A Slap in the Face

All the excitement and hope we had felt Tuesday was completely deflated after the events at the convention yesterday. We felt totally misunderstood, misrepresented and misjudged.

The implications made by Bobby Welch in his final sermon were a slap in the face to all of us who blog.

His words were unfair and untrue. We are not spending all of our time blogging, and many of us have a deep passion for evangelism and compassion for the lost. If he had actually taken the time to read any of our blogs, then he would know that.

Much of what we write is iron-sharpening-iron stuff about church planting, discipleship, evangelism, or simply testimonies of celebration about what God has done. Many of the bloggers are missionaries.

We also have built a practical network of support and encouragement as ministers who feel alone and isolated much of the time in our ministries. We have not found solutions to meet those needs within the traditional avenues of the SBC. So we adapted and got together to be that resource for each other.

Let me give you practical examples of what I am talking about. Recently, the baby son of one of our bloggers was diagnosed with cancer. We have been able to pray with him and support him through surgery and the first round of chemo. Another blogger was being really beaten up in the church where he was serving, and was isolated and in despair. Others came to his side.

We have connected for missions opportunities. Kevin Bussey, and a team from his church, just returned from helping Jason Sampler gut houses in New Orleans. And I can testify personally, that in some tough moments these guys have called just to pray for us in big decisions that needed to be made, and even helped us financially.

Because we are Mission Service Corps, we don't get a penny of CP funding. But when we had a dream to take students on a Spring Break mission trip (for the first time EVER), it was fellow bloggers who prayed with us that God would raise the money needed if it was His will. Then some of them put words to their prayers by sending us checks. We were overwhelmed by the love and support of these guys. As a result, we were able to take students to both Peru and Quebec, and then this Summer we have five going overseas to serve.

Which is amazing when you remember that we are a 2 1/2 year old ministry on a secular, hedonistic campus. It has been because of the PRAYERS of these fellow ministers who stood in the trenches with us.

Now that we are realizing God is leading us to plant a church in Oakland, we turned again to our blogging friends. Many of them have been processing with us, praying, sending us material on church planting and giving us personal advice from their own experience. Two key bloggers in this area have been David Rogers in Spain, and Guy Muse in Ecuador. Their experience and wisdom about church planting has been invaluable to us.

Two others called to pray over us before a crucial meeting regarding the church plant.

To be brutally honest--I have never received that kind of hands-on support and direction from the "traditional" SBC channels. I have been referred to a lot of books and programs, most of which are completely irrelevant in our context. I have been blown off or ignored by many of the leadership from whom I've asked questions, simply because we are not "important enough" in the social circles of the SBC. The blogging community has been our lifeline, and they have lived out Acts 2 fellowship with us, even though it has been long-distance.

The SBC is going to have to wakeup and realize that our culture is changing and adapting, and we must keep up with the impact that technology is having on our society. The SBC did not invent blogging. It is an effective communication tool that has been around for years. Most of our students have been engaged in this form of social interaction since they were young teens.

Cyber connection among people is something we are just going to have to accept. It is going to exist in spite of what certain leaders of the SBC feel about it. Blogging, chat rooms, internet resourcing, message boards and web site development are entrenched forms of communication in our global culture. Rather than criticizing what we don't understand, we need to find the value in it and embrace ways to use it to further the gospel.

I have had three random college students connect with me through my blog. Each of them stumbled upon it while going through a major crisis in their life. One was suicidal. But for some reason they felt "safe" talking to me, and it has been an opportunity for me to minister to some hurting young women around the world.

I would also like to address another fallacy that was directed our way last night, and that is the implication that we are just seeking power within the convention.

THAT IS NOT TRUE. I know that many of these guys have had opportunities to serve in various capacities and have chosen not to at this time. I have turned down two opportunities this year myself, because I did not feel like God was leading in that direction.

The politics within the SBC makes us want to retch. This is NOT about power or position. This is about the integrity of the Word of God, and about keeping missionaries where they need to be to accomplish the task. We are taking a stand against unreasonable, narrowing parameters of cooperation, and proponents of getting back to the MAIN THING.

Finally, my support of Dr. Page was not to leverage influence, but because I felt he was the best man for the job. Let me give you reasons why I felt this way.

1. His support for missions and the Cooperative Program. Go to his church website and read everything connected with missions. Their program is extensive and is built on an Acts 1:8 principle. I knew that he would support missions in regions like ours outside the Bible Belt.

I'm also a believer in the cooperative program, even though I am one of the SBC missionaries who has to raise their own support because there are not enough CP dollars to go around. Dr. Page believes in getting back to the heart of cooperative missions.

2. He LISTENED to me. I wrote him an email when he was first nominated, and he replied the very next day. The other candidates did not even make themselves available to the grassroots people. Then Monday, when I happened to see Dr. Page at a restaurant, he walked up and introduced himself to me, and knew my name. He asked about our ministry in Pittsburgh. He is CLEARLY interested in the younger ministers within the SBC, and in hearing the challenges, needs and questions that we face as we try to serve in the trenches in some tough regions of the world.

3. Over and over and over again he has emphasized prayer. I have heard him admit that he does not have all the answers, but will continue to seek direction through prayer. I sense that he is a man who goes straight to GOD when a problem arises, rather than to the latest book, program or trend. He is a man who I believe can bring reconciliation between growing factions of the SBC, and bring back the unity we so desperately need. He is not a politician, and he has not used mean-spirited, underhanded means to gain this position. He has not stabbed any fellow brothers in the back to leverage himself to leadership. He has simply served where God has placed him, and now God is allowing him to be in a position to influence our convention.

I am a little knocked down today, but we will get back up. Because our GOD is bigger than the SBC. He is at work, and we are going to finish the task. It just may not be through the great and wonderful denomination that has been a foundation for all of my life. But HE WILL BE GLORIFIED, and WE WILL REACH THE LOST PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!!!