SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Mary and I spent the day at SWBTS a couple of days ago as guests at a dinner where we were recognized for the Paul and Mary Burleson endowed scholarship given to a student at that theological institution of which I'm a graduate. It was our first visit back on campus in many years. What a hoot it was too.


We saw some VERY special people to us including former Southcliff students who now are in ministry and were back also. Some of those special people were were Dr. Berry Driver, who is Dean of Libraries at SWBTS  and who gave us a grand tour of almost the entire campus. Guy Grimes, Dan Brandel were there also. Great guys all three.


Friends we saw there were Tom and Shirley Costen, Steve James, who now pastors in Lake Charles La. and several others, including Kevin Walker and his wife who are presently on staff at Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth where I was privileged to pastor many moons ago.


I also got to visit at length with Dr. Jack Terry, Jimmy Draper, Gil Strickland, Dr. Jack McGorman, all of whom belong to a who's who list of Baptist life, along with several others, and it was also fun to visit with Dr. Paige Patterson and his wife Dorothy, who came to our table and chatted with Mary and me. Dr. Patterson and Dorothy were extremely gracious to us...as always. 

I may not agree with all the direction of some of the leaders of that institution but there was a sweet family spirit with all and it reminded me of what can be in the SBC when a common ground is our emphasis. If that common ground could forever remain Christ and His work at Calvary and an empty tomb we would all enjoy each other as diverse as we are in so many other things. Maybe that's what family really is anyway.
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I posted the above comment on my FB a few days ago but wanted to do it here as well and add an observation or two.

One observation is that, while those six years spent at Southcliff in the late 70s and early 80s as pastor of that church__ where we saw a great work of the Spirit by the way and I was privileged to speak for six consecutive years in chapel at SWBTS__ are some of my best memories of ministry, I wouldn't choose to go back to that time for a million dollars. That's not to denigrate that time at all. It is to emphasis the ongoing work of His Spirit in my life personally.

The changes that have come across the years are so real and the work of God's grace in me so deep that, were I privileged to go back, it would have to be to basically tell those wonderful people of the great things God has continued to do in me. 


Things like giving me understanding of the New Covenant we are in with Christ and the freedom for the whole of the Body of Christ to minister in giftedness and the anointing of the Spirit. Back then I had culturally bought into a one man show with volunteers to build an organization that we called the "church." I'm not denying God blessed then and worked incredibly among us, but that was "in spite" of some biblical ignorance and a lacking in my ecclesiology.

He's still blessing by the way, and working in spite of my confessed on going ignorance. But I do find myself wishing I could go back just long enough to share what I'm seeing now in my understanding of, the Ekklesia as mentioned but a lot of other things also. Some of those other areas that I've come to see in new ways are things like...


Eschatology
Covenants
The law of Moses
The law of Christ
Women in Ministry
New Covenant Ethics and lifestyle
The whole thing of being the PERSON and FAMILY where grace is in place.


A final observation is that I would want to emphasis to them how the present day changes in my belief system have NOT come about because of my embracing our modern day culture as some who disagree with me on them would suggest. Quite to the contrary, from my perspective, it is BECAUSE I've seen the text in new ways and have seen with better clarity how much our culture had invaded my theology BACK THEN. [Don't we all say this about our personal belief system!]  So I'd love to be able to share my new understanding with those people of Southcliff who are some of the finest I've ever known. 


Alas... all that sharing will have to wait until heaven. Maybe that is part of what the eternal blessing yet to come is all about. [Unless someone reads my FB page or my blog where I talk about these things with regularity.]


No wonder I find myself saying with some regularity these days..."Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus."


Paul B.

I'VE LEFT THE CHURCH

I read an article that presented ten myths about people who have left the church that I found interesting. Let me give you a sample of the myths found in the article.

One myth pointed out in the article was that the people who leave the church are NOT young adults or people on the fringe. While some leavers were in that category, the predominate group found to be leaving was middle-aged people. 70% were between 35 and 45 years of age.


A second myth pointed out was that it is typically believed that if Mom and Dad were church goers their children would grow up to be also. The research found to the contrary that the influence of church going parents grew very weak eventually and that the effects church-going parents had on their children apparently disappeared under later influences such as marriage and peer groups which became more important to them as the years past by. I'm reporting what I read remember.  


A third myth shown in the research is that the leavers are NOT people who lacked commitment to the group left. Ninety-four percent [94%] of those interviewed had been involved in significant leadership positions within their churches and 40% of them had a year or more of a position on church staff, with a para-church group, overseas missions assignment or had studied in a Theological Seminary somewhere.


I can't vouch for the accuracy of the research or even the conclusions drawn from it. Someone reading this post may be able to find other researchers with differing opinions. But what no one can doubt is that people are leaving the Church in bunches according to many reports today. George Barna says the same thing and he's the god of statistics with regards to church-life. Right!!


My problem with all this is not that people differ on numbers or categories. I don't even have a problem admitting that people are leaving. I read tons of blogs that have been established to help and assist those who are leaving to better cope with their disappointment with the group left behind. I appreciate those blog sites and concur with trying to assist in helping remove as much of the pain involved with situations that cause people to leave. I've got issues with some of our local church-life as well.


My problem is with what is it that people really think and say they are leaving?


Would it not be more correctly stated to say that they are leaving an INSTITUTION rather than the Church when leaving behind a particular denomination? Presbyterians, Anglicans, Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and a host of others may have people leaving those bodies to be sure, but to equate that with leaving the "Church" is a theological mis-step from my perspective. 


I think it wise to see and understand this fact as one is leaving any denomination. It could even be a major step in true healing of the wounds and pain caused by such groups were we to challenge our thinking along these lines. 


Would it not be more correctly stated to say that they are leaving an ORGANIZATION rather than the Church when leaving behind a particular local body. A local Baptist church, a local Sovereign Grace Fellowship, a local Bible, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Fundamentalist fellowship or any other designated group can be left behind to be sure, but to equate that with leaving the "Church" is ALSO a theological mis-step from my perspective. I'm not denigrating small bodies of believers in saying either IMHO. 


Far better for healing and health to admit that 'institutions" and "organizations" doth not the Church make. And the Church is certainly not the brick and wood that make up the building that is typically called "The Church." 


So, regarding the "True Ekklesia," [Church] we must always remember that by virtue of being a Christian we ARE THE CHURCH and that identity will never and can never be left, changed or abrogated in any fashion whatsoever. We are His Church whoever we are as believers and wherever we are on any day of the week. You can't leave your identity as the Church any more than you could change your own fallen nature. Christian...YOU ARE THE CHURCH!


But as the Church, we need each other, because the Ekklesia is, as Frank Viola says in his book, "Re-imagining the Church," corporate by her very nature. A Christian is not thinking biblically when he or she thinks like a "Lone Ranger" as a believer. Viola points out in his book in a biblically correct fashion that "Christ and His body are distinct but not separate and the Ekklesia is the native habitat of every believer." 


This means I am to recognize that while an organization may be left or even an institution, the Church HAS NOT BEEN LEFT by any Christian. I'm also to recognize that my connection with other individual believers will need to continue through other and various means, online or otherwise, as it is important to connect with the true body at all times. Connectedness is not a biblical option though the methods involved in that connectedness can be creative for the true Ekklesia. 


[Small groups meeting in homes for personal connectedness say on a Thursday or Friday night for a wine and bible night as one group I know of in Tulsa Oklahoma is doing it, is an example. The Wartburg E-Church online is another creative method.] 


All believers are commissioned and anointed to go and as they're going to minister, making disciples and baptize. [Matt 28]


Do I believe in local churches? By all means. I've pastored them for forty years. I just don't think they always look the way we think they do in our American culture. Then there is the Church as the whole of the Body of Christ as well.  


Can we find another local organization with which to connect? Perhaps! I hope so. I think it is even good to do that. Eventually. Maybe. Are people leaving institutions and organizations that have the word "church" attached to them? Yes, by the droves if research is correct. 


But my point is simply that if you do that you haven't left the "Church." That's who you are.


Paul B.

DEATH ON THE PORCH

Do you remember the last time someone sat calmly with you and discussed dying which is as much a fact of life as is living? Was it a life insurance agent selling a policy who talked with you about when statistically your family was projected to receive the benefit? Or perhaps it was as you were awaiting the memorial service for a friend or family member which seems to be happening with a bit more regularity these days for Mary and me. 

Then there is the ever present statements from the pulpits of our churches that frequency remind us that it is appointed once to die, but the emphasis is more on the potential for terror afterward so much so the average person tends to remove it from their thought processes as quickly as possible after the conclusion of the service. 

I've had an occasion or two where the reality of death was very close and there seemed to be the possibility of it being the next item on my personal agenda. The first time was as I lay on an operating table in 1985 and heard the doctor who was doing an angioplasty on me say to his assistant and I quote..."Oh my god, we've got a bubble in there." He meant there was an air bubble in the artery close to my heart and I had done some reading about the dangers of just such an event. I remember that precise moment and my precise thought that at any moment now I could be literally in the presence of the Lord. I have to tell you with no exaggeration whatsoever that I laughed. The doctor said, "Mr. Burleson are you alright? I answered him, "Better than you can know Doc." 

The second time was in 2005 when I suffered a stroke on the second day of a twelve day motorcycle trip to the Blueridge Parkway and I had similar thoughts that will have to be told another time.

Old timers used to say that a person is not ready to live until they are ready to die. I do think that being confronted with death does often tend to nudge a person toward measuring life quite differently after that experience. It may even be seen as something of a gift from that point on. Life from the beginning is that, of course, but sometimes for us to focus in on it's true giftedness a moment has to come where the loss of that gift is a strong possibility.

My moments when, if death wasn't at the door, it was sure on the porch, allowed me to grasp anew the true gift of life I'm sure. But what was REALLY interesting was that the fear of dying was totally foreign to me in that moment.

Why talk about this today? Have I begun to feel my age? Has some physical problem been revealed? Is there some announcement I wish to make? None of the above.

Good Friday has caused me to think of how the death of our lord was not only on the porch but inside the door for Him and was now very, very real. It wasn't as if were any surprise to Him. He had, after all, set His face as a flint toward this moment since a child of twelve leaving the Temple. He was born to die. 


We are all that of course, the difference being He had no reason to other than His incredible love for us and desire to accomplish His Father's plan for our redemption. With that as His goal and purpose He died. 

But Sunday came. We call it the first day of the week. Some call it Easter Sunday. I call it my removal of the "fear of dying" day. Death being "on the porch" or "in the door," for me makes little difference. Easter Sunday has happened. And it's ramifications for all of us who know Him now include the fact that we will never truly "die"...so maybe... we can truly "live."

Paul B.

REGARDING HIS RETURN

One of the basic tenets of the Christian faith is belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. On this fact all evangelical Christians can agree. The disagreement among Christians has to do with the order of the events surrounding His coming. 


For centuries that order has been hotly debated between people in the family of faith. Sometimes that debate has degenerated into something that has resembled a Hatfields and McCoys kind of feud. So much so that it has kept some people from even wanting to hear about the One whose coming is being debated. 


Having been forgotten in all this is the fact that He's already come once to accomplish His work of the Cross and that His redemptive work is the basis of our fellowship and not eschatology. 

The four main views of those second coming events are what are classically known as the pre-millennial, post-millennial, a-millennial and Preterist  interpretations of His coming.

[Preterism is usually divided into two parts called the partial-preterist view and the full-preterist view. Full-preterism is sometimes thought of as heretical by orthodox Christianity.]

In each of these you can find some good arguments for what is believed in that particular system. But all of them can also be shot down in some ways at least in the minds of others and what makes it worse is the fact that you can find good people who hold to any one of the four views. What is a person to do? 

What is a person to do?  Permit me a few suggestions to cool the heat of debate.

First...By all means find the view you believe to be closest to the Scriptures and study it sufficiently enough to be able to say why, scripturally, you hold to it. Every Christian must decide for him or herself obviously,  but then, he or she must not fail to accept into fellowship those who may  hold to a different belief. To do less than this is to make an EVENT of Christ more significant than the PERSON of Christ. That is totally untenable for believers not to mention unscriptural. 

Second... It is of far greater importance to also major on what we all can agree on so that we can be certain that we at least stand with the early Church with what they knew for sure about His Coming. This is what they believed without any doubt. 

A--They believed in the fact of His Second Coming. 

B--They believed no one could know the exact time of His Coming. 

C--They exhorted one another to be ready for His coming for His Coming.

Third--Believe what you will as to the order of the events surrounding His coming but never fail to love and celebrate with all Christians the PERSON who has come and is coming again .

Grace even allows the Hatfields and McCoys to love one another.

Paul B.