There is a part of me that is sad to acknowledge the dearth of biblical literacy today. Biblical literacy has historically influenced our politics, public speech, education, poetry, and music. Without a general knowledge of the Bible, much of the writings of previous generations will not be fully understood. Phrases like “let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” in Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech lose their authority and power when they are divorced from the prophet Amos and become just another line in a great speech. Without an awareness of biblical themes, the opening words of the Gettysburg address just seem like a strange way to reference time.

Finding the right church is not easy. Unfortunately, too many see this as a consumer driven process rather than a spiritual act of obedience. Few go beyond the superficial of music style of the services or speaking ability of the pastor. In an interview for The Blue Mountain Review my fiend Clifford Brooks asked me how someone should go about finding a church. My response was five suggestions that I think are critical to making this decision.

You can test the water but—at some point—you must jump in. I appreciate that many come with questions and want to investigate the gospel first, but faith comes not by proximity but by intentionality. The claims of scripture are radical. The Bible teaches that God created everything; God demands righteousness; Jesus is the eternal God who came in the flesh; that he was born of a virgin; that He lived among us without sin; that He died as a sacrifice for our sin so that we might be saved; that Jesus physically died and was buried; and that He physically rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. You can investigate these claims. You can read the biblical witness of these claims. You can ponder and think on these things but, again—at some point—you must choose to believe or reject the testimony of scripture. It is an all or nothing proposition.

The New Testament church was not persecuted because the world they lived in was anti-religion. They were persecuted because the gospel they preached was exclusive. The Romans who so viciously mistreated the early Christians were not opposed to adding a new god to the list but would not stand for the testimony of Jesus claiming to be the one true God and the only way to heaven. That same dynamic is true today. Our culture loves religion as long as that religion makes no absolute truth claims. And that is the problem with Christianity – it makes absolute truth claims.

There is a moment in the evening just before dark when everything changes. It can catch you off guard if you are not careful. I am thinking of the moment when dusk turns to night. Walking through the woods in the afternoon sun is a beautiful experience. And, even after the sun sets over the horizon, there are those last rays of the sun that paint the air with beautiful tones. If you walk deep in the woods, enjoying the last moments of the day, you will find (before you are aware) something happens to change everything.

In my preview post about what I expected to be the major issues at the convention, I listed five: presidential election, critical race theory, cooperation, cultural change, and controversies. If you have not read that post, I would encourage you to do so. These five issues were certainly given great attention, though some were more significant than I anticipated while others were less. So, now that the 2021 annual meeting is in the books, here are five areas of significance that I perceived from this year's meeting.

Most families have events that remain in the collective memory that when seasoned with time produce laughter. In my family these events are often boiled down to a single phrase that simultaneously calls forward the memory while producing laughter. One such phrase is “there are no wires across the Pacific.”

In the early nineties, I had the opportunity to travel with my church to Hawaii for a two-week mission trip. This was to be the furthest I had traveled from home, thus my parents were naturally interested in what provisions I chose to pack. My mother requested I pack sufficient sunscreen, but for the most part, neither parent challenged my decisions as to what to take on my trip - that is until the issue of money came up.

This year is a little unusual in that for the first time in 75 years the annual meeting was canceled last year due to COVID-19. As such, elections were not held and some of the issues that had been developing since the 2019 meeting have remained unaddressed. So, there is much that has been waiting to be dealt with since the summer of 2019. We will be electing new leadership, approving some ministry assignment changes, and dealing with other hot-topic issues. Going into the annual meeting, no one can know all that will happen or how things will turn out. Even in the last few days passions have been stirred over leaked letters by a former entity president. There is no doubt that as Southern Baptists gather next week in Nashville we will have much to debate, talk about, and work through. Here are five things that I think will be major issues for us to consider.

Over the years, I perfected the best way to eat Oreos, and I thought I would share it with you today.

First, you will need to…

We are natural evangelists. We need no training or class. We are born knowing how to lead others to experience what we love. We are born with a natural desire to tell others about the good things we have discovered.

Men desire eloquence. God desires faithfulness. Men long to have their ears tickled. God longs for His truth to be known. Men judge importance by worldly metrics and success. God rejoices in humility and obedience. I believe that the pleasure of the Lord is more in the faithful preacher who is meager in skill than the great orator who was unfaithful to the truth. The danger is that the allure of the attentive crowd is great. The temptation for every communicator and preacher is to surrender fidelity for celebrity.

I like to be right. Who doesn’t? It is a position of power and authority to be right. On the other hand, I hate to be wrong. Being right means that your actions are justified and correct. Being wrong requires repentance and discipline if not corrected.

My wife and I were once traveling through Atlanta long before the advent of GPS and navigation apps. It was late, and I was tired and ready to get home. For reasons that now evade my memory, we had gotten off the interstate and were entangled in the labyrinth of one-way downtown streets. I was driving and chose to rely on my own sense of direction while disregarding my wife’s gentle suggestions. I was sure that I knew the right way to get back on the interstate. After the next turn, stoplight, or block she would be forced to acknowledge that my choice of directions was right. However, after left and right turns gave way to more left and right turns, my level of frustration grew as I hopelessly searched for the interstate’s entrance that now seemed purposely eluding me.

As adults, we often pay little attention to the seemingly insignificant moments we spend with children. We, in our adult sophistication, assume that their attention to the moment is as dull as our own. Yet, when we return to these places that hold such prominence in our childhood memories, we seldom recall the momentous occasions that made the paper or were recorded in the scrapbook.

After the death of my grandfather, our family gathered at the home place to clean out his home. The house was where my grandparents had lived and raised their family and before them, it was the home of my great-grandparents. It was an old house lacking most of the modern conveniences of technology. Originally constructed without electricity or plumbing in the 1890s, it eventually boasted these necessities, yet it always lacked the accouterments of modernity such as satellite TV, high-speed internet, or air-conditioning.