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FIRST-PERSON: From decline to decision
Baptist Press ^ | 06/13/2011 | Ed Stetzer

Posted on 09/04/2011 5:24:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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To: driftdiver

As long as they don’t propose doing what the methodists, lutherans, and presbyterians have done.”

But the they are, and the author of this article is one of those pushing the changes. The SBC is now likely to self-destruct because of the group that gained control about two or three years ago. They claim to be inerrantists, but they are really cultural liberals. As the rank and file discover this, more churches will become independent, and, unless Stetzer and others are purged, the remaining churches will start looking like Mainline Protestant churches.


21 posted on 09/04/2011 6:04:38 PM PDT by achilles2000 ("I'll agree to save the whales as long as we can deport the liberals")
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To: hinckley buzzard

As a former pastor in an SBC church with many of my best friends being former SBC pastors, it’s sad to see our brethren continuing to miss the point.

If we as God’s people are walking in close relationship with Him, reflecting His character and nature in all that we do, both individually and collectively - others will be drawn to join us as they see and are attracted to Jesus.

But if we just change our programs, shift our focus, continue our emphasis on missions while failing to live the life of a missionary (kind of like liberals always declaring their purpose being to help the poor, but never helping the poor themselves as individuals), we will continue to die as a group.

All the proposed solutions are barking up the wrong tree and missing the real problem......


22 posted on 09/04/2011 6:05:32 PM PDT by Arlis (- Virginia loghome/woods-dweller/Jesus lovin'/Bible-totin'/"gun-clinger")
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To: SeekAndFind
Baptists have always been the strongest believers in the myth of the “separation of church and state.” They were the strongest supporters of Roe v Wade, in the beginning, and many are still today. They let politics decide their theology, rather that their God determine their morality - a lose-lose situation.
23 posted on 09/04/2011 6:07:56 PM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: randita

There are some blacks who won’t attend outside of the sermon, but few. Those that attend generally love Jesus more than a skin color. That includes other events.


24 posted on 09/04/2011 6:10:50 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: MIchaelTArchangel
How are the Northern Baptists, the Western Baptists, and the Eastern Baptists faring?

Not as sanctimoniously as their Southern relatives.

25 posted on 09/04/2011 6:11:44 PM PDT by OldCorps
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To: jacknhoo

I’m a Baptist and I let the Bible determine my morality.


26 posted on 09/04/2011 6:15:28 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Two months ago was our last day worshipping in our SBC church because it was becoming more and more liberal. One Sunday morning in June, the teenagers were on the platform doing hip-hop dancing to promote the upcoming VBS. It was the choreography outlined on the CD in the Convention material for 2011 VBS. While the kids were gyrating, the head deacon’s wife was in the choir loft doing a kind of hand jive.

At Christmas, the special music was “The Little Drummer Boy”. When I mentioned it to our pastor, he said, “Well, it does refer to the baby Jesus in a way”; he thought it was absolutely fine.

They’re now using some goofy version of the Bible — Holman, I think. Pastor said they use it ‘cause it’s easier for people to understand. I guess before Holman was published, the Holy Spirit wasn’t powerful enough to convict people via the pesky KJV.

They’ve tossed the traditional hymns and brought in a “hymnal” with the contemporary choruses. I mentioned this to the pastor and he said, “Well, I have to tell you that we’re going to go more in that direction quickly.”

SBC’s platform on amnesty is unacceptable. “It asks government officials to support ‘a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those undocumented immigrants already living in our country.’ The vision for a path toward legal status mirrors what President Barack Obama has offered as he’s urged support for immigration reform.”

Now we’re attending an independent Baptist church and are happy there.


27 posted on 09/04/2011 6:20:24 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("I know that God's tomorrow will be better than today!" A. H. Ackley)
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To: SeekAndFind

Yes I agree with the other posters that “embracing diversity” is not the answer.

Better to adhere to your tenets of faith (and culture!) and be smaller than accomodate the world - in which case you’ll end up smaller anyway and will have lost your faith.

I would argue that the decline in influence/numbers of the SBC is more related to the decline of white, middle class Christian culture in society at large. After all, aren’t we taught in school that ghetto culture is just as good, if not superior, to the WMCC that built America into a great nation?

It saddens me, given that I grew up in the SBC. But from what I hear I don’t know that if I randomly wandered into an SBC church I would recognize the services of my youth anyway.


28 posted on 09/04/2011 6:21:44 PM PDT by jtal (Runnin' a World in Need with White Folks' Greed - since 1492)
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To: hinckley buzzard; Coldwater Creek

It is the Hispanics they want to court.


29 posted on 09/04/2011 6:22:31 PM PDT by PastorBooks
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To: randita

If one of the Blacks in your chorus were to hold a social gathering, would the whites attend it at his or her house? Perhaps there is an abcess that needs puncturing.


30 posted on 09/04/2011 6:23:50 PM PDT by mdmathis6 (Christ came not to make mankind into God but to put God into men!)
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To: jacknhoo

“They were the strongest supporters of Roe v Wade, in the beginning, and many are still today. “

????????????????????????????????

Not in any SBC congregation I’ve ever been in...


31 posted on 09/04/2011 6:27:26 PM PDT by Mr Rogers ("they found themselves made strangers in their own country")
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To: HarleyD

Amen.......! How bout just returning to God’s word and leaving all the silly theories written by men alone.


32 posted on 09/04/2011 6:29:24 PM PDT by swampfox101
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To: MayflowerMadam
Now we’re attending an independent Baptist church and are happy there.

Your story reads exactly the same as ours does. Thank you so much for sharing.

33 posted on 09/04/2011 6:29:38 PM PDT by southernsunshine
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To: HarleyD

Amen.......! How bout just returning to God’s word and leaving all the silly theories written by men alone.


34 posted on 09/04/2011 6:29:38 PM PDT by swampfox101
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To: HarleyD

Amen.......! How bout just returning to God’s word and leaving all the silly theories written by men alone.


35 posted on 09/04/2011 6:29:38 PM PDT by swampfox101
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To: SeekAndFind

Most of the ones I have seen have become pretty irrelevant.

They are more interested in their useless traditions than in what is really important.


36 posted on 09/04/2011 6:31:38 PM PDT by webstersII
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To: swampfox101

bttt


37 posted on 09/04/2011 6:31:45 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Mr Rogers

On Thirty Years Of Roe V. Wade
http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/amResolution.asp?ID=1130


38 posted on 09/04/2011 6:33:17 PM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

The Holman translation was made by and is owned by Southern Baptists. Good info here:

http://www.bible-researcher.com/csb.html

I prefer the ESV or NASB myself.


39 posted on 09/04/2011 6:34:05 PM PDT by Mr Rogers ("they found themselves made strangers in their own country")
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To: driftdiver

I am also, and we are an ornary lot. We belong to the SBC, but we call the shots in our church. We hire our pastors, select our Deacons and decide what songbooks, Sunday school study guides and what type of music we use. The SBC does not “tell” us what to do.

We have many Hispanics, a few Blacks and some other races who regularly attend our services. I hate the word “diversity” because of what it has come to mean. The current use of the word is a poison pill.


40 posted on 09/04/2011 6:38:54 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
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