ORLANDO (BP) – Southern Baptists must remain unified in doctrine, in spirit and in reaching the next generation for Christ, speakers said June 8 during the afternoon session of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.
Monday afternoon’s speakers at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando included Dean Inserra, Willy Rice and H.B. Charles.
Dean Inserra
Each generation in America is drifting progressively farther from Christ, like Israel drifted from the Lord in the biblical book of Judges, said Inserra, pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Fla. But faithful churches can reverse that trend.
“What an opportunity for our churches,” he said. “What an opportunity for us to be an answer to that prayer of workers being sent into a massive harvest of the next generation.”
A first step to stopping spiritual drift is to “reach our own kids,” Inserra said. That will require discipleship in Christian families as well as churches committed to next generation ministry.
“I love senior adults,” he said. “We have tons of them in our church. But if your senior adults are headed out on the church minibus to see the leaves change but your youth students have to sell baked goods to make it to camp, something is off.”
Pastors must adjust their preaching to reverse generational drift, Inserra said. They should correct erosion of the Gospel, “Instagram influence” that views Jesus as a fun friend without demanding commitment and “generic theism” that seeks salvation by works.
A stronger rebuke from pastors should address “the attitude many of the next generation’s parents have toward the local church,” he said.
In 1990s youth ministries, today’s parents were taught repeatedly that “a relationship with Jesus” was all that mattered, Inserra said. Without ongoing discipleship to supplement that message, many decided as adults that they could have a “relationship with Jesus” anywhere, including their children’s leisure activities that trump church attendance.
Yet spiritual renewal is possible if churches change their focus and urgency – not necessarily their style of ministry – to call the next generation to follow Jesus.
“What if we told the next generation, ‘You have to run me over to spend an eternity apart from God in a real place called hell,’” he said.
Willy Rice
The SBC must center its unity on the doctrine taught in Scripture, said Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Fla.
“If we are not together in doctrinal truth, then nothing else will keep us together,” said Rice. “It is the truth of Jesus revealed in Scripture” that grounds our unity. “Our only hope for unity is Gospel truth.”
Preaching from 1 Samuel 15 about King Saul’s decline into disobedience, Rice said the compromise of Saul began when he traded obedience from the heart for mere religious observances. Pragmatism and yielding to pressure from people precipitated Saul’s decline and led to a confrontation by the prophet Samuel.
Saul ignored the correction, Rice said, which should serve as a warning for Southern Baptists.
“It is not a sign of greatness to refuse correction,” he said. True revival “begins when sins are confessed, hearts are renewed and hearts are humbled.”
Refusing to heed correction led to Saul’s collapse, Rice said. The tragic story of Israel’s first king gives Southern Baptists three truths to remember:
- Value obedience over observance.
Compromise begins when we fear what the watching world will say about us more than what God thinks of us, he said. “Fear the gaze of the masses.”
- Value faithfulness over fervency.
Like Southern Baptists, Saul was zealous to accomplish his mission – defeating the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15, Rice said. But his unchecked zeal for the mission led to compromise in order to achieve a desired result.
Due to missionary zeal, Baptists “excel in counting like few others,” including baptism statistics, church members and missionaries sent, he said. But “if we believe our missional fervency justifies” any compromise of doctrine, “we are mistaken.”
- Value God’s kingdom over our kingdom.
“The future health of our movement is not guaranteed,” Rice said of the SBC. “It depends on our willingness to obey.”
H.B. Charles
Believers and churches must walk together in spiritual unity, said Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
“Too many churches split, fight and die over congregational conflict,” he said, preaching from Ephesians 4:1-6. While the essential truths of Christianity are worth fighting for, too much church division is about “personal territory rather than doctrinal fidelity.”
Walking in unity requires believers to live up to their calling as followers of Jesus, Charles said. That includes pursuing Christlikeness by being humble, gentle, patient and bearing with one another in love. Pastors should set the example in all these areas.
“The church should be led by men that are peacemakers, not troublemakers,” he said.
True unity is produced by the Holy Spirit, Charles said. Believers do not manufacture it. Rather, they maintain it by acting in love, refusing to gossip and being slow to take offense. As they do those things, Jesus bonds His church together.
“God forbid that we would build up walls that the blood of Jesus already has torn down,” he said.
Believers are mandated to walk in unity because their unity reflects the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Charles said. “The unity of the church is securely rooted in the unity of the Godhead.”
Because the Holy Spirit united believers, sins against the church body are sins against the Spirit, he said. “True Christian unity is not institutional … It is the unity of the Spirit.”
Because Jesus is the Church’s one Lord, all believers must be united in obedience to Him, Charles said. Because God is the Church’s Father, His people must act like spiritual brothers and sisters.
“Be just as eager to maintain the unity as we are to maintain the truth,” he said.
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