Founders Ministries Podcast

Founders has begun to podcast. Our goal is to average one Founders Podcast per week addressing topics related to recovering the Gospel and reforming local churches. The podcasts will feature interviews, lectures, sermons and discussions with pastors and church leaders who are praying and working toward this end to God’s glory.

In the first podcast Tim Brister interviews me on topics that include the 2008 National Founders Conference (held June 24 - 27 in Owasso, OK), church planting, church renewal, and Resolution #6 on Recovering Regenerate Church Membership and Church Discipline, that was passed this past June at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis.

You can access it at www.recoveringthegospel.net (click on "Go to Podcasts" on the Welcome page)

The Founders Ministries Podcast is also available on iTunes.

CT on Resolution #6

Christianity Today reports on the adoption of Resolution #6 at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis. The story has some interesting quotes and I am grateful to have been quoted accurately.

SWBTS on Resolution #6

Even Southwestern Seminary, of which I am an alumnus (MDiv, 1983, PhD, 1989), has commented on the resolution on regenerate church membership. The following is taken from their June 20, 2008 e-newsletter.

Southwesterners contribute to SBC church membership resolution
by Keith Collier

FORT WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) -- Several individuals from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary made significant contributions to the resolution on regenerate church membership adopted at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting, June 11.

One of the contributors to the resolution was Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, and an alumnus of Southwestern. Barber's submission was taken from a resolution approved by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in November, which was originally drafted by Malcolm Yarnell, associate professor of systematic theology at Southwestern.

Yarnell was also responsible for helping amend the final resolution adopted by the SBC. Yarnell co-edited the book Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, which addresses the need for regenerate church membership and church discipline.

To view the entire resolution, visit http://www.bpnews.net/blog/article.asp?ID=176.

Survey of Comments on Resolution #6

There have been many comments on Resolution #6 that was passed at the Southern Baptist Convention last week. Daily newspapers as well as religious news outlets have run stories about it. Several Baptist state papers have published the Baptist Press release about it and some have offered further commentary. Of course, many blogs have also commented on it.

Denny Burk told how the resolution was immediately useful in his ministry at First Baptist Church, Dallas:

"I am very grateful that the messengers voted in favor of this resolution. In the weeks leading up to the convention, I had been preaching through 1 Corinthians at the Wednesday evening worship service of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. On June 4, we made it to 1 Corinthians 5 and the topic of church discipline. I exhorted the members about the clear command that God gives to congregations to practice discipline.

By God’s wise providence exactly one week later, the convention passed resolution 6. That very night I was able to read the resolution in toto to the folks at First Dallas. I feel confident that the messengers to the SBC really served our church with the passage of this resolution."

Beyond these, I have received many phone calls and emails from pastors and concerned church members who are grateful to have the resolution as a tool to help teach their congregations about regenerate church membership and discipline.

While some think that the passing of the resolution is meaningless and a few (I have only heard about two) think that it is a bad thing, most of the responses that I have read or heard have been overwhelmingly positive.

For your convenience, below is a compilation of the sources that have been pointed out to me that have commented on the resolution (please feel free to add any others not mentioned here). Some of them discuss it at length, others touch on it briefly. What the 50 links below indicate is that the issues of integrity in church membership, regenerate church membership and church discipline are being widely discussed. The resolution is helping to get the conversations going in places where it might not otherwise ever be started. That is hopeful. And it is an encouragement to pray that the Lord will cause Baptists everywhere to reread their Bibles as they ask a simple question, "What does God call a local church to be?"

Baptist Press
Wyman Richardson
Strange Baptist Fire
Justin Childers
Thabiti Anyabwile
Denny Burk
Ted Olsen (Christianity Today)
Kelly Randolph
Ken Keathley
Nathan Finn (again)
Mike Corley
Tim Brister (again)
Associated Baptist Press
Kevin Rhyne
Norman Jameson
Micah Fries
The Charlotte Observer
Chadwick Ivester
The Tennessean
D.J. Williams
Kevin Schaub
Drew Dixon
John Killian
Danny Akin
R. Philip Blinson
Mark Kelly
Tim Rogers
Scott Gordon
Mike Lumpkin
Michael DeBusk
Terry Delaney (again)
Steve Weaver
Jerry Pearce (Southern Baptist Texan)
Anglicans United
Church Executive Magazine
Louisville Courier-Journal
Patrick McGill
Sweet Tea and Theology
Ben Wright
Tennessee Baptist and Reflector
Jim West
Seth Polk
Justin Nale
Don Brown
Wes Kenney
Ed Franklin
The Lakeland Ledger
Terry Leap
Arthur Sido
Ed Stetzer

KFUO AM, St. Louis, Radio Interview

Paul Clayton of KFUO in St. Louis will interview me today at 9:05 AM about the SBC annual meeting and Resolution #6. The program can be heard on the internet via their website at the link above.