SBTS working with NAMB to plant churches in eastern Canada
June 06, 2008
By David Roach
For the next three years, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will partner with Baptists in eastern Canada to plant churches in one of North America’s most unreached corners.
Beginning Jan. 1, Southern’s Church Planting Center teamed up with the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists (CCSB) for three years during which time Canadian Baptist leaders will recruit church planters from among seminary students. Participants will plant congregations in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland/Labrador and a portion of Nunavut.
The Church Planting Center is a partnership between the seminary and the SBC’s North American Mission Board.
“There are three practical components to this partnership,” said J.D. Payne, associate professor of church planting and evangelism and director of the Church Planting Center. “First, each semester for the next three years, a representative of the church planting work in eastern Canada will be on campus recruiting students and speaking in classes.
“Second, through the Great Commission Center, each year Southern will send at least one short-term mission team to serve with church planters in eastern Canada. Third, twice each year, professors from the seminary will be traveling to the region to work in leadership training with Canadian church planters and pastors.”
Gary Smith, CCSB church starting coordinator for Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces, said the spiritual opportunity in eastern Canada and the missions interest at Southern came together to inspire the partnership.
“We saw the great need and the great opportunity together, and so far great fruit has been yielded from the partnership including multiple mission trips and multiple church planting leaders coming to Canada from Southern,” Smith said.
The partnership appears to coincide with the God’s working in eastern Canada, Payne said.
“In addition to hearing of the need for missionaries to preach and plant Gospel-centered churches, I also discovered the Lord is presently doing amazing work in eastern Canada,” he said. “I was told that the CCSB saw more churches planted in eastern Canada in just the past few months than they experienced all of last year.”
The partnership has given Southern the opportunity be a part of several “firsts” in Canadian missions. Through NAMB’s Nehemiah Project two church planters from Southern were recently called to Newfoundland and became the first Southern Baptist missionaries in that province. In addition to other mission trips, Southern will send a team in 2009 to Iqaluit, the capitol of Nunavut, which will be the first organized Southern Baptist missionary work to that area.
Pioneering mission work is necessary in eastern Canada because of the huge number of unchurched people there, Payne said. Quebec contains the five most unchurched cities in North America, and only half a percent of all Quebecois are evangelicals, he said, adding that many small communities throughout the country have no evangelical witness.
As one of the world’s most multi-cultural cities, Toronto has many residents from unreached people groups.
“Whenever you reach the cities of Canada,” Payne said, “you have the potential to reach the world.”
Both Smith and Payne said they anticipate Kingdom-impacting results from the partnership.
“My hope is that this partnership will be used by the Lord to glorify Himself through the multiplication of disciples, leaders and churches throughout eastern Canada and beyond,” Payne said. “Also, I hope that this partnership will develop and strengthen the relationship between the seminary, North American Mission Board and the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists.
Source: Towers Online
President Mohler to be nominated for President
The current president of my seminary, SBTS, Dr. Albert Mohler is finally now a candidate for President for the Southern Baptist Convention. This announcement is a heart-warming one, though not a surprise as rumors have been floating around throughout 2007. There is no better time than now for Mohler’s leadership to help take Southern Baptists forward into the 21st century with fervent passion for Gospel proclamation throughout the world.
Here is the press release from Towers (see also the Southern Baptist Texan):
FBC Dallas pastor to nominate Mohler for SBC presidency
January 02, 2008
By Tammi Reed LedbetterSouthern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. provides “the kind of visionary leader Southern Baptists need to communicate a missional conservatism and biblical clarity to the world,” stated Robert Jeffress, pastor of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas in announcing his intention to nominate the 47-year-old Mohler for Southern Baptist Convention president in June.
In a news release provided to the Southern Baptist TEXAN Jan. 2, Jeffress said his decision is the result of prayer and concern for the future of Southern Baptists’ global witness. He said he believes Mohler would “motivate Southern Baptists to unite around cooperation for global missions and evangelism.”
If elected on June 10 when messengers meet in Indianapolis, Mohler would become the sixth seminary president to serve in the top denominational office.
Before moving to the Dallas congregation last August, Jeffress served 15 years as pastor of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas. He hosts the “Pathway to Victory” television program and broadcasts a daily sermon series heard in 13 countries.
“When Southern Seminary seemed to be lost to liberalism and irrelevancy, Dr. Mohler put his life and ministry on the line for the truth of God’s word and the urgency of sharing Christ with a lost world,” Jeffress said. “Since that time, he has led Southern Seminary to be a boot camp for young men and women training to take the gospel to the nations—whatever the cost.”
Mohler’s experience as a spokesman for Southern Baptists in the public square is another reason he should be president of the SBC, Jeffress added, noting the seminary president has been recognized by influential publications such as Time and Christianity Today, with Time calling him the “reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement in the U.S.”
“For years, Southern Baptists and other Christians have seen Dr. Mohler stand for biblical revelation on programs such as “Larry King Live,” Jeffress said. “And, each and every time, no matter what the issue, Dr. Mohler has been a strong witness, telling lost people how they can come to know Christ. That kind of truth-telling with gospel compassion is the kind of leadership we need in these tumultuous times,” Jeffress added.
“Southern Baptists will be blessed to have a president in Dr. Mohler who can walk into the Oval Office or into the pulpit of your local Baptist church and say the same thing, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ with clarity and conviction,” Jeffress said. “Whether the issue is the family and marriage or Islamic terrorism or the religious liberty of Christians to share the gospel freely anywhere in the world, Dr. Mohler represents Southern Baptists well in pointing to Christ and his word,” Jeffress said.
He added that a Mohler presidency also would be critical in emphasizing the necessity of a strong and healthy Cooperative Program, pointing to Mohler’s experience in denominational leadership on the Program and Structure Study Committee that made recommendations for sweeping reorganization of the denomination in 1995 and to his work with fellow SBC entity heads on the denomination’s Great Commission Council.
Stop Dating the Church
Ever since I arrived in Louisville three weeks ago, I have been in search of a spiritual home and checking out different churches in the Louisville area.
So far, I’ve been to Sojourn Community Church, Clifton Baptist Church, as well as Louisville Chinese Christian Church–all of which are in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. (I have been a member of an ethnic, Chinese church all my life, hence I don’t feel called to join another one.)
I don’t want to be critical of all these local congregations, and have no intention of evaluating them for the sake of evaluating which is “better”, but I am trying various churches out in search of one in which I can become an active member in.
It came as a surprise to me that all of the churches I’ve been to so far are significantly different in their musical worship styles, even as all are baptist. It’s ranged from very contemporary to very traditional. Teaching and preaching at all churches are on par with what I expected of solid, biblical, Southern Baptist churches, and I am just trying to find a church where I feel the love of the body of Christ and where I can most freely express myself in musical worship. know how much longer this time of transition will take, but I am in no rush, though it would be easier on my heart if it were sooner!
In one sense, one could label me as church “shopping”, or in a better Christ-bride analogy, I could be considered “dating” churches.
(more…)
Schedule for Fall 2007-08
Schedule / timetable for my 1st semester @ Southern Seminary:
| Section | Course Name | Hours | Instructor | Meets |
| 42490 | THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM | 0 | Daniel Hatfield | (TBA) |
| 40150C | PERSONAL SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES | 2 | Donald Whitney | W() |
| 27060A | SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY I | 3 | Russell Moore | M() |
| 22200B | INTRO TO NEW TESTAMENT, I | 3 | Brian Vickers | TR() |
| 22400B | ELEMENTARY GREEK | 3 | Richard Mansfield | TWRF() |
Fat Baptists?
The statistics previously reported by the Baptist Press were erroneous (Southern Baptists are 30 times more likely to be obese than non-Christians and are the most obese of any denomination studied in the United States). They have since edited and corrected the article to be a bit less detailed:
Baptists are more likely than people in other denominations and religious groups to be obese, according to a study released by Purdue University in 2006.
Hmm… must find the report for this study!
See also this Resolution on gluttony that did not make it to the floor for a vote at the 2007 SBC annual meeting.
The Atonement in Focus
The latest (summer) issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology has just been published and is focusing on the ever important doctrine of the atonement – the primary doctrine which has been under attack in evangelicalism.
Fellow Canadian Dr. Stephen J. Wellum (professor of Christian Theology), in the opening editorial writes,
“…in the evangelical church today we are in danger of downplaying and even distorting the true meaning and signifi cance of the cross.
A number of examples could be given to demonstrate this last observation, but I want to focus on one disconcerting trend that is increasingly occurring in evangelical theology, namely, an effort to reinterpret the cross in non-substitutionary terms.”
Continue reading Wellum’s article “Articulating, Defending, and Proclaiming Christ our Substitute”.
Dan Kimball questions Mohler and Jesus
Emergent pastor Dan Kimball questions the validity of Dr. Albert Mohler’s quote about the complete ban of consuming alcohol in the SBC. What Mohler said was as follows:
“I can assure you of this: if you are associated with the use of beverage alcohol, I think I dare exaggerate not to say that 99% of all doors of ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention will be closed to you.”
Dan wonders, “If Jesus came to apply for a job as a Southern Baptist pastor, would He have 99% of the doors shut?”
My dear Reformed and SBC friends, feel free to attack the real issues at hand here in the article’s comment section 
Amen to that, Dr. Mohler
For your weekend viewing… videos from the recent Southern Baptist Annual Convention 2007
Dr. Albert Mohler’s Southern Seminary Report:
(see also the Baptist Faith & Message, 2000):
Dr. Albert Mohler Answers What Doctrines Matter and What Are Secondary:
Dr. Albert Mohler’s Testimony On Suffering:
(HT: Said at Southern)
Personal and Corporate Repentance
Apparently, the 2007 SBC Annual Meeting found this issue to be of significant importance to have a resolution resolved about it. And praise be to God, it speaks volumes to my heart that God is calling you and me to do this very thing.
WHEREAS, The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Frank Page, has reminded Southern Baptists of God’s call to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways so that our land can be healed (2 Chronicles 7:14); and
WHEREAS, Spiritual awakening and renewal are not possible where pride, disobedience, bitterness, enmity, and strife exist (Isaiah 59:1-2); and
WHEREAS, The Scriptures teach us that we should “be like-minded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:8-9, HCSB); and
WHEREAS, God’s Word teaches, “All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:31-32, HCSB); and
The Wall Is the Castle
The article that was removed from the Baptist Press, appears on Christianity Today: The Wall Is the Castle - When Christians combat each other, they fail to protect what’s important.
Issues with the Baptist Faith & Message
Dr. Sam Storms notes 2 theological issues with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000: one concerning the issue of justification, and another about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Triumph or Tragedy? A Church Set to Make History
At the Conventional Thinking blog, SBTS President Dr. Albert Mohler shares some deeply sobering reflections on how the SBC is set to make history — something that many will call a triumph but others will call a tragedy:
According to press reports, the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia is set to consider Julie Pennington-Russell as its next pastor. The historic Georgia congregation would be the largest church associated with the Southern Baptist Convention or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to call a woman as senior minister.
Without doubt, this is a major development. The church Pennington-Russell leads at present, Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, is probably even now the largest church with historic connections to the SBC or the CBF to call a woman as pastor.
I’d be one of those who would call it a great tragedy…
Continue reading Dr. Mohler’s article here.
Total Opposition to Consuming Alcoholic Beverages
Since the 2007 annual meeting of the Sothern Baptist Convention is happening next week, I tried to look up last year’s resolutions — and found the very resolution that settles it all. It’s clearly black and white:
5. On Alcohol Use In America
June 2006
WHEREAS, Years of research confirm biblical warnings that alcohol use leads to physical, mental, and emotional damage (e.g., Proverbs 23:29-35); and
WHEREAS, Alcohol use has led to countless injuries and deaths on our nation’s highways; and
WHEREAS, The breakup of families and homes can be directly and indirectly attributed to alcohol use by one or more members of a family; and
WHEREAS, The use of alcohol as a recreational beverage has been shown to lead individuals down a path of addiction to alcohol and toward the use of other kinds of drugs, both legal and illegal; and
WHEREAS, There are some religious leaders who are now advocating the consumption of alcoholic beverages based on a misinterpretation of the doctrine of “our freedom in Christ”; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, June 13-14, 2006, express our total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.
RESOLVED, That we urge Southern Baptists to take an active role in supporting legislation that is intended to curb alcohol use in our communities and nation; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge Southern Baptists to be actively involved in educating students and adults concerning the destructive nature of alcoholic beverages; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we commend organizations and ministries that treat alcohol-related problems from a biblical perspective and promote abstinence and encourage local churches to begin and/or support such biblically-based ministries.
Disturbing
This is clearly disturbing from a Southern Baptist point of view.
Why Southern?
Yesterday, President Mohler had a “Presidential Briefing” with all the seminary students at Southern, and I was able to find some notes about the meeting from fellow Southern Seminary bloggers who are currently students. Here’s what was noted in the briefing:
- 1 out of every 4 seminary students in the SBC are studying through Southern.
- In 2006, Southern received $8 million dollars from the Cooperative Program.
- The tuition at other theological institutions (Fuller, RTS, Trinity, etc) is at least 3x more than Southern’s. (See below for the breakdown)
- While tuition here is increasing, it is not because the giving is decreasing. The growth in cost is rising faster than the increase in giving.
- On campus, Southern has about a 1:30, faculty:student ratio.
- The enrollment in church music is way down. When asked why, one of his answers was that in today’s churches, people are not looking toward the seminaries for music ministers. I thought this was interesting. Dr. Mohler went on to say that the trustees had this same question. He responded by asking them this question, “Which of you at your churches when you last needed to hire a music minister searched the seminaries?” He said no one raised their hand.
A contrarian institution
As my sister already mentioned, I just got back from Southern Seminary’s Preview Conference. I’ve got a few comments and photos I’ll share soon in reflection of the weekend in Louisville, but for now, here’s an recent article about Southern Seminary from their news service:
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has reached an all-time high in enrollment and is continuing to draw scores of ministers desiring to prepare for ministry in the local church, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. told trustees at the annual spring meeting Tuesday.
Seminary enrollment this semester grew to more than 4,200 students, Mohler said, the vast majority of whom are preparing to serve as pastors of local Southern Baptist churches. Enrollment has doubled since 1995.
Mohler said the increased enrollment has come by God’s grace because the school has sought to attract students during a time when theological institutions in America are turning out “professional ministers” and not pastor-theologians. Many seminaries are going away from training pastors in the classical theological disciplines and, instead, are preparing them to meet the felt needs of a therapeutic culture, he said.
“When you look where the bulk of the enrollment is right now in the theological seminaries of North America, much of it is in what you might call the ‘helping’ professions rather than in the pulpit ministry,” he said.
“We are watching before our eyes in the course of one or two generations the redefinition of theological education away from theology, away from the pulpit and away from the church.”
Mohler called Southern a “contrarian institution” whose primary focus is raising up God-centered pastors who are faithful expositors of Scripture.
Piper at Southern
I was pretty shaken up while stuck in traffic yesterday, as I listened to Pasotr John Piper’s recent address to the seminarians at Southern. The first clip below includes excerpts of some of the most Christ-exalting language I’ve heard Piper use. And the second has audio from 1999, where Piper reminded us then as he did just recently, of the danger that Southern is for being “posh” place to be a Christian.
Audio of Piper’s 2 recent messages at Southern Seminary are available here (March 27 & 29).
Sam Storms on alcohol use in the SBC
How do you see the debate over moderation concerning the consumption of alcohol? Do you see a disparity in the approach to the alcohol issue and other issues under debate?
Sam Storms: Honestly, I’m weary of this debate. Certainly anyone who embraces the authority of Scripture must denounce drunkenness. But I’ve never been persuaded in the least by the alleged “biblical” arguments for total abstinence. Having said that, I think total abstinence is a perfectly honorable and permissible practice to embrace. Any Christian is free to abstain from alcohol. But they aren’t free, in my opinion, to insist that others do the same. They are even less free to accuse those who drink in moderation of being sub-Christian. Abstinence per se is neither a sign of spiritual weakness nor of spiritual strength. Neither is one’s choice of moderation in the use of alcohol a sign of weakness or strength. Whether one totally abstains or drinks in moderation is simply irrelevant to Christian spirituality.
(Source: 12 Witnesses Blog)
