This post was definitely alarming, but true. I am only in my second year at Southeastern, but students are not being prepared to handle what you have discussed here. It is no wonder so many leave the pastorate and never go back. God help us!

I am, however, a bit prepared about the condition of the Church in the “last days,” so to speak (2Timothy 3.1-5); but I also know that Christ Jesus is building His Church (Matt. 16.18) and that there will be many in it that do not belong to Him (Matt. 13.24-30; 36-43). Still, it is a bit disconcerting to “live it out.”

I just do not want to end up as a statistic.

Billy

Tomorrow’s post will compliment nicely about the budget expenditures of state conventions. Stay tuned.

Joe,

Thank you for sharing your story and the encouragement man. Stories like you have experienced need to get out there. I remember hearing at a conference this year of a pastor in MS who began preaching through their church’s confession to help his church better understand Baptist beliefs, and they moved to fire him. Anyway, I do hope to put these two hands to the plow and by God’s grace plant my life in the local church. As you have laid out, the soil looks quite hardened and settled, so the plow illustration Jesus employed is quite fitting.

Ken,

I do know that I have the answers to those questions. I will let the denominational leaders speak for themselves. I do think a lot is going on behind the scenes, both in the denominational leaders against Calvinists and the Southern Baptist Calvinists. If the two continue to pull in different directions, then one would be lead to believe that the tension would result in a tear. But that doesn’t have to happen.

http://www.christianindex.org/551.article

As usual great post. When do we get to the point that those who believe in the doctrines of grace as taught in scripture are not wanted in the mainstream of SBC life. After serving 26 years in ministry, in various positions, in SBC churches I find myself looking for secular employment so I can be a member of a church that embraces these truths. Why don’t they put all their cards on the table and tell us we are not wanted or welcomed? Have they already done this and we are not listening? Does Founders become the organization we can unite around? When do we start seeking an exit strategy? Has the majority reached a point that getting decisions has little to no relationship to conversion? Are most of our “churches” just clubs? I am glad that I believe in a God who has all this under His control.

I think what may be one of the major problems in church life today is the television. There are so many hotshot preachers on the tube and in the minds and eyes of many folks in the churches this is what a real preacher is. He is entertaining and flamboyant. He can work a crowd and please your emotions. So the standard is wrong. Plus add years and years of very poor Sunday School material that majors on “interesting” rather than the Scripture and you get a group of people that think church is for entertainment and not edification.

As for church government, many of the churches do not have qualified elders. Sad to say that many men have disqualified themselves by their lifestyle or they are so ignorant of the Scriptures that it would take years and years to raise a new generation of elders. Many deacons are not even biblically qualified to do that and as a pastor you have inherited them.

So, as a pastor you have decisions to make. Neither are easy and all require a lot of hard work and dedication. First you can invest your life in a congregation and hopefully in a decade or two some fruit will be evidenced and the church will be on its way to health and reformation. The failure rate for this is high. Second, you can pray that the Lord will allow you to plant a church and start it out correctly. This is difficult also with challenges all its own. While church structure is in place and sound theology is taught and the Bible is being preached these church plants have a high failure rate as well.

So my advice is choose one prayerfully, put your hands to the plow and don’t look back.

Thanks for blogging.

Joe

I’ve noticed and been thinking along these lines for a while now, especially, points 3 & 4. All this theological training etc. and many congregations aren’t learning it. Where does all this knowledge go? I don’t think people understand much doctrine because they aren’t taught much if any. There are many directions to go here, but I think you catch my drift.

Side note: In one of your earlier posts you talked about the percentage of a church’s budget that goes to spreading the Gospel. Or something along those lines. If it takes a church 75% or so of it’s budget just to sustain itself then what is it really doing? One might even say that it is at or approaching a point where the church exists simply so it can keep on existing.

Mark