In response to Boyd Luter

Dr. Boyd Luter has a series of posts (first thoughts, part I, part II, part III) he has titled Serious Thinking Towards an SBC Reform Agenda. As I read these, I wanted to respond, but those of you who know me are aware that I can be awfully verbose. So I thought I'd offer a more full response here and excerpt it at his blog:

I admire the effort you're going through, Boyd. But I want to offer you a mind blowing suggestion: the more Christians that participate, the more effectively the Spirit can exercise heavenly control over the Convention. The Annual Meeting works in precise counter-purpose to God's preferred method of leadership by limiting the number who can participate and thereby collecting political power into too few hands.

How do I prove that? That's easy: remember when the people of Israel wanted a king? Reading God's response leaves us with the impression that God was almost wounded by the desire of the people. He warns them that insisting on centralized human leadership in the form of a visible ruler--as opposed to the system of distributed leadership during the period of the Judges when he would raise up leaders to solve specific problems--will draw them away from him.

As Les suggested, the proportions attending the Convention need to reflect reality. Just as there should be a healthy representation of pastors and laypeople from small churches to reflect the 83% of the 40,000 SBC churches that have 200 or few members, there also ought to be as many brand-spanking new Christians brought along and taught about the associations, the state conventions, and the national conventions as they are present in the demographics of the church. (Don't worry, with the three-year rule, we avoid prematurely appointing them to leadership roles...and we can count on temperate leadership to carefully balance between the enthusiasm of younger brothers and sisters and the wisdom and experience of our older saints.)

As we add these new people, they will ask the right questions. And their questions will lead us towards God. I fully trust God to use our newest Christians not only to more effectively reach the lost (no one knows more unbelievers than a recent convert), but they also are more likely to direct initiatives aimed at speaking to the world instead of just to believers.

They're more likely to have a heart for helps-oriented work as well. They will have come into the faith believing that nothing is impossible with God. They'll have compassion for those that have been marginalized and they will be fierce to oppose Satan's marginalization of unbelievers through Satan's efforts to censor those unbelievers' lives of lifesaving knowledge.

New believers also bring a healthy dose of skepticism to convoluted theology and doctrine. They tend to reject things that sound wrong. We would seek unity around a simpler theology and doctrine--still filled with the majesty, glory, and riches of heaven--that is less human centric and less prideful. I know in your previous writings that you mentioned encountering precisely this pride as part of your work as a Christian educator. So I suspect you know where I'm coming from on it.

But the main thing that I think needs to happen is this: no thought gets written down without prayer. No proposal gets made without prayer. No person is forwarded without prayer. We need to invite all Southern Baptists to pray for God's involvement in addressing these issues. I even want those that would do everything in their power to stop this initiative to go fervently before the Throne of Heaven in prayer (right now! As you read this!)

I am convinced that God is waiting. Just as God already had the answer when Daniel prayed, but it took time for the answer to arrive, so God also has his answer already prepared for us. He has insights for us. He has passion for us. He has--yes--cleansing for us. He has already decided to send it to those of us who will seek his face and fully commit ourselves to honoring him and to doing things HIS way.

Reform doesn't start over there. Revival doesn't start over there. It starts over here. There is no problem that God doesn't already have a solution for. He heard the cries of his people in Egypt and freed them from slavery. He hears our concerns and he is listening intently. The solution is at hand. It is ready to be sent.

Let's go before his Throne and beseech him for what he already has ready. Let's band together in this. Let's leave no one out. Let's marshal every father, every mother, every daughter, every son. When we fully commit to doing it God's way and remain faithful in that commitment, he will fully commit to us. Until then, he's waiting to see what we will do.

I'm all in favor of looking at the Convention's specifics. But I'd rather the change is a change of heart and not of law. I'd rather it is because God wrote his word upon our hearts and not because we mattered to come up with a more ingenious way to get the political upper hand.

We need leaders that are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and can be counted on to always make the right choices. The only way that any of us can be like that is by divine guidance. So we need to pray these leaders into place. Each of us should choose a handful of people that we know God has used to bless the lives of others and that we know are capable of being led by God in this way. They will not be perfect and they will not have arrived. Many may even stumble before our eyes and our hopes may seem dashed by their human weakness.

But commit to pray for your handful of saintly leaders daily. And stick with it. Never, ever, ever, ever give up. Commit to never missing a day in prayer for them and for Southern Baptists. Toil in the prayer closet for God's full and visible participation in delivering us from the morass we've gotten ourselves into. If Jesus could pray until he sweat blood, we're going to have to realize that our salvation was accomplished through that committed prayer. And we're going to have to struggle with God (Israel!!) so he can conform us to his expectations...to the very likeness...the eikon...of Christ Jesus.

Heavenly Father:

I pray that you would empty every one of us of every scintilla of pride and conceit. I pray that you would hound us into prayer with you daily. I can write what I have written absolutely stone cold afraid that I am unable to fulfill what I advise others to do. I write it not because I know I'm up to it, but because I know YOU deserve this reverence and this worship.

There is a great work to be done, Lord, and the harvesters are few. We appeal to the Lord of the Harvest not only to send more harvesters, but that you would open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out your spirit so that we really will ALL be harvesters. Many need to be saved. Many need discipling. We have fallen down in the past in properly instructing--primarily through the example of leading out in front of new Christians--and the result is what has happened over the past few decades.

Our growth has stopped. We fight over insanity. We carefully watch each dollar to make sure it only goes to people that are unified with US. We don't seem concerned at all if you are with them, only if they are with us.

God...change US. Do whatever it takes. If persecution is the answer, send Satan to chastise us back to you. Don't give up on us until you have accomplished in us precisely what you intend to and until our unity is perfected in the complete knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Lord you don't need us to accomplish your will. But you have made us your friends and shared with us your plan. You have put us in the center of it. Only you have a more important role than you have given us, and you've committed to bless what we do...no matter how little we do.

We need to pray to you. We need to all pray to you. We need to quit contending and pray.

It's in the name of OUR Bridegroom that we of the Bride lift our prayers to you!