Friday, November 2, 2007

Confessions II - Things that Scare Me Worse Than Halloween

1. Churches that get warm fuzzies over who showed up on Sunday instead of those who did not . . . 77 % of South Carolina's residents will not be in church this Sunday.

2. The rapidly aging leadership base in many of our SBC churches in South Carolina. Could tomorrow for the SBC body of Christ be literally dying before our eyes?

3. Our sense of self-importance. We all suffer from momentary lapses. Bottom line, we are no where near as good as we would like to think. I remember that every time I get the courage to listen to my own sermon cd's.

4. The way we communicate. When 61% of our people are functionally illiterate why do we keep communicating in our churches like they are seminaries? I discovered another reason why some of our contemporary churches are doing so well - creative communication of the Gospel message. Slides, pictures, clips, stories, popular culture illustrations . . . Why? Because it is easier to understand for the common man.

5. None of us understand the QBQ (Question behind the Question) which is What am I going to do about it? I am part of the problem. I am part of the solution. I am personally responsible before God for this mess. Lord, bend me. Lord, bend the church, save the world!

Lexington Baptist deacons last night; Fellowship of Praise (great story btw) building dedication and a 5K run in the Northeast on Saturday; my friends at The River in Camden, Sunday. BTW since I have been cheering for the opposition, my teams have won 75% of their games. So . . . go Jags and Rajun Cajuns!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

great and challenging thoughts, dino. i'm glad you're in sc to make these statements, ask these questions, and be committed to finding better answers than what we've come up with over the last however many years.

Cliff Marshall said...

Scary indeed. It's posts like this that confirm your hero status.

Anonymous said...

2. The rapidly aging leadership base in many of our SBC churches in South Carolina. Could tomorrow for the SBC body of Christ be literally dying before our eyes?

Dino,
You bring about a valid concern. We are watching the passing of a grand generation of leaders from the scene. We must cultivate the next generation of leaders.

CRJ/DJS said...

Thanks Quinn. Next generation leaders will always make previous generation leaders uncomfortable. That has been true since before the days of Criswell and Laken. Bottom line is, we are running out of time. I agree S.C. has some great leadership in the past.

Thanks Cliff (desparate for Heroes) Marshall. Thanks Jay. You are those new guys. There is a lot of people and resources to leverage to change the world with Southern Baptists. Hang with us.