Wide is His Love and Grace
Meredith and I went with a group from our church to the Mississippi Baptist Youth Night. It was an amazing event. Steve Fee led the worship. Dr. David Platt gave a powerful call to live a gospel centered life. He told a number of inspiring stories about Asian Christians and the powerful way the Holy Spirit is at work in their ministries. Whitney Wilson also spoke. She is a former speakers tournament contestant and student at M.C. She preached the stars down calling us to a life of radical faith. In a time when many in the SBC are focusing on non-essentials the Youth Night was a refreshing experience. It was an enviroment where Jesus was honored and our sons AND daughters were given an opportunity to prophesy in His name. It may have been more biblical than Baptist but it sure was fun. Thanks to the planning committee for a job well done.
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If you would like to send a private comment please send an email. I would love to know what you are thinking.
Grace and peace - Matt
It wasn't private just very poorly typed in a rush to get out the door for first year in school shopping.
I will comment later. I didn't even think about seeing if you were going. What about this Page mess?! Granted, I am about as concervative as they come but good grief. I saw your post on Outpost. I think we can out last them:)
conservative
Perry:
We gotta meet sometime soon. I thought someone might have "second thought" some hate mail. I am glad it was you. I am a conservative guy as well, altough I have been called liberal by some REALLY conservative folks. I have learned to live with that. I simply think there is room in the SBC for calvinists, charismatics (I lean this way), etc. I thinks issues like women in ministry should be approached with grace and latitude. Many conservative evangelicals (mostly Pentecostal) affirm women in ministry and I see their point and welcome them as genuine conservatives. If we keep shrinking the edges we will soon become a second rate sect. I still think we have a little Lottie Moon in us and that God is not through with us. That is why I am still a Southern Baptist. Glad to know you are out there. Keep up the work at The Kettering Fellowship!
Hate mail? That stinks. I have come to the point that I would rather be the less conservative in the room than the most. Issues like Women pastors I waffle on as far as how important a difference I think it is. I am basicly a Piper/Grudem complimentarian. I am settled with my position. However, I do think that the real discussion (for SBC) is about not limiting the role beyond scripture. I would love to see a strong Woman to be nominated for President of the Convention. No way would I ever even entertain the idea of voting for or sitting under a female pastor. But I would love to be able to vote for a Female pres. of the SBC. I would loose but it would be so much FUN!
Perry,
I've never gotten any hate mail - I just didn't want it to start. You can nominate my wife or mamma for prez. I can assure you they are both STONG women.
oops - strong
Perry: I was just thinking - Beth Moore might be a real contender. She is the most popular "anointed speaker" in the SBC.
OK, back to youth night. What I was going to say was that I too enjoyed the event. I can imagine how much some of my friends would have hated it. The key to enjoying YN is expectations. It is a back to school pump up the kids Jesus rally. Hey, sometimes we need a Jesus pep rally. Yes, if your youth ministry is consumed with this type of ministry then a youth ministry you would not have. It isn’t the responsibility of MBC to provide the balance a youth ministry needs. Now the danger will always be the manipulation of emotions in such a high energy setting involving young people. That just goes with the territory and good ministers can help the kids work through those issues. So, I enjoyed it for what it was and I am glad I took my kids to it.
However, my most personal assessment is one of being disappointed. I wasn’t disappointed because anything was wrong or unbiblical. I was disappointed because of what the night could have been. I do not know who is to blame for the overall program but the distractions caused by a poorly designed program were very distracting at important times. It didn’t kill the evening but I do think it hindered the evening. The speaker system for the band was not capable of carrying the volume that they needed for that venue. The distortion was significant in the upper level. We were not even sitting high up in the upper level and the sound was horrible. It wasn’t because they were too “loud” and we couldn’t hear. It was just plain old distortion. Secondly, the coordination of song selection as it related to what was going on or about to happen on the stage was distracting. The songs were fine but sometimes they just did not fit the circumstances and the audience would get charged and it would take forever to pray, read scripture, or even speak. Lastly, who was in charge of the lights?? The obsession with trying to “create” atmosphere by turning off the lights at every possible opportunity became the atmosphere killing monster of the night. I am so thankful the David had the courage to take control of the situation. I hope that it was contracted workers through the coliseum who simply did not know any better. My fear is that it was us trying to manufacture a “spiritual” atmosphere. I was just at M-Fuge in SC. The exact opposite was the case. The programming of group events as well as the worship events was excellent.
On a technical note. I have to disagree with you about Wilson’s portion of the event. You simply can not call what she did preaching. This isn’t because of the “female” thing. If a man would have presented the same “speech” it still would not have been preaching. She gave a great testimony but she did not proclaim or present the word of God. This isn’t a slam on her because she was there only to give her speech/testimony. Furthermore, the application of the scripture she did refer to was close to being abusive and close to being dangerous considering the age of the audience. I was young and inexperienced once and I too made mistakes. I am not attacking her in anyway. I don’t even think that she believes the implications of parts of her presentation. We are not promised that if we pray bold enough and with strong enough faith that everything will be OK. Prayer is not a changer of God’s will, plans, or purposes. The implication of her application is that if her cousin would have died or been permanently injured then the responsibility for that would have been her “ineffective” prayer. Again, those kinds of mistakes at a youth event are repairable. I have already corrected the teaching with my kids by addressing it Sunday night. And I am sensitive to the use of the term preaching because the preaching ministry of the Church in America and SBC life is in shambles and biblical preaching must be recovered if we are going to experience true revitalization of our dying Churches across the Convention.
Lets have more fun and nom. Dorothy Patterson and see how they wiggle out of that one!
Perry:
I needed a pep rally last Friday.
I would sport a large hat to the convention if you would promise to nominate Dorothy Patterson.
Me too on the pep rally. I hope my post didn't seem too negative because I really didn't want it to be. I was just trying to evaluate.
I really did enjoy youth night.
OK, You mentioned Beth Moore. That would seem like a good start. Seriously, What do you think would happen if a woman was nominated?
Perry:
I did not take your comments as too negative. I think you were being pretty fair. I think we always need to be honest about areas of improvement.
I think you would see a stark divide if a woman was nominated. Someone like Beth Moore would probably do far better than many expect. She would be supported by a number of women, and some charismatic leaning Baptists who appreciate her connection to James Robison. There are more egalitarians in Baptist churches than many recognize. Gender would not be a problem for them. There are some vocal complimentarians who would declare war. It would be something. I think we are a number of years away from seeing this happen but the results would probably surprise.
I was being serious about the hat.
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