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Baptist Press posted Oct 15, 2012 my first address to the wonderful Baptists of Missouri. I preached this almost a year ago, but the principles remain true.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) — Baptist state conventions are not the church. State conventions are nowhere in Scripture. Only the local church was given by Christ to fulfill the purpose of His Kingdom.

Local Southern Baptist churches, though, autonomously have decided to cooperate, and one of the best ways of achieving such cooperation is by affiliating with a state convention. Consequently, state conventions can play a vital role in assisting churches and associations as they fulfill ministries under the direction of Christ.

So what are the unique things that state conventions do to help churches and associations carry out their assignments for the Kingdom of God? Here are seven:

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My eldest son is pastor of Normandale Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and adjunct professor of Church History at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He wrote this excellent article for The Texan, the newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Thought my blog readers would enjoy the insight.

In the shifting tides of our culture, the question of the definition of marriage is front and center. When given the chance to choose, voters have overwhelmingly stated they are in favor of protecting the traditional view of marriage as one-man, one woman. Traditional marriage matters to the general populace. It should matter even more to Christians!

Here’s the rub—politicians, judges, representatives at the 2012 Democratic Convention, and the current president disagree. Strongly. This should make a difference for believers as we cannot underestimate the realities that a particular worldview brings to those who govern and lead our nation.

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As an adolescent, I remember my parents taking me to Bokchito, Okla., to visit some relatives. I was fascinated by the name of this place. It was not the pronunciation—both “o’s” are long and the “i” is short. The literal Choctaw meaning of Bokchito is “Big Creek.” That was funny because I don’t remember it being close to a creek but it wasn’t far from the Boggy River.

On the side of one of the downtown buildings was a statement in large but worn letters. The statement read, “Bokchito – Biggest Little Town in Oklahoma.”

What fascinated me all these years with that memory is the attitude that was reflected by the entrepreneur who had the letters boldly scripted on the wall of his building.

The attitude I saw reflected was, “We may be small in number but we can make a difference.” Kinda makes me want to go watch a rerun of “Rudy,” the little guy that made an attitudinal difference in Notre Dame football.

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While researching information about missions, I came across a sermon by Dr. J.D. Grey, the pastor of the historic First Baptist Church of New Orleans. By every account, Grey was a “preaching machine.” He possessed a passion for God and the things of God. He was a man of deep conviction and incredible speaking skills.

Grey was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1951 and 1952. He was the presiding president for the 1953 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Houston.

That year, Grey preached an amazing message to a convention of churches that were gearing up to do something extraordinary. In 1953-1954, there was an obvious passion for reaching lost people with the gospel. Southern Baptist churches were collectively engaged in reaching over one million new believers—one million more in 54.

Grey spoke to this collective passion. “Every church we organize in the homeland, every institution we set up, every program we project, should have as its end result the giving of the gospel of Christ to all peoples of all the world. The spirit of missions, or world evangelization, has made us what we are and it and only it will maintain us.”

Little did he know that what he said would be so prophetic. Back in Grey’s days, as well as this day, if you have three Baptists, you have five opinions. However, the only time we cease pontificating is when we focus on missions in our state, the nation and the world. It is missions that assemble us into a collective force.

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I confess. I’m partial to pickups. There is something that just feels good about driving in a “sitting-up” position and kinda looking out over the road. Those who know me well know that I really don’t “sit-up” in a car seat but instead take an almost recliner position. However, I like driving with a “king-of-the-road” perspective.

When I catch a ride with a colleague in a regular car or in one of those sporty vehicles, my perspective changes. Instead of noticing the load a flat-bed truck is carrying, I notice how big the tractor truck tires are and the hub on the axle is level with my door. Instead of seeing what manner of person is driving the truck, I’m looking at the size of the fuel tank hanging next to the window in the car.

It is all about perspective.

To the city consumer, the price of food seems horrifically high. Yet, the farmer/rancher can’t seem to get enough to cover his hard costs for equipment and fuel, much less his labor and investment of time cultivating crops or caring for livestock. The drought of 2012 means many things, but for those in agribusiness this is a very tough year. While the city dweller is disappointed that his shade tree in the backyard is stressing and losing its leaves, there are many in the agriculture business who are losing their farms and their livestock.

It’s all about perspective.

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A few days ago, I received a letter from Tom Elliff, president of the International Mission Board. His letter was primarily a challenge specifically written to the IMB personnel. However, it serves as a challenge for all of us to awaken to the urgency of the hour.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Elliff’s letter:

 “Here is the issue we must address: Over the past 30 years the SBC experienced a “first” for evangelical conventions and denominations. For the first time in history, a major entity that was drifting to the left and losing its appreciation of the Word of God as inerrant, inspired and infallible, made a significant turn to the right!  

 Southern Baptists, in what has been called the “Conservative Resurgence,” waged a battle for the Bible, and now enjoy the fruit of victory with record enrollment in our institutions, led by entity heads, pastors, churches and mission personnel who embrace a high view of the Word and a pure understanding of the Gospel.

But it appears that we were then much more energized over saving the Word from liberalism than we are now about sharing the Word with the lost. To be perfectly honest, there are bright and remarkable churches, entities, and state conventions that stand out as exceptions to this statement. These churches and entities are embracing the Great Commission in an aggressive, creative and sacrificial manner. But they are still the exception in the SBC…not the rule, as the statistics sadly reveal.

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Don’t trust the secular media or their commercials. Just because something is said on television doesn’t make it so. Political ads are rife with half-truth and innuendo. No wonder they call it “mud-slinging.”

You wouldn’t want to drink muddy water. So you ask, “How would you clear the muddy water?” You run the water through a filter to catch the particles that cause the muddiness.

Run every candidate through the three-fold filter of common sense on these issues:
1. Is this candidate an advocate for the sanctity of life? Those of us who believe life is a sacred gift from God have learned over the course of decades that it is not enough for a candidate to state he/she is pro-life. We want to know if a person is determined to be an active voice to protect children in the womb and with end-of-life issues.
There are plenty of candidates who will say they are pro-life and then waffle on important votes. It is time we had candidates that we elect to office who are on the frontlines of advocacy for innocent children, the ones yet-to-be born, the ones who need protection from predators and the ones who are born with significant physiological or psychological impediments.
2. Is the candidate an advocate for the sanctity of marriage between one woman and one man? The advocates for alternate forms of marriage and family are aggressively seeking legitimization. They want and are willing to pay for candidates who will give their agenda a platform for articulation. What they despise are candidates who believe that the biblical standard for a marriage, the only legitimate standard, is a life-long relationship between one man and one woman.
Every time people deviate from that standard, that choice generates huge problems for people and for cultures. If a candidate begins with excuses about marriage and family, how can he/she be confident advocates for the basic element of society, the family?
3. Is the candidate an advocate for Constitutional religious liberty that accommodates faith in the public square? After thoroughly reading many of the documents by the Constitutional framers (not reading what others have said they say), it is clear that their idea was never a government sterilized of expressions of faith. The majority of the framers were men of deep faith and they expressed their faith. However, they emphatically did not want a government faith, a particular church. It was beyond their comprehension that this form of government could survive under the dominion of a hierarchal church or a secular worldview.
So we must ask, “Does this particular candidate stand on the side of defending the right of conscience for every person? Or does political expediency outweigh this precious freedom?”

Filters help us see things more clearly. Some of the political noise simply muddies the landscape. So before you step into the ballot box check out every candidate on these three non-negotiables

Measure your heroes. “Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes.” Oswald Chambers, The Highest Good, 544 R

These amazing times call for convictional boldness. One of the bold things that people who walk in the light must do is articulate the truth, even though we know busting myths with biblical truth causes friction. This doesn’t mean we have permission to be obnoxious. Nor does it mean we are be intimidated by those who reconstruct the facts to fit their individual whim or sense of political correctness.

In a mere 125 days a significant adult decision is to be made at the ballot boxes of the United States. Never in my lifetime is so much at stake as it is today. This is an unprecedented time.

Never has religious liberty and freedom of conscience been under so much attack. The mind cannot comprehend what would possess a sitting Attorney General and his department to go before the Supreme Court and argue against the freedom of a church to hire employees without government intervention. In January, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the government could not interfere with a church’s ministerial hiring practices but left the door open for interference with support personnel.

The fact that the Supreme Court’s June 28 opinion did not slam the door on the massive ObamaCare Act creates a renewed challenge to religious institutions. The press continues to call this a Roman Catholic problem. However, Baptists are in the thick of it, too. As a result of the ruling, the guidelines from the Health and Human Services Department continue to stand. These guidelines require insurance policies provided by our ministry institutions such as our universities and children’s home to include coverage for abortive pharmaceuticals. This violates our biblically based prolife convictions.

To take the problem deeper, what shall we do when our tax dollars are used to underwrite the medical exchanges that provide abortive services? This is a serious matter causing some to dust off the books pertaining to civil disobedience.

This is the day for the prophets of God to speak to the issues of the day – not .without compassion for hurting people but with conviction explaining the truth about God’s Word and the value of a biblical worldview.

According to historians, on the day that George Washington was inaugurated, he placed his hand on the Bible opened to Deuteronomy 28. He chose this passage because it explains the blessings and the curses that occur when a nation exalts God or rejects God.
Like no other people on the planet, we have experienced the blessings of God. Yet we stand on the precipice of biblically proportioned curses that will be our demise.

Our hope is in the return. Will we humble ourselves and turn back to our God?

So what can we do?

Take responsibility for your own thinking. Do your life choices reveal you are a person who believes God’s Word is the standard for right decision making or do you comply with man’s opinions and polls? Let your words, your purchases and your ways reveal that Jesus is Lord of all you call yours.

Encourage your pastor by praying for him and letting him know that your faith is built by the whole counsel of God’s Word, even those parts that rebuke and challenge us to seek the Lord with a pure heart. Some will be offended. The Gospel is an offense to many people but it is the aroma of holiness, compassion and truth that draws people to the Lord. Courageously stand with your pastor and support the man of God when others want him to comply with political correctness.

Register to vote. It is mind boggling that so many people in our churches are not registered to vote. With the age of computers, there is public record of those who are and those who are not registered to vote. Make it a church goal that every adult is registered to vote. All they need is their name, address and birthday. That’s it.

Vote. Big issues are on the horizon. The general election is on Nov. 6 to determine the destiny of the United States and who the next judges will be. This is when we look right past this stagnate economy and vote in light of convictions relating to the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage and religious liberty.

Pray for mercy. Our nation’s current moral climate is the result of a people who reject God. Only the Gospel can change people from the inside out. So those of us who are changed need to call out to the One who hears and beg for mercy so that with renewed passion we can share with people about the great redemption of our mighty God.

You have heard it said and it is so, “We must have revival in our churches; so that restoration will come to our families; so that reformation will change the culture.”

If not in 2012, when?

By now we’ve all read or heard too much information about the Secret Service prostitution scandal. At least 20 women were in hotel rooms with U.S. agents and military personnel just before President Obama arrived for a summit with Latin American leaders.
Eleven Secret Service agents and 10 military personnel are now under investigation. The 11 Secret Service agents were recalled to the U.S. from Colombia and placed on administrative leave after a night of partying that allegedly ended with at least some bringing prostitutes back to their hotel room. On Monday, April 17 the agency announced that it also had revoked the agents’ security clearances. The 10 U.S. military personnel staying at the same hotel were also being investigated for their role in the alleged misconduct.

As with all immoral sexual encounters, a lack of truth is evidenced by multiple stories about who the women were. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee stated, “Some are admitting (the women) were prostitutes, others are saying they’re not. They’re just women they met at the hotel bar.” A lie to yourself and others always accompanies sexual sins.

This incident is despicable enough. However, the vast majority of the commentary by national media is further evidence that we are a nation in trouble. On more than one occasion and on more than one channel, collectively we have heard the commentators attempt to justify the sexual immorality with phrases like, “Boys will be boys” or “They deserved some down time and de-stressing” or “The women were simply providing services.”

Obviously, from the national media perspective, the potential national security threat was of greater concern than the immoral behavior of the agents, service men or the prostitutes. There were those who use the word “shame” to speak about the breach in national security. However, the word is never attached to the immoral behavior of those involved in the incident.

This is clear evidence that the moral fabric of the United States is ripped apart. Be assured, our enemies know it. The only reason we don’t confess it is because we prefer denial to reality and authenticity.

After decades of parading hedonistic behavior on the networks and in the movie houses, after decades of affirming self indulgence (What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas), after decades of social experiments on our young through a-moral educational processes and the affirmation of fatherless families, we are reaping a whirlwind of disaster.

The only hope for my great grandchildren to experience the freedoms that we so love in our nation is a mighty movement of God. How can that happen? It starts in us when we value the purity of a relationship with God more than the sirens’ song of our culture. It starts with God’s people when our children and our friends see that we believe spiritual disciplines are better than entertainment, power or making the next buck. It begins when we use words that depict our authentic relationships and personal responsibility instead of culture words of pleasure and individual rights.

Such a movement continues when the people of God embrace His agenda of transforming lives through the Gospel of Jesus our Lord. When thousands of churches are less concerned about themselves and begin to see the true condition of people’s lives, we will know that God is moving across this land. When the altars of our churches are full of people shedding hot tears of repentance and calling out for the salvation of the people they know and love, then we will know that God is restoring the fabric of our nation.

Lord, bring us back to You.