• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

'45 million Americans' -- who are those guys?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Revmitchell

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
The so called conservatives are not doers today as they were years ago when the taxes were higher. Because of less taxes, conservatives have more disposable money today and invest less in others and church ministries. I would call that selfishness and leaning toward the liberalism of being deluded.

You do not know what conservatives are. I would call that an agenda with a fabricated beef to justify calling for a change. You might try being real for a change.
 

Bro. Curtis

<img src =/curtis.gif>
Site Supporter
Actually, the number of paid staff (and amount paid) is down. I'll provide the link when I get to my laptop. A local church of 2,000 on Sun AM has a SR pastor, a FT sec, and that's it. Volunteers do everything else. Three local First Baptist types have half the staff they did ten years ago. The number of FT pastors has dwindled by half in the association where I live and bivocational/PTs have filled their ranks.

No question church starts are down, but it's not an economic decision. Churches have stopped making disciples and are just swapping sheep, so they're tired of adding churches by division. There has not been an intentional church plant in my local association in almost 60 years. Every new church since then was a split.

And the reason a lot of church construction $ is borrowed? It's expensive to build what the world has convinced churches they need. Dedicated sanctuaries with dormant education space, all with Powerpoint projectors and internet access. Adds up quickly.

Very good points. I am proud to say none of this describes the church I have been attending.
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
Actually you should be ashamed of the hatred you have for it. That is what drives your ignorant rants.
Fortunately for the SBC, James Draper and Johny Hunt do not make a continual set of excuses blaming the liberals of years ago. They are willing to deal with the issues today. Did you actually read what Johny Hunt said at http://blackchristiannews.com/news/...sbc-says-its-time-to-take-the-gloves-off.html

If it possible could you comment on what Hunt said?
 

TomVols

New Member
I know this is off topic, but:

However he noticed a big change in the sermons and Sunday Schools the last time he came home. That ought to tell us a lot.
Always, change is negative because of the nature/character of it, and not the existence of it :laugh:

I do not blame that on the world so much as leaders within conventions and denominations who are misled and misleading pastors and congregations
Not sure what you mean here. I've never once in consulting with churches or serving them heard "We have to have Power Point because Jim Henry says so" or whomever. It's always they hear some communication expert do this, or the church down the block or wherever did that and grew, so that must mean that's why, so now that's why you have to have it here. You can substitute PowerPoint for senior ministry, singings, small groups, Christian schools, whatever you want. Every age and every persuasion has their fads. Every one.
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
Always, change is negative because of the nature/character of it, and not the existence of it
I probably shoulkd have said that my friend was referring to the substance of the sermons and Sunday School. The idea being that they had down in terms of substance.

It's always they hear some communication expert do this, or the church down the block or wherever did that and grew, so that must mean that's why, so now that's why you have to have it here. You can substitute PowerPoint for senior ministry, singings, small groups, Christian schools, whatever you want. Every age and every persuasion has their fads. Every one.
I agree. It is almost always some guru that provided a magic pill.
 

TomVols

New Member
I disagree it's always a guru. Some church that's lionized, maybe. Or like I said, whatever the fad of the day is.
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
I disagree it's always a guru. Some church that's lionized, maybe. Or like I said, whatever the fad of the day is.
When I pastored my last SBC church I regularly heard what was going on at the state level and how I should be doing ministry from those on the state church growth board who were in the church I was pastoring. When I turned them loose to apply what they were taught by the experts everyone of them failed misreably. They kept me aware of what they were told by the state experts. I knew exactly where the information was coming from and who the gurus were. Often I heard the same exact thing preached at a conference. It was quite clear who was trying to be the influencers. The fact is that the church was experiencing more growth in terms of % and numbers than they had ever seen in its history. Yet those on the church growth board were constantly telling me how to do things but they themselves could not make those same things work. Never once did I ever hear about the role of the Holy Spirit in their plans. The gurus were full of ideas but not one of them made their ideas work. When I went to another state about 500 miles away I heard the same things. It was a very different area. Those who came with their ideas brought them from the south and had never lived or done ministry there before.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

HankD

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
This has gone beyond me. The local church of which am a member strikes the happiest balance of church administration of any church I have attended.

I will agree that many churches have developed wordly neo-evangelical methods but I don't believe PowerPoint is one of them. The method of delivery should still be the same as from the beginning. The Holy Spirit still convicts in the 21st century when the Word of God is rightly preached to the people of God.

I suppose many pastors were accused of being wordly when the microphone and audio systems were first introduced into the sanctuary.

HankD
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
I suppose many pastors were accused of being wordly when the microphone and audio systems were first introduced into the sanctuary.
Recently I read that one of the reasons for excommunicating a person years ago was because of involvement in the stock market. Imagine that today?
 

HankD

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Recently I read that one of the reasons for excommunicating a person years ago was because of involvement in the stock market. Imagine that today?
Oh, yes gb. That persists somewhat to this very day.

Some view involvement in the stock market as a form of gambling, putting up some money to win (hopefully) more money based upon happenstance.

Those who play the stock market object that they spend time researching the arts and sciences of business, finances and economics before making their investment decision, although some/many probably do not. On the other hand the professional gambler also claims spending time researching statistics and numeric patterns in games of chance before going to the casino.

Or the horse race gambler will spend quite a bit of time doing histrorical research of the horses which will be invoved in a given race (or not).

In other words both playing the stock market and gambling can be forms of getting a great deal of something for little or nothing.

Yes, I have stock market investments.

No, I don't gamble, well not for a while anyway.

But, we are getting off course.

HankD
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top