Sorry, Sarah… Goodbye, Governor Palin

Well, Sarah Palin is done with elected political office.  She’s resigned.  I’m not happy about it, but I can understand why.

Before I go there, let me first say that I do not think Sarah Palin would be the best GOP presidential candidate in 2012.  I’m no longer starstruck by her.  I see that she had some real deficiencies as a running mate for John McCain (though I still would have rather had her than any of the three other names on the major party tickets).  She was ill-prepared for international issues.  She was handled very poorly by staffers.  Yeah, yeah, yeah…

I think she’s been a good governor for Alaska.  I think she’s a smart woman.  More than that, I believe she is incredibly principled.  I love her values, and I don’t even mean that in the “crazy-religious-right” sort of way.  Palin has been able to articulate a vision for a limited government and preservation of liberties better than most politicians today from either side of the aisle.  Though she would not be conservatism’s best hope in 2012, she could have been by 2016 or 2020.

But that’s not going to happen.  She’s done.  From the first day she was introduced to the nation as McCain’s running mate, the media has been out to slaughter her image.  She was immediately branded as dumb, cheap, and incompetent.  She was held to a standard that no one else was.  Since the campaign has ended, her political enemies have continued to press the attack against her (I believe because of the threat she represented).  She and her family have had to fight dozens of ethics investigations – all of which have proved her innocent – and this has led to the amassing of more than $500,000 in debt for the legal fees.

I wasn’t going to blog about this because (you may have notice) I am trying to do less political blogging.  BUT, you can thank the pompous jerk Anderson Cooper for this little post.  He just confirmed for me exactly why I can understand Sarah Palin wanting to bow out of the public view – at least for a little while.  After replaying large portions of her press conference today, his first words of commentary were:  “A stunning announcement, not just grammatically, but politically.”

If I were not a pastor, I’d use language to express just how I feel about that statement.  First of all, it was a fine speech.  NO ONE speaks with perfect grammar.  The spoken word and the written word are handled and composed differently.  It is not as if Gov. Palin was dangling her prepositions.  She was just talking.  And Anderson Cooper makes that cheap shot comment, blindly following the asinine storyline that’s been developed around the caricature of Palin that is purely fiction.

How can anyone take the media seriously?  I mean, they talk about Sarah Palin’s speaking abilities as if she is a bumbling idiot.  But then they turn around and call the Messiah Obama some great, tremendous orator?  I just went to youtube for a random sample of our fabulous Golden Mouth President, and here’s what I got.

Far from impressive, both in terms of content and presentation.

That’s it.  I’ve made my statement.  I hope I’m wrong.  I hope that a decade from now Sarah Palin will reemerge and continue to serve our country.  But I think she’ll probably now be on the sidelines, fund-raise, comment, cheer, and so on.  And I trust that she and Todd know that is what is best for their family.

Summer Reading – 2009

It is not too late to do some summer reading!  AND, if you order books during the month of July, our friends at monergismbooks.com are offering FREE SHIPPING!  Woohoo!  Here’s how to get the free shipping:

1. Registered users place at least $25 worth of merchandise in your shopping cart.
2. During checkout type the text July2009 in the Coupon or Customer Code box.
3. Select Economy Mail as your shipping method.
4. Shipping charges will automatically be removed from your order.

It’s that simple.  Now, on to the really important stuff… Some recommendations.  I’m not going to give very many.  If you’d like more info on any book in particular, just ask.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner is one of the best bibilical defenses of the doctrines of grace I’ve read.  It is a classic work of theology already.  It is thorough, but not overly academic.  It may take some work to get through it all, but remember that those who persevere to the end will be saved!

Let the Nations Be Glad! by John Piper is a fabulous book about missions.  This book probably did more to form in me a heart for missionary efforts than any other I have read.  The line I will never forget from this book is something like this:  Missions exists because there are places where worship does not.  God deserves the worship, honor, and praise of all people, so we must take His good news to all so that they might repent, believe, and glorify Him.

Finally Alive by John Piper is a book I have written about before.  You can read what I wrote about it here.  I’ll just say this again…  I think this could prove to be one of Piper’s most important books of his writing career.  In this book, the Bible’s teaching on the new birth – the doctrine of regeneration – is expounded and made clear.  If you don’t want to buy this book, I’ll personally give you a copy.  It is that important.

Living the Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney is one of the best little books I’ve ever read.  It is 176 pages, but it is VERY small in size.  This is a practical and encouraging book about living a life in which the Gospel is front and center in all you do.

Death by Love by Mark Driscoll is a very unique book on the cross of Christ.  It is not primarily a theological work, though it is certainly theologically founded.  Driscoll seeks to apply the effects of the Christ’s atoning work to real-life situations.  I always enjoy Mark Driscoll.

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller is a book that I have not yet read.  But I hope to read it, perhaps in August.  I’ve heard many good things.  If you beat me to it, be sure and let me know what you think!

Read, read, read!!

A Great Commission Resurgence and the SBC’s decline in membership

Our denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, has a wonderful history and tradition of supporting missions.  In many ways, missions has been a defining mark of the denomination’s work.  Through the Cooperative Program, the SBC has supported perhaps the finest international missions agency in the world.

However, in recent years a great deal of concern has arisen from the fact that, after decades of growth, the denomination’s membership is shrinking.  I must admit that when I first heard about this a couple of years ago, I didn’t necessary think it was a bad thing.  Falling numbers would not be a bad thing if churches were simply updating their roles to be more accurate in reflecting who is an actual, participating member of the church, removing the names of people who have not darkened the doors in five years.  If that were the case, I’d be exciting about this “membership decline.”

Another scenario in which I’d welcome the decline in baptisms would be if large numbers pastors were actually taking greater care in who they baptize.  While I do have respect for Rick Warren and many aspects of his ministry, I was shocked when I read this letter to his church family.  In it, he is promoting a mass baptism.  I think more personal, pastoral care is necessary when counseling a person toward baptism.  But at least Warren was requiring candidates to attend a new members’ class; many pastors and churches are unwilling to even do that!  Fewer baptisms would be a welcome headline if it reflected churches taking greater care to examine the conversion experience of baptismal candidates – you know, like Baptists used to do.

Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios are behind the decline in SBC baptisms and total membership.  The denomination that began largely with a call to missions work, that still today does incredible international missions work, is losing the missionary front here at home.  The political infighting of the denomination over the last three decades — not all of which was unimportant — has trickled down into a malaise in many of the congregations.  Some of us have gotten more focused on “being right” than sharing the gospel.  For this, I have had to repent at times.

This is why I am so thankful for the current movement in the SBC calling for a Great Commission Resurgence.  A declaration of ten articles has been drafted and can be signed by anyone who is a member of a Southern Baptist church.  Though I had heard of it before, I finally read it after Jim Hamilton plugged the document on his blog.  I signed it yesterday, and I hope you will do the same after reading it.  These signatures will hopefully come together as one loud, united voice at this year’s denominational annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

Between now and the SBC meeting in late June, I hope to blog through the ten articles and talk about how they apply to our church.  We at FBCMB have a lot of room for growth — personally and corporately — in having our own Great Commission Resurgence.  But as a pastor, I can think of no group of people I’d rather join with in taking on this challenge.

May the gospel saturate and animate our lives.  May the good news of Christ warm our hearts, shape our minds, and drip from our lips before the lost world.  Amen.

Sermons should be “full of Christ.”

I just found this quote by Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers.  I love it.

Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel.  As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the Apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified… Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in your sermon… We preach Jesus Christ to those who want Him, and we also preach Him to those who do not want Him, and we keep on preaching Christ until we make them feel that they do want Him, and cannot do without Him.

I pray that my preaching will always be full of Christ.

I got 7 out of 10.

More about John Calvin at Calvin 500

Excellent Explanation of Preaching

I love John Piper.  And I love this new video in which he explains his philosophy of preaching.

I pray that when I am his age, I will have remained faithful to this high view of Scripture’s power.

I am not sure if I want to laugh or cry…

Three greats

How I’d love to have heard this live…

New post on FBCMB’s Connect First

I’m not going to do this forever, but until it is well-established…  Just want to remind you that I’ll be posting at our church’s new blog.  Check it out here!

I’ll still post some stuff here, as well.  So get used to going to BOTH PLACES! 

New church blog!

FBCMB now has a church blog.  From there, your friendly church staff will keep you updated on various events, happening, random thoughts, etc.  Please start visiting it regularly for church-related stuff.  I’ll still be using this blog for my own personal rants.  You can click on the link above or below, or type http://fbcmb.wordpress.com in your browser’s address bar.

Help us out by spreading the word about the Connect First blog.  If you are a blogger, let your people know in a post.  Thanks!

Jake