Wednesday, July 24, 2013

"Is It Time to Join the SBC?": A Rather Friendly Rejoinder (Part 1)

Perhaps you've seen Kevin Bauder's recent article, "Is It Time to Join the SBC?" from his In the Nick of Time series. If you don't already subscribe, I'd strongly encourage you to do so via the link on the right-hand side of the page. Even when you disagree with his conclusions, you'll benefit from his command of history, his interaction with Scripture, and his relentless logic.

I've shared some of my perspective on affiliation with the SBC not too long ago. If you're interested in that, you'll find it there, not here. Frankly, I have no desire, let alone expectation, to convince anyone who's content and fruitful within their present partnerships to affiliate with the SBC. But from time to time I do encounter people at a crossroads who perceive opportunities and threats in their future, regardless of which route they choose. In my previous post I primarily addressed heart issues in that decision. My objective now is to help that sort of person make an informed decision.

Before I do that, one of my friends commented to me online about my previous post that I was speaking at a macro level and ignored micro-level choices. In other words, the points I was making about the sort of partnership the SBC is leaves out the local decision: "Which local church is going to be more spiritually beneficial for my family and me to covenant with?" That's an important question, just not the one I was addressing.

That's enough background. In the next post we'll dive directly into the matters at hand.

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