Third Annual Florida Founders Conference

I have just returned from the Third Annual “Florida Founders Conference” held this year at Grace Covenant Church in Lake City, Florida. (The weather in Florida is just amazing this time of the year!) Once again Russell Taylor and Aaron Turner put together an excellent regional Founders Conference!

This year’s speakers were Mike Davis, Dr. Phil Newton, Jay Letey, and Justin Erickson.

These men did a wonderful job of feeding our souls richly from God’s word, and the ladies of our host church did a wonderful job of feeding us as well (if you left hungry for either food for the soul or the body it was your own fault).

The sermons from this year’s Florida Founders Conference will soon be posted for downloaded at www.gracecovenantonline.net

Next years conference will be held at Southside Baptist Church in Live Oak, Florida during the third week in January. Check the Founders Ministry web site for upcomming announcements and details on next year's conference as the time draws nearer.

I hope you will mark your calendars and make plans to be with the Founders in Florida next January... I know I will!

Grace to all,

Religious Liberty or Legalism at SWBTS?

Let me be very clear on something before you go read theses articles – the controversy surrounding the firing of Dr. Sheri Klouda is NOT about 'women pastors', which would violate the Southern Baptist convention's official confession of faith, the BFM2000. Dr. Sheri Klouda is not ordained. Dr. Sheri Klouda is not a pastor. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is not a church, it is an institution of higher learning, and Dr. Sheri Klouda was trained by SWBTS and hired by SWBTS to teach Hebrew and not theology.

SBC Outpost has put up a post concerning this very sad event at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary… Click and read the post “Would you hire this person?”

Wade Burleson has also commented about this on his blog, see: "Sheri Klouda: Gender Discrimination, Federal Law and the Law of Christ in the SBC and SWBTS" and "The Strange Belief that a Woman Cannot Teach a Man the Bible" and "The Sheri Klouda Issue Will Not Go Away Quietly"

Also the BP News has posted an article "Newspaper reports tenure refusal for Southwestern woman prof"

Grace to All...

Me in my Study

There really is no point to this post other than I needed a picture to put with my blog...

Turning church history on its head

In their article “Why We Left the Episcopal Church”, which appeared in the January 8, 2007 edition of the Washington Post, the Rev. John Yates and Os Guinness write:

“Fundamental to a liberal view of freedom is the right of a person or group to define themselves, to speak for themselves and to not be dehumanized by the definitions and distortions of others. This right we request even of those who differ from us.”

Yikes, talk about turning church history on its head… The Episcopal brethren have become the champions of religious freedom while we Baptist are busy meeting behind closed doors to see who we need to investigate next (the impact of Calvinism), bar from serving on our committees (anyone who drinks a class of wine with their evening meals), or reject as a missionary (anyone who speaks in a private prayer language).

Regardless of your position on any or all of the above mentioned issues it is clear that many in the Southern Baptist Convention are just fine with the loss of religious freedom… as long as it is the loss of someone else’s religious freedom.