Dang, I'm tired. A long but good day.
Breakfast with Van Sanders (IHOP baby) and Joe this morning. Good to think about mission work in the U.S. before the day really begins.
The first speaker was Paige Patterson. Paige was glued to the page, reading a paper on what Baptists can learn from the Anabaptists. There were plenty of interesting points along the way, but nothing mind-blowing.
The second speaker was Russ Moore, who was speaking at Union's chapel service. He spoke on T.T. Eaton, an important figure in the history of Union University. Russ tipped his hat to country music and slapped the bloggers, as expected. As a whole it was a pretty insightful talk and some interesting history. Russ didn't hold back on Eaton's problems either.
The third speaker was David Dockery, the President of Union. Dockery offered up a helpful summary of of Baptist history emphasizing recent history (since 1979, the conservative resurgence). Really good stuff. He offered some great insights on what our current problems are and why different types of Baptists that were necessary for the resurgence don't fit well into our controversy-less era. He didn't offer much of a path foward, but I greatly appreciated Dockery's perspective and insights otherwise.
The fourth speaker was Greg Thornbury. This was a great talk on the "angry young men" of the SBC, namely the bloggers. He was rightly generous and understood the situation of blogs and Baptist life very well. It was obvious he did his research and didn't just paint with a broad brush. Greg explained the difference between anger and frustration among the bloggers and pointed out why focusing on Baptist Basics (instead of programs or battles) was the key to the future.
Greg gave a quote from UU prof Hal Poe that I felt was worth repeating. He said, "Every culture has a question that only the Gospel can answer. Listen for the question."
Greg is a friend (we met in seminary) and I'm glad he is in the SBC. If it weren't for guys like him, bloggers like me would be much more frustrated. I hope his voice grows and his wisdom is heard for the sake of our mission.
Joe and I skipped the last session today by Jim Shaddix on the future of the traditional church. We both needed some time to finish our sermon work for Sunday and we really weren't interested in the topic.
We then grabbed some hot wings with Timmy Brister and Mark and Jacob (Union students). Great conversation on seminary, church planting, and culture.
Now, me needy some sleepy. Gnite. Oh, and here are a few fun pictures I stole and added rainbows to. Why? I dunno. It just seemed funny to add rainbows to people. That's Frank Page, our buddies Mark and Jacob, Tom Ascol, and Thom Rainer. Geez I'm random. Enjoy!
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