The Plowman

There was one largely unnoticed tidbit at the SBC this year in San Antonio that should be a great encouragement to all. Bob Green’s motion concerning LifeWay’s distribution of fables and allegories appeared to have fallen on a collective deaf ear. Maybe we are not a bunch of raving anti-intellectual fundamentalists, after all.

I’m not sure what Brother Green was alluding to. Since he specifically mentioned The Chronicles of Narnia, maybe he was reacting to the popular notion that Lewis was a universalist. More on that possibly in a future post. In the use of fables and allegories, Lewis was in good company. First, here’s just a bit of Bunyan’s apology to his Pilgrim’s Progress:

And thus it was: I, writing of the way
And race of saints in this our gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey and the way to glory,

Solidity, indeed, becomes the pen
Of him that writes things Divine to men;
But must I needs want solidness because
By metaphors I speak? Were not God’s laws,
His gospel laws, in olden time held forth
By types, shadows, and metaphors? Yet loth
Will any sober man be to find fault
With them, lest he be found for to assault
The highest wisdom. No, he rather stoops,
And seeks to find out what by pins and loops,
By calves and sheep, by heifers and by rams,
By birds and herbs, and by the blood of lambs,
God speaks to him; and happy is he
That finds the light and grace that in them be.

Be not too forward, therefore, to conclude
That I want solidness–that I am rude.
All things solid in show, not solid be:
All things in parables despise not we;
Lest things most harmful lightly we receive,
And things that good are of our souls bereave.

My dark and cloudy words they do but hold
The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold.
The prophets used much by metaphors
To set forth truth; yea, whoso considers
Christ, his apostles too, shall plainly see
That truths to this day in such mantles be.

Am I afraid to say that Holy Writ,
Which for its style and phrase puts down all wit,
Is everywhere so full of all these things–
Dark figures; allegories; yet there springs
From that same book, that lustre, and those rays
Of light that turn our darkest nights todays?

Art thou for something rare and profitable?
Wouldst thou see a truth within a fable?
Art thou forgetful? Wouldst thou remember
From New Year’s day to the last of December?
Then read my fancies; they will stick like burrs
And may be, to the helpless, comforters.

I can imagine that if one were to mistrust Lewis, then, perhaps one would just as likely view Bunyan with equal suspicion, even though he is considered by most to be a good Baptist boy. If that’s the case, then here is quite a different reference to the use of allegory:

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpretedallegorically : these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; shecorresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. Galatians 4:22-26 (ESV)

What does that mean? I’m not really sure, but I think that the church I attend might be doing at least some of it. To get a glimpse of what we did/are doing last week and this, take a gander at my pastor’s weekly address. The one thing he doesn’t mention is the fact that he rode the bus with the group to Arizona, and before that he had just gotten back from a 9-plus hour road trip Thursday evening, from this years Southern Baptist annual convention in San Antonio. And then yesterday he preached the message you will find in my previous post. I tell you, he is a tireless campaigner, who never brings attention to himself.

All Politics is Local.
I believe this phrase applies to the work of God’s kingdom every bit as much as it does to secular politics. In other words, the best, most efficient way to impact your world for Christ is to do something yourself. Partnering with smaller churches unable to man their own VBS is something some SBC agency can’t even begin to help with. Our little joint VBS project will impact the west side of Tulsa for the glory of God, and we don’t even care which church “benefits” the most. We just want to see children in our community hear the gospel unto salvation. And that didn’t take any Cooperative Program dollars.

Those of you out there who want to change our convention, prayerfully do what you feel like you need to do. Just don’t forget to do what you ought to be doing at home.

Things are beginning to look up for Pastor Tom Ascol, his Founders Ministeries in general, and, more particularly, his resolution on integrity in church membership, which is actually a resolution in support of biblical church discipline. Support is beginning to show up in unexpected places. First, there’s this from Danny Akin. It appears that Dr. Danny Akin, president of SEBTS sees things in a similar light. Thanks to Micah Fries for posting this address from Dr. Akin in its entirety. Here is just an excerpt:

I was delighted we approved a resolution on integrity in ministry but
disappointed we [didn’t] do the same for one on regenerate church
membership. Some feared the latter was telling the local church what to
do, but a resolution can never do that. Some may think there was some
political agenda in the works. However, this is a clear biblical and
theological issue all Baptist should be able to affirm. Perhaps the
resolution presented needs to be reworded or adjusted, but an emphasis
on regenerate church membership needs to be recaptured by our churches.
I have personally been saying this for several years now. I will
continue to speak to this in the days ahead.

Here’s a man to have on your team. This past spring semester I began to listen to the chapel podcast from Southeastern, and Dr. Akin was the speaker of a good number of those messages. He is a theologically sound man, a fine preacher, very articulate; I would say about 95-percent Calvinist, although he probably wouldn’t care to be labeled that way. Come to think of it, I’m not that crazy about the moniker, though I believe firmly in the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sorry, Dr. Akin. Back to the point, I believe Dr. Akin is one of the underrated leaders in the SBC. I think he is showing true leadeship by speaking candidly, though probably not popularly among some, on this and other subjects relevant to current SBC life.

And now this from an unexpected corner of Christian blogdom. Michael Spencer has been quite a controversial figure among the more buttoned-down Christian community. I first only heard of this wild, unorthodox iMonk figure, several years back, as I was then mostly reading the more generic Christian blogs. Discussion about him was so scary that I didn’t even dare go and check him out. After all, the blog title Boar’s Head Tavern would evoke all kinds of unsavory images in my head. It was only a few months ago that curiosity pushed me over the edge, and I began listening to his Internet Monk Radio podcast. Although he gives me a couple of areas of concern, I believe he is a sound brother in Christ, in whom I find much common ground, especially in his journey from and back to the SBC. Well, enough of that. Here’s a couple of excerpted paragraphs of what the iMonk had to say about the Founders movement:

The Founders movement in the SBC has emerged as a major player in denominational reformation and rethinking. Despite attempts to blame reformed minded Southern Baptists for problems in evangelism (and that will get worse in the future), the Founders movement has remained pro-SBC, pro-denomination, pro-Cooperative program and pro-missions and evangelism. Good for them and their wise leaders.

The Founders movement has the audacity to suggest that the way forward for the SBC entails a serious look backward at the Baptist past: confessionalism, church discipline, theologically driven preaching, pastoral theologians and Biblical wisdom over pragmatism. As a post-evangelical, I too believe that any evangelical pointing forward in the direction of the megachurches and generic evangelicalism is pointing us over a cliff.

There are good reasons to pray for this old ship. Though I am not a Calvinist and will never be in an innovative church, I can support, encourage and pray for the Founders, the younger leaders, the missionals and those seeking for the SBC to become a movement for the Kingdom. Count on these pages to reflect that positive and hopeful prayer for my denominational home.

A fitting end. There are many good reasons to pray for this old ship called the SBC. Let us just be careful we are not guilty of worshiping the creature “Southern Baptist” rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. The Founders’ calm, steady, Christ-exhalting position has, and will continue to win over serious and dedicated Christians within the SBC. Slow and steady, slow and steady.

That’s it. One picture, taken across the street while hurriedly walking from my hotel to the convention Tuesday morning. Hardly proper honor rendered. After all, unlike Hank Hill, I am a natural-born Texican.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, Colossians 3:17, 23 (ESV)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. Ecclesiastes 9:10 (ESV)

I think there is a word here for us concerning Southern Baptist Convention mechanics. Are we giving it our best shot? As it is currently set up, with music, videos, and speeches interspersed between brief blocks of business, business isn’t being done properly. Not a few convention goers have expressed this same concern. Any time messengers are left standing at the microphone when “time expires” something is amiss.

In his lengthy San Antonio Wrap up… Ben Cole, at one point bemoans the low voter turnout, and rightly points the cause at the chopped up schedule. He suggests some modifications to convention business to alieviate the problem:

If I was scheduling the convention, I think I would set up the election of officers for back to back votes. I would continue to allow multiple times to introduce new motions, but I would schedule the bulk of the Tuesday evening session for one block of time for debate on the motions presented during the morning. All of the previously scheduled business times would be rolled into one giant block of time for debate and votes. If we got through the time early, I would let everybody go home early that night. Resolutions would still be on Wednesday morning, followed by all the seminary reports back to back with a time for questions for all the seminaries in one block.

And then I would make sure that all votes were announced 15 minutes before they were to occur via a loudspeaker and an alarm in the exhibit hall. If messengers were given a heads-up about votes over a loudspeaker, I think many of them would make their way into the convention hall with ballots in hand. As it is now, the only thing you hear over loudspeakers in the exhibit halls are the blue light specials at the Lifeway store. I would also think about having “balloting kiosks” throughout the convention hall to enable messengers to vote at those places on all votes requiring a ballot.

I agree with the first paragraph, but not the second. Here’s my modified Cole plan: If you knock off all of the music, videos, and other extraneous stuff – translate “political speeches” – and make a special block for all that on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, then those who came to do business can do so both mornings and early afternoons. No need for alarms, anouncements, or voting kiosks, because the exhibit halls wouldn’t be open except during the 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. lunch break, and after all business is done in the late afternoon, say five-ish. This way, when all of the business is finished, everyone is free to peruse the book stalls at LifeWay, sit in on one big Christian film and music festival, or have a decent block of time in the early evening with family and/or friends to see the sites of the city. Can you guess which option I would choose?