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Thanks to everyone who has stopped by, lurked or left a comment, but things are a changing…for the better, I hope.
Examiner.com is a new growing online news presence that utilizes local people who write based on their particular areas of interest or expertise. I first noticed it coming through my Google News feeder just under articles from the Washington Post, LA Times or Baptist Press.
Out of sheer curiosity I checked out their writing opportunities and decided to apply. You are now reading the ranting of the “Atlanta Southern Baptist Examiner,” since I was approved at the end of last week. I’ll be contributing between 2-4 articles a week that will automatically feed into the Atlanta region of the Examiner.
This is a “payin’ gig.” It isn’t much, but I do get a little for every page view. Payment is affected by the number of “subscribers” to my articles and the number of comments, since an active comment section means that more people are looking at the pages and staying longer, which affects the ad rates on my pages.
If you have a few seconds and want to help a friend (yes, that would be me), then go to my page and subscribe to my articles. By subscribing, you will get an email alert when I submit a new article. You can delete the email or check out the article (which helps me because it counts as a page view even if you don’t read the entire thing). You can also make me a “Fav” examiner if you are so inclined.
I hope to build readership both locally and nationally since news readers pick up the feeds outside Examiner.com’s local region. That will take a little time, but it will happen.
If you are a writer and decide to check it out for yourself, please contact me before you sign up. There is a referral program and I can get some extra moolah if you name me when you apply.
I remember being in the 9th grade, sitting the back of Mrs. Howard’s math class at Riverdale Junior High School. I was a teacher’s aide and spent almost as much time doing nothing as doing something. My desk, as it was, sat beside a bookcase that had just one or two books on it (it being a math class, after all) one of which had a black cover with the title in bewitched looking red letters. I did not know at the time those two words had come from a Beatles song: Helter Skelter.
The first time I picked up the book, I went straight for the picture section and noted the photos of bloody words on the wall, the “white out” figures of the bodies, the Manson family in court and the maniacal hippie prophet, Charles Manson. I had no idea who Abigail Folger or Sharon Tate were, just that something out of control had happened. The stark words inside the cover, “The story you are about to read will scare the hell out of you,” scared it out of me without even reading the book.
Today and Monday mark forty years since the Manson murders. That seems almost unfathomable to me; how could it have been so long ago? Manson will soon be 75 years old; a frail, wrinkled, but still crazed, old man. Some of his followers, the co-perpetrators, remain in jail as well, while some of the “family members” who did not participate in the murders have lived their lives attempting to outwit the shadow of the gruesome killings four decades ago.
A generation of kids were marked, many by fear, but all in memory of a California night that shattered our ideas of safety, family and the future. All these years later, I hurt for the families whose names became infamous by being the victims of an unspeakable tragedy. I’m thankful for the two or three “family members” who have received Christ and exhibited genuine repentance in prison. I’m supremely thankful for a Savior whose sacrificial death is sufficient to cover the sins of even the most heinous of criminals, including those attached to this vile chapter of our nation’s history, so long as they repent and believe the gospel. And for a gospel that, in and of itself, is the power of God unto salvation.
Today is the first day of participation in a collaborative blog called MissioScapes (found at www.missioscapes.com). I and a number of my formerly trouble making friends are the editors. We are all trying to stay on the “straight and narrow,” so pray that the half-way house doesn’t get too crowded.
I’m joined by David Phillips, the Littleton wonder twins (Todd and Paul), Art Rogers and Alan Cross, all familiar to many readers of this blog and my previous blog, sbcoutpost.com.
Our goal is to avoid SBC politics and most SBC matters altogether (following our first series, “If We Were The GCR Task Force…”), choosing rather to engage from an intentionally missional perspective. We will also be featuring writers from non-SBC (and non-baptist) backgrounds to gain a point of view that we inherently lack.
We all feel that this will be a worthwhile effort and invite you to read along and participate when you have something to contribute.
I’ve had my iPhone for about 18 months now, having purchased it at the time of the first price break. Having never had an iPod or Crackberry prior, I felt the spending of the money was justfied as it was time for a new phone anyway.
With the new 3G S coming out in a week or so, I know there will be a truck load of people wondering if they should buy an iPhone or any one of the number of “buy-one-get-one-free” phones that seem to inhabit every retail shop.
Here are a few observations from my months of use:
First, the iPhone is extremely durable. The glass-like appearance of the screen belies is ruggedness. It is not that the screen cannot be scratched; it can, but not with normal use. Mine has no screen nicks at all and only a minor screen discoloration from the mistake of leaving it in direct sunlight in a closed truck on a very hot day.
Second, it has a great interface. It is important to remember that the iPhone is really a computer with a phone, instead of a phone with some cool applications or even an iPod with a built in phone. It has a complete operating system with regular software updates, just like your computer. Since it has a Mac style OS it is very intuitive, even to the point of being fun. Commands are simple and straightforward. It is almost completely idiot proof.
It works well. The touch screen works amazingly well even through layers of grime and skin oil. Only when truly dirty will it cause screen commands to jump or falter. A dry cotton cloth or shirt tail will take care of this quickly. Though I have dropped mine a few times, it never fails to work. I did jar the SIM card loose once from a direct hit on a concrete floor, but a quick hit to my palm in the other direction reset it immediately.
It is durable. Not only does it stand up to normal dropping and jostling, the battery still works as well as when new. An early concern was over the owner’s inability to change the battery; it must be sent to the factory. However, I have charged mine literally hundreds of times and the battery is still good. I do follow the age old advice to let it run down pretty far before recharging.
It’s just plain sexy. The thing just looks good and feels good. It has the perfect weight, not too heavy and not too light. You’ll never leave Chili’s and get three miles down the road before remembering that you left it on the table. I carry mine in my back or cargo pocket and it is easily missed. You’ll forget your sunglasses a hundred times before you forget your iPhone once.
I do recommend, without hesitation, that you activate your password protect feature. If you do not, then anyone who were to pick it up would be able to access any email account that you have tied to it. This could be a disaster. It takes 5 seconds to “clear security” and it is worth it.
Ricky Smith of RB Smith Grading in Buford is a great friend and discipleship partner. He and I meet almost every Wednesday with 2 or 3 other men at a Waffle House, the same place where Jesus met with His disciples. He drives large dozers, low-boys, tractors, etc in doing site work for gas stations, schools, and commercial buildings. A while back he bought an iPhone, but he drops it a lot. A lot. And since he rarely works over carpet, his drops really have impact.
Recently he dropped his iPhone screen down on a concrete curb, creating a spider web of cracks all across it, but short of shattering it out of the frame. Below is a picture of the screen after the EMTs got through with it. It is completely covered with Scotch tape. The cracks and tape are easily seen. The second picture is proof that it still works. The screen you see is after logging through security. The touch screen feature still works. [Note: The fuzziness is photographer error, not phone display problems.]
Get one; I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I regularly blogged about matters relating to the Southern Baptist Convention. After a couple of years of such writing, I retired from it and began to blog about other matters. I’m writing this particular post as a couple of friends, for whom I have great respect, have asked me to weigh in with a few thoughts on the proposed Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) in the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m not returning to the fray.
Though some, perhaps many, will take my writing as negative, it is only how things are viewed from my seat. I hope against hope for nothing but success for all those who are involved in this attempt and would be happy to be proven wrong.
Beginning at least as early as Dr. Jimmy Draper’s Younger Leader Initiative in the SBC, calls for major institutional, structural and Cooperative Program reform have been a part of conversation from the fringes to the center of SBC life and leadership. The Younger Leader discussion board that went online just before Thanksgiving of 2004 (now defunct) was flooded with concerns about the wastefulness of the current denominational structure and suggestions on how to address those issues. Those younger leaders ultimately divided into at least three branches: those who continued their path out of the convention, those who tried a concerted effort (ie, political) to effect change (I was here) and those who more or less eschewed the politics to focus on bringing change via their local churches. This is a simplification, I’m aware, but I think it holds up well enough for this post.
After two years of blogging multiple times a week and gaining insight into the mechanics, politics and personalities of the SBC, I came to the conclusion that attempt at denominational reform were hopeless and efforts to bring it about were futile, bordering on bad time management. (One can read those posts here, here, here and here. Independent of my own writing, Michael Spencer came to very similar conclusions regarding the collapse of evangelicalism Part 1 and Part 2.)
Recently Dr. Danny Akin of Southeastern Seminary issued a call for denominational reform under the name Great Commission Resurgence which term has been credited with coinage by Dr. Thom Rainer, president of Lifeway Christian Resources. This original 13 point message was distilled into ten points and promoted by current SBC president, Dr. Johnny Hunt, who, as I understand it, intends to make it a focus of the 2009 Convention in Louisville. As of this writing, the document boasts 3,346 signatures, which is less than the annual attendance of the SBC and .0002% of the claimed 16M SBC membership, but, to be fair, substantially more than movements of the recent past have garnered (ie, The Memphis Declaration and the Joshua Convergence).
Responses to the GCR document have been, shall we say, wildly varied. Shortly after Danny Akin’s message, Baptist Press published a subtle rebuttel from the normally far afield Dr. Malcolm Yarnell who did not disappoint. Dr. Hunt has taken flack for proposing such a thing as the GCR, accusations about base motives are swimming just under the surface. A document attempting to call the SBC back to a focus on the Great Commission has not been signed by 75% of the Executive Directors of state conventions/fellowships, who, ostensibly, are for the Great Commission, and there is suspicion within the ranks over who would be the president of a potentially combined IMB/NAMB mission agency. With the less than stellar performance of late at NAMB and the perennial candidacy of the SBTC’s Jim Richards, I do not know that much trust would be engendered by a search team, assurances of “God’s will being done” notwithstanding.
My thoughts are few and, sadly, are little changed from the thoughts that led to me abandon any hope of a true change in the SBC from a vestige of a nostalgic past to a rebirth as a missional powerhouse. Nevertheless, here are a few for what they are worth.
1. The SBC has ADHD. EKG, GPS, GCR. The SBC sounds like alphabet soup or the federal government. There is scarcely enough time to promote one program or idea before it makes way for the next one, none of which catch hold. There are programs that emanate from different offices and different entities (The Net and F.A.I.T.H. for example) giving the impression that some entities are actually in competition with each other. This is not even to get into different promotions within given states that alternately duplicate or ignore national movements (Promise Keepers becomes Legacy Builders in the GBC).
2. There is too much turfism. The local association, the state convention and the national convention are often at odds with each other over who is to do what, when and where. State evangelism offices and directors are at odds with NAMB. The entities are concerned about money and who’s getting it. For years at least one of the seminary presidents has been pushing hard for a “seminary offering” to be observed in the convention’s churches, but has been rebuffed. The states balk at the idea of sending a greater percentage of funds to X-Comm, though the IMB is now unable to send M’s who are currently trained and ready. Much of this is related to denominational protectionism or fiefdoms that must be protected at all costs, even kingdom costs.
3. The SBC’s greatest strength, autonomy, has become its greatest weakness. Since each level makes it’s own decisions independently of the other levels (though each claims to be the servant of the churches), there is not enough cooperation and often redundancy. When Dr. Akin mentioned “bloated bureaucracy” he was met with cries of “foul” from other areas. No one thinks that their own area is bloated only that others are. For that reason, as some have noted, passing a resolution on this document means little since the states and not obligated to do anything as a result (Others have noted that restructuring will not bring revival). Even if a study committee returns and makes recommendations for streamlining, each individual state would have to act independently and would be loath to do so for fear of another state keeping or receiving more CP money.
4. There is not enough trust. Everything that I learned in two years keeps me believing that there is ample reason for this, but this is a terrible situation. Adult men and women all of whom are assumed to be maturing Christians, but cannot trust that there are no agendas other than a kingdom agenda. There is not even trust on the upper levels of leadership; how is there going to be trust down the line? Anyone who has read Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team knows that trust is foundational to effectiveness.
5. There are too many viable options for education, fellowship and mission. Southern Baptists no longer need an SBC education. The proliferation of online education has made it possible to have more (and sometimes cheaper) alternatives. Not being forced to move in order to attend seminary may be a bane to the schools, but it is a blessing to the students. Not only that, but currently I’m in a degree program that is not offered by SBC seminaries and is a less expensive option even counting CP subsidies.
Networks such as Acts 29 and Glocal with discussions like ChurchAsMissionary have made it possible to have meaningful partnerships outside rigid SBC structures and, in many cases, individual churches provide more church plant money than all levels of the denomination combined. Fellowship is as readily attained in online communities and impromptu phone calls than at the Monday Morning Pastors Conference at Shoney’s.
6. God does not need the SBC. At least one SBCer, Jedediah Coppenger, has written a lament about the drop in Cooperative Program funds relating to international missions asking if the Great Commission is filing for bankruptcy. While I appreciate the concern, I cannot join the chorus of despair because I do not think that God is dependent on the SBC. Was there no fulfillment of the Great Commission before the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention? If not, how did the gospel get to our ancestors? Was the modern missions movement founded in Nashville? Did Adonirum Judson go through the International Learning Center?
A few years ago I sat in a room with 20 or so other men and ladies and we discussed the future of the SBC. My primary contribution to the conversation was this: “If we are not prepared to admit that God may be envisioning a future without the SBC, then we are not prepared to envision a future with it.” That is, the SBC must be willing to at least seriously and thoughtfully consider that God is done with the SBC before serious thought can be given to a potential future. Otherwise we think and act from a position of triumphalism–that God needs us to fulfill His plans, when, in fact, He does not.
7. There is more concern about job security than about soul salvation. Every time someone mentions b’cracy, downsizing, and streamlining, someone usually brings up the fact that people will lose their jobs. So? And? I see a commission in the Word to take the gospel to all the world, but see nothing about denominational job creation. This particular concern should never enter the discussion. It simply is not relevant to the mission. Glorifying God by getting the gospel to those who have not heard is the mission; everything about the SBC should flow from and into that.
8. There is no compelling vision. Still.
9. We do not need a Great Denominational Resurgence. In case you spend all of your time inside the SBC beltway, the GCR has already been pegged as such by some outside your circles and a few in them. I just don’t know anyone who is crying themselves to sleep at night because of the SBC. Over the condition of our world? Yes. Over the lost? Yes. Over the denomination? No. Pastors are leading churches to be involved in the Great Commission. I know scads of them who have adopted unreached people groups, have partnered with M’s and nationals, have sent countless teams and planted churches all without denominational assistance. Why spend so much time and energy trying to change the saddle on a dying horse? Pastors and churches should recognize the efficiency and effectiveness of channels that exist outside the bureaucratic structures of denominations and exploit them to the fullest.
10. Any study team will likely have the wrong people on it. The order of thinking that could get the SBC out of this mess will of necessity be a different order of thinking than got the SBC into this mess and that “different order” kind of thinking will have to come from different people none of whom will be asked to serve. Why? Because they are on the fringe. The fringe is where creativity happens. Revolutionary thinking scares the status-quo which is why it gets pushed out to the fringe.
One SWBTS professor wrote that the SBC is led from the center. This might be true when there is consensus, but is decidedly not true about leading a revolution. Revolutions always begin at the fringe because the center is inhabited by the status quo. Imagine a study group filled with fringe dwellers who bring back a bunch of wild ideas about streamlining, combining, restructuring…stuff that will actually work. Then it gets beat half to death by a bunch of turf protectors, before being subjected to everyone in the blogosphere, then it finally limps into the annual meeting only to be suffer 20 lashes and then pass the votes of not one but two consecutive June meetings.
And while all that energy has been expended trying to change a denomination, the fringe dwellers are out changing the world.
You can find the actual search engine here, and information about its developer, Stephen Wolfram, in this article at Wired.com.
Wolfram Alpha is a revolutionary (if it works as claimed) search engine that answers question (“How far is the earth from the sun?”) with specific, real time information rather than a page of possible answers based on what matches previous internet contributions (in the way of Google, Yahoo and Ask).
People who supported former third-party presidential candidates like Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr are cited in the report, in addition to anti-abortion activists and conspiracy theorists who believe the United States, Mexico and Canada will someday form a North American Union.
Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material.
This eye opening news comes courtesy of the Department of Homeland security (read the entire article here). It’s good to know that our own government has narrowed down the list of subversives to Ron Paul supporters, abortion protesters and people who wear boxers are concerned about a crackdown on firearms ownership as potential threats to the government.
It seemed good to remind the honorable members of this particular portion of the government why it’s ok to participate in all of the above:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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