Best Web Junk (June 26)

I almost forgot to do a best web junk this week.  Since this was the week of the SBC I’ll recommend this blog post which is related to the convention and this post which is a recap

And I’ll recommend this video which is Jeff Crook’s theme interpretation sermon from Wednesday night

2009 SBC Recap

This is simply a recap of the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention from my point of view.  Although this was only my third convention, this one was unique for me in that it was so devotional.  Now that we have adjourned I genuinely feel revived.  There is no question that the theme from the platform was one of revival.  But I will say that for me, all this talk of the great commission has made me assess the way I relate to people and realize that I need to be more intentional about sharing the gospel.  I witness often to those in my path, but I do not go out of my way enough to put others in my path.  I really believe in a real hell and it is selfish, or lazy or hateful not to make evangelism a priority in my life even if it is inconvenient.

Now to my observations from Wednesday

The first thing of the morning was the executive committee’s report on the motions from yesterday.  The majority of the motions were ruled out of order.  All the ones regarding Mark Driscoll and Acts 29 were, of course, out of order, but also the ones regarding the HCSB and anything restricting the freedom of any individual member were out of order as well.

Then it was time to pass resolutions.  We thanked Louisville for hosting and recognized the sesquicentennial of Southern Seminary.  The only resolution with any discussion at all was the one about President Obama, recognizing his historic election and praying that he would have some godly counsel.  But it passed as it was printed.

Johnny Hunt named his GCR task force in the morning session as well.  Much of that task force had already been named, though I didn’t know the entire list.  To me the only surprise was that there was just one woman.  I found that odd.  One is not even enough to be considered a token appointment.  I was also a bit curious about Ronnie Floyd being named chair.  His cooperative program number is why he lost in Greensboro so I just find it curious as well.

The Southeastern luncheon was undoubtedly the worst service I have ever received at a banquet of any kind.  This was the fault of the Kentucky Exposition center and not SEBTS.  The speech from the president was enlightening and made the banquet worth attending.  Dr Akin addressed the Mark Driscoll hullabaloo by saying that he is teaching his students to think and that they can learn to glean the useful and discard the bad.  He, of course, said a lot more than that, but that was the gist.  It was both enlightening and necessary.  He was also asked why he thought executive committee president Morris Chapman is so clearly opposed to the GCR.  His answer was that he hasn’t spoken with Chapman about it.

When time for questions in the SEBTS report came up he had to answer the Driscoll / Acts 29 question again.  He was much more brief and less thorough, but said SEBTS is an open book and has nothing to hide.  He also addressed the pamphlet from the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association by saying that if you have questions ask me rather than listening to others.  He then repeated that students need to learn to think, and that having a guest speaker does not endorse every belief of that speaker.

The Theme interpretation in the evening session by Jeff Crook was the best message I heard all week.  (That is saying something too, because I’m pretty sure I heard 15 from Sunday morning through Wednesday night.)  It is a shame that there were so few people remaining by that final session.  Go to the archives and listen to it.  It was about 7:30 pm Wednesday.

The NAMB report and presentation was inspiring and moving.  It made me proud to be a former summer missionary and proud of my cooperative program gifts.  Also, Mandisa is a great singer.

I’ll conclude this with some spare thoughts that don’t fit into the recap above.

First, although last year I did not vote for Johnny Hunt, I am impressed with his leadership.  To me it is obvious that he is not one of the good ol’ boys.  He truly does not seem to be a part of the old guard.

Secondly, Twitter added a lot to the convention.  It is very interesting and enlightening to see that thoughts of others as you all experience that same thing.  It was a running commentary that included hundreds of people you didn’t know and the thoughts of the convention’s movers and shakers.  The reward for best tweet of the week undoubtedly was this one “Almohler could really use a hug today.  SBCers just come up and hug his neck” –obviously Russ Moore got his hands on Al Mohler’s phone.

Finally, one of the real fun things about the convention is seeing all the people you only rarely see.  This year I saw:

Don Mathis – Evangelist and my great-uncle
Lee Merck – a pastor formerly from NSRBA
Chp. James Deason – a former member of LaGrange who is now stationed at Ft. Campbell.  I wish I had taken his picture so that people from my church could see him with some hair.
Stephen Wilson – My former college professor
Glen Warner – Youth pastor from NSRBA
Greg Taylor – Who I last saw as a part of the UK BSU 11 or so years ago
Tim Burdon and family
Also some of Former Pastors
Rod Groff
Don Embry

I’ll say this again.  I am genuinely inspired and proud of our convention now that we are headed home.  There was much more harmony than in my previous conventions, and I for one am convicted about my need to make the Great Commission central to my life and not just my ministry.  As Johnny Hunt said. Talk is cheap and passing a task force is not witnessing. (I wrote that quote down at the time but can’t find my notes so I have messed it up pretty bad.)

2009 Southern Baptist Convention – Tuesday

This is a brief recap of Tuesday June 23 at the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m pretty sure that every person has a different experience there, and some things are more emphasized depending on the crowd around you, but some things are hard to ignore.

Where I was, there was one major subject of conversation and controversy.  The Great Commission Resurgence right?  Nope.  Then maybe it was the IMB report and the news of what to do about the economics that have caused us to close down certain missionary efforts.  Nope.

In fact, the number one topic by a mile was Mark Driscoll.  There was a paper published by the Missouri Baptist laymen’s association, and distributed by Truett-McConnell college that was a polemic against Mark Driscoll and the Acts 29 Church Planting network.  It indicted Southeastern Seminary and Ed Stetzer and generally caused an uproar.  There were dozens of people around me reading this paper, and when time for introduction of new motions came, there were at least 5 motions taking aim at Mark Driscoll (not a Southern Baptist), Lifeway for selling his books, SEBTS, Ed Stetzer, and Alvin Reid.  I was a bit saddened by this vitriol but more than that I was surprised.  I definitely did not see this coming.  Before you judge me too harshly, I’m not saying I endorse Mark Driscoll.  In fact I have steered people away from him in the past because I know his style turns off so many.  I also am bothered by his attitude toward alcohol and I believe that overly crude language detracts from the message he is delivering about a holy God.  He is, however, orthodox, and to say Lifeway can’t sell his books because he drinks alcohol I just can’t understand.

There were some other interesting motions brought forth.  There was one wanting to rid the convention of the HCSB.  One or two aimed against president Obama on his view of abortion.  Another suggesting that Lifeway be certain that all VBS materials are made in the USA.  I found this particularly interesting in light of a question previously addressed to Thom Rainer during the Lifeway report that VBS stuff needs to be cheaper and supported for more than one year.

The Great Commission Task force was, not surprisingly, the second most significant issue of the day.  It was passed, but not before someone attempted to change it to have the NAMB and IMB do self-studies.  That amendment failed and the task-force passed overwhelmingly.  In fact I only saw 3 votes against it.

The vote to declare Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth not in friendly cooperation passed virtually unanimously and without discussion.

Johnny Hunt was reelected as president by acclimation.  He will lead the GCR task force

Attendance was better than last year, no surprise.  At the time of the election of Hunt there were 8.587 messengers registered.

I also want to say something about Wade Burleson and Bart Barber, but I won’t.

Finally, it wouldn’t be the SBC without protestors.  There were a few demonstrators from PETA outside the gates.  They were dressed as animals and wearing sign that say “God loves me too.”  I think that’s what they said anyway.  It was hard to read.

Feel free to destroy me in the comments because I don’t want to tar & feather Driscoll.

SBC Pastor’s Conference day 2

Tonight another brief report from the SBC Pastor’s Conference because it’s late again and I’m tired.  The convention starts tomorrow so the only news of the day was in this article on Baptist Press.  Though I learned about it from Al Mohler.

Also we learned that Mike Huckabee has changed parties.  He recently switched from PC to Mac.

I was at the conference for 5 preachers.  Here are the day’s best quotes.

Tom Elliff
“If you cannot forgive, you cannot claim to be a man or woman of faith”

Michael Catt
“Our preferences have overridden our principles”

“Carnal people will never care about lost people” –in reference to our need to be spirit-filled

Fred Luter
Seriously, who in their right mind would try to quote Fred Luter properly?  I just felt bad for whoever was doing the captioning.

Mike Huckabee
“It’s not that the job is too big but that it is too small.  They thought they would be leading a battleship but it turned out to be the love boat and making sure everyone is happy” –in reference to why so many leave the ministry

Alvin Reid
“100 years from now nobody will remember Oprah”

SBC Pastor’s Conference Day 1

It’s late and I’m tired.  All you are getting is one quote each from the 3 speakers

JD Greear
“If your church died would your city be sad?”  -In reference to Dorcas

Mac Brunson
“There are too many satellite buffaloes in the SBC” – This is a worthless quote without context, but I’m tired

Chuck Colson
“The Great Commission is not to make converts but to make disciples”

SBC Preview

I am leaving in the morning for Louisville and the Southern Baptist Convention.  I am planning to write a blog report each night after I get home.  (Most likely the Wednesday update will not come until Thursday afternoon)

I thought I would give a bit of a preview of the major things to look out for before I go.  I am sure that I won’t do as good a job as some other bloggers but I have regular readers who are interested and I want you to be informed.

Elections - There is really nothing worth mentioning here.  Johnny Hunt will be reelected for the traditional second term.

The action towards Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, TX - I plan to share a meal with an executive committee member before this action takes place to get hopefully a more full understanding, but it seems to me that this is a pretty clear violation of article 3 of the constitution.  (For a little background about this click here or here or here) (Hopefully I’ll one day write a post on welcoming vs affirming views)

All of the furor surrounding the GCR document - At this point no one knows exactly what will be recommended by the newly appointed task force.  I will probably not attend the “meet and greet” session on Tuesday. But almost certainly this is a lot of uproar over something that will not come to a head until next year.  Certainly there are some valid questions raised by the discussion following the GCR document’s publishing. Much has been written and there are blog after blog devoted to dismantling it and looking at it point by point.  I really believe that at this year’s evangelism conference we will be reminded of the importance of – wait for it – evangelism.  (That was a bit snarky I know, but in reality the Gospel is often one of the first things to fall by the wayside under the demands of church life.  If the IECS taught me anything it’s that evangelism must be intentional or it will become secondary.)  Still, I believe that all of the controversial things will not really be addressed until next year’s convention.  I’ll have plenty of occasions to blog about that in the future

My major prediction - The Broadway baptist issue will sail through the convention with little to no controversy and will surely be the only thing you read about in any national or local newspaper.  In fact here’s a preview of the CNN screen crawl “Southern Baptists, nation’s largest protestant denomination, ban church for having homosexual members”  Somebody do me a favor and make a screen grab when you see that headline.

Best Web Junk (June 19)

Speaking of web junk.  There will be another post on this blog this afternoon.  I meant to post it yesterday but just didn’t have time with all the teen college preparation.

This game is addictive My best is 25 days

Very interesting

Dogs (even little stupid ones)…better than cats

In order for to appreciate the awesomeness of this video, you need to be familiar with the “Play him off, Keyboard Cat” meme.  Now, here is an impressive keyboard cat.

I’m not really sure why I find this video so fun.  It’s probably because these kids are really into it.  I guess there are worse things than teaching a public school choir Journey

CNN responds to TWIT

Last week on This Week in Tech the panel had a prolonged discussion about how the “24 hour” cable news networks didn’t cover the uprising over the Iranian elections whatsoever.  Twitter, however, had a lot of first-person information.  (Just have a look at the hashtag #Iranelection)

Then today I saw this clip from the Daily Show

John Stewart is busy making fun of CNN for never being accurate.  (I’m no CNN fan, but it’s not quite a fair characterization.)  However, to me the story is that CNN is reacting to the criticism levelled against them by TWIT.  Namely that they have slipped into irrelevance and that the real news breaks on Twitter.  CNN is attempting to be relevant and timely.  They are also simultaneously trying to discredit Twitter and using it as their only source.  Any user of Twitter knows that it is really the quickest place to see breaking news.  It needs to be used as a reference rather than as a source, but when something happens (just look at Iran) you will see it there first.

At least CNN pretends to recognize this fact.  Even if they are being snarky about it, they know that there is news getting out of Iran mainly via Twitter.

Remember back when I used to blog?

I vaguely remember that too.

I might just write a post tomorrow.

Best Web Junk (June 12)

You may have noticed that there were no new posts on this blog this week.  There’s no reason for this except that to write a post requires both inclination and inspiration.  and I have been lacking in the former all week.  I actually sat down 3 times and wrote barebones outlines of posts.  I’m sure you’ll see them in the future, but I just didn’t have the interest in finishing them this week.  I did, however, put together a short list of the best junk I’ve seen on the web this week.  Enjoy, and I will do my best to get back at it next week.

This is the funnest quiz maybe ever on Mental Floss.  It was probably written by someone roughly my age because almost all of them were right in my wheelhouse.  I got a 70%, but the three I missed I had absolutely no clue about.

This story is weird or cool or something.  it is definitely interesting

Today’s cake wrecks are pretty great.  Especially the Chewbaca cake

I have always thought the flash mob thingies are entertaining.  This one is more entertaining than most.  (You’ve probably already seen this video, Adam posted it on his blog earlier this week)