The most serious step that a church can take is to remove one of its members and, in the words of the Apostle Paul, turn such a one “over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the…
Loads of bandwidth has been occupied with debate over the upcoming vote on the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report that will be recommended to the Southern Baptist Convention next week in Orlando. Arguments both pro and con have at times bordered on the apocalyptic. Trevin Wax has done…
This is the third and final installment of the story of God’s grace of restoration through church discipline at Grace Baptist Church. The other parts can be found here (#1) and here (#2). When I came to serve Grace Baptist Church 23 years ago it was like many contemporary…
When I received Steve’s email I was overwhelmed with a sense of God’s power and grace which certainly appeared to be working to rescue a man who had been living in the far country for over a decade. I wish I could say that I had lived in expectation…
On June 1 I began my 24th year of serving as pastor of Grace Baptist Church. While there are challenges that go with a long pastoral tenure blessings that attend it far surpass them–things like baptizing and marrying the children of people you baptized and married 20 years ago….
Founders has begun to podcast. Our goal is to average one Founders Podcast per week addressing topics related to recovering the Gospel and reforming local churches. The podcasts will feature interviews, lectures, sermons and discussions with pastors and church leaders who are praying and working toward this end to…
There have been many comments on Resolution #6 that was passed at the Southern Baptist Convention last week. Daily newspapers as well as religious news outlets have run stories about it. Several Baptist state papers have published the Baptist Press release about it and some have offered further commentary….
Alexandra Alter wrote an article on church discipline that was published in the January 18, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal. It is ominously entitled, “Banned From Church.” While I applaud the WSJ’s effort to examine the “growing movement among some conservative Protestant pastors to bring back church…
Every number has a story. That has been a recurring theme of the Southern Baptist Convention this year in San Antonio. We have heard speaker after speaker as well as numerous video presentations make this point. Some of them have been very moving stories of individuals and people groups…
As promised, I have submitted my resolution on integrity in church membership to the Resolutions Committee for the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention. From what I understand, others may well submit similar resolutions this year. Before sending my resolution in, I consulted with a few respected leaders in the Southern…