Previous Sermons in the Series:

Part one of this series: (Lordship of Christ) – Philippians 2

Part two of this series: (Gospel-Centeredness) – Matthew 4

Part three of this series: (Commitment to the Great Commandments) – Matthew 22:34-40

Part four of this series: (Inerrancy and Sufficiency of the Bible) – 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The recording for part five is not available.

Part six of this series: (A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches) – Matthew 16

Part seven of this series: (A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching) – Acts 16

Jon Akin sermon series through the Axioms of the Great Commission Resurgence Declaration continues with Axiom 8 “A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed.” In examining this axiom, he teaches his people through 1 Corinthians 9.

Axiom 8 States:

VIII. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed. We call upon all Southern Baptists to consider themselves and their churches to be missionaries in non-Christian cultures, each of which requires unique strategies and emphases if the gospel is to penetrate and saturate every community in North America. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)

There are essential and non-negotiable components of biblical ministry like proclamation, evangelism, service to others, prayer, and corporate worship. At the same time, we are convinced there is no specific style or method ordained by our God through which we must engage in these biblical ministries. In the past, Southern Baptists were characterized by a remarkable uniformity in both style and substance, but those days have long passed. Though we must remain united in substance, we must embrace a healthy, biblically informed diversity in our methodology if we are to effectively evangelize North America.

Different contexts demand diverse strategies and methods. We must think like missionaries and ask, “What is the best way to reach the people I live amongst with the gospel?” Various ethnic believers and social/cultural tribes will worship the same God, adore the same Jesus, believe the same Bible, and preach the same gospel. However, they may meet in different kinds of structures, wear different kinds of clothes, sing different kinds of songs, and engage in different kinds of ministries. We must treat the United States missiologically and do so with the same seriousness that our international missionaries treat their foreign people groups. As long as our varied methods communicate gospel truth, with theological integrity, unto God’s glory, we should not allow our different approaches to divide us.

In the interview, Scott talks specifically about Acts 29’s strategy of reaching men, what they look for in a model planter, how they keep churches gospel-centered, and thoughts on the Southern Baptist Convention. Scott was very gracious, kind, and encouraging to Jon and I throughout our time together. He was also kind enough to sit and talk with us for thirty minutes following our interview. We truly enjoyed our time with Scott and we believe you will enjoy his interview.

Scott Thomas Interview

Check back in the future for more Podcasts and details about two upcoming events from b21: Missouri in March and Orlando in June.

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Previous Sermons in the Series:

Part one of this series: (Lordship of Christ) – Philippians 2

Part two of this series: (Gospel-Centeredness) – Matthew 4

Part three of this series: (Commitment to the Great Commandments) – Matthew 22:34-40

Part four of this series: (Inerrancy and Sufficiency of the Bible) – 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The recording for part five is not available.

Part six of this series: (A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches) – Matthew 16

Jon Akin sermon series through the Axioms of the Great Commission Resurgence Declaration continues with Axiom 7, “A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching.” He has been taking his people through Bible texts that relate to the different Axioms of the GCR and showing why the local church should care about the GCR. In this sermon, Jon Akin takes his people through Acts 18.

Axiom 7 of the GCR States:

VII. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching. We call upon all Southern Baptists to affirm and expect a pastoral ministry that is characterized by faithful biblical preaching that teaches both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)

Biblical preaching is central to building healthy churches that pursue healthy agendas within the context of a healthy Convention. We need a new battalion of well trained pastors who preach the whole Bible with clarity and conviction. Authentic preaching must develop systematically the Bible’s theological content. It should understand both the Old Testament and New Testament to be Christian Scripture that together communicates one grand narrative about the world’s creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, with the person and work of Jesus Christ as the climax of the Bible’s storyline.

We also believe that genuine preaching is more than mere Bible teaching, no matter how orthodox and articulate. Healthy preaching should apply biblical truths in a way that makes unchanging truths relevant to contemporary believers. It must also be gospel preaching that pleads with men to be reconciled with God and expects the living and powerful Word of God to produce results and usher in conversions. It must be preaching that convicts sinners, encourages saints, changes lives, and glorifies God.

Disclaimer:

Many of us (even myself at times), cringe when it comes to talking about the issue of diversity in the church. In this blog it is not my goal to use the guilt of the past as a bludgeon to move believers into action, but to begin a conversation that assumes that we are the generation that is capable of more than agreeing that change needs to happen. So let’s go to work for the Kingdom.

I often daydream about a scene of an unchurched person walking their dog one late Sunday morning. As this person and their pet turn right on the main road, they peacefully walk by the local church as the service is being let out. As this person and their pet walk by, the pet owner begins to notice that there is something peculiar about the scene in the church parking lot, but cannot quite put her finger on it. There are people of different ages, socio-economic status, and ethnicity in joyful community as they make their way to their vehicles. The pet owner continues on with her walk, but is often reminded about what she saw in the parking lot that day.

The closest scene that resembles my daydream is in a parking lot after a ball game when home team is victorious. But the trivial rallying point of athletics pails in comparison to the weight of the human soul being made alive in Christ, and living in biblical community (the church) with believers from all walks of life. Stated plainly, it is no task to rally diverse individuals for something external to themselves (sports, music, politics), but gathering diverse individuals into the bond of brotherhood for the sake of God’s glory strikes at the core of humanity: particularly a humanity that has been made new in Christ.

As I began my own ministry I struggled when it came time to find a church to serve. My desire was to serve an economically, generationally, and racially integrated church, but the reality was that I had two primary options, serving in a largely African American church, or in a mostly Anglo church. As I began to struggle through these issues, my heart began to long for some sort of middle ground.

Defining the “Middle Ground”

I began to promote an abstract concept of what a middle ground ought to look like, but my ideas proved to be hollow and superficial. As a result of my hollow conclusions, I began to meditate on scripture, and a fairly simple vision developed. The middle ground that I longed for was the Church, the Church in all of her intended glory, as an earthly manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven. With that said, I do not want to over simply the issue by stating the obvious (namely, the church should look like Heaven) because believers are agreeable to such a goal, but the difficulty is developing a process for the Church to arrive there.

Step One: Candid conversations among friends
(More steps forthcoming)

An important step for the church to make toward mirroring the Kingdom of Heaven is to have candid conversations that span across cultural, socio-economic, and generational lines that are rooted in genuine relationships. Christians across this country desire unity in the body, but are afraid of having blunt conversations because the last thing they want to do is offend their brother or sister in Christ. As a result of this fear, thousands of Christians are walking around with good Kingdom intensions, but are crippled with the anxiety of the unknown.

A special note on the issue of race: By encouraging conversations across cultural, lines that have been drawn for us in generations past, I am by no means asking everyone to turn off our brain and erase our nation’s history from our minds. Our history is a part of our heritage, and its effects are real and should not be ignored. On the other hand, I encourage each of us to ponder the fact that the primary identifying mark of the believer is Christ, not race (Col. 3:1-11). As those who identify themselves with the Gospel, we are new creations and have been given the ministry of reconciling to all men and woman to Jesus Christ, crossing racial, linguistic, socio-economic, and generational barriers (2 Cor. 17-20).

In my humble opinion, there has never been a generation in this nation’s history that is more capable of having God honoring and candid discussions about Kingdom issues as those who comprise the church today. In generations of old the goal for Christians was to be blind to race and culture (treating everyone as though they were the same), but I think that is less than an ideal solution. In the current cultural milieu, the celebration of diversity does not have to be sacrificed for the sake of unity. In fact, the diversity of the body under the unifying blood of Christ is a powerful testimony to those both inside and outside of the church.

It is not our intent to lob a series of ideas into the blogosphere. We would like to model (to the best of our ability) how these steps flesh out in real life and ministry. Attached to this blog is a conversation that I had with some friends, and I pray that it would be one of many honest, Christ-centered, Kingdom minded conversations that are had across the country. Of course you do not have to cover the same issues or content that we covered, these are just issues that we thought were important (you do not have to have a moderator either). If you have any questions our suggestions about anything pertaining to these, issues please comment below and the Baptist 21 crew and I would be delighted to interact with you.

-W-

Diversity and the SBC Interview

Podcast Participants:

• Thabiti Anyabwile-
  • Senior Pastor: First Baptist of Grand Cayman
• Peter Rochelle-
  • Executive Director: Camp Oak Hill, Raleigh, NC
• Brad Paradis-
  • Pastor of Education: Faith Baptist Church, Youngsville, NC
• Benjamin Quinn-
  • (moderator) Baptist21 Contributor
• Walter Strickland-
  • Baptist21 Contributor

b21 Panel @ God Exposed

Open Door is also committed to training a future generation of men to teach other men (2 Tim. 2:2). So, Pastor Milioni has set up a cohort called “Shepherd’s Training” to train men in the congregation as potential elders of future church plants. This training involves personal mentorship from an elder or church leader. It also involves curriculum and training through topics of leadership, preaching, pastoral ministry, and theology. The interns are instructed through reading, writing, and cohort discussion. This is an exciting ministry and it is my hope that every Church would seek to implement something like this in their church. I believe every Southern Baptist Church should seek to implement preaching, missions, and training of the future generation like Open Door has done and is doing. I am grateful to call Open Door my home Church and to be a part of what that church is doing for the good of nations and the name of our Lord Jesus.

Interview with Pastor Dwayne Milioni (part 2)

Questions:

• Open Door Baptist Church is not a mega-church, how can small churches go about getting involved in church planting like Open Door has? THIS NEEDS TO BE HEARD BY ALL OF OUR CHURCHES
• How has planting churches overseas through the IMB been?
• Are there any differences between planting nationally and internationally?
• It would be your hope that more churches would take a role in planting churches overseas?
• Why is team planting our focus at Open Door Baptist Church?
• Why are you such a big proponent of Expository Preaching, and do we struggle with that in the SBC?
• Open Door has an extensive Internship program, tell us a little about why and what the end goal for the internship is? Also, tell us a little bit about how to implement this into a church?
• What advice do you have for young men aspiring to Gospel Ministry?
• Why do we do small group ministries?
• Why did Open Door move to a multiple Elder model?
• What are the challenges for Evangelicals and more specifically, Southern Baptists in the 21^st Century?

Quotes:

• “What a great question to ask is, how can we get the 90 plus percent of our churches excited about missions and church planting… investing intimately in it” (In the context of getting smaller churches, which is the majority of the SBC, involved in church planting and missions)
• “Find, if you don’t have all the resources, first you want to cooperate with other likeminded churches” (also from the first question)
• “Commissioning belongs to the local church” (speaking about local churches taking a greater role in overseas church planting)
• “We pour our lives into our church planters for years… we take on the responsibility to recognize calling”

Part one of this series: (Lordship of Christ) – Philippians 2

Part two of this series: (Gospel-Centeredness) – Matthew 4

Part three of this series: (Commitment to the Great Commandments) – Matthew 22:34-40

Part four of this series: (Inerrancy and Sufficiency of the Bible) – 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The recording for part five is not available.

Jon Akin sermon series through the Axioms of the Great Commission Resurgence Declaration continues with Axiom 6, “A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches.” He has been taking his people through Bible texts that relate to the different Axioms of the GCR and showing why the local church should care about the GCR. In this sermon, Jon Akin takes his people through Matthew 16.

Axiom 6 of the GCR states (From the Pray4GCR Website – Please sign up to pray at this site if you have not.)

VI. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches. We call upon all Southern Baptists to focus on building local churches that are thoroughly orthodox, distinctively Baptist, and passionately committed to the Great Commission. (Matt. 16:13-20, 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5)

Baptists have always been a people committed to building local churches that reflect as closely as possible the faith and practice of New Testament churches. We sense numerous threats to contemporary Baptist churches including worldliness, laziness, faddishness, heterodoxy, arrogant sectarianism, and naïve ecumenism. Our churches must be committed to a biblical orthodoxy that informs every aspect of church life. Sound doctrine must guide every priority our churches embrace and every task they undertake.

We must be especially mindful to resist contemporary threats to our historic, biblical Baptist identity. Our churches must remain committed to the Baptist distinctives of a regenerate church membership, believer’s baptism by immersion, the priesthood of all believers, congregational church polity, local church autonomy, and liberty of conscience for all people. Each of these distinctives must be embraced under the Lordship of Christ as revealed in Christian Scripture and interpreted by gospel-centered congregations. We must be willing to alter our practices to better accord with a robust Baptist identity, including in many churches a more responsible baptismal policy, the recovery of a redemptive church discipline, a healthier relationship between pastors and their people, and a commitment to an every-member ministry.

Mission is not a ministry of the church, it is at the heart of the church’s identity and essence. We must encourage our churches to see themselves as the missionary bodies that they are. Pastors and other leaders must be willing to teach and model for their people how to be missionaries in their community, regardless of their vocation or location. Churches must have a global perspective and recognize those members who are called to serve overseas long-term and engage in short-term global missions. Churches must labor to both plant new churches in unevangelized areas of North America, especially the great urban centers, and revitalize existing congregations. We long to see a Convention where every church is a church planting church in its unique Jerusalem, its Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Part One of Jon Akin’s “The Gospel and Proverbs,” the Solomon narrative in 1 Kings

In part two, Jon Akin takes his congregation through the first part of Proverbs chapter one seeking to show them how it points to the greater Solomon.

Proverbs is a favorite book for many Christians. But for many that is because they view the proverbs as “the Hebrew version of Dear Abby” (Russell Moore). They see Proverbs as giving practical tips on how to live life, but the proverbs of King Solomon are MORE than that. Proverbs presents to its readers the path of wisdom that leads to life and the path of folly that leads to death. So, folly is more than immaturity or silliness. Folly is failing to see the world clearly and following a way that seems right but leads to death (14:12). Wisdom is more than mere intelligence; rather, it is viewing the world rightly. There is a moral dimension to wisdom. Wisdom is avoiding the path of wickedness that ultimately leads to judgment and death. To him who has ears to hear the Spirit reveals two things in Proverbs:  1) Wisdom is humble dependence on Yahweh (faith) and 2) Wisdom is NOT a thing. Wisdom is a person you need to embrace! Proverbs presents two competing paths, two competing personas: Wisdom and Folly (cf. Prov. 9). They stand at the street corners and call you into a relationship, but who’s voice will you listen to? If you are failing to meet the wisdom of Proverbs and are walking the path of foolishness in the way you use your tongue, the way you parent your children, the way you handle your money, the way you work your job, and a hundred other every day issues of life, it is because you are not listening to the voice of Wisdom. The Wisdom of God calls out to you with a Galilean accent (1 Cor. 1:24). The question of Proverbs is will you hear the voice of the Greater Solomon (Matt. 12:42)?

Restoration Update Video #3 from Joey Craft on Vimeo.

Part one of the Restoration Church Podcast Interview

Baptist21 believes that the GCR will only become a reality through Church Planting. The Church is the chosen means by which God is doing His work in the World. Missions, Evangelism, Teaching, Discipleship, and Calling out the Called are given to the Church. This is so with the Great Commission. If we want to see a Great Commission Resurgence happen, it will be done through healthy church planting that encapsulates healthy discipleship. This means that Church planting is vital to a GCR.

This is why the baptist21 podcast wants to highlight young men who are taking on this endeavor in tough places. Two such guys are Nathan Knight and Joey Craft. These two men and their families are team planting (they will get into why they think this is best in one of the three parts of this interview) in Washington D.C. They are doing this work through NAMB and The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Nathan is also moving through the Acts29 process (they also address why they are doing this in part of the podcast). The name of the church is Restoration Church. Check out their website. In addition, check out and join their Facebook group and videos that explain the name and vision of the Church.

Questions from Part Two of the Podcast Interview with Nathan Knight and Joey Craft:

• Why team planting?
• Have there been any frustrations in the planting process?
• Due to these frustrations, can you understand why many are partnering with some networks outside the SBC? Are you partnering with another network?
• What advice do you have for those that are hoping to plant?
• Why is it so important to you that those that want to plant get involved in their local church?
• Would you recommend being planted out of a host church?

We hope you will get to know some of the wonderful things going on in the SBC, seen in the lives of the young people we are training and going out. B21 sees these two men as like-minded brothers who are seeking to make a difference for King Jesus in a tough area. They believe in and are committed to the Southern Baptist Convention, though they believe that there are things that need to be improved. They believe that there is great potential with the SBC. They are committed to strong theology, Baptist Distinctives, the power and authority of the Scriptures, Training Men, Missions, and Church Planting of Gospel-Centered Churches (though there is some frustration with the current processes of church planting in the SBC and this is addressed in the 2^nd part of this podcast).  This is the heartbeat of baptist21. This is why Baptist21 is excited about the work these two young men are embarking upon. We believe the future of the SBC rests on young men like this. Baptist21 is excited about the future of the SBC, if it looks like this. We are grateful that we are meeting more and more like-minded brothers every day. We hope this will only continue, for the sake of the Name.

Subscribe to the b21 podcast through I-Tunes

Jon Akin is leading his congregation through a study of the book of Proverbs showing them how it points to the Greater Solomon. Week one is an introduction to the series from the Solomon narrative in 1 Kings.