On the topic of elders, the main point was that elders are to do everything they can to safeguard their ability to be men of the Word and men of prayer. This has got to take priority and prominence over all other things.
Next to prayer and preaching God’s Word… we actuall believe that one of the most important things you can do … more important than getting the music right, or contextualization… is practicing biblical church discipline.
When a church misunderstands the Bible’s teaching on conversion, it may be filled with lots of people who have made sincere pronouncements, but have not experienced the radical change.
If you are going to be God-centered, that effectively means you must be Word-centered. At the center of your ministry should be expositional preaching.
For those interested in the business aspects of the MBC, Gerald Davidson just won the Presidency 8-3 over Mike Green, who in turn immediately said from the floor that he was fully behind Davidson and would be supportive and praying for him as President.
God intends to use the local church to accomplish His creation purposes, displaying His wise, Holy, loving image for all the world to see. The church is to be marked off from the world. Do not aspire to be relevant. Aspire to be faithful, and assume that the most relevant thing you can do is to be faithful - listening and obeying the Word of God.
Perhaps by reading a few sound bites from these messages you will be prompted to pick up The Deliberate Church or 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. Perhaps it will lead you to get into some of the good conversation over at Tom’s place when they get to talking about integrity in church membership.
I am at the Missouri Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference today in beautiful Tan-Tar-A Resort at Osage Beach, Missouri. The gang is all here, lots of friends and acquaintances. Thanks to Pastor Joe Braden, who is the President of this year’s Pastors’ conference, the entire line-up comes from 9Marks ministries.
Please pray for my brother-in-law and his wife, a professor and administrator at Pepperdine University in California. Wildfires have raged throughout the weekend burning down many homes in the area of the university and coming right up to the gates.
But let us be honest here. If my own state convention of Missouri suddenly became very concerned about the integrity of the gospel and the authenticity of conversions along the lines that we Reformed guys always lay down as the ideal, would our baptisms-per-church go from 6.3 down to 1.5?
The Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association (MBLA) is endorsing the following candidates for the year’s Missouri Baptist Convention meeting at the end of October. Each of these men have been on the front line in the battle for conservative theological conviction within the Missouri Baptist Convention.
