I am grateful to the Lord to be the father of five children. Being the father of five by no means makes me a parental expert, but it does mean I’ve had some repeat experiences with each child. One of those experiences is taking your newborn to the pediatrician for their first appointment. The nurse measures, weighs, and may even do a bilirubin test on the little one. And then the doctor gives you the results. As a father, what I was always most interested in with these exams is, “Is my child healthy?” The doctors, you see, have a standard, and by this standard, they are able to give you a pretty good idea of whether or not your precious baby is on a healthy track.
As Christians, we have a standard too. We have the Word of the living God. The Bible is a sufficient plumb line for measuring the health of an individual Christian, individual local church, or even a group of churches choosing to cooperate together like we have in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Much has been written over the last few years about areas of drift in our convention. I am among those who’ve written about matters of concern. But this is not what I want to do in today’s post. My goal is to give you a standard for what a solid, healthy convention looks like, not based on history or experience, but on the Scriptures. I do not mean to suggest history and experience have no place. Of course, they do! But the goal of today’s post is to give you God’s standard for what constitutes a strong group of churches. In doing this, I urge you to consider our convention’s state for yourself and pray for any area that we are weak in based on this evaluation.
I am sure other verses could be used for such a test, but the passage I want to examine is found in Ephesians 4:7-16. I have a couple of disclaimers before we begin. First, I cannot get into verses 7-12 in this post as that could take a whole book to get through! Secondly, I understand that Paul is writing to a specific local church here. However, the same principles that apply to one local church necessarily apply to a group of local churches.
With that being said, and understanding this is not a full exposition, let’s dive in. Our focus is primarily upon verses 13-16. What does a strong convention of churches look like? Here are seven signs:

Genuine Unity

“until we all attain to the unity of the faith…” (v.13)
As local churches focus on Bible-centered, prayer-saturated, local church loving, Christ exalting ministry (cf. v.11-12), they are brought into greater unity. This unity is not centered on secular ideas, skin color, or social issues. Instead, this is genuine unity created by the Holy Spirit of God (cf. Eph. 4:3) as He continually grows us together by faith in Christ.
Because of Christ’s sovereign and gracious gifting each local church may have certain areas of ministry they thrive at better than others. But the diversity of gifting comes together in a convention only to strengthen cooperation together in unity for the same mission: Seeing Christ exalted over the nations.
Churches rooted in the Scriptures, bowing to their authority and trusting their sufficiency, and focused on the glory of Christ have genuine unity even if they may disagree on certain peripheral issues. Not every church in a strong convention will look exactly the same. But each one will have full dependence on the gospel as the hope of the nations and seek to have the Bible as their final standard on all matters of the faith, including soteriology, anthropology, ecclesiology, and so on.

Doctrinal Fidelity

“and knowledge of the Son of God…” (v.13)
Knowledge of the Son of God is certainly necessary for any person to be a Christian. Yet, it is also true that a strong Christian, church, or group of churches is continually growing and standing firm in the knowledge of the Son of God.
A healthy convention is one that is faithful to sound doctrine. It possesses confessional integrity. And this doctrinal fidelity leads to greater unity! Curtis Vaughn writes,

“Unity” is to be taken with both “faith” and “knowledge,” and the latter two words are both modified by “of the Son of God.” What Paul contemplates is a oneness of faith in, and a oneness of knowledge concerning, the Son of God…The word “faith” is to be taken in the sense of trust and confidence. The Greek word for “knowledge” is a particularly strong one, denoting full, accurate, and true knowledge.[1]

A strong convention is one strong in the doctrine of the Son of God and all of the implications for His local churches that flow out of His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coming return.

Increasing Maturity

“…to mature manhood…” (v.13)
A strong convention is a mature convention full of mature and maturing local churches and Christians. This doesn’t mean there is no room for those who need to grow because we all need to grow!
It does certainly mean, however, that the leadership of such a convention consists of those mature in the faith. The metaphor Paul uses here is one of “manhood.” True, the church is often referred to as the “Bride” of Christ. But here, there is another image: one of a strong, healthy adult man unwavering in his convictions and resolution in his commitments to Christ.
Churches in a strong convention seek to spur one another on into greater maturity in the faith, holding one another accountable to the Scriptures and the convention’s stated confession. A mature convention is not afraid and even compelled to separate from churches that repeatedly and persistently show a lack of concern for God’s Word or growing in Christ.

Christ Conformity

“to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” (v.13)
This is how we know maturity is never finished. Because our goal for maturity is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Complete conformity to Christ is something not fully and finally realized until glory. Yet, a healthy Christian, church, or convention constantly strives toward sincere holiness of life.
Being full of Christ means loving all He loves and hating what He hates. It means, like Jesus, we are concerned first and foremost about the glory of God. It means having the powers of our discernment trained in differentiating between good and evil. It means loving the Word of God, biblical worship, the local church, and the lost. It means bearing the fruit of the Spirit and understanding the moments that call for humble compassion and those that call for a strong rebuke.
In sum, a strong convention is a holy convention seeking to follow Christ in all areas.

Steadfast Immobility

“so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (v.14)
A healthy convention of churches is one that shall not be moved. It is not a ship drifting too far from the shore or a crumbling leaf blown around by an autumn wind.
The contrast here in this passage is between a grown man and a small child. A child can be easily tricked, but not a mature man. Thus, a strong convention is on guard against the godless ideologies and worldly philosophies constantly seeking to infiltrate the church.
A healthy group of churches understands that the Evil One is perpetually seeking to destroy the work of Christ on earth. It understands that today’s liberal tendencies might not look exactly like yesterday’s because Satan is crafty and will adapt his tactics custom-made for every epoch of history. Therefore, a strong convention will stand resolutely upon God’s Word and warn and even rebuke churches or leaders who are not showing appropriate care when it comes to guarding against deceitful schemes.

Loving Honesty

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (v.15)
A strong convention speaks the truth in love. That is, churches do not speak deceitful schemes or faulty doctrine. Rather, they speak, preach, teach, and live out the truth of the Scriptures. The only way to “grow up” is through the Word of God. Therefore, a healthy convention of churches loves to speak the truth to one another and to a lost and dying world. It holds the inerrant, infallible Bible as its highest authority and it trusts the Bible to teach it on all matters of the faith and to speak a sufficient word to every generation.
Often, this speaking the truth encourages and edifies the churches. But at times, the truth will convict, challenge, and rebuke people. Consider the opening illustration of taking your newborn to the doctor. If something was wrong, you would want to know, right? It would not be loving of the doctor to lie to you. So, a healthy convention of churches speaks even difficult truths to one another. Yet, all of this is done in love. In the words of R.C. Sproul, “we call attention to the truth in an extraordinarily compassionate and tender and loving spirit.”[2]
And finally, when speaking the truth to the unregenerate, a healthy convention does not seek to minimize God’s Word. Instead, it calls upon all to repent of every sin and come to Christ in faith, finding Him as the only suitable and all-sufficient Savior for all mankind.

Godward Affinity

“from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (v.16)
A strong convention of churches builds itself up in love. Though its churches may be in different geographical locations, have diverse demographics, and possess a variety of gifts, there is a genuine love for God and one another that binds the convention together.
A love for the triune God and bringing Him glory in all things means that a strong convention is concerned about honoring God in all things, from worship to evangelism, to everyday life, to convention practices. Loving God means that a convention of churches seeks to please one another by first and foremost pleasing God. A strong convention understands that we love one another best when we love God most. And it is through this that a convention will be continually built up in love.
This is not an exhaustive list, of course. But it reminds us that God would not have any convention of churches to be childish. A strong convention must be growing in the Lord, aspiring to mature manhood. A childish convention would have symptoms that are the opposite of the signs of health above, like Superficial Unity, Confessional Infidelity, Acceptable Immaturity, Worldly Conformity, Drifting Carelessly, Hating Honesty, and Cultural Affinity.
God has given us a standard, brothers and sisters. It is by His own Bible that we are to assess our spiritual health. May we not compare ourselves to contemporaries or generations past. We must look into the mirror of the Word of God. Take some time today to consider your own walk with the Lord, the state of the local church you are a member of, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Pray for our health. Pray that the Lord would be pleased to bring about the recovery of the gospel and the reformation of churches in our convention.
[1] Curtis Vaughan, Ephesians, Founders Study Guide Commentary (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2002), 95.
[2] R. C. Sproul, The Purpose of God: Ephesians (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 107.

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You probably have heard the phrase, “love is love.” Over the last few years it has been made famous by yard signs, songs, movies, and even a comic book. The “love is love” campaign was started six years ago as an LGBTQ+ advocacy initiative with the purpose of “spreading positive images of the LGBTQ+ community, with a focus on increasing visibility in spaces where LGBTQ+ issues may not be well-understood.” The phrase, “love is love” has even earned an entry in the Urban Dictionary where it is defined as “meaning that the love expressed by an individual or couple is valid regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of their lover or partner.”
This notion of love is often used as a trump card to shut down any critique of various perverted opinions and actions that are being pushed into contemporary cultural values. A man wants to have sex with a man or a woman with a woman? Who are you to object, because “love is love.” Adults sexually preying on children? Don’t call them pedophiles, call them “minor attracted people.” Because “love is love.” Will Smith and his wife want to commit unfettered adultery? Who are you to judge, because, you know, love is love.
But love is not love. At least real love isn’t. Otherwise, the Apostle Paul would not have exhorted Christians in Rome by saying, “Let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9a). He is saying that our love must be without pretense or hypocrisy. Why does he put it like this? Because he recognized in his day what modern believers need to recognize in our own, that there is much pretend love in the world.
John Calvin acknowledged this reality in the sixteenth century, as well. He said, “It is difficult to express how ingenious almost all men are in counterfeiting a love which they do not really possess.” In other words, not everybody talking about love is expressing the genuine article.
Genuine love has some intrinsic qualities. These qualities are exemplified in the negative and positive exhortations that Paul adds immediately after calling for genuine love. He writes, “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9b). Genuine love hates evil. It is repulsed by evil. What this means is that if you are a genuine loving person, you will hate evil. On the flip side, genuine love clings to what is good.
We see these intrinsic qualities demonstrated in God Himself. God is love and as such, He hates. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven specific things that God hates. Psalm 5:5 says He hates “all evildoers.” In Isaiah 61:8 He says, “I hate robbery and wrong.” Jesus says in Revelation 2:6 that He hates the works of heretics. It is because God is love that He hates.
But God, who is love, is also good and does good (Psalm 119:68). His will is good. Christians whose minds are increasingly being renewed by the Word of God will come to recognize this more and more (Romans 12:2). Paul came to understand this which is why he called God’s law holy righteous and good and stated, “I agree with the law, that it is good” (Romans 7:12,16).
Just as the God who is love defines what love is, so too the God who is good defines what is good.
If you are going to be a person of genuine love then you must learn to “abhor what is evil” and “hold fast to what is good.” This is vitally important for believers to recognize. We must teach this to our children and our grandchildren because they are being discipled to think contrary to this by the world in an almost constant 24/7 effort.
If you are going to be a person of genuine love then you must learn to “abhor what is evil” and “hold fast to what is good.”
To stand for this and to live this way will be very difficult. Why? Because we are living in a day that is increasingly dominated by people who, to borrow language from Isaiah 5:20, “call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” And as people of genuine love, we are called to abhor evil and hold fast to good.
Do you see the dilemma? If God’s people are going to “let love be genuine” then we must be willing to be called bigots and haters. This is inevitable because the world, who calls good evil and evil good, will judge us to be vile for hating true evil (which to them is good) and clinging to true good (which to them is evil).
So, if you refuse to applaud the man who changed his name to Lia Thomas as an NCAA “woman’s swim champion” the world will call you unloving. If you refuse to celebrate the man who changed his name to Rachel Lavine and was given USA Today’s “woman of the year” award, you will be judged a bigot. If, as Scripture instructs us to do, you actually hate the evil that both of those cases represent then be prepared to be canceled by those who call evil good.
Love is not love. God is love and love is what the God who is love says it is. Love is neither self-existent nor self-defined. God alone is self-existent and all true love comes from Him and is determined by Him.
The early church father, Augustine, once said, “Love, and do what thou wilt.” He was not advocating a licentious lifestyle. Neither was he suggesting that you can do whatever you want and then justify it by saying that you were motivated by love. Rather, he was arguing for the same point that Paul makes in Romans 12:9. Love is the fundamental principle of the Christian life.
If you get love right—abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good—then you will want to pursue a life that is holy, right, and good.
Do not let anyone deceive you about the nature of genuine love. Love is what the God who IS love says in His Word.
Love is neither self-existent nor self-defined. God alone is self-existent and all true love comes from Him and is determined by Him.
Paul wrote a whole chapter on genuine love to help us recognize it and distinguish it from counterfeits. Listen to part of what he says in 1 Corinthians 13 (vv. 4-8):

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

This is what real love—genuine love—looks like. When someone tries to get you to sin by telling you that they love you or complaining that if you don’t then you really don’t love them, recognize that what they are offering you is a cheap imitation of real love. Genuine love “does not insist on its own way.”
Similarly, genuine love rejoices in truth. That’s why Christians should not attend a so-called wedding between two men or two women or celebrate in any way those who reject God’s good design for sexuality by claiming to be true to themselves. For a Christian to approve these things would be to rejoice at wrongdoing and not to rejoice in the truth.
Instead, we should say, “I will not celebrate evil with you because I love you and I want you to learn to love and enjoy what is good.” And we will also say, “I will not practice deceit with you but will tell you the truth because I love your interests more than my own and I am willing to be castigated and rejected for your sake.”
That is the nature of real love. It is costly, but it is the kind of love that is desperately needed in our world today. Anything less is not genuine.

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Having established a church in Philippi (Acts 16) where there was no synagogue, Paul now, having suffered in Philippi at the hands of Romans (16:19-24), goes to Thessalonica and uses the synagogue on three Sabbath days to reason with the Jews and “devout” Greeks from the Scripture (Acts 17:1-4). We are told that his method consisted of “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” Many of those who heard his biblical exposition believed his message. Some Jews were offended and jealous (Acts 17:5) of Paul’s ability in expository reasoning. They resisted strongly the idea that the Messiah had come and they were not privy to this most historically pivotal event. How is this “Jesus” qualified as Messiah and why are Gentiles received as his people? This Paul is an imposter speaking of behalf of another imposter and deserves to be driven from the city. They appealed to the city authorities under the hypocritical guise of loyalty to Caesar. The entire controversy centered on the validity of Paul’s understanding of the Scripture and whether he was qualified to discern that Jesus was the Christ. Paul’s correspondence with the church at Thessalonica, therefore, had much material about the word of God vis a vis the authority of the apostle.
His preached word he and they believed was the Word of God. When they heard Paul preach, they accepted it, not simply as a man’s interpretation of verses compared to events, but as the “word of God.” Paul affirmed their conviction as the truth (1 Th 2:13). “Our gospel,” Paul recalled, came in the power of the Holy Spirit and brought them to be among the believers of Macedonia (1 Th 1:4, 5). He reminded them that, though pummeled in Philippi because of his preaching, he did not change the message. His “exhortation does not come from error” and is neither impure nor deceitful, but arises from one who was “approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel” (2:2-4). He was an “apostle of Christ,” and consequently a man of authority but used this authority only to “impart to you … the gospel of God.” Paul never wavered, even in the face of hostility and persecution, from his claim before the world that he was appointed by the risen Christ as an apostle. He never amended any teaching given in the context of that calling as possibly misperceived or as a matter of speculation or only informed opinion. This is one of the stubborn facts that must be considered when we ask if we have a word of truth about God and eternity. Has God spoken? In conjunction with the Hebrew prophets, Paul gives an unequivocal “Yes.”
When he gave further instruction on individual doctrines he wrote with confidence of God’s revelation: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, etc” (1 Th. 4:15-18). An articulation of the relation of the living to the dead in the context of the return of Jesus who “died and rose again,” events surrounding his return, and the manner of his gathering his people to himself, and the certainty of living in his glorious presence for eternity—these things are not manufactured by imagination but are soberly reported as propositions of revelation.
Also, when he gave instruction concerning the moral implications of gospel truth, he assumed the position as a spokesman from God: “We request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that just as you received instruction, …for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus, … he who rejects this is not rejecting men but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (4:1-8). These clear exhortations to sexual purity as one dominant aspect of sanctification went against the prevailing conduct of the culture and put the Pauline instruction at the level of divine mandate by revelation. Even so, when describing how they should work for self-sufficiency and peaceful relations Paul put his words in the sphere of absolute authority, “just as we commanded you” (4:11). In the second letter to these Christians, Paul reiterated this authority by expressing his confidence that they will “do what we command” (3:4). He follows that by introducing an element of church life that perhaps they had not practiced or seen clearly by saying, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us” (3:6). Whereas the “tradition” of the elders, or the “tradition” of the Pharisees, or the “tradition” of men of empty philosophy (Colossians 2:8) was handed down from generations past, or “turned over” to contemporaries from historically-trusted sources, Paul’s instructions that he handed down, his traditions, that which he turned over to them were from God. This tradition was not handed down from hallowed halls of venerated historical sources but came from the mind and mouth of the eternal God. Again, when he learned that some were not working, he reminded them that he “used to give them this order,” and now again to these loafers he would “command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion” (3:12).
This conviction so ever-present in this correspondence is confirmed by pervasive New Testament testimony and conviction. In 1 Corinthians 2:10, Paul claimed that eternal things, things of divine grace, “God has revealed to us through the Spirit;” in 2 Corinthians 13:3, he zealously affirmed in a tense setting that “Christ is speaking in me.” In Galatians 1:12 as prelude to his extended argument for the exclusive claim to truthfulness of his gospel, he wrote, “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” In Ephesians 3:4, 5, Paul laid claim to “insight into the mystery of Christ” from its having been “revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” The writer of Hebrews 2:3, 4 warned of dire consequences for rejecting the message presented by the Lord himself that was “attested to us by those who heard,” to whom God bore witness by “signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” In 1 John 4:6 the beloved disciple wrote that the “spirit of truth and the spirit of error” was to be defined in terms of hearing and obeying the message of the apostles: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us” Peter claims that the word of the prophets receives its expected clarification through those who were eyewitness of the majesty of Christ and that their writings, like those of the prophets were the product of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:16-21). That is why he can say that his readers should “remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” He then can go on to commend Paul, even in the most difficult of his writings, as a producer of Scripture as free from error (2 Peter 3:2, 15-18).
Paul claimed revelatory and authoritative status not only for what he preached in his apostolic mission, but for what he wrote to expand or re-emphasize his spoken word. He told the Thessalonians, “I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27). In his second epistle to this same church he wrote, “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person” (2 Thessalonians 3:14). He also made sure they knew that the letter was from him: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter” (3:17). Every letter that he wrote was to be taken as his word of apostolic authority arising from the commission of Christ and the revelation received from the Holy Spirit. His writings reconfirm what he spoke as he indicates in 1 Thessalonians 4:6 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5: “just as we told you before; … Do you not remember that while I was with you I was telling you these things?” Also, his writings expand what he spoke in giving further detail: “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us” (2 Th 2:15). In 1 Thessalonians he wrote an expansion of his teaching to them on death, resurrection and the return of Christ (4:13-18).
He wrote in an authoritative apostolic manner to churches where he had never to that point preached. His most expansive exposition of the entire history of salvation was written to a church that he did not directly found and to which he had not been. He felt an apostolic obligation to instruct them and bear fruit among them (Romans 1:8-15). In this letter, both deeply personal and highly instructive doctrinally he gave coherent discussion on the relation between creation and the knowledge of God, the fall of Adam, the call of Abraham, giving of the law to Israel, the eternal issues of justice involved in the death and resurrection of Christ, divine sovereignty in the present based on eternal decrees within the mysterious communicative activities of the triune God, the relation between justification and personal pursuit of holiness, the church, the secular political authorities, his personal missionary ministry, and other related subjects. He expected them to receive this writing: “On some points I have written to you very boldly, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of the gospel of God …according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept hidden for long ages” that he had received “according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith” (Romans 15:15, 16; 16:25, 26).
Another issue concerning the word of revelation given to Paul as he wrote about it in these letters concerns the necessity of an effectual work of the Spirt to seal the truth in the hearts of hearers. The Spirit revealed these truths, he inspired the proper connections of words to the truth revealed, and he makes that revealed and inspired truth to be loved and trusted by the elect. Its subject matter should be, not only intriguing, but compelling in itself. The gospel that is revealed deals with sin, redemption, heaven and hell. Far outstripping the most coherent and carefully constructed systems of human philosophy, the gospel gives substantial knowledge of God. The person of Christ as communicated in this revelation is the most interesting, excellent, transcendently wise and compassionate, truthful, confident, clear-minded, exalted, humble, and determinatively purposeful person in all literature of all cultures of all ages. It is impossible within a neutral intellectual setting for the person of Christ and his striking and shocking work of redemption not to be the most fascinating subject and desired person of history. So compelling was Christ in every aspect of his person—God and man in one person—and work—completely innocent and positively righteous yet slain for sinners—that Paul can say with perfect rationality and with an approving conscience, “If anyone does not love the Lord he is to be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
But none who hear of him are in a neutral position.  Too much about God, righteousness, holiness, obedience, and judgment for enemies of truth to embrace him for who he claims to be. He is rejected when left to our natural enmity. Paul looks at this phenomenon in these letters to the Thessalonians. In 1 Th 2:14-16 he outlines Jewish opposition to the Gospel as well as that generated among the Gentiles in Thessalonica. In Thessalonica there was “much opposition” (1 Thessalonians 2:2) which Paul explained in 2 Thessalonians. 2:10 in terms of “the deception of wickedness for those who perish” creating an unwillingness to “receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.” Thus, we find that any willingness of spirit and mind to receive this message is an indication of effectuality under the Spirit’s power. Paul described this phenomenon early in the letters by observing that his preaching (1 Thessalonians 1:5) came “not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” In 1 Thessalonians 2:12, 13, he admonished them to “walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory,” for this word “performs its work in you who really believe.” In speaking of the love implied in and commanded in the gospel Paul wrote, (1 Thessalonians 4:9),  “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” By his own power, God himself will “establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). This truth of divine determination and absolute effectuality Paul repeats when he writes, “Now may the God of peace, himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24). This is consistent with the character of the new covenant as described in Jeremiah 31:33, 34, reiterated in John 6:45, and in 1 John 2:27 (“They will all be taught by God; … But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”). In 2 Thessalonians. 2:13, 14, Paul proposes the fitness of God’s prerogative in his pre-mundane love of some resulting in their election to salvation. Election to salvation consummates in each chosen one through the sanctifying influence of the Spirit embedding the natural the function of truth in their mind, heart, and will. This constitutes the call to salvation, as Paul stated it, “through our gospel.” Final salvation is summarized as “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The way in which Paul interweaves the truthfulness and revelatory character of Scripture in the Thessalonians letters, should give every Christian an absolute confidence in the Bible. As an extension of that confidence, we should have an intensified focus, a magnifying glass that takes diffused light and pinpoints one white-hot truth to which everything pertains—a focus on the Gospel. All of it is designed to move toward the Messiah’s being God’s salvation, the glory of His people Israel, and a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
Do not seek to employ any other methods than the truth. The Spirit of truth blesses the truth, in particular as truth culminates in and points to the Lord Jesus. The Spirit’s eternal existence consists of his procession from the Father and the Son as fully embodying the love of the Father in the Son and perfect delight in the Son and the Son’s necessarily reciprocal relationship to the Father. As the Spirit eternally proceeds within this essence summarized in eternal love, his peculiar operation in this fallen world is to communicate the revelation of this eternal purpose that is seen most vividly and clearly in the truth of the gospel. Paul exhibited no doubt that this gospel, revealed by God in Christ and then in truthful propositions about Christ, was the gospel he preached.

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The Continental Congress signed a Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, establishing the 13 British Colonies as an independent nation to be called the United States of America.
Before Congress adjourned that day, they also passed the following resolution:

Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J Adams and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.

The task was more difficult than anyone expected and it took more than six years to complete. The seal that was finally adopted by Congress has at the very center an eagle with an olive branch in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other, symbolizing the nation’s commitment to both peace and strength. The beak of the eagle clinches a scroll on which is written, “E Pluribus Unum”—a Latin phrase which means, “out of many, one.” You can see the seal on the one-dollar bill and some United States coins. It is used to ratify treaties and to seal other important documents for the U.S. government.
“Out of many, one” was an important concept for the success of the new nation because prior to that they had been independent colonies with separate laws and charters. But to form a new nation that would indeed be united, those early colonists had to embrace the idea that, though they each maintained a sense of independent identity from each other, they would stand united with each other as a new nation.
That concept, E Pluribus Unum, is seen also in the way that the New Testament describes local churches under the lordship of Jesus Christ. A church is made up of individual Christians, but those individuals are united in a common confession, a common cause, and a common commitment to live together following Jesus Christ as Lord.
The Apostle Paul regularly draws on the analogy of a human body to explain the nature of the relationships that exist among church members. He does this in Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 2:11-16, 3:6, 4:15-16; Colossians 1:18, 24, and then more extensively in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
Three vital dimensions of local church relationships are highlighted by understanding the church as the body of Christ. Every church of Christ is marked by unity, diversity, and interdependence. We see this in the way that a human body has been designed by God to function.
In Romans 12:4-5, Paul puts it like this: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Many members comprise one body—out of many, one. The interconnectedness that individual church members have with each other underscores the depth of unity that spiritually does and practically should characterize every local church.
Every church of Christ is marked by unity, diversity, and interdependence.
Members of a true church are “members of one another” (a phrase that Paul also uses in Ephesians 4:25). That is, in Christ and through the providential direction of our lives to unite with a particular church, Christians become spiritually joined to each other. This unity is not to be taken lightly nor easily dismissed. Rather, believers are obligated to live in ways that are “worthy of the calling” to which we have been called, which includes being “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1, 3).
Such genuine unity does not, however, mean uniformity. Church members are still individuals, each with his or her own unique personalities, gifts, experiences, and stations in life. The analogy of a church as a body demonstrates this point by highlighting the diversity of members.
“The members do not all have the same function.” That is, they have different designs to carry out different responsibilities. Paul makes this point even more starkly in 1 Corinthians 12. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (vv. 15-18).
God gifts His people in just the ways that He sees fit and our giftedness is to be used in service to the whole body. When this happens, then “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16). This truth compelled Charles Spurgeon to say, “This is one of the things we want very much—that every member of the Church should recognize that he is ordained to service.”
The unity in diversity that characterizes every church of Jesus Christ inevitably results in lives of interdependence among church members. Christians need each other and this mutual dependence is by God’s design for our own growth in grace. Again, in Paul’s extended illustration to the Corinthians, he writes,

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:21-27).

If a church is thinking rightly about what God has designed it to be it will both recognize and encourage this kind of interdependence. Weak members will not be despised nor strong members resented. The sense of belonging to something greater than our individual endeavors will be strong. Just as a broken arm traumatizes the whole body and a foot massage relaxes the whole person, so what happens to one church member affects the whole church.
God gifts His people in just the ways that He sees fit and our giftedness is to be used in service to the whole body.
The church is God’s idea. Jesus is the Head of every individual church that is worthy of the name. The call to follow Christ is a call to follow Him together. The Christian life is a team sport. You cannot successfully live it in isolation from other believers. The bonds of fellowship, encouragement, and discipleship that God has provided through the ministry of a local church are indispensable for vital spirituality.
Through committed membership in a local church a Christian’s weaknesses are strengthened, strengths are shared, eccentricities are exposed, sins are rebuked, gifts are utilized, and needs are met. It takes a church to grow a Christian.
So, praise God for His wisdom in creating the church. My counsel to every Christian is this: find a healthy church and build your life around it. By doing so you will not only be blessed, but will become a channel of blessing for others.

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The Southern Baptists Convention (SBC) needs a change of direction. Over our 177-year history the Lord has enabled the churches of the SBC to accomplish some amazing things for the kingdom of God. But over the last few years, the good work that our association of churches is doing has been somewhat disrupted and is in danger of being derailed by the subtle infiltration of secularism and godless ideologies into our ranks. I am convinced that the vast majority of Southern Baptists do not want to see their convention (the largest Protestant denomination in America supporting the largest Christian missionary force in the world and educating one-third of this nation’s seminary students) follow the path of our increasingly secular culture.
I have spoken and written about the rise and spread of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality in the evangelical world for many years (see here and here for more examples). I joined with John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, and several other men to write the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel to sound an alarm in 2018. In 2019, at the urging of Al Mohler and others, I tried to stop the SBC from adopting Resolution 9 “On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality,” but was rebuffed by the Resolutions Committee and then the messengers. Later that year, in the face of a great deal of attempted intimidation and even threats to cancel the project, I helped produce By What Standard: God’s World…God’s Rules, a cinedoc that documents many of the ways that godless ideologies have infiltrated our ranks.
Two years later, at the 2021 annual meeting in Nashville, I joined 1300 other Southern Baptists in offering a resolution on “The Incompatibility of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality with the Baptist Faith and Message.” Despite that overwhelming and unprecedented support from Southern Baptists across the convention, the Resolutions Committee refused to allow the messengers even to debate it much less vote on it. In that same meeting I offered a motion, which I had been told by the official parliamentarian was in keeping with Roberts’ Rules of Order, to rescind the 2019 resolution “On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality.” A lawyer was given the platform to declare that the motion could not be considered, and President J.D. Greear ruled me out of order.
By God’s grace, in that Nashville meeting, the convention overruled the Resolutions Committee and insisted on hearing and ultimately adopted the strongest prolife, anti-abortion resolution in the history of the SBC. But its adoption came only after various Southern Baptist ethicists spoke against it. Later, a group of Southern Baptist theologians and ethicists wrote a lengthy statement arguing against the resolution’s call for the abolition of abortion.
In 2020, when several professors were fired from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, I learned that two of them, Jim Scott Orrick and Russell Fuller, were denied severance payments (money which many claimed they were contractually owed) because they refused to sign the seminary’s NDA statement. After reading the statement I called the chairman of the seminary’s board of trustees and asked him why such an unrighteous, secular instrument was being used to punish two inerrantist professors who had served Southern Baptists with distinction for decades. He admitted that he had never read the document and said that its use was acceptable because “our lawyers tell us that it is legal.” So, I joined with others in raising money to cover the lost wages of those professors.
I am convinced that the vast majority of Southern Baptists do not want to see their convention follow the path of our increasingly secular culture.
I am an ordinary pastor of a regular-sized SBC church that I have pastored for 36 years. Like most other Southern Baptist pastors I know, I love shepherding the flock of God and am amazed that God has called me to this work. I have never aspired to serve as President of the SBC or in any other denominational office. But God, in His inscrutable providence and through my involvement with Founders Ministries, has put me in a position to engage various issues as I have described above. Though I have doubtlessly failed at many points along the way, I have tried to honor Christ and encourage His churches through these efforts.
Over the years I have been repeatedly encouraged by pastors across the SBC to “run” for the presidency. It has been easy to politely dismiss those requests until recently. Over the last couple of weeks men whom I love and trust have prevailed on me to do so. Donna, my precious wife of 42 years, said she was willing. My fellow elders at Grace Baptist Church – men whom I trust implicitly – said they think I should do this. After much prayer, reflection, and counsel, I agreed. If the Lord would be pleased for me to serve as the President of the SBC, then I will do my best to do so in ways that help us change the direction where it is needed so that we can better carry out our joint mission of making disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that King Jesus prescribes.
Throughout all our history the Lord has enabled Southern Baptists, in the language of our original charter issued in 1845, to stay united “for the purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christians, for the propagation of the gospel, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary not withstanding [sic].” My hope and prayer is that, by His grace, we may continue this mission with zeal and faith as we serve our Lord together.
To my fellow Southern Baptists, I hope to see you in Anaheim. Let’s pray and work together to make our Lord Jesus Christ known throughout the world.

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This a statement from Southern Baptists nominating Tom Ascol and Voddie Baucham

We, concerned Southern Baptists of differing geographical, theological and vocational perspectives, in one voice nominate Pastor Tom Ascol for President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and SBC Missionary Voddie Baucham for President of the SBC Pastors’ Conference.
The Southern Baptist Convention plays a vital role in global Christianity, with the world’s largest missionary force and 11% of America’s churches. But perhaps even more importantly, through our six seminaries, we educate one third of America’s seminary students. Our institutions affect vastly more than just ourselves.
But the Southern Baptist Convention badly needs a change of direction. While baptisms and evangelism continue their freefall, a small group of leaders steers our institutions ever closer to the culture, from radical feminism masked as “soft complementarianism” to the false gospel of Critical Theory and Intersectionality. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, we are all made one in Him. But this “Race Marxism” divides everyone by their most superficial features, in a never-ending cycle of recrimination and hate.
We reject these worldly dogmas. We stand together on the Baptist Faith and Message. We proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. And we know the vast majority of Southern Baptists do too.
At this critical juncture, we need men to serve who can unite our convention around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe there are no two better men to lead us in this vital task than Tom Ascol and Voddie Baucham.
For many years, Tom Ascol has been a faithful conservative voice in the SBC. The grandson of a Syrian Muslim immigrant who was murdered in the South in the 1920s, Tom Ascol has seen the grace of God at work in his family, and savingly in his own life. He believes the Gospel is the sole answer to the challenges we currently face as Southern Baptists.
Likewise, Voddie Baucham is one of the most faithful expositors of our day, a day in which sound preaching is more important than ever. He will give the exact kind of leadership needed for the SBC Pastors’ Conference, an event which in recent years has shifted radically from one of the high points of the entire year into what many have termed “Woke Fest”. The importance of restoring that pivotal event cannot be overstated.
We’ve been told “the world is watching”, and so it is, demanding that the church conform. But we believe that God is watching, that He alone defines our terms and sets our agenda.
And God is not Woke.
The Baptist in the pew isn’t either. But that won’t mean anything if we don’t show up, and vote.
So come to the Annual Meeting in Anaheim this June. We’re asking you to stand in this crucial hour, for the SBC, and for Tom Ascol and Voddie Baucham. Help us change the direction, and return the SBC to a firm commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture.
#ChangeTheDirection

Signed,
Dr. Lee Brand
First Vice President
The Southern Baptist Convention

Dr. Tom Buck
Senior Pastor, FBC Lindale, Texas
Board Member, G3 Ministries

Dr. Javier Chavez
Senior Pastor, Amistad Cristiana International
Former Missionary to Peru

Kelvin Cochran
Vice President, Alliance Defending Freedom
Former Atlanta Fire Chief

Dr. Mark Coppenger
Former President, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Retired Professor, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Greg Davidson
Senior Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
Vacaville, California

Dr. Mark DeVine
Associate Professor, Beeson Divinity School
Former Missionary to Thailand

Dr. Brad Jurkovich
Senior Pastor, First Bossier
Bossier City, Louisiana

Ronnie Rogers
Senior Pastor, Trinity Baptist, Norman, Oklahoma
Former Chairman, SBC Nominating Committee

Mike Stone
Senior Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist, Blackshear, Georgia
Former Chairman, SBC Executive Committee
Former President, Georgia Baptist Convention

Dr. Carol Swain
Former Professor of Political Science and Law
Vanderbilt University

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Faith is not a one-time event for the Christian. It is not merely something that we did at some point in our past. Certainly, there was a time when we moved from unbelief to belief. But that moment of initial believing ushered us into a life of faith. A Christian is someone who, having initially trusted Jesus as Lord, goes on believing. We continue depending on Christ. This trust is not perfect. Sometimes it may grow dim and waver, and other times it can be strong and sure. But faith, for the Christian, is continuous. It is ongoing. It is a way of life.
The Apostle Paul calls this way of life a fight. He encouraged his young colleague in the ministry to “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12a). Faith is a fight for the Christian in that we must work hard, discipline ourselves, and sometimes struggle to keep on believing. The seeds of unbelief remain in our hearts and sometimes it seems as if they have so successfully sprouted that real faith is almost choked out. At such times I take comfort in that heart-broken father who asked Jesus to heal his son. With his demon-possessed boy writhing in the dirt at his feet and foaming at the mouth, this man looked at Jesus and, with tears in his eyes said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). He had faith (“I believe”). But he was lacking in assurance (“Help my unbelief”).
These words have been my prayer many, many times over the course of my life. When trials come, when it seems that God’s promises (what He has pledged Himself to do) are being contradicted by God’s providence (what He actually is doing), our faith can be severely tested. At such times the person who is trusting Christ needs to remember that the Christian life is a fight, and we are called to “fight the good fight of faith.”
One good way to equip yourself for this fight is through Scripture memory. What makes faith hard and unbelief easy is losing sight of things that are true. Storing up your mind with God’s own Word makes His truth more accessible to you than if you only had a general idea of it. Scripture that is committed to memory can be readily called to mind by the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. The Psalmist testified to power of Scripture to work this way in his life when he wrote, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).
What makes faith hard and unbelief easy is losing sight of things that are true.
Another good way to wage war against unbelief is by heeding the specific counsel of God’s Word. The Bible records the real life stories of people who faced all kinds of trials and challenges. God taught them important lessons through these experiences. And by recording their stories in the Bible, He also can teach us through them. Often the Bible gives us the counsel of men and women who have gone before us in the fight of faith. By both their example and words, we are encouraged to keep believing.
This is true of King David and his instructions in Psalm 37. He wrote this Psalm when he was an old man (v. 25). It reeks of the wisdom of long experience. David knew what it was to be “on top of the mountain.” At one time he could do no wrong in the eyes of his fellow countrymen. Songs were written about him. Foreign kings respected him. His enemies feared him. But by the time he wrote Psalm 37 he had lived long enough to experience the reversal of fortunes. He had sinned grievously against his God and his people. He had experienced the death of a baby and inconceivably wicked conduct by other children, including the murder of one son by another and the betrayal and execution of that murderous son.
David had seen wicked people prosper and good people suffer. And out of the wisdom of long experience with God he encourages us to “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him” (v. 7). This is sound counsel for people who really know God. The Lord never hurries and is never late. Furthermore, what is sometimes easy for us to forget, He is always working for eternity. We often become anxious and wonder where God is or if He really cares. It is good to hear the God-inspired counsel of an experienced man like David, who also had those thoughts: Rest in Him. Wait patiently for Him.
What exactly does it mean to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him? It means to give our burdens and concerns over to Him. To trust Him to do what is right and what is good for us. It means to remember heaven, to remind ourselves that we are in this fight of faith for the long haul. God’s sense of timing is not limited to our clocks and calendars. To rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him means to orient your heart with such determination toward Jesus Christ and His death on the cross that the bloody scene of Calvary begins to melt your fears and anxieties as you gaze on it and are enabled to say, “For me.”

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It’s easy to be against something. Within any wrong system (i.e., Church Planting Movements theory), we find much fodder for articles on why a particular method isn’t biblical. But it’s not always as easy to write the articles on positive alternatives. So, while not shirking our responsibility to point out error, let’s make extra effort to champion what is biblical.
This essay focuses on sanctification in the task of making disciples and details the discipleship “plan” once someone has trusted Christ.
Fruit and the Centrality of the Bible
The biblical text must be our guide. All of us want to be fruitful, especially those of us overseas. First Timothy 4:16 says, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” The Bible is all sufficient. Yet certain teachers of popular methods, while affirming the sufficiency of Scripture, smuggle in extrabiblical formulas for rapid growth: encouraging lost people to share the gospel, the preeminence of goal setting, and an overemphasis on participative Bible study groups. Our fruitfulness is intertwined with the biblical text, not popular methods.
Second Peter 1:3-8 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him…. to supplement your faith with virtue… knowledge… self-control… steadfastness… godliness… brotherly affection… love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christian growth isn’t so much about goals and a disciple’s activity, but about God-centeredness.
If we think we earn God’s blessing through our outward behavior, we end up with little joy.
We also see God’s work and faithfulness in making disciples more like himself. “His divine power has granted….” While we know the Lord uses the means of grace to grow us in Christ, this only happens as we keep leaning into the gospel. If each time we gather, we taste God’s greatness and mercy in the biblical text, disciples will bear fruit. God makes sure it happens (2 Corinthians 3:18). As we gather to hear his Word, we can become entranced with God himself and realize we bring him nothing (Psalm 50:12). Our growth is character transformation from the inside out, as saved sinners help each other look to Jesus. We can only grow or serve because of what Christ has done for us. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24, Paul says to abstain from evil. Apparently, the Christian life is filled with things to do, but the foundation is God’s faithfulness, not our performance. We will put forth effort, but that effort must be fueled by what the Lord has done through his resurrection. We need him desperately, and many Christians need to celebrate more that Christ did what redeemed sinners never can do. Believers keep resting in what Christ has done on the cross. The biblical text guides us to trust God’s faithfulness.
A Simple Way Forward in Missionary Work
The pathway toward healthy discipleship is fleshed out well in the article, “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” by the late Jerry Bridges. He carefully distinguishes between healthy Christian growth and a performance mentality. He avoids some common pitfalls of Obedience Based Discipleship theory. Too many churches base the Christian life on performance. While the process of healthy discipleship isn’t formulaic, leaning into the biblical text (and not primarily in what we can do for God) ultimately will be more biblically fruitful.
An overview of Bridges’ article reveals the gems in his basic “plan.” Bridges points out real dangers of too much focus on performance in the Christian life. Bridges shows us how our mentality can be close to the biblical picture, yet slightly off. We might think God’s blessing depends on our disciplines. How many believers, especially missionaries, live under constant guilt for not sharing the gospel more? Bridges does not encourage disobedience but promotes a proper emphasis on how grace works in us to obey Christ’s commands. Obedience is in order, but driven by something deeper than outward behavior: dependence on the Holy Spirit. Bridges wisely points out that God’s blessing doesn’t depend on how we perform. If we think we earn God’s blessing through our outward behavior, we end up with little joy.
Bridges quotes Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We are free to obey Christ because we already are accepted. We must daily return to passages that remind us of what the gospel is, objectively in history, and what it means in our lives. Our Father accepts us because of Jesus, not because we got our act together after salvation. Bridges stresses definitive (or positional) sanctification, that believers are dead to the penalty and dominion of sin. To walk actively in this dead-to-sin life, we consider ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11). Bridges shows this is not something to do but something to believe. Struggling with sin is a sign that Christ lives inside. This truth has helped our disciples overseas.
The gospel is not just a tool for the overseas worker; it’s the Christian’s key to growth.
Bridges notes that, while we’re positionally seated with Christ in our sanctification, ongoing daily growth involves our progress in the faith. We cannot grow by our own strength but must have what he labels “dependent effort.” It’s not earning (performance and bad); it’s effort (good). As we grow in holiness, we see our sinfulness. Such insight into our badness keeps us going back to the gospel for help, not merely trying harder with outward behavior. We’ve tried to apply these truths to the lives of our national disciples in Asia, and they have found them helpful. We suggest it’s because all disciples need encouragement in these areas more than they need certain methods about evangelism or discipleship. Some methods are appropriate, but gospel truth always is profitable for life and godliness because it’s a foundational element in Scripture. It nourishes growth but isn’t reducible to mere church planting principles or how to evangelize or multiply disciples. It’s basic and paramount, yet not something we can put in a spreadsheet to report back home.
Fuel for our souls
The key is God using the gospel, which gives us what we need to bear fruit, as we keep looking to Jesus. We must live prayerfully dependent on the Holy Spirit. The more gospel-oriented we are, the more we’re going to bear fruit and, hopefully, the more our national friends will bear fruit. Bearing fruit, however, must be more than seeing the lost repent. Christ died because of sin and has risen to destroy the works of the devil. Such truth aids the believer not just with information for the lost, but to help himself fight sin—and to assist other disciples.
The gospel is not just a tool for the overseas worker; it’s the Christian’s key to growth. So, while discipleship may be a process, it’s not so much a strategized plan. It certainly shouldn’t be formulaic, even though many teachers of CPM and Disciple Making Movements disagree with that. Bridges himself states it best: “But the success of our struggle with sin begins with our believing deep down in our hearts that regardless of our failures and our struggle, we have died to sin’s guilt. We must believe that however often we fail, there is no condemnation for us (Romans 8:1).”
We can’t guarantee this approach will lead to a movement, but it will lead to solid disciples and healthier churches.

*Kenneth Hayward (pseudonym for security reasons) has been overseas with his organization for approximately 15 years, lives in Asia with his family, and can be contacted at: stand4truth 777 at hotmail.com (no spaces and with @).

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I’ve heard Tom Ascol on a few occasions say, “The SBC is not important, but it matters.” That is, the SBC has been around less than 10% of Church History. And if the Lord should tarry and the SBC should falter, that percentage could shrink even smaller. Our gracious God does not stand in need of the Southern Baptist Convention. In that sense, it’s not important.
Yet, it does matter. The SBC continues to train thousands of men for ministry every year and quite a number of those will go on to pastor in churches not affiliated with the convention. Our seminaries are influencers both inside and outside the SBC.
If I may use a sports analogy here, the SBC also matters in the way that the Dallas Cowboys matter to the NFL. A lot of people are not Cowboys fans, but everyone is watching the organization. In a similar sense, but one so much more meaningful, everyone watches the SBC to see which way it will go. The SBC remains an influencer in the evangelical world as a whole.
God does not need the SBC. God can accomplish His mission without the SBC. We will meet myriads of people in heaven who never even heard of the SBC. And yet, in God’s kind providence we all live in the epoch of history in which the SBC does matter. And so, this post is about how those inside and outside the SBC can pray for her as she heads toward Anaheim in 2022 and beyond.
Here are four ways:
Unity
Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention is vital to its survival. The New Testament writers place a great emphasis upon unity. Jesus prays for unity in John 17. Unity is a big deal to our Lord, and we must never take this lightly.
Unity outside the church is a funny thing at times. I’ve been to a few Arkansas Razorback games where when someone scores a touchdown there is “unity” in the stands. Everyone’s fist bumping and celebrating, and you really don’t care who they voted for or someone’s skin color or even the beverage they may be holding in their hand.
This is superficial unity. It is fleeting unity. It is a unity not built to last. (Trust me, I’m a Razorbacks fan!)
This is not the type of unity we are striving to maintain in the SBC. The unity we desire, and which you must pray for, is a unity grounded in the truth. We are not after “unity for the sake of unity.” No. We are after unity around our core convictions as given in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
Thus, we are to be unified in not just the gospel, but in the things that make us Baptist as well. And the BFM 2000 is an expression of what we believe the Scriptures teach. We want unity around the authority, sufficiency, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible. We, as the old VBS song goes, must “stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.”
Unity in these things means disunity with other things. We cannot be friends with the world (James 4:4). We must have disunity with godless ideologies that seek to undermine the gospel (cf. Colossians 2:8). Unity in the truth demands we separate from the things that attack the authority of or deny the sufficiency of the truth.
Purity
The second way you can pray for the Southern Baptist Convention is by praying for our purity. Pray that we would be a holy convention of churches. Pray that we would have holy leaders. Leaders who hate sin. Leaders who fear God. Leaders who understand the definition of repentance and model it before us.
Pray that we would have holy pastors and holy churches. Pray that our pastors and churches would seek to walk in the fear of our Lord. That we would take seriously the transforming power of the gospel.
Pray that we would recover a purer Baptist ecclesiology in our convention. That we would seek to have accurate membership rolls. That we would not allow unconverted persons to serve in areas of service or leadership within our churches.
We tend to focus on investigations and studies and task forces at the expense of recovering the purity of our churches. And if we recovered a purer Baptist ecclesiology, perhaps these other things would be far less needful.
The SBC needs to recover piety and seek conformity to Christ. Pray for us!
Fidelity
This is similar to the first point in the sense that pursuing fidelity will lead to unity among the faithful. But please pray specifically that we would be a convention faithful to the Word of God. That we would remember, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ…” (2 Cor. 5:10).
On that Day, we will not care so much what the 21st Century American culture thought of us. We will only care whether we listened to Him (cf. Luke 9:35).
Pray for our fidelity to the King! And we are faithful to the King when we are faithful to His Book. Pray, then, that we would submit to the Bible’s authority in all things. Pray that we would trust its sufficiency in all things. Pray that our pastors would pour over its pages week in and week out in order to preach this Word faithfully to our churches.
Pray that in 2022 and beyond, we would plant our feet steadfastly upon Sacred Writ and recover that old Baptist theme Song:
I shall not be, I shall not be moved!
Finally, pray for our:
Tenacity
Todd Wilson, in his commentary on Galatians, writes something that I think is fitting to our current situation in the SBC:
[H]ow can we avoid drifting? First, we must hold tenaciously to what we were taught. Tenacity is what Paul calls for here: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (1:8). When the Apostle Paul tells you to not listen to him and even to ignore an angel, you know he’s calling for tenacity. Charles Spurgeon had the right advice: “Cling tightly with both your hands; when they fail, catch hold with your teeth; and if they give way, hang on by your eyelashes!” Don’t let go of the gospel! That’s the kind of tenacity we all need if we’re going to stay the course and finish the race.[1]
In a very similar way, I’m asking that you pray for our tenacity in the SBC. Pray that we would be determined never to let go of the gospel. Pray for our perseverance to preach the true gospel to all sinners, believing it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Pray that we would strive toward God wrought conversion for our neighbors and the nations.
We must be tenacious in our evangelism. We are seeking to win lost souls. Not coddle them. Not adapt to them. But to win them by God’s sovereign grace. To see them brought from death to life.
The Southern Baptist Convention has inroads all across the United States and throughout the whole world that no other organization has collectively. And we must use these institutions for the promulgation of the truth of Christ.
The world’s greatest problem isn’t the color of one’s skin or the size of one’s bank account or the lack of one’s education. The world’s most significant problem is that all men stand condemned before a Holy God.
But in Christ is hope. In Christ alone is hope for all who will bow the knee to Him in repentance and call out to Him in faith. We must be tenacious about our missions and evangelism.
And pray for our tenacity in standing for the truth. Pray that we would remember God is watching. The greatest commandment is still this: Love God above all. We must have a tenacious zeal for the glory of God. Pray that we would not allow the culture to change us, but that we would be like the early church in Ephesus and change the culture (see Acts 19:17-20).
Pray that we would remember the words of Christ: “The ones who conquer will be granted to eat from the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7). No, this isn’t military conquest. But this is a tenacity to remain firm till the end to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. To conquer for Christ.
Men and women and boys and girls who love Christ must be courageous in these turbulent times for the glory of our King. And really, what the lost world needs right now is courage from the church too.
Because it’s only when the church stands for the truth that sinners come under conviction, and God brings them to saving faith in His Son.
Let us pray, then, for the SBC’s tenacity.
Conclusion
I hope these 4 things are somewhat memorable and will be practical for you in your prayers for the SBC. Let us pray for her unity, purity, fidelity, and tenacity.
We ought to have love and hope for our convention even as we call out to God for her. God has graciously and powerfully used her in so many wonderful ways. And she has an enormously bright future ahead of her if the Lord, in His kindness, is willing to hear and answer our prayers. We have hope for our convention because we serve so gracious a God!
But if we fail to pray, and if we ignore the cultural moment that we find ourselves in, if we move away from the truths of Scripture we have seen and discussed in this post, we will not have to argue about a name change anymore, for history will ultimately call us:
The Ichabod Baptist Convention – The glory has departed.
Please pray.

[1] Todd Wilson, Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 31.

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One of the most important things you need to know about the ordinances is that they are visible. They are visible symbols. They are objects to be seen, felt, and in the case of the Lord’s Supper, tasted.
This post, though, is only about the first ordinance, baptism. I say first not because it is more important, but because baptism marks one’s entrance into the visible church. Something most Christians, regardless of their views on the proper subjects of baptism, would agree on.
The credobaptist position states that baptism is an ordinance reserved for believers. Note the Baptist Faith and Message (2000):
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.
Samuel Renihan notes, “Baptism is…a two-way declaration. On the one hand, it is God’s visible promise that all who are in His Son are new creations by virtue of their union with Christ in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). And on the other hand, it is the individual’s profession of faith in those very promises (1 Pt. 3:21-22).”[1]
Not For Infants
The argument between credo and paedobaptists over the subjects and mode of baptism goes much deeper than water. Phillip Griffiths comments on the baptism debate that being a Baptist should mean more than just “the mode of baptism…Reformed Baptists need to rediscover their rich heritage.”[2] Part of that heritage is understanding Baptist covenant theology. Volumes have been written on the subject, so there is not space here to treat it in any sort of fullness.
However, it needs to be said that, historically, Baptists have understood only believers as being in God’s covenant of grace. Both paedobaptists and dispensationalists, ironically, want to assign unregenerate people as being part of the people of God. Reformed Baptists reject this and assign only those born again as comprising the one body of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:4).
So, in the Old Testament, infants were circumcised in the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants, ultimately under a covenant of works.[3] This circumcision, though certainly in some senses a gracious sign, did not bring someone into God’s covenant of grace. If circumcision was not kept, the children would be cut off from the physical people of God (Gen. 17:14). Circumcision was another work that’s essential point was to remind the physical people of God that they stood in desperate need of One who could fulfill God’s Law and then be cut off for the sake of those who would put their faith in Him (cf. Isaiah 53:4-5).
The argument between credo and paedobaptists over the subjects and mode of baptism goes much deeper than water.
The true Israel of both the Old and New Testaments has always and only been believers (cf. Romans 9:6-7). And the only way anyone can savingly believe the promises of God is by being born again. So, yes, even members of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament were born again.
Though there are similarities between baptism and circumcision in some ways, Griffiths writes, “Baptism…is both a sign and a seal, marking one as belonging to the spiritual seed of Abraham; sealing the fact that he is united to Christ. The one prerequisite for baptism is that the individual repent and believe. These different criteria hardly suggest parity between these two rites [of circumcision and baptism].”[4] The members of the covenant of grace, then, have always and only been regenerate people, not of a mixed nature. That is, the covenant of grace has never consisted of believers and unbelievers.
New Testament Baptism
The New Covenant, ratified in the blood of Christ, has established water baptism as the outward sign and symbol of the inward reality of the Spirit’s application of Christ’s work to the Christian. The signification of baptism is clearly only for those who have already been born again. Even 19th century paedobaptist, James Bannerman, writes, “The immersion in water of the persons of those who are baptized is set forth as their burial with Christ in His grave because of sin; and their being raised again out of the water is their resurrection with Christ in His rising again from the dead because of their justification.”[5]
Bannerman goes on to say of the signage of baptism that
[T]heir [those baptized] burial in water, when dying with Christ was the washing away of the corruptness of the old man beneath the water; and their coming forth from the water in the image of His resurrection was their leaving behind them the old man with his sins and emerging into newness of life. Their immersion beneath the water, and their emerging again, were the putting off the corruption of nature and rising again into holiness, or their sanctification.[6]
Similarly, Louis Berkhof, also a paedobaptist, writing about Christ’s Great Commission in Matthew 28:19, says that “They who accepted Christ by faith were to be baptized in the name of the triune God, as a sign and seal of the fact that they had entered into a new relation to God and as such were obliged to live according to the laws of the Kingdom of God.”[7]
The New Covenant, ratified in the blood of Christ, has established water baptism as the outward sign and symbol of the inward reality of the Spirit’s application of Christ’s work to the Christian.
Though writing centuries before Berkhof and Bannerman, 17th Century Baptist, John Spilsbery, pulls no punches in responding to this type of faulty paedobaptist argumentation when he writes,
to Baptize Infants, makes the holy ordinance of God a lying sign, because none of those things can be expected in an Infant which the said ordinance holds forth or signifies in the administration thereof, which is the parties Regeneration and spiritual new birth; a dying and burying with Christ in respect of sin, and a rising with him in a new life to God, and a confirmation of faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, and a free remission of sin by the same; as 1 Cor. 15:29. Rom. 6:3, 4. Col. 2:12. 1 Pet. 3:21. Act. 2:38. none of all which can be expected in an Infant.[8]
There is an incontrovertible connection between the ordinance of baptism and regeneration. The latter is inward and performed by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. The former is performed by the local church only to those born again as a sign and symbol of what has happened to the new believer. That is, New Testament water baptism is not an “anticipation” of what might happen to a child in later years. It is specifically designed by the wisdom of God to signify what has already happened!
Do we have to have “regeneration goggles” then in order to know who to Baptize?[9] Of course not. The local church ought to do her best in only baptizing believers by examining the confession and life of those wishing to be baptized. Sadly, in a fallen world, sometimes local churches can “baptize” unbelievers.
But, do I Have to Be Baptized?
Jeff Johnson writes,
Although baptism is not essential to salvation, it is highly unlikely that a person has been truly born again without an eager desire to follow the Lord in this first command that God gives the new Christian (Acts 2:38). Baptism is a public confession of Christ (Matt. 10:32-33) that evidences to the church and the world that there has been a radical transformation within. Baptism is also a visible sermon. It demonstrates a spiritual reality of one’s death to sin and resurrection to the newness of life in Christ Jesus.[10]
Baptism is for those who have already received the Holy Spirit, and it is not what effects or brings about our regeneration. Rather, baptism is something that the regenerate do. Those already born again desire to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism[11] because baptism, in the words of Sam Waldron, “says he or she is in union with Christ, is forgiven and has a cleansed heart.”[12]
Baptism is not what brings the Holy Spirit’s work of effectual calling and regeneration about, but it is a physical symbol of the inward spiritual realities that have already taken place. So, baptism is an ordinance only for those already born again. It does not have the power to bring about a change of heart.
When Jesus talks about being born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5), He doesn’t mean baptism and the Spirit mixed together creates a saving formula. Rather, being “born of the water” is the inward renewal and cleansing we need as prophesied in Ezekiel 36:25-27 and mentioned again in Titus 3:5.
This is also a reason we should be cautious about baptizing young children. I do think young children can be born again. It takes the same grace to save a 4-year-old as it does a 44-year-old. But the biblical issue is the church being sure of what has taken place and in our society, I think a lot of people have unfortunately been baptized when they were very young but have since walked away because they had never actually been born again.
The symbolism in baptism matters. This is why we should not sprinkle or pour water over baptismal candidates but instead immerse the person fully in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism shows how the person has already been spiritually cleansed and is symbolically buried with Christ and raised again to the newness of life. And has now been publicly and visibly marked as a follower of King Jesus.

[1] The Mystery of Christ, 204.
[2] Phillip D.R. Griffiths, Covenant Theology: A Reformed Baptist Perspective, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), 4.
[3] Reformed Baptists have different views on this. Some see the Abrahamic Covenant as dichotomous in nature. Some early Baptists saw it as two covenants.
[4] Covenant Theology: A Reformed Baptist Perspective, 68.
[5] James Bannerman, The Church of Christ: A Treatise on the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the Christian Church, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), 557.
[6] Bannerman, The Church of Christ, 557.
[7] L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 624. Berkhof goes on to write, “there is no explicit command in the Bible to baptize children, and that there is not a single instance in which we are plainly told that children were baptized”, 632.
[8] John Spilsbery, A Treatise Concerning the Lawfull Subject of Baptism, Second Edition Corrected and Enlarged. (London: Henry Hills, 1652), 41.
[9] “Regeneration Goggles” is a phrase some Paedobaptists have used on social media to accuse Baptists of needing to see the invisible church before being willing to admit someone to the ordinance of baptism.
[10] Jeffrey D. Johnson, The Church: Her Nature, Authority, Purpose, and Worship, (New Albany, MS Media Gratiae, 2020), 206.
[11] I do not mean to imply that convinced paedobaptists are not born again! Though they are wrong about a very important matter.
[12] A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 407-408.

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