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.  

I keep in my desk a Father’s Day card from a student in whom I’ve invested significant time.  That card encourages me to press on when I get tired of the bureaucracy, paperwork, meetings, and tedious tasks that sometimes come with the job of being a seminary dean.  It also reminds me that most churches have not yet figured out how to do discipleship. You see, most churches-if they do discipleship at all-still do it programmatically.  That is, they organize a program, teach some classes, and evaluate the program’s success based on numbers attending. The more who attend, the better the program is assumed to be. 

To be clear, I am not opposed to programs. Well-designed and well-implemented programs can in fact be an effective step in disciplemaking.  My concern is that programmatic discipleship built solely around small groups and directed studies misses the most obvious New Testament means of disciplemaking: one-to-one mentoring. 

Jesus produced disciples by investing first in a group of twelve men, and then more pointedly in a group of three.  He called them to be with Him, taught them, empowered them, prayed before them, sent them out, challenged them, called them to account, and even fixed a meal for them (see Matt 5-7; Mark 3:13-15; Luke 9:1-6, 18, 29;  John 21:9).  They in turn eventually became leaders of the early church. 

The Apostle Paul followed Jesus’ model by likewise pouring his life into a few young men.  The best example is Timothy, whose life was never the same after the missionary evangelist called him to join his team (Acts 16:1-3). The young protégé watched Paul minister, surely rejoiced with him when lives were changed, and prayed for him when he was persecuted.  What joy Paul must have felt when he could end his race with the knowledge that Timothy would carry on the work of the gospel (2 Tim 4:1-8).

The reasons for doing disciplemaking through mentoring are many, but space allows me to deal with only a few.  First, the approach is biblical.  If Jesus and Paul made disciples through this means, how can we not follow that pattern?  Older men and women teaching the younger generation is not optional for the church (Titus 2:1-8).  Excuses for not mentoring lose their power when we choose to make disciples like Jesus and Paul did.

Second, Christian teaching lived out reinforces the truth of the Word.  The student who watches his mentor do personal evangelism is more likely to catch that fire.  A mentor with a godly marriage gives his disciple the invaluable gift of Christian living modeled in the home.  Faith exhibited during times of crisis becomes a challenging example for the disciple to emulate.  Simply stated, it is in the classroom of life that we best see the Word in action.

Third, mentoring discipleship requires the mentor to guard his life against the Enemy’s attacks.  Committed disciplemakers wear a bull’s eye on their back for Satan. He knows that if he can seriously wound the mentor, the disciples bear the scars of that fall. Knowing that their actions affect a second generation of believers, good disciplemaking mentors stand strong against the Enemy.  

Fourth, a strong disciplemaking relationship provides a safe place to deal with failure.  Confession is good, for it brings our sin out of the Enemy’s darkness into the light-where we can deal with the wrong through repentance and forgiveness.  Most believers, however, have no one to hold them accountable to Christian living. A disciplemaking mentor models holiness, calls his disciples to the same, and holds them accountable to that standard.  Should they fail, he offers forgiveness and encourages them to return to the fight. 

This kind of disciplemaking is, of course, costly-and often risky.  Finding the time to invest in others usually means deleting something else from the calendar. Your own sin becomes magnified when others are watching.  The costs of study resources, shared meals, and occasional travel expenses quickly add up. Pastors who mentor may discover that church members accuse them of having “favorites.” And, too often the disciple falls morally.  Sometimes, in fact, you wonder if mentoring is worth the effort and the cost. 

On the other hand, the risk you take might result in a disciple whose faith is potent and whose growth is obvious.  You might have the privilege of watching someone grow far beyond you and be used by God in ways that you had never dreamed.  Indeed, you might just find a “son in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2) who remembers you on Father’s Day.  I’ll take that risk any day.