I have always used my blog to address issues related to biblical church growth, and I have intentionally spoken to evangelicals in general rather than my own Southern Baptist denomination.  For this post, though, I am changing my pattern.  

Over twenty-five years ago, I began serving as pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Ohio.  I was young and energetic - ready to take on the world, but knowing far too little about the denomination in which I served.  I am grateful for a few older Southern Baptists who encouraged me to get involved, including inviting me to attend my first Southern Baptist Convention (1985-the largest and perhaps most controversial Convention ever). 

I find it hard to admit, but I am now becoming one of the older Southern Baptists.  In that role, I offer these encouragements to younger Southern Baptists. 

Know that many of us realize that we have much room for improvement.
We grieve when we see our baptismal numbers, and we know that our record of making disciples is not good.  Many of us are praying for a Great Commission resurgence.  We are also concerned that too few of you believe that attending the SBC is important.  We fear that many of you will simply drop out of denominational life.  Please know that we are not ignorant of the issues that concern you in a denomination that you believe is increasingly irrelevant. 

Do review the history of this denomination.
We have much work to do as a denomination, but we have also experienced God’s blessing.  More missionaries are serving on the mission field.  More students are attending seminaries affiliated with the SBC.  Your generation has the potential to be a great blessing.  Remember, though, that others sacrificed much to lead this denomination to a renewed commitment to the Word.  These leaders deserve respect, and we ignore their passion for continued doctrinal integrity only at our peril.  To be Southern Baptist is still a commitment to the Word, to biblical doctrine, and to a unique way to support North American and international missions.      

Do not give up on the SBC.
Despite our denominational malaise, what we do together remains stronger than what most of our churches can do alone.  We need you as part of this team.  We need your churches to be involved.   We need your creativity and your passion.  We need your honest input when meetings are boring and discussions seem irrelevant to the task of the gospel.  We need your unique commitment to reaching the world for Christ. 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. 
Tell us your concerns, but do not pull away from the Cooperative Program that supports more than 10,000 missionaries in North America and around the world.  Help us to address issues that all of us recognize as significant, but continue CP giving that reduces the seminary tuition of thousands of students.  Talk to us when you see current structures and processes as outdated, but remember that many good people and programs are still dependent on your Cooperative Program giving.  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. 
I am grateful for young pastors who want to strengthen churches that are weak, and I applaud efforts to make membership meaningful again in SBC churches.  My concern is that we will focus so much on fixing troubled churches that evangelism remains neglected.  Do refocus our churches on strong discipleship, but never allow evangelism to be a “back burner” task.  When God begins to change lives through our ministries, some of our other concerns may not seem so important.    

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.  No one can please all sixteen million Southern Baptists, each one with an opinion to express and a willingness to articulate it (whether or not he has actually been involved in his local church).  The Internet has provided a means to critique others, even without first speaking with the brother involved.  I confess that I have spent too much time reading posts and too little time praying for those who lead us.  That omission will be corrected beginning today. 

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.

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.  

It’s official.  I no longer like e-mail. 

That wasn’t always the case.  I still remember discovering e-mail for the first time.  My computer modem was as large as a vintage radio and as loud as a jet engine, but it allowed me to contact friends at a moment’s notice, at any time of the day or night. “You’ve got mail!” were welcomed words back then. 

Not anymore.  Not only does the constant buzzing of my Treo remind me that life is too busy, but the e-mails I receive sometimes only hinder communication.  For example, most of us have experienced the anxiety of reading wrong emotions into an e-mail and/or explaining a misunderstood message that we sent.  The e-mail symbols designed to express emotion simply cannot replace give-and-take, ask and respond conversations when emotions are involved.

In other cases, e-mail provides a means to express much more — too much, and in much less God-honoring ways — than we would say personally.  We give too little thought to our words when communication is between computer screens rather than two people looking each other in the eye.  The buffer of cyberspace somehow permits us to be rude and ungodly in our interaction with others.

My biggest concern about e-mail, though, is that this medium makes it possible to send messages without ever talking to each other.  I have in my archive folders dozens of messages from friends who write regularly — but whose actual voices I have not heard in months.  Why pick up the phone and call when I can just send an e-mail?  At least this way I know I will not get a busy signal or an answering machine. I fear that face-to-face conversations have sometimes been unintentionally sacrificed on the altar of e-mail convenience.   

Of course, my distaste for email is really only partial. I am excited when I hear from long-lost friends who found me via web pages and email. I can now somewhat easily communicate with missionaries around the world.  Their concerns are distributed and prayers sent heavenward following just the click of a computer key.  And, email has provided unprecedented opportunities for doing evangelism - especially for those believers who might be less inclined to speak face-to-face about Jesus. 

On the other hand, my concern that email promotes faceless communication is dwarfed by a similar concern about current trends in evangelism.  Think about it -

• Evangelism in many churches is about believers responding to a guest who first visited the church rather than their proactively sharing Christ.  If the non-believer (whom we may not know personally) makes the first move, we are then ready to respond with the gospel. 
• Evangelism is sometimes reduced to “invite others to church, where someone else (the preacher) will tell them about Jesus” — and even then more corporately than individually.  In that case, nobody does personal evangelism.   
• In some congregations, evangelizing takes place more on the international mission field — as essential as that task is — than in a church member’s neighborhood.  The same believer who travels overseas to speak of Christ through a translator often leapfrogs his own unbelieving neighbors who speak the same language.   
• Despite the New Testament emphasis on laity, many churches still relegate evangelism to hired clergy.  As one church member told me, “We pay them to do that because they’re the ones trained for it.”  Personal involvement in evangelism is thus equated with putting a check in the offering plate on Sunday. 

I need to be clear here.  I fully support using any God-honoring means to spread the gospel, and ignoring current technological advances means missing great opportunities now available.  I want church members to appreciate so much God’s work through their church that they willingly invite their friends to attend.  My heart beats with global missions, and I have seen church members more committed to local evangelism after returning from the mission field.  I also believe that clergy must set the example in doing evangelism.  Hence, I am not discounting the methods and strategies listed above.  I am simply saying that they are not enough if evangelism is not also personal. 

Yes, write evangelistic emails, invite your neighbors and friends to church, follow up with guests, take mission trips, and expect your pastor to be a model.  Prayerfully support all that your church does to reach its community.    

Don’t forget, though, to tell others about Jesus - and do it face-to-face.