One year ago, I published a blog entitled “An Open Letter to Young Southern Baptists.” I do not intend here to copy that entire blog, but a quick reminder of the challenges I offered will help in understanding the words that follow:

• Know that many of us realize that we have much room for improvement. We older leaders are not ignorant of the concerns that grip you.
• Do review the history of this denomination. Remember that past and current leaders deserve respect.
• Do not give up on the SBC. You, your church, and the SBC lose if you simply walk away without patiently trying to make a difference.
• Continue to support the Cooperative Program even while you seek your role in the denomination. Be kingdom-minded enough to give even when the immediate benefits for you and your church are not always obvious.
• Stay focused on the entirety of the Great Commission. Refocus our churches on strong discipleship, but never allow evangelism to be a “back burner” task.
• Pray humbly for Southern Baptist Convention leaders. From pastoring a local church to leading a denominational agency, the tasks involved in SBC life are not easy.

That blog ended with these words:

Young Southern Baptist, I believe in you. I want you involved in SBC life, trusting that you affirm our clear stand on the Word of God, choose to live a God-honoring life, and are committed to the Great Commission. Be both patient and persistent with us, modeling humility for us in all that you do. All of us want to see God do a mighty work through this denomination.

During the fourth week of June 2009, young leaders did show up at the Southern Baptist Convention, and their passion brought a renewed sense of excitement to the event. In light of that event, here is my follow-up letter – this time, written to older Southern Baptists (a group to which I belong).

Older leaders, we must first love younger Southern Baptists. This one is not difficult for me. As a seminary dean, I have the privilege of working with young men and women whose Great Commission focus puts mine to shame. Most are energetic, passionate, and unashamedly Christ-followers. They are deeply serious, yet genuinely fun. They want to make an eternal difference with their lives. They are, to state it simply, easy to love.

We must also listen to younger Southern Baptists. Whether or not we always agree with them, their voice is worth hearing. These are brothers and sisters whose Christian integrity, doctrinal fervor, and evangelistic zeal deserve our attention. New voices that critique old paradigms should not threaten us. We will miss much if we choose not to hear their thoughts simply because they are young or inexperienced.

As we love and listen to our younger leaders, we must be willing to learn from them. There is no question that young leaders sometimes wrongly assume that they have the answers to whatever ails us. We have all thought that way at some point, and we recall with embarrassment our own youthful pride. But let’s be honest: if we assume that we have nothing to learn from leaders younger than we are, we, too, are gripped by arrogance. We who claim maturity should know better.

We must also labor in prayer on behalf of our younger leaders. As Paul prayed for Timothy – remembering him constantly, night and day (2 Tim. 1:3) – we must intercede now for those who increasingly lead the good fight of faith. The enemy aims his arrows at young leaders, knowing that their youthfulness makes them vulnerable. Hence, our most important work on their behalf might well be what we do in our prayer closets.

Finally, we must still lead younger leaders. That’s the way it ought to be – older leaders leading younger leaders, who then are better prepared to lead on their own. Indeed, I can say with certainty that young leaders long for strong, faithful, experienced, godly Christian leaders to pour themselves into their young lives. Young leaders may stretch us, challenge us, and even dislodge us from our comfort zones, but we must not abdicate our responsibility to help guide them. They still need us, and we still need them – and a dying world needs all of us working together for the sake of the Great Commission.

I am a seminary dean who believes that the best seminary education occurs in conjunction with service in a local church. Education gains relevance and significance when we put to work what we learn through planning worship services, training laypeople, preaching the Word, and doing evangelism. In fact, if I were king for a day, I would require all seminary students to serve in a local church full-time internship prior to graduating.

With that in mind, I am pleased that the Billy Graham School at Southern Seminary offers a PhD that still requires students to complete their coursework at Southern but that does not require a physical relocation to Louisville. We still encourage students to move to our campus, but qualified students now serving in ministry away from Louisville may attend PhD classes for four weeks a year (typically two weeks in Nov-Dec, and two in May-June) while majoring in Evangelism and Church Growth, Christian Missions, World Religions, or Applied Apologetics. In addition to the intensive on-campus class time, students have significant Internet interaction and discussion with the professor and other classmates throughout the year. All students—whether living on-campus or off—complete the same courses.

The Graham School doctoral degrees emphasize biblical foundations for evangelism and missions, honest analysis of church growth and missiological methods, historical reviews of God’s work throughout the world, apologetic preparation for countering world religions, and scriptural approaches to spiritual warfare in evangelism and missions. Equipped well, our current PhD students and graduates have served, or are serving, as local church pastors, North American and international missionaries, seminary and college professors, college executives, denominational employees, church staff members, mission administrators, and in other church-based roles.

Our prayer is that Graham School doctoral students will continue to lead evangelicals throughout the world to focus on the Great Commission. If you are interested in getting more information about this program, contact Dr. Adam Greenway, BGS Director of Research Doctoral Studies, at agreenway@sbts.edu.

Nobody likes to talk about death, but two recent events have directed me to this topic.  First, a Time magazine article entitled “The Light of Death” captured my attention.[i]  The essay is one woman’s story of what she learned through her father’s death.  While the understanding of death in this article demands biblical critique, these words grabbed me:

“I asked a doctor what makes the difference [in how people handle death], once the battle is out of her hands.  ‘Fear,’ she said, ‘and regret.  Take those away, and what’s left is peace.’” 

“Fear and regret.  Take those away, and what’s left is peace.”  Those words echoed through my mind when I later attended a memorial service for a 12-year-old girl who died tragically in an accident.  Many of us listened as the grieving Christian parents spoke of having no regrets about how they raised their little girl, a young girl whose life was marked by a deep passion for Christ and a great desire to see others follow Him. 

I have no fear of death, as I am certain that He who saved me will also keep me (Eph. 1:13-14, Heb. 12:2).  I cannot say, however, that I have no regrets. Many of those regrets relate to my years as a senior pastor prior to my becoming a seminary professor. 

I regret that I did not consistently seek accountability for my spiritual disciplines.  I found it easy to emphasize the importance of Bible study and prayer, but I often found it hard to carry out these disciplines.  The “stuff” of public ministry sometimes interfered with the private work out of which real ministry should occur.  I can only wonder now what blessings I missed when doing ministry in my own power. 

I regret that I invested little time in mentoring as a pastor.  No one taught me about mentoring until I heard Robert Coleman, author of The Master Plan of Evangelism, speak in a class I was leading.  Now I know that it is difficult to read the New Testament and not see mentoring as a primary means of disciplemaking.  I am certain that I overlooked opportunities with young men who were waiting for their pastor to help them grow in their faith.  

I regret that I failed to lead my church to make mission trips a priority.  Our church had weekly missions education, held annual missions studies, and invited missionaries to speak - but I did not yet recognize the value of doing missions.  Were I pastoring today, I would lead at least one trip annually and pray for God to call our finest members to the mission fields of North America and the world.

I regret that I did not fully recognize the importance of being a role model.  I knew that the pastor is to be an example, but I did not realize how important that role is.  Years later, I have seen that a church is unlikely to exceed its pastor in at least three critical areas: holiness, evangelism, and prayer.  The pastor who wants his church to make a difference will clearly model Christ in each of these areas. 

I regret that I did not study leadership enough.  With the Bible as our guide and our filter through which we read other books, we can still learn much about leadership from others who have led before us.  I would have been a better pastoral leader had I read more in that field.   

I regret that I sometimes placed ministry before my wife.  Never has my wife complained about serving with me in ministry.  If she were honest, however, I am certain she would admit to feeling as if she sometimes took second place in my life.  I deeply regret that truth. 

I regret that I did not consistently set evangelism goals.  I realize the controversy of setting evangelism goals, but I am not speaking primarily of results.  I wish I had established as a pastor the goals I have set now: to pray daily for at least five non-believers, to be in intentional relationships with at least two non-believers at any given point, to speak daily to someone about God’s goodness, and to share the gospel with someone at least weekly.

“Fear and regret - take those away, and what’s left is peace.”  My peace today comes not in ignoring the regrets listed here, but rather in living now in such a way that further regrets are few.  Simply stated, ministering in the light of death should change the way we minister.  

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[i] Nancy Gibbs, “The Light of Death,” Time (24 April 2008).  Accessed at http//:www.time.com//time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734819,00.html.