My Response (Rant) to Morris Chapman

Before reading this you may want to read Morris Chapman's article.

Morris Chapman is purposefully not saying anything at all, which sums up the majority of SBC leadership. They are not willing to take hard stands and say what they really think - they are as much politician as they are Christian.

I believe the Bible is clear on who grows the church and it is not us. God grows the church and blesses the work of His people. The SBC feels it is better on the whole to lie about our membership roles and to convolute growth in the church by aligning it to baptism's - now I would bet that all of those people on the roles have been baptized. Does that mean they are saved? Of course not, so why is that how we measure growth?

The other problem I see is that the SBC has hitched its wagon to Rick Warren and Lifeway. Two big mistakes when it comes to biblical growth and biblical teaching. You can not have biblical growth without biblical teaching. Using Rick Warren's strategy you will have plenty of baptisms and few Christians. Using Lifeway's material you will have watered down felt needs, self-centered Christians that believe the Gospel is all about them and not God. Their curriculum always skips over the theological meat of any book and focuses on lesser topical ideas. In some of their Sunday school curriculum they don't even call Bible verses Bible verses - they call them Bible phrases. Curriculum that operates 10,000 feet above the scripture is not going to truly help someone in their Christian walk.

I believe we do need to unite under the banner of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Seeking unity to serve others and bring the love of Christ to all people groups. We must be willing to offend and stop asking sinners how we should do church. We need to be honest about our church roles and expunge those that do not attend. We need to exposit and preach the full council of God without exception and/or apology. We must evangelize and reach out to the lost at every opportunity with a desire of seeing them won to Christ. We must go back to the Bible for our church curriculum and demand more from our teachers that rely on milky Lifeway material.

All of that and I didn't even mention Calvinism, which is the real debate in the SBC. And, I believe is what Morris is really hinting at in his article. As a convention let's give God a reason to grow the SBC churches, and let's do it the right way, by starting with biblical theologically accurate teaching, and being sold out to His glory, and His purposes. Can I get an Amen??