1| Southern Baptists See 9th Year of Membership Decline |AP
The Southern Baptist Convention lost more than 200,000 members in 2015- the ninth straight year of decline for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Membership stands at 15.3 million, down from 15.5 million in 2014, according to denomination statistics released on Tuesday. Baptisms also fell by more than 10,000 to just a little more than 295,000. Baptisms are an important measure for the Nashville-based denomination because of its strong commitment to evangelism.
After the numbers were announced, some denominational leaders emphasized the positive news that the number of Southern Baptist churches increased last year by 294, mostly due to new churches started by SBC pastors. But Executive Committee President and CEO Frank Page refused to put a positive spin on the declines, exclaiming in a news release, “God help us all! In a world that is desperate for the message of Christ, we continue to be less diligent in sharing the Good News.”
My friend Jason Allen, president of one of the SBC seminaries, brought Baptist leaders together last year to discuss the present and future of the Convention. He compiled their addresses together and published them in a book released this week: The SBC & the 21st Century: Reflections, Renewal, & Recommitments.
2| Muhammad Ali heard Gospel from Billy Graham and others
…Concern over Ali’s religious beliefs once led his father to take the boxer to visit evangelist Billy Graham at his home in Montreat, N.C., Graham’s son Franklin wrote in a June 4 Facebook post.
Ali’s father, Franklin Graham wrote, “was concerned over Ali’s faith in Islam and was afraid that his son had been led astray.” Graham and Ali “had a great visit, and my father had prayer with him.”
Billy Graham wrote of the 1979 meeting in his autobiography “Just As I Am,” “I autographed a Bible for him. He accepted it graciously, but when he looked at my unreadable scrawl, he asked [longtime Graham associate] T.W. [Wilson], ’What does that say?’”
Graham responded, “It says ’God bless you,’ and it’s signed ’Billy Graham.’”
Ali handed the book back to Graham and said, “How about printing ’Billy Graham’ under that. I want people to know it’s you when I show it to them.” As Graham recounted, “I laughed and printed my name in big letters.”
Ali said of the encounter according to Russ Busby’s 1999 book “Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador,” “When I arrived at the airport, Mr. Graham himself was waiting for me. I expected to be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce or at least a Mercedes, but we got in his Oldsmobile and he drove it himself. I couldn’t believe he came to the airport driving his own car.
“When we approached his home,” Ali continued, “I thought he would live on a thousand-acre farm and we drove up to this house made of logs. No mansion with crystal chandeliers and gold carpets, it was the kind of a house a man of God would live in. I looked up to him.”
3| A timely excerpt of “Character in Leadership: Does it Really Matter Anymore?” from the 2003 archives of Albert Mohler.
… Some observers are convinced that the issue of character is simply overblown. Richard Reeves, biographer of John F. Kennedy, complains that “the current political debate as it revolves around character issues is literally destroying American politics.” Peggy Noonan, speechwriter and biographer of President Ronald Reagan, argues the opposite: “In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant …. he doesn’t have to be clever; you can hire clever …. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you cannot buy courage and decency; you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him.”
… Our difficulty in dealing with the question of character is directly related to the fact that we have no common concept of what character really is.
… Three principles may offer us guidance in considering the issue of character in leadership, whether that leadership is exercised in the political sphere, in the church, or in any other consequential endeavor. These principles, rooted in the Christian worldview, may help us to think as we ponder the issue of character. First, character really is important. We are right to demand moral character of our leaders and to believe that character is inseparable from credibility in leadership.
… Second, we must understand that character is inevitably rooted in conviction. President Harry S. Truman once remarked, “A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.” Character does not emerge from a vacuum; it is tied to convictions that shape not only a leader’s life, but also the politics he represents. Character consists of beliefs as well as actions.
…Third, as Christians we also understand that sin is a fundamental reality we must take into account when considering character. We cannot expect moral perfection of those who would lead us. Believing that character is important, and that character is inseparable from conviction, we also understand that all human beings are sinners and that moral failure will happen. This perspective requires that Christians be careful and mature in our thinking about issues of character in leadership. Clearly, leadership is destroyed at some level of immoral involvement. At the same time,
This perspective requires that Christians be careful and mature in our thinking about issues of character in leadership. Clearly, leadership is destroyed at some level of immoral involvement. At the same time, true character in leadership is also demonstrated when a leader responds to his own moral failure in a way that shows true repentance and moral courage.
Americans have retained enough moral sense to know that personal character still matters in the choice of a babysitter. If this is true, we can hardly claim with a straight face that character is irrelevant to those who hold high positions of political leadership. In the end, our concept of character must be filled with specific content if it is to be meaningful. We must press on to think as Christians, refuse to be daunted by the complications, and show that we care about character–even between elections.
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