Pure Church

We're almost home, awaiting our fly from the Miami airport. It's been a great trip, refreshing in all the most wonderful ways.

First, we were able to connect with some of my oldest and dearest friends. It was a real treat for me to have time together with Peter Rochelle, a brother I consider my first pastor and first example of faithful exposition, and at the same time to hang out with Mark Dever, a brother I consider my second pastor and most formative mentor when it comes to the life of the church. A real treat.

Then there was catching up with old friends and new. It was fun for me to introduce Bentley, my assistant pastor, and Stephen, new seminarian at Southeastern and former director of youth and missions, to my brother Clyde Alston, perhaps one of the most faithful servants you'll ever meet and a real Barnabas to me. The ribs at Applebee's were great, and the concrete from Goodberry's hit the spot!

Folks at FBC will be very encouraged at Stephen's start in seminary. He has established some really good routines and is thinking in all the right ways about building fellowship and relationships with others. He's found a really strong church, North Wake Baptist Church. He's enjoying his classes and has some fine teachers. And he says he's probably doing better spiritually than at any point in his life. On a personal level, it was probably most encouraging to get an update on Stephen.

The conference itself was outstanding. In a nutshell, I think the overall unofficial theme that emerged was "God does the work; trust Him." Each of the speakers addressed preaching and pastoral ministry in some way and the Lord instructed us all.

Mark Dever began with an exposition of Mark 4. He unfolded two parables that demonstrate that it's the word that does the work and that the advancement of the kingdom does not depend on us. Listen to this sermon if you're a pastor who has trouble sleeping at night because you worry about anything in your church.

Baptist21 sponsored a lunchtime panel discussion on "Great Commission Churches." Daniel Aiken, Mark Leiderbach, J.D. Greear, Mark Dever and I had a fun but informative time fielding questions on this broad theme. The first few minutes feature a spirited, friendly exchange between J.D. and Mark on multi-site churches.

Dr. Akin addressed us from Ecclesiastes 12:9-14, "The Preacher on Preaching." I found the emphasis on choosing our words carefully very helpful. What a privilege to use the gift of language to communicate about a God who speaks through His word.

My man Mike McKinley, looking very stylish in the new specs, served us from Luke 10 on the centrality of listening to Jesus. Excellent exposition that demonstrated the liberating power of making the word and listening central to our Christian lives.

C.J. Mahaney closed the night with an insightful and encouraging exposition of 2 Tim 4:1-5. If you struggle against impatience and unrealistic expectations as I do, C.J.'s meditation on pastoral discernment and skill and sanctification is pure relief and help.

I had the privilege of addressing the topic, "Will It Preach? Exposition in Non-White Contexts." We considered some objections to expositional preaching arising out of certain cultural assumptions, and then considered Neh. 8 as an example and apologetic of exposition.

There were lively panel discussions following each message. Those exchanges are often some of the most informative.

I assume some audio will be up at some point soon. In the meantime, Andrew Sherwood live-blogged the conference here.

Today we leave for the God Exposed conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I'm looking forward to the trip for a number of reasons:

1. We'll sit under excellent preaching and preachers for a couple days. We should hear addresses from Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Mike McKinley, and Danny Akin, President of Southeastern.

2. It'll be time to catch up with a number of good friends. There's Stephen, a former staff person at FBC recently enrolled at Southeastern. We'll have to find out about this watermelon milkshake thing he's hooked on! There's Bentley, a partner in ministry here at FBC and an elder as of this past Sunday. There's Pete, the man I regard as my first pastor and first model of exposition. There's Clyde, my Barnabas. There's James, fellow laborer in the gospel and new daddy. There's the crew from CHBC. And a whole ton of other people it'll be great to see and interact with.

3. It's Raleigh, where my wife and I met and where we began our family. Always good to visit the ol' stompin' grounds.

4. You can't go to Raleigh without going to Goodberry's. The best frozen custard on the planet.

5. Time probably won't permit actually eating some, but at least I'll be in sniffing distance of some fried fish! Cayman has wonderful restaurants (worth visiting the island just for the eating!), but there's nothing here like some fried fish and shrimp NC-style. (There is no decent barbecue, though. Too far east really.)

6. There's fall. I like the fall season; crisp sweater and jacket weather. It'll be awesome if the leaves are changing colors even the tiniest bit. In Cayman we have two seasons: peak and hurricane. Lots of glorious sunny days year-round, but fall is special. Fall means football, the final cook-outs of the seasons, tail-gating, and soon, Thanksgiving.

Two days of thinking about expositional preaching in one of the loveliest parts of the country with some of the best people you'll ever meet. Should be refreshing!

Tom Ascol recently posted a helpful pamphlet written by Daniel Akin on the need for theologically-driven preaching in the SBC. Perhaps it's helpful for non-SBC churches as well.



1) The non-negotiable of a regenerate Church (John 3; Rom. 3; 2 Cor. 5; Gal. 3)

• First, we need to make it clear that church membership is a privilege, not a right.
• Second, we must preach against easy believism and reject any form of a compromised gospel.
• Third, we must be careful with respect to our own theological integrity concerning infant or early adolescent baptism that lacks a clear understanding and confession of the gospel.

2) The essential nature of believers baptism by immersion with a biblical appreciation for its significance. (Matt. 28; Acts, Rom. 6)

That baptism involved a particular member (a believer), mode (immersion) and meaning (public identification with Christ and the believing community) is grounded in New Testament witness and has been a hallmark of Baptists throughout their history.

We must see evidence of regeneration for those we baptize. The baptism of young children must be administered with the greatest possible care.

Baptism should be viewed and emphasized as a first and necessary step of discipleship and obedience to Christ. We will reject as inconceivable the idea of admitting anyone into our membership without believer’s baptism by immersion.

3) The recovery of the lost jewels of church discipline and genuine disciple-making as essential marks of the Church.

Church discipline is clearly and repeatedly taught in the New Testament, yet most do not preach on it or practice it. Jesus addresses it in Matt. 18:15-20 and Paul does so several times in 1 Cor. 5:1-13; 2 Cor. 2:5-11; Gal. 6:1-2; and Titus 3:9-11.

Theologically it is to disobey the plain teachings of Scripture and ignore the necessity of church discipline in maintaining the purity of the church.

• First, we must preach and teach our people what the Bible says about church discipline.
  
• Second, we must begin to implement church discipline lovingly, wisely, gently, carefully and slowly.
  
• Third, we must apply discipline to areas like absentee membership as well as the specific list provided by Paul in 1 Cor. 5.

4) The emphasis and practice of a genuinely Word-based ministry (2 Tim. 4:1-5)

For those of us who profess to believe in both the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, there must be in our churches what I call "engaging exposition."

We must advocate an expositional method with a theological mindset under an evangelical mandate. It is preaching that models for our people how they should study, interpret and teach the Bible.

5) The vision for a faithful and authentic biblical ecclesiology (Acts. 2; Eph. 4; Pastorals)

• First, there must be the 4 marks of 1) a regenerate Church membership, 2) the Word, 3) the Ordinances and 4) Church Discipline.
• Second the local church should be elder/pastor led and congregationally governed. Here, in my judgment, there is room for flexibility in terms of patterns, structure and implementation.

As we move forward in this century, Pastors will need to give particular attention to a theology of stewardship and discipleship.

The members of our churches must move from being shoppers to buyers to investors.

6) The continued nurturing of a fervent missionary and evangelistic passion that is wedded to a healthy and robust theology (1 Thess. 1; Eph. 4:11-16; Jude 3-4; Rev. 5)

No church will be evangelistic by accident.
First, there are multiple ways churches can do missions and evangelism. That we do it is the key.

Marketplace evangelism which can reach into the workplace is an area needing attention, strategizing and training.

Youth and student evangelism needs renewed emphasis.

Theologically and biblically, we must challenge our people to evangelize without bias or prejudice, loving and going after the exploding ethnic and minority groups where we live.

7) The teaching and preaching of a 1st century biblical model for church planting (Acts 17)
The 21st century is more like the 1st century than has ever been the case in our Western culture.

We are losing America and the West because we are losing the great metropolitan areas where there is a concentration of people.

• First, explore creative methods, but make sure that they are faithfully filtered through the purifying waters of Holy Scripture.
• Second, be wise fishers of men.
• Third, we must ask God to raise a new generation of godly and gifted church planters and missionaries.

8) The wisdom to look back and remember who we were so that as we move forward we will not forget who we are

The Southern Baptist Convention today is not the Southern Baptist Convention of your parents, and certainly not your grandparents.

We now have several generations who know almost nothing of William Carey and Adoniram Judson, Bill Wallace, Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. They do know nothing of Boyce, Broadus, and Manly; Carroll, Robertson, Frost, Mullins and Truett.

They have never heard Criswell, Rogers or Vines preach, and they are not really sure who they are.

In creative and dynamic avenues fitting a 21st century context, we need to retell the Baptist History story in a way that will grab the attention and stir the hearts of our people. And we need to do it, at least in part, from the pulpit.

Conclusion:
The North Carolina evangelist Vance Havner said, "What we live is what we really believe."