sbc IMPACT!

Thoughts on Breakthroughs in the SBC

May 12th, 2008 by Tony Sisk
Posted in Baptist Life, Church Life, Tony Sisk |

My seven year old daughter is playing AYSO soccer. Calling it soccer is a tad unfair, because actually it is something more akin to what I call “ball herd”. A flurry of little arms and legs chases a small black and white (well…pink; they are little girls after all) ball around a field. As children, they are naturally self-centered, so a fundamental of the game has not come easily for them. Once one of the girls gets control of the ball they want to keep it; passing it to a teammate is a non-issue. The coach has struggled to get them to see the necessity of working together and that without teamwork they will not win any games.

This past Saturday however, the girls saw a breakthrough. They lost 5-0. Of course, this is soccer for small children, so scores and standings are not kept. But the girls worked together; they passed the ball, they communicated with one another, and they all but ceased stealing the ball from one another. Significant breakthroughs were seen even in the face of a dramatic loss last Saturday. At the end of the game, the coach told the girls how proud he was of them yet they each muttered, “We lost!” Sometimes losing is not a bad thing because it helps us to identify our weaknesses and see where we need to become stronger. We all left the field smiling. A breakthrough had been achieved.

I believe our convention is in need of some breakthroughs right now. My daughter’s soccer team is just learning the basics of the game; without dribbling and passing, they cannot play the game. Breakthroughs spur us to the next level of achievement. The girls were ready to learn and do more. They were excited when the coach said “let’s learn something new.” The SBC needs to see some breakthroughs and I am convinced we need to see them in several areas.

A breakthrough in personal holiness. Church history consistently records that no genuine revival occurred without a sense of a strong need for personal holiness. Robert Murray McCheyne,the 19^th century Scottish preacher who is often upheld as a model of personal piety prayed, “Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be.” We must become overwhelmed with the fact that it was MY sins for which Jesus died, it is MY sins that stand in the way of genuine revival, and it is MY sins that must be forgiven or else genuine revival will not come. This does not mean long discourse analyses of what the SBC’s problems are; rather it means a long time of personal introspection.

A breakthrough in personal evangelism. For a year SBC President Bobby Welch toured America in a wildly painted bus promoting baptisms and that “We can” baptize one million. The fact is we didn’t. In no other area in our lives is there a wider gap in what we say and what we do than in this area. There is a disconnect right there in front of our noses and rather than get out and do it we stammer and stutter and make grandiose plans for evangelism when all that is needed is broken people of God willing to share their stories.

A breakthrough in personal humility and brokenness. In the mainstream media, when the “SBC decline” is referenced, it is always referenced in some way like this: “The Southern Baptist Convention, the world’s (or nation’s) largest Protestant denomination…” I cannot help when I read statements like that but think that our convention is being referred to in the pejorative, and we probably are. The fact is the SBC is the world’s largest Protestant denomination. We need to stop acting like it. It is telling that the longer the Apostle Paul ministered, the more aware he became of his own unworthiness. In addressing the Galatians at the outset of his writing ministry, he boldly proclaimed he was an apostle (1:1); to the Ephesians, he was less than the least of all the saints (3:8); yet in a personal letter to Timothy when Paul knew he was near death, he described himself as the chief of sinners (1:15). There is a lesson here that we all need to heed.

A breakthrough in personal prayer. Dr. Frank Page has led a most honorable term as president. His clarion call to the need for prayer and spiritual renewal, I hope, has not gone unnoticed. If any breakthroughs are to be seen in the SBC, they must start here. Prayer is often relegated to the “well, duh” category. The assumption is that we have been praying for revival all along, but let us honestly ask ourselves; have we? Many have actually mocked my earnest pleas for prayer but if anything characterized those early believers in Acts, it was an unqualified commitment to prayer. Call me simplistic if you will.

A breakthrough in helping people in need. Jesus said that the poor would always be with us, and I believe we need to be intentional in this area. Individual congregations need to look at their own communities and see how they can show love to the least of those around them. My heart was gladdened to read a post at the For Faith and Family blog about an Arkansas church that discovered a meaningful way to reach their community for Christ. They saw the need for a food bank ministry that was borne of a genuine concern for people in their community, they kept the Gospel central (Since September 12^th, 112 people have been saved!), and their church has grown. Yet, the goal was not to grow the church; that was a blessing of following God. The DOM of their association called South Texarkana Church a “Matthew 25:40”church; not a bad designation.

A breakthrough in loving one another. If it is anything we love in Southern Baptist life, it is the need for labels. The SBC is a panoply of differing opinions, soteriological backgrounds, worship styles, and other orthodox theological views. More often than not, these areas, though they need to be discussed, have become dividing lines among us and a dismembered body is no body at all. We need each other. I have heard on more than one occasion the term “elitist” applied to the SBC and that the SBC is beginning to look like some bizarre game of Survivor. We all sit with bated breath, gnawing our nails, asking that fateful question, “Who will be voted off the island next?” Baptists are going to dicker over some issues and that is a hallmark of being Baptist. We should not trade that; but yet we should still also be able to discuss matters of faith (with brothers and sisters) without calling salvation into question.

A breakthrough in political involvement. I am not saying that we should not go to the polls and “vote our values”. We can and should. What I am saying is that we need to disentangle ourselves from political machinations of any sort and return to the pure proclamation of a risen Savior able to save sinners. The first century Christians did not turn their world upside down by making Jesus the titular head of any kingdom. Entanglement with any political party whether it be Republican or Democrat hurts the mission of the church in the long run. The mission of the church is to be the church, not an adjunct to a political movement.

These are only the musings of a small, country church pastor at about a 2000’ elevation in the western North Carolina mountains. God can and indeed will work among His people; He has done it before. May we pray, do it again, Lord. Do it again.