Dr. Lemke posted a letter to me and others in a comment on this blog. In order to highlight his gracious letter and my response, I am posting his letter and mine back to him in a fresh entry. -Tom ********************************************* Tom and friends, Thank you for the careful attention you have given to my…

In 1995 the Home Mission Board (now known as the North American Mission Board) of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a research report entitled, A Large Convention of Small Churches. It was authored by Philip B. Jones and employs standard statistical-analytical procedures to give insight into the reported membership and growth patterns of Southern Baptist…

I stopped my evaluation of Steve Lemke’s article (that Bobby Welch commended as a fine treatment of Calvinism and the Great Commission) primarily because the kinds of historical and theological mistakes that it contains tend to be repeated throughout the remainder of the 4th part of his paper. Others have sufficiently debunked his statistical musings….

The Lemke/Welch misrepresentations of Calvinism and Founders Ministries have provoked responses in many different blogs. I have read some and had many more recommended to me. There are many excellent blogs out there that are worth reading. One of them is Locust and Wild Honey. Another is Words of Grace. Dr. Ray Van Neste has…

More on Dr. Lemke’s article: Wise voices such as Adrian Rogers, Danny Akin, and Paige Patterson have warned about the dangers of unchecked hyper-Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. Granted, the three men mentioned are indeed wise and Southern Baptists owe a debt of gratitude to each of them. Their courage, boldness, commitment to the…

Dr. Lemke’s 4th issue of concern relates to Calvinism…of a sort. He writes: (4) Hyper-Calvinistic Soteriology – Will Baptists change their soteriology such that persons are no longer seen as having any capacity to respond to God’s invitation to salvation? Will Baptists take a “hyper-Calvinist turn” than hinders missions and evangelism? Dr. Lemke demonstrates by…

July 10, 2005, just in time for the 23rd Annual Founders Conference that met in Ormond Beach, Florida, Southern Baptist Convention President, Bobby Welch posted an article in the newsletter of the First Baptist Church of Daytona, where he serves as pastor. The title of his article is “Calvinism and Christ’s Great Commission.” Here is…

Baptistfire.com has a firm grasp on its place as the National Enquirer of the internet. Many of the articles have the same appeal as the old carnival hawkers of my youth (“Come see the Man Eating Chicken!”). They intentionally imply what they carefully avoid saying. I have been wise to this tactic ever since I…

Thanks for your prayers for this meeting. Though I do not have a final report from the leaders of the conference, more than 50 people indicated that they believed God was calling them to give their lives to cross-cultural evangelism and church planting. Several from our church spoke with me and other adults about their…

I am spending this week with 50 of my favorite young people and several favorite adult church members attending the Saved By Faith Youth Challenge conference. The theme is “Evangelizing the Last Frontier.” David Sitton and Steve Henry are the guest speakers and, thus far, the meetings have been very good. They are from To…