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A Contract with Southern Baptists – Part 7
Posted by Dave Samples in Baptist Life
I started the Contract with Southern Baptists series back last summer prior to the SBC convention. My purpose was to provide pastoral guidance for our denomination, it’s churches, and it’s individual church members. My goal was not to actually see this work published but rather to answer the question in my own mind, “How can we revitalize our denomination?” I approached the task from the point of view of what I would preach to the convention if asked (by the way, like most small church pastors,I have not been and I don’t expect that I ever will be asked). There are seven parts to the series and so today’s post is the final section. If anyone would be interested in obtaining a copy of the entire contract just let me know and I would be happy to email it to you.
Baptists Must Be…
Based in Humility
Authorized by Scripture
Powered by the Holy Spirit
Transformed by Worship
Identified by Unity
Shaped for Mission
Teamed in Churches – a necessary gathering – Acts 2:42-47; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 3:1-17, 12-14.
The clearest expression of the Church of Jesus Christ found in the scriptures is recorded in Acts 2:42-47. This early church is marked by a continual devotion to teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer. Everyone who participated was blown away by the amazing miracles that were taking place. They shared with each other sacrificially to make sure that no one had any unmet needs–selling their stuff willingly to gather the needed resources. Every day they would get together for worship and fellowship, sharing meals together from house to house. They were overflowing with joy as the Lord added to their number every single day those who were being saved. This “Acts Two Church” is the biblical model for every church. It is the standard by which we are judged. It is obviously very different from most SBC churches. Truth is, we’re not even close! I don’t know what we want to call what we do in our buildings every week–but in most cases it’s not the church–at least according to the Bible. The church is no greater and no less than it’s collected members. In order to have biblical churches–we must have biblical Christians. We very well may be missing both…
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Let’s start a discussion.
Why is it we don’t see the “Acts Two Church” model played out more in the (Universal) Church today and specifically within the SBC? Dave points out that we may be lacking biblical churches and biblical Christians. For the one, there is certainly much debate about what makes a church more or less biblical and what standards should be in place. For instance, is a small group of believers that meets in a home more biblical than 5,000+ in a megachurch? Much of the time, part of our argument on that question floats through our filters of experience before they go through the filter of God’s Word.
I do believe, however, that we will never have truly biblical churches without biblical Christians, and in America, the pews, chairs, or bean bags (whichever is more biblical) are lined with many unbelievers and nominal Christians. When people become engaged and actively pursue God, we will begin to see the trends of tradition, normalcy, and the maintenance of the status quo fade out as people return to biblical truths.
Andrew,
Thanks for braving the waters and being the first comment. I couldn’t agree with you more…
The problem is that we say that we believe the Bible and that it is our, “sole authority for faith and practice” (BF&M), and yet we largely ignore clear biblical instruction and example. For example, two weeks ago, I brought a message from Acts 11:27-30 that describes how the Antioch Church received an offering to send back to the Jerusalem Church to help with the coming famine. I don’t know how most pastors would apply the passage but I emphasized the need to follow the Spirit’s leadership in blessing those who have been our spiritual mentors. I mentioned that our founding church (more than 20 years ago) was struggling financially. We did not receive a special offering and I did not encourage people to give but simply to obey the spirit in terms of blessing those who have spiritually blessed them, whoever they may be. The practical result of the message was that I delivered a check to our founding church for $9,550. That is from a worshipping body of less than 300 people. At the same time we are emptying our disaster relief coffers (we suffered a tornado last May) in order to send individuals from our church to Texas to help with their clean-up. Not all, but many of our folks understand the need to live the scriptures.
Dave,
You said, “This early church is marked by a continual devotion to teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer.”
Why doesn’t this align with the five purposes of the church which everybody knows is worship, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, and ministry? (tongue firmly in cheek)
Les
Andrew,
Great job. You took the focus off of the “model” and put it where it should be, on the believers. The point is not where they met but how they met. This is the responsibility of individual churches and believers.
Scott
I figure if everyone is using their last names, I should too.
Dave,
What a great example of service! I think it is great to support those who’ve mentored you, and I think one of the overarching principles in Acts is not just helping those with whom you have a personal connection, but any believer in need.
Scott,
Too often we get focused on things that are extra-biblical and not on what’s unbiblical, which is sad because there’s enough of the unbiblical going on to take up our time without throwing in the extra stuff. We’ve all seen the debate on hymns v. contemporary worship, but what about the biblical role of deacons, or the biblical responsibility of believers in regards to sharing our faith? Those issues are pushed aside for the more trivial things like the color of the carpet or whether chairs are better than pews. It is our responsibility to be aligned with God’s Word. Then we can bother with the other stuff.
Andrew – http://missionsoutlook.blogspot.com