sbc IMPACT! blog Set to Launch on September 1

Friends,

I wanted to make you aware of this new, helpful blog for Southern Baptists. I have been asked to be a contributor and am excited about this new forum. As a contributor, I will be interviewing different SBC folks and also writing stories about exciting things happening in the convention - including a story in September on NOBA! Please join us in the discussion at www.sbcimpact.net whenever you are able to do so. Here is the official invitation:

sbc IMPACT!, an exciting, new collaborative blog site, will officially launch on Saturday, September 1 at www.sbcimpact.net.
sbc IMPACT! is the vision of a group of Southern Baptist bloggers who desire to host a truly edifying, thought-provoking, civil community for the examination and discussion of issues that affect Southern Baptist churches.
Instead of dwelling upon SBC politics and personalities, sbc IMPACT! will be a place where issues, even the tough issues, can be discussed and debated in a God-honoring manner. It will be a place where Southern Baptist ministries, churches, and missionaries can be highlighted and lifted up. It will be a place where differing views can be stated in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
In short, the contributors at sbc IMPACT! want to work to bring Christ-like character, honorable speech, and real ministry to the discussion of Southern Baptist issues in the blogosphere. Our contributors are SBC pastors, ministers, lay-people, and bloggers. Take time to visit our Contributors page and get to know us. Take time to send an e-mail of encouragement.
Tell everyone you can that an exciting, new blog community is coming to SBC life. Add us to your blogroll. Come and visit when we launch on Saturday, September 1. And please do not hesitate to join in the community and conversation. We value your ministry, your kinship in Christ, and your views. We know that you have something valuable to offer your fellow Southern Baptists.
We’ll be “tweaking” the site and making a few changes between now and the launch date, so be patient with us. Hopefully, if you will take a careful look at our Purpose Statement and Standards for commenting, you will truly understand our hearts and desires for this endeavor. Meanwhile … if there are any topics or issues that you would like to see discussed in this forum, just leave us a comment.
God bless all. We’ll see you on the 1st!

Roger

Contextual Ministry and Reaching Courtney

Courtney is 28, single, educated, attractive, slim, and has never attended church, though she has several questions about church that make me squirm. She transferred to our area nine months ago from Roanoke and received a sizeable salary increase.

She is buying a condo and leasing a yellow ’06 Porsche Boxter. (She had a Mazda Miata but it got hit in the side.) Oh, and she also has a cat. (I don’t know what kind. I don’t really care for cats.)

Courtney has never been to an SBC church, has never heard of Lottie Moon, the BF&M, or Morris Chapman. She thinks that Baptists do something with snakes, but is not sure what (or why).

She had an abortion in 2001. Last Sunday at Kroger she saw a woman with a really young infant. It made her feel strange – maybe some guilt there. (She doesn’t talk about it.) Her parents are divorced and her dad has never known about the abortion.

Courtney likes reggae, genuine relationships/sharing, “meaning” in life, and she wishes that she could do something about poverty, hunger and/or AIDS. (She once sent $50 to one of the organizations that pledges to help hungry children. She wonders if the money really got to them.)

There are 1000’s of people like Courtney in our area. (Forty-six percent of Boone Countians were born outside of KY.) Perhaps they didn’t all transfer from Roanoke, but most would not feel “right” in a lot of our churches.

Associations who help their churches learn to relate to the Courtneys of the world have a promising future.

Associations who cannot or choose not to address these challenges will increasingly talk about how great the 60’s were and will become less and less effective.

Rick Robbins, DoM
Northern Kentucky Baptist Association

Are Para-Church Groups Spiritual Adulterers?

What would your response be to a person that says:

• I like you, come over anytime, but please don’t bring your wife?
• I love you, but I refuse to spend time with you if your wife is present?
• I can’t stand being around your wife, let’s go spend time together without her?

The hair on the back of my neck stands up just to read such statements. Most of us would find such statements reprehensible. Those would be fighting words if said to us, wouldn’t they?

Are para-church groups that claim to be lovers of Jesus Christ, but do not connect persons to the church (the Bride) spiritual adulterers? How can you say you love the groom (Jesus) and disregard the bride (the Church)? Again, the hair on the back of my neck stands up when I think of it in those terms.

When we support para-church groups or persons that aren’t connecting converts to a local fellowship of believers, it is like supporting a relationship with the “other” woman instead of the bride. How can we even imagine leading people to enter a love relationship with Jesus and not help them to love spending time with his bride, the church?

Are these para-church groups’ spiritual adulterers? The “other” woman? Vying for the affections of new believers?

Ed Stetzer recently asked: Can You Love Jesus and Ignore His Bride? (Read his comments here). He was addressing recent research about the huge number of young people that drop out of church after high school. When they land on a college campus, they often find groups that want to “love Jesus” together, but they don’t intentionally connect the students to the local church. How can that be?

Are these and other para-church groups’ spiritual adulterers? If they don’t encourage those who love Jesus to love His Bride (the Church), it would seem to be the case.

What do you think?

Bobby Gilstrap, DoM
Huron & Southeastern Baptist Associations
Michigan

Associations Will Die ... Or Will They?

If your association ceased to exist how long would it take for area churches and members to notice you were gone?

There is great debate in some circles as to the real value of the local association. Can it survive? Some say “yes” while others have cast doom on the association's future. Are you aware that well known futurist have forecast that a multi-level denominational structure like the Southern Baptist Convention cannot survive in today's post-denominational environment? Most have said that either the association or the state convention must be eliminated from the SBC denominational structure. (For supporting articles, click HERE and HERE and HERE.)

Because of the funding structure in most new work (mission) areas, the state conventions have the ability to "fund" or "not fund" local associational missionaries. Several states are now moving to "phase out" associational directors and are proposing to replace them in some fashion with state convention representatives. Will the churches in those areas notice the difference?

What do churches in your area value about the local association and its ministry?

Will associations be the ones to suffer demise? OR will state conventions fall by the wayside? OR are futurists totally off base ... not seeing the value of the SBC maintaining both levels within its structure.

I CLOSE BY REPEATING: “If your association ceased to exist how long would it take for area churches and members to notice you were gone?”

Bobby Gilstrap, DoM
Huron & Southeastern Associations
Michigan

What Exactly Do You Do?

Shortly after becoming a Director of Missions, I was engaged in conversation with the president of a community college and he asked a simple question: What exactly do you do?
Following my attempt to provide a satisfactory answer, his response went something like this--"Well, I was just curious. In the academic field, we take someone who can't teach and make them an administrator. I thought maybe in Baptist circles they take someone who can't preach and give them an administrative job."

In time, I learned that the college president was quite adept at the use of humor. I like to think that he was just having a good laugh at my expense that day. Regardless of his motive, I think the question deserves to be honestly asked and accurately answered--"What exactly does a Director of Missions do?

A standard response may refer to a three-fold role of the Director of Missions as represented by the letter M: Minister, Missionary, and Manager. Call me strange, but I kind of like the letter L: Lover, Learner, and Leader. Take the first dimension for instance--lover of God, lover of others, lover of family, the Bible, the church, missions, etc.

Why stop there? A Director of Missions functions in a wide variety of roles: administrator, advocate, builder, catalyst, change agent, chaplain, communicator, community leader, coach, confidant, consultant, coordinator, counselor, denominational representative, director, educator, enabler, encourager, equipper, evangelist, executive, facilitator, fundraiser, historian, innovator,
journalist, leader, manager, mediator, mentor, minister, missionary, pastor, organizer, planner, preacher, planter, reconciler, referee, resource person, supervisor, team leader, teacher, trainer, vision-caster.

What functions would you add to the list? Extra points are awarded for words that begin with Q, Y, or Z. Also, you have permission to use this list in discussions with your Personnel Committee concerning merit raises.

The work of the Director of Missions has its share of joys, privileges, frustrations, and heartaches. It is easy to identify with the apostle Paul when he acknowledged "the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches" (II Corinthians 11:28, NASB). The mother of Dr. Jimmy Draper expressed it well when she remarked, "In one sense you belong to everyone and in another sense you belong to no one."

What do you consider to be the three most important roles of a Director of Missions? What do you enjoy most about the work? What brings you the greatest sense of satisfaction and accomplishment? What is your greatest frustration?

What exactly do you do?

Allan Nix, DoM
Jones County Baptist Association
Laurel, MS

Connecting People to God through Corporate Prayer

I asked an SBC Colleague if I could share these insights with you. He is currently Illinois Baptist Prayer Ministry director and served as a pastor and interim Executive Director for the Chicago Metro Baptist Association. He has ministered several times with us in Austin for Associational meetings, prayer leadership and he has facilitated our City Impact Roundtable for the past 5 years. Find more prayer resources by Phil Miglioratti by searching by the KEYWORD “Prayer” on the NoBA website.

David Smith, DoM Austin, TX

________________________________________

From: Phil Miglioratti

Thank you David for this opportunity ... I am truly blessed to know that our associational leadership is in dialogue about the issues that will revitalize our 300 year old system of cooperative ministry among congregations. May God grant this learning community strategic insights on how to guide, guard, and govern the work of Christ in our cities and communities.

You know by my mission statement ("connecting people to God through corporate prayer") that saturating congregations and associations with upward and outward (rather than exclusively inward) prayer is of vital concern to me. As I travel our state and connect with three dozen SBC state prayer leaders, I hear more mention and recognition of prayer, and that is encouraging. Implementation? That is another story. Most pastors and directors seem satisfied with small incremental steps, which is possibly better than nothing.

What would I suggest (how nice of you to ask)?

I'd welcome response, pro or con, to what amounts to an expanded outline for an upcoming training session: Prayer That Changes Churches (and Associations!)

• We need a change in leadership - A recognition that we (directors and pastors) must be the prayer champion in our context. More than preaching on prayer, we must lead the church (or team or group) into the place of prayer. This is not an administrative position; it is a calling to call the Church to prayer. And to be right in the middle of the praying. Churches (and associations) change when their leader stops talking about prayer and starts leading them into prayer.
• We need a change in our lists - Prayer meetings have died (the rest seem to be on life support) because all we do is pray down-the-list as we predictably go around-the-circle.Our praying needs to be a Spirit-led conversation based on the issues and needs that are on he heart of God, not merely on our hospital list. Churches (and associations) change when they begin to pray for neighbors and neighborhoods, by name and by need (issue need, not merely illness need).
• We need a change in our location - We should never stop praying in our church facilities but we must start praying in unexpected and especially unwelcomed places. Seasons of prayer must be incorporated into every committee and class, every meeting and ministry, every group and gathering. Sessions of prayer must take our people out of their seats and into the streets. Dark corners and hot spots in our communities must be bathed in the light of God that is prayed out from the prayers of his people praying onsite. Churches (and associations) change when they break the holy huddle (necessary for our quarterback to cal the next play) and move the ball down the filed toward victory.

David, I am praying and asking God's people to pray we will have model associations that are led by prayer champions, appoint a prayer coordinator, develop a prayer ministry team, hit the streets with prayerwalks, equip the believers through prayer workshops, gather pastors for a prayer summit, flood their churches with prayer resources ... Why? Because prayer is the one spiritual action we can take that will fuel our worship, our evangelism, our commitment to missions, our everything that makes us Great Commission associations. We marginalize it at our own peril.

Phil Miglioratti
phil@nppn.org

Tune-Up

http://ibsaprayer.blogspot.com/search?q=%22tune+up%22

Resources for Prayer Leadership

http://www.prayerleader.blogspot.com/

Help for Pastors

http://www.prayingpastorblog.blogspot.com/

_____________________________________________________

Our Changing World

The church of twenty-first century America faces an exciting new challenge: namely, how to present a timeless message to a culture that often feels the church is irrelevant? You do not have to look far to discover that the cultural landscape of America is drastically changing. Companies such as Sears, Chevron, and Goodyear have been removed from the Dow Jones Index and replaced with high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and SBC Communications. Maps are being exchanged for GPS, mail for email, calling for texting. VHS for DVD, CD’s for iPods, and books for Google. As technology has increased, the rapidity with which cultural renovation can occur has become staggering. In some ways it’s a missiologist’s dream.

My experience has been that the North American church is keenly aware of its new cultural challenge; we know the world is changing. The problem has been what are we supposed to do about it? If you listen carefully, at this point in my article, you may hear the crashing sounds off your grandmother’s high-heels and hymnal colliding with your son’s flip-flops and guitar! Because, frequently, in our efforts to respond to changing culture, North American churches have crashed and clashed into and over 1 of 2 extremes.

1. We retreat into our stained glass monastery by turning the Great Commission inward, as we indolently rest in arms of truth and purity.
2. We charge the fringes of our culture recklessly exchanging evangelism for compassion, holiness for relevance, and theology for philosophy.

I believe the answer to the problem of culture screams out at the church from the starlit stable in the dusty town of Bethlehem. It’s called The Incarnation! The Word became flesh and He dwelt among the people. The incarnation brings life to the crippled, while reminding the healed to “go and sin no more.” The Incarnation rises with the sun in prayer anchoring His soul in truth before challenging the shackles of legalism. God’s calling is not a call to hopeless defeatism that bleakly seeks to endure until His coming. The good news by its very nature lives among people and discovers life eternal in the midst of death. It is an extraordinary mix between one’s vertical relationship with God and horizontal relationship with others. It’s a call to the truth of the gospel balanced by the love of the gospel, holiness and love, grace and justice, creativity and tradition, passion and purity, zeal and wisdom. The incarnation is seen in Matthew the Tax Collector, Simon the Zealot, Peter the Leader, Paul the Planner, Martha the Servant, Mary the Worshiper, and John the Thinker. The call of the first century is the call of the twenty-first century church: a faith-filled call to authentically live in the skin God gave us while experiencing the adventure of sharing and living the good news of truth.

Posted by
Lash Banks, Director of Missions
Grayson Baptist Association