A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way.
|
|
| Preachin's Blog A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way. |
|
|
Friday, March 18, 2005 On Emergent LeadersWell I had an excellent opportunity yesterday to attend the Younger Leaders Dialogue with Dr. Jimmy Draper (President of Lifeway) here in Atlanta. The idea behind this luncheon is to engage younger leaders (those 45 and younger) in a conversation about where we see the SBC going and what might we do about it. I thought Dr. Draper did a fabulous job in his role there. Taking time out of his  schedule to meet with younger people like myself is something I am extremely appreciative of and I found him to be extremely engaging. Also Drs. Bob Record (President of the NAMB) and Bob White (Executive Director of Georgia Baptists)were wonderful to talk with during this time. For their part each of these fine Christian men contributed greatly and exercised immense patience and grace at times.My goal in going to this meeting was two fold: 1. I wanted to plug in and network with younger ministers who have a passion for their work, a directed vision, a mindset of growing their churches, and are really involved in ministry. 2. I wanted to see what kind of discussions were going on about the SBC and where it is headed and capture the thoughts of younger leaders like myself. I found myself somewhat disappointed at both ends. While I am sure there were young ministers there with the above characteristics I didn't run into them. The younger ministers I did run into and converse with were in maintanence mode with their churches or were discouraged in their works. I did find a couple of guys who were trying to build unique works and was edified by them. During the dialogue Q&A time with Dr. Draper the first several questions were good questions, then the meeting seemed to digress into a complaint session with some younger leaders being rather abrupt in their questions and demands (yep...one guy demanded some stuff) for answers. It occurred to me that if there are any future leaders of the SBC at that meeting they were probably doing what my fellow Minister in Residence and I were doing...keeping their mouths shut. Also that any of the true SBC future leadership was simply not at these meetings because they couldn't afford to (in regards to their time) be there. I remember that I had friends at seminary who would trounce around the campus and marvel at how they were best kept secret in the SBC and how they were going to fix things when they become president...I really try to stay away from people like that. Power trips are a good thing to stay away from in my book. Seems that we have a lot of young people who want to be given the rank of Colonel (or General) but don't want to grow up from being a private. I recall a day when I believed that I was the next best thing, then I quickly came to my senses and realized I'm not. There really has to be a consistent effort show yourself approved and able to handle a great work. The men who occupy the higher positions have done that work of showing themselves approved. Of course its not the SBC's fault that young men who see some older men occupying the stage at convention envy them and say "I can do that" or something along those lines. This always happens in society. Maybe the best thing we could do is show why getting involved at the associational level is the primary importance if you want to be connected. The SBC is powerful because it only exists two days a years (technically) and because the convention is directly responsible to the local church. The headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention is the local church. Plain and simple. I found some of these potential leaders' attitudes to be quite incredulous towards those they were asking questions of during the time. One youngster got up and read a short list of reasons why he doesn't go to the annual convention. Granted I do fall into some of his categories (lack of financial resources in the past) but I don't complain about it to people. There are better things that could have been discussed at the meeting. Why is the associational support necessary? What can I do help my local DOM? How important is Sunday School in the future? Why don't cell groups work? Where is the SBC going in regards to teaching Baptist distinctives? How can I help out the process, even if it means licking envelopes at my dinner table for three hours a week? That would have been constructive. I really appreciate Dr. Draper taking the time to listen to these younger leaders, but really I was disappointed in the younger leaders. The future leadership will not let the SBC down, we are young and conservative theologically...though progressive in our methodologies. I pray for the current and future leaders. May God raise up a nation of Billy Sundays and D.L. Moodys...may we be used to advance the Heavenly Kingdom and not be worried about the earthly Kingdom. posted by Preachin Jesus | 8:24 AM | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
Read my Profile
