The Southern Baptist Convention meeting today in Indy voted to repent for our lack of what I would call Biblical faithfulness in regards to church membership.
All too often we allow folks to remain members when they show no evidence of being born again. We have done great harm in calling them "brothers" and "sisters" when in fact they are not.
It is now up to each church to decide how to deal or not deal with this issue. Will we face the truth that people who have no interest in fellowship with believers and no interest in worshiping the Lord are not true converts?
May God grant us the grace to do so.
DD
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3 comments:
Hey Dismal :)
It sounds like you guys have Delders. That's what we used to call our guys who were Deacons but who functioned as Elders. And when it comes to someone only attending sporadically that does seem to be an area where a host of brothers and sisters could be of assistance. Do you think all of your Deacons are gifted to preach? If not, then while certainly they can be outstanding Deacons, they wouldn't qualify as an Elder.
Blessings to you,
John in St. Louis
Delders. LOL. I will have to remember that one. That is a good one and it does to a large degree describe about half of our deacons.
The major difference I see in Scripture between the two is as you mention being "apt to teach". I agree with you that a deacon who is not "apt to teach" does not qualify as an elder.
Again, about half of our deacon body fit that phrase.
DD
Your statement:
"All too often we allow folks to remain members when they show no evidence of being born again. We have done great harm in calling them "brothers" and "sisters" when in fact they are not."
is very interesting to me. As you become exclusionary, is it possible you might be pushing away good people who are walking a different road than you?
Have you ever considered that Jesus and the Father might view diversity of opinion as a good thing? What happens to those who do not agree with your understanding of scripture?
PS. I came to your site becuase I thought it was about economics.
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