More Southern Baptists Vie for Presidency

Christian Post Reporter

Wed, May. 07 2008 01:27 PM ET

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The number of persons vying for the top position of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, has expanded to five this week, with Johnny M. Hunt announced as the latest to join the race.

Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., will be nominated for SBC president during the denomination's annual meeting in June. His church has grown an average worship attendance of 6,180 over the last 21 years and church membership increased from 1,027 to 16,495.

The Woodstock congregation has also sent out more than 135 missionaries and started more than 78 churches.

Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., announced Tuesday that he will nominate Hunt for the leadership position, commenting that he has a deep concern about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"I believe Southern Baptists are looking for a future that is marked by unity, not division," Traylor said, according to Baptist Press. "Johnny Hunt has one fight in him and that is the good fight of faith. He is a leader who can forge a hopeful future that is centered around the Gospel and connected to the local church."

Also on Tuesday, John Marshall, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church Springfield, Mo., announced that he intends to nominate former missionary Avery Willis for SBC president.

Willis has served as an International Mission Board missionary to Indonesia, worked as an evangelist and church developer for six years, was president of Indonesian Baptist Theological Seminary in Semarang, Indonesia, and led the adult discipleship department at LifeWay Christian Resources.

He developed the "MasterLife" discipleship materials, which has been translated into more than 50 languages and used in more than 100 countries.

Willis and Hunt join three other Southern Baptists vying for the top leadership spot. They include Dr. William L. (Bill) Wagner, president of Olivet University International in San Francisco and a former missionary; Frank Cox, pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga; and Wiley Drake, a California pastor and former SBC second vice president.

In February, the Rev. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent conservative evangelicals, dropped his bid to become president after a tumor was found during a routine colonoscopy.

The annual SBC meeting opens June 11 in Indianapolis.

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star2

Wed May 14, 2008 9:10 pm
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msnchris70

Do you ever allow the Word of God speak to your heart?

star2

Wed May 14, 2008 9:09 pm
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msnchris70

For the record, I am female.

msnchris70

Tue May 13, 2008 11:35 am
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Star2,

Amen brother! God is more interested in how the heart of man loves Him and adores Him and there is nothing more loving than celebrating the Eucharist. The Ancient liturgy, since it is God Breathed, is our most loving form of worship because it is how God wanted to be worshipped.

I will also agree with you that there are people in every style of Christian Church who have their own rituals and traditions and they look more like Robots going through the paces, rather than embracing the God of the Universe. If the Heart doesn't belong to Christ. If the Heart isn't totally sold out to Jesus Christ, then no style of ritual will matter.

My point: Give God the love He deserves the way He requested it and do it with a Heart of Love and adoration. Yes, there are Catholics who are so set in the Ritual they have lost the point of the relationship with Christ and Yes there are many Protestants too who are either too wrapped up in the Praise and Worship as a form of entertainment, or the Protestant who edifies the Pastor because he is so motivational, etc.

The Heart does matter and I thank you for bringing it up Star2. We all fall short, and need a Savior.

star2

Tue May 13, 2008 2:59 am
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msnchris70

Re: worship service

God is interested in the heart not ritual.

Wilderness1

Mon May 12, 2008 11:56 am
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Now there are certain men who have acquired great celebrity as "Church Fathers."
This term, strangely enough, is never applied to the apostles, to whom it would seem to be more applicable than to any other men, but to certain men who lived in the first few centuries of the Christian era, and who exerted a great influence on the church. As a matter of fact, the true church has but one Father, even God; therefore whatever church recognizes any men as its Fathers, must be a church of merely human planting, having only human ordinances. (Fathers Of The Catholic Church: A Brief Examination Of The “Falling Away” of the Church in the first three centuries. by E. J. Waggoner)

Take heed saints, lest you give ear to, “Yea, hath God said?” and you be led away from “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

Wilderness1

Mon May 12, 2008 11:53 am
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The writings of Irenaeus are quite extensive, and are very greatly lauded; yet it has been well said that "their preciousness bears no proportion to their bulk." A writer in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review (January, 1869), says: "It would be possible to compress into a very few pages all the statements of fact that can be deemed really valuable to us at the present day."

In spite of all the praise that is lavished upon the Fathers, the same thing may be said of all of them. Indeed, we may go further, and say that although their writings contain, as a matter of necessity, some statements of fact, and some principles of truth, if not one of the so-called Christian Fathers had ever written a line, the amount of useful knowledge in the world would not be one iota less than it now is, and the Christian church would be far better off. (Fathers Of The Catholic Church: A Brief Examination Of The “Falling Away” of the Church in the first three centuries. by E. J. Waggoner)

Stay true to God saints, and be not led away from “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

msnchris70

Mon May 12, 2008 11:36 am
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Many non-Catholic Christian Churches and Congregations have helped start non-Christian groups like Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christ Scientist, etc. From the well spring of Hope and Truth who is Jesus Christ, the fullness and richness of all His teachings remain in the Catholic Church. I could not help, but come to my senses after 20 years and finally become Catholic. I went from anti-Catholic to Catholic. I read Scripture, I studied Scripture and continued my formal education in search of the Fullness of Truth which is Christ. The more I read about the early Christians and compared that with Scripture for proofing I found out that I had been mislead.

I thank God my parents were Jesus loving Bible reading Christians. I began my faith in the Baptists Tradition, refined my faith in the Calvinist Tradition and completed my journed to come home to the Catholic Church. It gives me such joy to celebrate Sunday as the earliest Christians did. I am humbled to eat the flesh and drink the blood of our Lord and Savior, so I can have His life in me so I can radiate the love and joy of Christ. The Sacraments do infuse Grace, but it is up to you to cooperate with it. I am so happy that when I read Scripture that I can compare my interpretation to the earliest of Christians and make sure I am on the same page.

May you always follow your conscience. May your conscience be always well informed. May your information always stand the test by using Scripture to proof it. May you always search out how the earliest Christians interpretated the same Scripture verse because their witness is closests to the fountain of life which is Christ Jesus. May you love thy God with all your heart and love thy neighbor as yourself. May Love Christ by keeping the 10 commandments. May you always live the Beatitudes and put your Trust in the Saving Grace of Christ.

msnchris70

Mon May 12, 2008 11:19 am
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Then it hit me. Which Church has historically come from the Apostles? Which Church has the most Biblical form of Hiearchy? Which Church decided what books went into the New Testament? Which Church defined the Incarnation, the Trinity and all other Christological Theology? Which Church fought against heresy from the very beginning? Which Church today still follows the ancient liturgy? Which Church has safeguarded the Scriptures? Which Church has spread the Christian faith to every corner of the Earth? Which Church has the final authority as revealed in Scripture through the Keys given by Christ?

All these questions can be answered with three words: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The fact is relativism is not only secular it is Christian. Secularists become relativists when it comes to morality. Liberal Christians become relativists when it comes to morality and theology. Conservative Christians become relativists when they have to create their own worship style from scratch and do not hold to the earliest beliefs of the founding Christians.

The farther you are from the fullness of Truth, which is the Church founded by Christ the more watered down your Tradition will be. On one spectrum you have the Catholic Church and on the other you have non-denominational Christian Churches. All people who ever broke off fromt the Catholic Church are still Christian.

msnchris70

Mon May 12, 2008 11:07 am
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The summit of worship for the early Christians was the "Eucharist". All the Scripture they read and prayers they said during the service prepared them to recieve the Eucharist in a worthy manner. The early Chrisitan service was not a Bible study, it was communion. Being in Communion with one another was the most important part. They shared the same faith, because of the same Lord. They always shared the Eucharist on Sunday, but they also did it during the week too. I couldn't become Anglican, because that was just a Protestant version of Catholicism and was only a shadow of the real thing. I looked at the Orthodox too. While they definitely have Apostolic origins without question and a liturgy that comes from the Apostles, they are very ethnically divided. The Russians, Ukranians, Coptics, Greeks had the same faith but they could never come together as one church because they saw their National origins as paramount to their unity in Christ. I remembered from Scripture that we are neither Jew or Gentile right? A Christian is just a Christian. The Orthodox Church really began in the 9th Century and more formally in the 11th as a Eastern Chrisitan Church not under the authority of the Pope.

Did Christ want His Church to be ethnically divided? No. Did Christ want His flock to have one Shepherd? Yes. Christ also wanted His Church to be Universal. I realized that Christ founded a Church, and this Church would be protected by the Holy Spirit to never fall into error. Well, in the first 1000 years only areas that had Bishops from the Easter Christians created heresies, and who was the final judge....The Bishop of Rome. The Bishop of Rome was the final court of apeals. He had veto power and had the power to bind and lose and had the Power because of the Gift of the Keys given to Peter's office as Bishop by Jesus.

Cont'd.

msnchris70

Mon May 12, 2008 10:51 am
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I read the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Irenaus, Clement and then Origen. I read the Didache and many other writings of the first 500 years of Christianity. You see, Star2, I was taught as a Baptist child that the Catholic Pope was the anti-Christ and Catholics were very dangerous because they were a "NEAR-Christianity" type group that could mislead people very easilly. I even remember going door to door on a Saturday outreach program and targetting Catholic households for conversion. I was raised a anti-Catholic, which was only given more fuel when I attended Seminary.

I couldn't help reading the early Christian writings concerning their; worship style, hiearchy and prayer life without thinking it sounded pretty Catholic. Being anti-Catholic, I assumed it wasn't Catholic but maybe Anglican or Orthodox. Well, their denominations didn't exist yet so I just ignored it.

I flirted with leaving the Reformed Tradition and becoming Anglican. I saw the rich Liturgical Tradition in Anglicanism that found its roots in the Earliest style of worship in the 1st and 2nd century. The majority of the service was Scripture. In fact, 90% of the service was Scripture with a 15 minute message on the readings. I could worship like the early church and yet still be Protestant, which was great. I certainly didn't want to be under the "PAPAL DICTATOR".

Cont'd

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