Scattered and Covered

A Fun Moment from Indy

June 11th, 2008

On my way to dinner the other day, I spotted the Westboro Baptist Church across the street from the Convention Center protesting the SBC. They had their typical “God Hates Fags” poster along with one that says “Your Pastor is a Liar.” My personal favorite had to be “Your Pastor is a Whore.” Here is a flyer detailing the reasons for Westboro’s protest. This is fun stuff.

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The Resolution on Church Membership

June 11th, 2008

Today the Convention passed a Resolution “On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration.” This led to a substantive discussion on the nature of the church and regenerate church membership on the floor of the Annual Meeting. I was very thankful to see that this took place amid a flood of discussions encouraging us to do everything but be careful about our church’s membership.

Tom Ascol presented a form of this resolution each of the last two years only to have the Resolutions Committee decline to bring it up. This year there were four resolutions presented to the Committee and they drafted them into one decent, but neutered resolution. Malcolm Yarnell and Tom Ascol each presented amendments that strengthened the language of the resolution considerably. Bill Ascol also spoke to Tom’s amendment and presented a forceful case for calling us to repent of some of our past practices.

I think that this resolution, even though it is non binding, was a step in the right direction. This gives pastors more leverege to discuss these issues in their local church without sounding like they are nuts. Most people in our pews have not thought deeply about these issues because they have not had pastors who talked about them. This resolution gives us an opportunity to talk about it with the weight of the Convention behind them.

I encourage you to read Tom Ascol’s account of the discussion and the text of his amendment. I am very thankful that he has taken the lead in getting this resolution passed and this discussion on the table.

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Live from Indy

June 8th, 2008

We are headed to Indianapolis for the SBC Annual Meeting this year. I hope to post each day with a summary of what is going on. It would be great to catch up with any of you who might be here.

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The _____ Church

May 22nd, 2008

Take a trip to your local lifeway this week. You are very likely to notice that there are a ton of books with church in the title. It is very enlightening to read a few of these in order to find out what their underlying philosophy behind the church is and what biblical passages undergird their ecclesiastical philosophy. What I find interesting in several of the ones that I have read is that there is very little real discussion about what the church is in most of these books. Instead, they typically jump straight into practical insights about the church. Trust me, I am looking for practical insight into how to lead the church. I am in constant need of wisdom from other pastors to help me understand church leadership. It just appears that we tend to take a good definition of the church for granted.

So I set out on a mission this year. I was going to read every book that I could find with an adjective and the word church behind it. After reading about ten of these books, there is no way that I could read all of them. There were none that I considered a complete waste of time because I gleaned some kind of insight from all them. There is no denying that the best two so far are The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander and Mark Driscolls Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church. This was my second time through both of these books and they were both more profitable on the second reading. When you find a good book on the church, it will commend itself to multiple readings. Good books on the church don’t really sink all the way in on our first trip through.

What are some of the books on the church that you would recommend to other pastors and church leaders? Are there any books on the church that you find yourself returning to over and over?

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Making Some Changes

May 6th, 2008

I am going to make some changes around here so that I can make this site a little more effective. I am retiring “Bad Church Sign of the Week” for a few reasons. Also, I am going to use this site to offer some additional resources to the members of our church to supplement some of the things that we are teaching.

On a lighter note, our little girl Sarah Kate was born last Tuesday. She was 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and is an unbelievably easy going baby. Beth is doing great and her big sister loves her very much. So the Slayton family is very happy and expanding.Our online pharmacy is the perfect resource for people to get their drugs without any hassles or awkwardness. cialis We work hard to make sure you save money every time you shop with us. levitrasoma At our online store, you pay less and get more. viagra

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Helpful Books for Evangelism

March 9th, 2008

This week I have finally gotten to read Vintage Jesus and Reason for God. Each one of them serves a helpful purpose in evangelistic relationships. Vintage Jesus very helpfully answers 12 crucial questions about Jesus. It is a good introduction to the Christian faith and is readable for anyone. I think that it would be very good to use with someone who has questions about Jesus or is new to the faith.

Reason for God is what apologetics should be. Tim Keller works through objections to the Christian faith that he has dealt with as a pastor in Manhattan and answers them systematically. He also deals with what he sees as the most overwhelming evidence for the reality of the Gospel. This is a great book to put in the hands of a really settled skeptic.

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The Slayton Bookshelf

March 7th, 2008

So today I picked up A New Earthby Eckhart Tolle. If you have not heard of this, it is a book on spirituality that has been promoted by Oprah. She and Tolle are doing a podcast through the book and it is currently #1 on ITunes.

Essentially, he argues that we need to reach some type of enlightenment outside of the cognitive structures of our minds so that we can realize our full potential. His thesis is a strange combination of Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, and a poor reading of the Gospels. Tolle disdains organized religion, particularly Christianity and believes that sin is missing the point of our existence. (At least that is what I got from the first couple of chapters.)

Some of you might wonder why I would even read this book. I think that we need to know what people in our culture are reading when it comes to spirituality. At the end of the day, Oprah is the most popular spiritual leader in America. Anything that she recommends is going to fly off of the shelves.

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Thinking about Reading

March 3rd, 2008

Over the last several years, I have attempted to redouble my efforts at reading. I encounter many foolish opinions each day, including the ones in my own heart, and I need to step away and find some really good conversation partners. My books are those partners.

Last year I read Brothers We Are not Professionals by John Piper. Among the most helpful chapters was “Brothers, Fight For Your Life.” This was his chapter about the importance of reading. In it, he points to John Stott’s advice about reading. Here is Stott’s program. Each day, read one hour. Each week, read one entire morning, afternoon, or evening. Each month, read one full day. Each year, read for one entire week. This adds up to between 500 and 600 hours each year.

I have been following this advice for about a year and have found it to be very rewarding. Lately I had been slacking a little bit and I ran across this quote in J. Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership. He said that there was a man who was very well read and his friends asked how he got the time to read. He responded, “I don’t get time. I make time.”

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The Good ‘Ol KJV

February 10th, 2008

Brad Jones has possibly the funniest thing that I have ever seen posted on his blog. You can view the post here.

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The Slayton Bookshelf

February 9th, 2008

I just finished reading The Post Christian Mind by Harry Blamires. Most of you know Blamires from his book The Christian Mind. In The Post Christian Mind, Blamires chronicles the way that thinking about life, God, government, and ethics has changed in our postmodern society. To be honest, I agree with most of Blamires description of the postmodern condition. The problem is that I do not like the way that Blamires is right. He offers what I consider to be the worst kind of cultural analysis. He sounds more like an angry man lamenting the loss of a bygone era. Rather than offering opportunities that are provided by postmodernism, he only complains about the changes in culture. I think that this is a great book for showing how not to think about culture.

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Scattered and Covered

A Fun Moment from Indy

The Resolution on Church Membership

Live from Indy

The _____ Church

Making Some Changes

Helpful Books for Evangelism

The Slayton Bookshelf

Thinking about Reading

The Good ‘Ol KJV

The Slayton Bookshelf

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