Twitter

Due to some encouragement from couple friends, I am on twitter now. Check it out. we will see how it goes.

SBC Missions Update

I received a letter recently regarding the IMB and the 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO), which supports the International Missions Board missionaries. The goal for 2008 was $170 million. As you may already know, the total receipts from Southern Baptist churches fell approximately $29 million short of that goal. That represents the single biggest drop from one year to the next in the history of the offering.

As incredible as that shortfall is and as impacting as our economic situation is, the shortfall could be made up by each member of SBC churches giving only about $2. Our missionary personnel, the missionaries that we support, is being reduced by almost 700 personnel. There are 11,626 people groups worldwide and 6,510 unreached people groups and among those 3,431 are unengaged unreached and 2,650 have no known evangelical witness. The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. This is not a time to send less.

SSBC has done a tremendous job in giving in the past years. In 2007 our church gave $15,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and in 2008 we gave $22,422 surpassing our $18,000 goal. Even in our generosity as a church, I hope we might all consider how we to excel even more in generosity, particularly when it comes to supporting missions. The Lottie Moon offering, received in December, supports our missionaries and 100% of the offering goes straight to the field. Make plans now for a generous gift for the cause of Christ. Be generous. Be a worker in the harvest.

CHL and church security

Recently I went through a concealed handgun course in order to get my license to carry a weapon. My motivation to take this course had little to do with security at our church. However, taking the CHL course, getting into discussions with others, practicing with my pistol, church sponsored outings at the gun range, and the fact that we have multiple people carrying weapons in our church every Sunday makes me interested in security. A few days ago a friend of mine sent an article to me about church security. Awareness and training are the two most significant encouragements in the article. The CHL course really stressed awareness. Any thoughts? By the way, I really like my pistol.

Networking

We should be committed to the Jesus Christ and the local church above all but we should also be committed to cooperation, specifically for the purpose of the great commission. Cooperation and networking is modeled in the NT and historically that has developed into denominations. This fall we will embark on a journey each fourth Sunday night, August-November, discussing why we are baptist. I look forward to diving in and wrestling with this topic as a church. We are a SBC church and I think each of our members should know why. Let me know if you have any questions that you feel should be answered during that series.

Why Do We Have Denomonations?

We have denominations because of the Catholic church. And because of the Lutherans. And the Churches of Christ. And the Baptists... We have denominations, historically, in large part because of attempts of individuals and groups to gather around a set of beliefs that were contrary to the set of beliefs of the group they were previously in. In most cases it had much to do with a stand for what the group believed to be the truth. I guess if we really didn't want denominations we shouldn't be fans of the reformation. I suppose the reformation didn't have to result in denominations but it is hard to imagine that. Then when you mix traditions with particular stands or emphases on truths, whallaw - denominations or conventions or a lot of churches that look very similar but refuse to admit they are a quasi-denomination. A world without denominations is a world that we don't have the luxury to live in - yet. Until then, is there good reason to be loyal to a denomination - good enough to think long and hard about loyalty to more than just your local church?