Last Weekend

Last Saturday I graduated from The Baptist Missionary Assocation Theological Seminary with a Master Of Arts in Religion. Whew! Am I glad it is over with, yet i wil miss it. One of my professors told me I will be overwelmed with depression in a few weeks because I will not be around anyone who will beable to discuss theology with me at the level I am used to. I pray not.

I will post a photo or two soon.

So much has happened since and I have been worn out by all the stuff since. Boy, am I tired.

WHERE DID THEY COME FROM???

When and where did Baptists originate. Where did they come from and are the so gosh-golly-gee great anyway. Well the last part will not be answered but I would like to turn your attention to part of Dr. Phillip R. Bryan’s thesis from 1966. He later did his Ph.D. work at Baylor under. Dr. Ray Summers.

Dr. Bryan is currently the President Emeritus at BMA Theological Seminary and teaches Theology. He will was part of the planning committee for Baptist History Celebration that will take place in Charleston, S.C. and was invited to lecture at this meeting

Successionist Theories

The oldest and most generally accepted theory of Baptist origins has been the successionist theory. Essentially the view is that Baptists have had a continuity of existence since the days of Jesus' ministry. William Wright Barnes has differentiated four variations of tho theory: (1) church succession, (2) apostolic succession, (3) baptismal succession, and (4) spiritual succession. He has maintained that one extreme form of church succession is the same as the Roman Catholic theory of church succession. Although four types are delineated, "the first three theories or emphases are logically related and historically associated." All three maintain that "a valid church must validly authorize a minister in order that a baptism may be valid." Representative Baptist historians who have advocated succession are:(1)Thomas Crosby, (2) G. H, Orchard, (3) J. M. Cramp, (4) William Cathcart, and (5) John T. Christian.
Professor William Morgan Patterson of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was apparently the author of the only extensive critique and analysis of the successionist theories, although other less extensive studies have been made. He has concluded that successionist writers wrote from an apologetical and polemical approach and that their conclusions were based upon a priori reasoning and not scientific methodology.

Anabaptist Spiritual Kinship Theory

A theory "held by those who trace a spiritual relationship of Baptists through the long line of Anabaptist sects, such as German, Dutch and Swiss Anabaptists, the Waldensians and Petrobrusians, the Henricians, the Novatians, and the Donatists," is the Anabaptist spiritual kinship theory. While no direct organic continuity between these various sects is verifiable, the adherents of this interpretation have asserted that throughout history such minority groups have practiced believer's baptism and therefore, have a "spiritual kinship." As related to Baptist practice, such a view precludes the necessity of organic continuity in either baptisms or ordinations for baptism to be valid. Representative historians maintaining the Anabaptist spiritual kinship view have been: (1) David Benedict, (2) Richard B. Cook, (3) Thomas Armitage, (4) Albert H. Newman, and (5) Walter Rauschenbusch. Apparently no critical analysis has been devoted per se to the spiritual kinship theory except for the points questioned by the historians who have advocated the English Separatist descent theory.

English Separatist Descent Theory

Briefly, the chief affirmation of the English Separatist descent theory is that only those to whom the name Baptist was actually applied should be so considered and that "the Baptists originated with certain English Separatists who were congregational in polity and who had come to consider believers' baptism alone as valid according to the Scriptures." This interpretation is compatible with the view that only the proper candidate (professed believer) and proper purpose (public testimony) are necessary for valid baptism. Although numerous articles covering various aspects of this theory have appeared in scholarly journals, apparently no single monograph has been devoted exclusively to a critical analysis of the theory. The present investigation, therefore, is an effort to provide such an analysis. Several variations of the Separatist descent theory have emerged since the 1880's.

hand it to them

We have been talking about bulletins at Church recently. Some would like to have custom printed ones, but the price is just to much for our small Church. I personaly think we should go with one design for a quarter and then switch to another. Or go with a dynamic looking monthly service. below I have listed a couple of links for advertising and better bulletins.


Branding through the church bulletin

A Better Bulletin

How to Create Buzz

Church Bulletins That Don't Suck

Bringing sexy back to the Church

The week @ Church, we talked about sex. You should have seen the faces. Some people decided to not come even because of the topic. Thisis the overview of what I said. I know I said more, but I don't have those notes.

• We removed the kids this morning for a children’s worship experience, not because we are going to be graphic, but so they don’t ask you questions when you look so nervous and so you can give full attention to Scripture.


• There will be very little application or how to, we will not be giving you a put tab “A” into slot “B” kind of sermon.


• I will not be sharing personal testimony or giving cute illustrations. We look at the Scripture and let it guide us now matter who scary it is.


• Take a trip down to the local grocery store and you will see magazine after magazine with articles about sex. Women’s magazines, Men’s magazines, automobile and even music magazines are filled with sex.


• Turn on the television and you will be bombarded with inappropriate ideas of sex.
  Flip the TV off and the radio on and you hear songs like Salt b’ Pepa singing “let’s talk about sex baby, lets talk about you and me” Or how about Color me Badd with their song about song called I want to sex you Up. Those are some older ones an I understand that David Allen Coe had some that the Cowfolk like that are very raunchy in there lyrics. And Justin Timberlake had is song where say he is bring Sexy Back.


• They world is educating us and our young people on sex, but this is not right. This is not the way it should be.


• God created it but for the most part His Church is quit on it. It is time that the Church let God bring sexy back so we approach sex the right way, because if all the Church does is point their collective finger and tell you how not to have sex, then who will teach them what it the right way to have sex.


• So here is the deal - Singles people are having sex while Married couples are not. We pray teens are not having sex, but their grandparents are since the invention of the little blue pill. Viagra had changed the age range of sex lives


• In truth sexual transmitted disease statistic are rising the fastest in the senior population because they are having sex. So this message is for all of us.

Gen 2:21-5 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

• Gen 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. We see the Work of Creation being continued in God’s creation of a wife for Adam in from of Eve.


• Gen 2:22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. As Jehovah has removed the rib, He has created the most beautiful woman that Adam had ever seen. Then he brought this stunning creature to Adam. We see God playing suitor here.


• Gen 2:23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." This is now bone of my bones – Eve was something that Adam had longed for and God had provided.

• John Calvin put it this way, He said “Adam indicates that something had been wanting to him; as if he had said, now at length I have obtained a suitable companion, who is part of the substance of my flesh, and in whom I behold, as it were, another self.”


• Adam is in complete understanding that Eve is not only part of his body, but she is a part of his life.

Gen 2:24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Leave and cleave is how we have traditionally talked about this.

• Be leaving they are making a public commitment of loyalty of their love.


• By leaving they are making a commitment to intimacy.


• For Real intimacy to happen there needs to be alone time if you know what I mean.


• Real Sex needs real privacy –away from family and work and kids and what have you.


• Become one flesh –they joining of two, the tender, God glorifying love between husband and wife.


• This is the union of two souls being knit together


• The Hebrew word behind this means to intertwine or to mingle together.


• This is intimacy, closeness and understanding


• Intimacy needs communication. When there is poor communication there is poor physical relations.


• Even the world know that sex is communication- they use the euphemism – that they “knew them Biblically”


• To know some one you have to have communicated with them


• Communication is talking and it being in contact, being in touch


• 1Co 7:3-5 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. (4) The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. (5) Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.


• We need to be wary of not having intimate relations between husband and wife because not only do you belong to your spouse, but we are warned that Satan will use it marital celibacy as a weapon of evil.


• Paul says this because, if natural lustful man is left alone he will defile the marriage bed some how some way.


• Pro 5:18-19 - Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love.


• 1Co 6:18 - Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.


• When you flee, you need to run right it the arms of your spouse.


• Paul encourages sex between husband and wife because of the intimacy, because of the communication, because of the please and because of procreation.


• Gen 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.


• Read S.O.S. 7:1-10


• This is a wisdom book in the Bible, the guy who wrote proverbs, Solomon, wrote this to.


• Hebrew teenage boys were not allowed to read this. Some people wanted to remove it from the Bible, other people try to say that it is about Jesus and the Church


• Son 7:7-8 make this hard to believe, yet we always say we believe the Bible is literal
  
  Don’t forget the closeness and intimacy of our marriages is a representative of the deeply personal relationship we are to have with the Lord spiritually.
  
  Go and honeymoon again and return to an intimacy between husband and wife that honors Christ and His death.

10 Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants

10 Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants

The Center for Missional Research conducted a study led by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor to research what characteristics were shared by growing churches plants. They discovered 10 factors associated high attendance. Ps. thanks Kent Shaffer for pointing this out.

Location

>> Church plants that begin in school facilities have some obvious benefits, such as visibility, access, parking, classroom/worship space, and usually low costs.

>> Longer-term—after the first year—church plants meeting in both schools and movie theaters exhibit higher attendance. They find these locations conducive to reaching people and accommodating continued growth.

Ministry

>> High attendance church plants know that reaching children is one effective way to reach families. Special children’s events such as a fall festival or Easter egg hunt help church plants gain and sustain attendance.

>> High attendance church plants also conduct block parties as an evangelistic outreach.

>> High attendance church plants use holidays or other opportunities to attract people and to be attractive to those who are already attending.

Promotion

>> High attendance church plants mail invitations to services, programs, and events. They keep community awareness high, which keeps their visitors, attendees, and members involved and informed.

Training

>> High attendance church plants provide training for new members and communicate clearly the expectation that they participate.
Expectations

>> High attendance church plants require new members to sign a church covenant. They know that it’s imperative for new members to take their commitment to the church seriously as soon as they’ve committed their lives to Christ.

Financial

>> High attendance church plants are very intentional about financial stewardship.

>> High attendance church planters receive financial compensation and health insurance, allowing them to focus on the church’s growth, not their own basic needs.

Staff

>> High attendance church planters are assessed for their suitability and are full-time, not part- or half-time.

>> High attendance church plants have multiple staff from the beginning, facilitating steady and more sustainable growth.

Missions

>> High attendance church plants look for missional opportunities and start at least one church within three years of their own plant.

Leadership

>> High attendance church plants conduct leadership training, build their leadership base, and delegate leadership roles to church members.

Achievement

>> High attendance church planters have a vision of what God wants to do, and they don’t get distracted from the accomplishment of that vision.

OH, BTW

Today is my birthday and I am now officaly 31.

Jesus in a Pink Dress

Anthony Bradley has a serious of posts that speads of where America is in the Gospel converstaion and where we really need to be. He goes under cover so to speak and I love that he is where the heathen is and not expecting he heathen to show up at Church.

Read these in order.

Jesus In A Pink Dress Overlooking The Grateful Dead, Part 1

Jesus in a Pink Dress, Part 2

Rain, Rain go away

it is raining hard and all i wished is that it looked like this

Ten fold ministry

A preacher's work is never done and often misunderstood. Take a look at this Brit's blog about Ten propositions on being a minister by Kim Fabricius. You will cheer, you will cry.

The Preacher's Coffee or Scriptural Baptism

The Preacher's Coffee by Ben M. Bogard

I have a pleasant story, which I wish to tell in rhyme, About a circuit preacher who lived in recent time. He was a circuit rider for good John Wesley's brand; And rode the finest circuit in all the blessed land.

At one of his good charges, some members, not a few, Became quite sorely troubled about the word "into". The Good Book says quite plainly, in Acts in chapter eight," They went down into water," as Baptist people state.


The preacher preached a sermon of extra zeal and might; And to his satisfaction, he set the passage right." 'Into' does not mean 'into,' but only 'at' or 'nearby'. They went down to the water and got a small supply.

"But near the place of worship, there lived a sister Brown. And for her splendid cooking, she'd gained a great renown. Her yellow-legged chickens, her lucious cakes and pies, Had often made that preacher roll up his weeping eyes.

And her delicious coffee! In all the circuit round, The preacher oft admitted, its like could not be found. So when he preached his sermon with extra power and length, He loved at the Brown's table to revive his ebbing strength.

But sister Brown was a Baptist, the strongest in the land; She oft reproved the Methodists for changing God's command. She heard the preacher's sermon, and thought the subject o'er. Then asked him home for dinner, as she oft had done before.

She ground her good brown coffee, her kettle steaming hot, And put it "at" or "nearby" the famous coffee pot.S he poured her guest a cupful (I think it was no sin),"But you forgot, dear sister, to put the coffee in."

"No, no, dear sir, that's coffee; I ground a good supply, And put it "at" the kettle ('into' is 'at' or 'nearby'). By the logic of your sermon (I thought it rather thin), If 'at' or 'nearby' is 'into' I put the coffee IN.

"So if you will truly promise, no more such stuff to teach, I'll go and make some coffee, in line with Bible speech. And this time I will follow instructions to the dot, And put the coffee INTO, not 'at' or 'near' the pot


Ben Bogard pastor, semiarian, writer,founder of the American Baptist Assocation, preeminent assocaitional baptist and was one of the greatest debaters in the Baptist Church during the first part of the 20th Century. Bogard debated men from several denominations and a woman (Aimee Semple McPherson)

Grudem on Seminary

Thinking about going to seminary? Well maybe Wayne Grudem could help you in your descision process.

Letter to a Prospective Seminarian

Getting My Praise On

This weeked was a great one. This is what happened

• Saturday
• I say my daughter play soccer and do an awesome reverse kick at just the right time to make a big play.
• I asked a local man that had surrendered to preach but has not been allowed to preach to fill the pulit next weekend
  
• Sunday
• Baptized a young man by the name of Zane with the heater in the baptistry out. invigorating.
• Preached on parents and children in the morn and church re-emergring in culture in the eve
• Had members stay at Church for hour and talk. They are excited and so am I. There is a great sprirt of fellowship.
• Had a lady, all but surrender to teach a Sunday school class. I think she will, it seems that the Lord is working on her. Besided she is too cool not to teach and he has the Bible brains to do it. I look forward to seeing her grow by leading. Btw, we have five Sunday school classes and we have never had more than two that anyone can remeber.
• Taught Sunday school to youth. Dealt with stuff in thier lives and showed the Bible really does apply to what is going on. Everthing from Prom to dealing with Grandmothers.
• We also had a lady return to worship that has been in the hospital. God care for us is amazing.
• Monday
• Had a member do some work at the Church with our being harrassed and he served with a sense of delight - worked on septic system, fixed the light in the baptistry, tried to fix the hating element and he even mowed the church lawn. Awesome guy. He and his wife are too cool and they really dig Jesus and His Word.

I know I am leaving something out, but it might be because of praise overload. You know, when you are just too blessed.

Getting My Praise On

This weeked was a great one. This is what happened

• Saturday
• I say my daughter play soccer and do an awesome reverse kick at just the right time to make a big play.
• I asked a local man that had surrendered to preach but has not been allowed to preach to fill the pulit next weekend
  
• Sunday
• Baptized a young man by the name of Zane with the heater in the baptistry out. invigorating.
• Preached on parents and children in the morn and church re-emergring in culture in the eve
• Had members stay at Church for hour and talk. They are excited and so am I. There is a great sprirt of fellowship.
• Had a lady, all but surrender to teach a Sunday school class. I think she will, it seems that the Lord is working on her. Besided she is too cool not to teach and he has the Bible brains to do it. I look forward to seeing her grow by leading. Btw, we have five Sunday school classes and we have never had more than two that anyone can remeber.
• Taught Sunday school to youth. Dealt with stuff in thier lives and showed the Bible really does apply to what is going on. Everthing from Prom to dealing with Grandmothers.
• We also had a lady return to worship that has been in the hospital. God care for us is amazing.
• Monday
• Had a member do some work at the Church with our being harrassed and he served with a sense of delight - worked on septic system, fixed the light in the baptistry, tried to fix the hating element and he even mowed the church lawn. Awesome guy. He and his wife are too cool and they really dig Jesus and His Word.

I know I am leaving something out, but it might be because of praise overload. You know, when you are just too blessed.