One of my focuses with this blog is to actively engage the ideas and rhetoric of Christianity as it is practiced and taught in western culture. In the past I have done series such as The Laodicean Project and Rebuilding the City which focused on how we should be viewing ourselves as the Church and how we should move forward with the Great Commission in a way which is both biblically faithful and culturally appropriate.
Two groups which I think have an eye towards doing this (one maybe more than the other, you decide which) are the Southern Baptist Convention and the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. Both of these organizations have an arm which focuses on planting young, growing churches in major urban areas of North America and around the world (in fact, Acts 29′s sole purpose is for the evaluation, commissioning, support, and further instruction of urban church planters). Both groups have a high view of the Scriptures and both are determined to see transformation wrought out of an understanding that Christ died so that we may live.
However, there are some issues where they don’t see eye-to-eye. Over the next little bit I will be hitting a couple of these, starting today with an article I just posted over at SBC Voices entitled Acts 29 vs. the SBC (One Year Later). This post takes a look at the December 2007 dust-up between Acts 29 and the Missouri Baptist Convention and the fallout since. Soon I will also come to you with reports from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where Acts 29 founder Mark Driscoll will be participating in there 2009 collegiate conference, and from the Pastor’s Conference at First Baptist Jacksonville where this year Matt Chandler, pastor of the SBC and Acts 29 affiliated The Village Church, will be delivering two messages.
Tomorrow I will have up a post giving an argument for contextualization coming from the Bible. As well, you can check out a post I did last year entitled “Dirty Words and Beer” that offers a cursory handling of this debate. Hopefully you will find these resources helpful in thinking out where you stand and will engage in discussion over these pertinent and highly volatile issues.
January 24, 2009 at 12:07 am |
I am looking forward to the post on contextualization. As for the tension between the SBC and Acts29 I hope they can learn to work together or a lot of young would be SBC planters may be bailing on the dying convention and heading over to Acts29.