head in agreement with almost his entire article. I see myself in his points.

There are a number of things I think are particularly strong points he makes. I very much like his explanation of a holistic approach to missional living. His definition of redemption being more then just spiritual rings true in my mind. His later emphasis on evangelism also provides a needed balance to simply “living right.” His further explanation of Post-systematic theology is the best description of where I find myself that I’ve found in print yet. His statement concerning theology, “This is what I believe, but I could be wrong. What do you think? Let’s talk.” is right on. I am thankful for his willingness to criticize his emerging church peers in his description of “In vs. Out” It is much needed, and much appreciated.

All in all I highly commend this article to you. It is a tremendous way to both understand the emerging church among emerging generations as well as to help move many of us to a more culturally appropriate methodology when it comes to addressing today’s social and cultural climate from a biblical perspective.

You can read the article here.

For all of you who have been joining the cacophony of ideas that are swirling throughout the blogworld as we all struggle to understand the meaning of life, today I provide the answer for you courtesy of Garfield. Now everyone can all just get along!