He calls us freaks!

Fred Phelps, from Westboro Baptist Church, has chosen to call the Southern Baptist Convention freaks (and a whorehouse, a dog kennel, a leper colony, creeps, idiots, not to mention dolts). I’ll have to agree that anyone who attends a convention will probably come to the conclusion that we’re a little bit freakish for themselves, but hopefully for a different reason!

Moving along, though. Phelps and his minions will be picketing the convention in Greensboro to complain about Southern Baptists. John Stickley and I will try to capture part of it on video and provide it for you. It’s looking more and more like it might be a really fun week!

Oh, and to top it off, it looks as if Condoleezza Rice will be speaking in person at the convention on Tuesday morning at 10am. That should be interesting/exciting.

Tracy Fries- Wife, Mom, Superstar

My wife is gone right now. She’s spending a couple weeks, with our girls, back home in Alabama and Florida. She wanted to go home for some time this summer and decided to do so in conjunction with the convention so she wouldn’t be by herself while I’m gone.

I’ll be honest with you guys. I’m pitiful without my wife and my girls. I hate being home alone. In the week they’ve been home I’ve been gone, on average, from 8am to 11pm each day on purpose. I don’t like staying by myself. What’s even worse, however, is that I’m not altogether capable of taking care of myself without her. For instance, other than one semester when we first met in college, I’ve never even had to do my own laundry. She has done it for me since we were dating. I also am lousy at feeding myself. This is partly due to the fact that I don’t really eat much, or all that often, and partly because I’m generally incompetent in the kitchen. So, in order to preserve my health, if you open my refrigerator right now, Tracy has prepared my meals for each day she’s gone, complete with drinks and snacks and labeled each one so that I know which day to eat them. I don’t even have to think about that. I just have to heat, and eat!

All that being said, I love my wife. I always love her, but there is truth in the statement that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” So, if you read this babe, know that I love you and I miss you a ton right now! You’re my hero!!

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Ergo, Ergun

Ergun Caner is at it again. Just a few months ago he preached a sermon at Thomas Road Baptist Church on the inherent evils of hyper-calvinism. He then involved himself in a series of aggressive attacks on much of the reformed movement within the convention. Now Caner has written an article that is produced in the National Liberty Journal by the same name as his previous sermon. Tom Ascol has produced a response in reply to Caner’s article that I would encourage you to read as well.

The most unfortunate aspect of Caner’s article is that hyper-Calvinism is NOT a wide-spread problem within the SBC. Are there hyper-Calvinists in the convention? Sure. Are they potentially killing the convention? NO!

There are a tremendous amount of problems with the article, but I’ll simply comment on two of them. First, notice that Caner references an article on another church splitting over Calvinism, yet doesn’t give us specifics. It leads one to believe that he’s creating the situation in order to support his argument. Have church’s split over Calvinism? I’m sure they have, but not in droves like he leads us to believe.

Secondly, notice this comment I was returning home from an engagement last month when I met a director of missions. As we talked, he leaned in and whispered, “The Reformed movement will not go away. They are slowly taking over some major churches.”

I thought he was talking about hyper-Calvinism? Why does he mix that with simple (historical) Reformed theology?

These kind of diatribes that are unfounded are, at best, unfortunate and at the root of the problems inherent within the SBC. This activity is most discouraging.

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Taking Marty’s Cue

Like Marty, I’m concerned with Blogger’s ability to stay consistent. I’m very concerned with not being able to blog during the convention. As such I’ve set up a new blog on wordpress to accomodate for potential failure on blogger’s part. Check it out!

You’ll find my new blog at friesville.wordpress.com.

Welcome to my beach home

Well, since blogger seems to be having some growing pains, I don't want it to keep me from being able to blog from Greensboro. So, following Marty's lead, I've chosen to start a second blog. So, if the blogger blog is my regular domicile, we'll call this the beach home for the friesville bunch. Welcome!

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Not Quite as Mouthy…

I’m learning, as I grow, that I don’t have room to be nearly as mouthy as I used to be. You see, I suffer from a horrible case of pride and have always had a tendency to be “right” about everything, and glad to let you know about it. As I’ve been a pastor for 3 and a half years now, I’ve been surprised at how consistently I’ve been wrong. Beyond that, even when I’m right I’ve been surprised at how difficult it can be to make the right decisions.

Let’s be honest. Leadership hurts at times. I try and lead in the direction that I think is most honoring to God and, even in my small church, there is still some disagreement. We press on, attempting to build unity, but even in the midst of unity, it’s rare to have unanimity. In that lack of unanimity there is generally someone who is hurt by tough decisions. They get personally involved, or they misunderstand, or they’re simply not at the place that the rest of the church, or staff is. So hurt is created.

Secondly, I’ve learned that things are not nearly as cut and dried as they used to be. When I first started traveling as an itenerant preacher (at age 17) I knew everything about everything. I was always confident of the right course. As I’ve grown I’ve found that the right course is often hard to discern.

As an example: our church budget runs from July through June. In the 3.5 years I’ve been at Missouri Valley, we have increased our budget around 175%. God has been good to us and we’ve done something that is generally considered impossible. For the first time since I’ve been there, however, this year we are going to finish the year slightly under budget. (not much under, but enough under) It’s not a really big deal, but I feel like we’ve got to be financially responsible as a church if we’re to have a testimony of faithfulness to our people and the community, and so we’ve slightly reduced our budget this year to help compensate. As we did so, I had to tell some people in our church that some of the ministries that were particuarly personal to them would recieve less funding. That was horrible. There is simply no good way to do it. Yet, if we are to be faithful as a church, we have to do this. We have to set the example.

I think I’ve rambled alot, but after our business meeting tonight I was thinking about these things. I’ve spent alot of time lately, thinking about the mistakes I’ve made (and believe me, they are legion) as the pastor at Missouri Valley. These mistakes have caused me to reflect and change in order to be more consistent as their pastor, but they’ve also occasionally caused me to hurt some people which bothers me immensely. They’ve also helped me to value and love my people more, because Missouri Valley folks love me anyway and keep joining together with me so that we can keep trying crazy stuff together in an attempt to reach our community that somehow God seems to bless.

I think the end result of what I have been trying to say is that I’ve learned so much over the past few years about how little I really am compared to my miscontrued concept of myself. Greater than that, however, is the fact that I’ve learned that I serve the greatest church in the country, filled with passionate people who love Jesus (who deserves their love) and who somehow love me (who doesn’t). I’m thankful for God’s grace, and MVBC’s grace that helps me live with myself even when I get a little too mouthy, and helps correct me at the same time!

Thanks for helping me to be a little less mouthy, and thanks for loving me even when I am.

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Don’t you hate getting “outed”

This is a good commentary on a recent USA Today article regarding the Colorado Rockies and their overtly Christian presence. It’s sad to me that these ballplayers feel the need to move away from their faith when given the opportunity to talk about it in a public setting.

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My Blog is a Success!

I have determined tonight that my blog has truly reached succesful fulfillment. Up to this point we’ve seen glimpses of success (i.e. being quoted in news articles, SBC leaders leaving comments, yesterday a member of the House of Representatives stopped by, etc.) but never before has this blog reached such dizzying heights! What is it, you ask, that would provoke this excitement? Well, according to my statcounter, two individuals were reffered to my blog through various search engines. What’s even better, is what they were searching for that got them to me.

1. If you search google images for “crips and bloods gif” you will find a pic from my blog as one of the top 20 responses. Why, I’m not really sure, but it’s pretty cool anyway.

2. If you search Comcast for “deerticks” you will also be led to my blog, wich makes me laugh, and laugh, and laugh until I almost want to cry.

Now this has made my weekend!

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A difference of opinion

I’ve been contemplating, as I’m sure many of you have, the upcoming annual meeting of the SBC. I’ve heard many people speak about their reasons for going and one that I’ve heard often is that they desire to go because of the opportunity to network, to hear good preaching, to worship together, etc. Now, please don’t misconstrue this for some pagan mentality, but I tend to disagree with those opinions. It’s not that I dislike those things, or that I don’t want those things. I dislike, however, the attitude that seems to desire to overlook the “business” portion of the annual meeting in favor of more “spiritual” experiences. I even heard, after last year’s meeting, that it was very refreshing but would be more so if they would replace the business sessions with worship services. Now I’m in favor of worship, but this sort of attitude is a part of, I believe, the move to reduce our opportunity to engage the process. What’s most difficult about this move is that it’s hard to criticize. I almost guarantee that someone will criticize this post because they assume that I’m not being “spiritual” enough. Again, it’s not that I oppose the spiritual portions, but the convention is intended to be a business meeting. It has become a worship rally with a limited amount of business opportunities. This cuts down on the time allowed for actual business, and allows a tightly controlled leadership group to continue to manipulate the process by not allowing for a variety of opinions to actually reach the floor of the convention.

For instance, if you consult the website for this year’s annual meeting you’ll notice that (by my count) they give a total of 125 minutes for business across the 2 days. When you add in that almost an hour of that time is given to the election of officers, that only leaves about 1.5 hours for business total over the two days. That may not seem too bad to you, but when compared with the music/preaching portion of the meeting that takes up 340 minutes of the meeting (of which, by the way, prayer and baptism time is not included, if so it would stretch out another hour or so), it’s really not much of a business meeting, is it?

In closing, let me restate that I love worship, I love networking, and I value all of those times at the convention. I’m not trying to remove them from the schedule, but that’s not why I go. I’m going to participate in the business of the SBC. I’m going in order to make a difference. I hope that you are too.

114921774631809807

A difference of opinion

I’ve been contemplating, as I’m sure many of you have, the upcoming annual meeting of the SBC. I’ve heard many people speak about their reasons for going and one that I’ve heard often is that they desire to go because of the opportunity to network, to hear good preaching, to worship together, etc. Now, please don’t misconstrue this for some pagan mentality, but I tend to disagree with those opinions. It’s not that I dislike those things, or that I don’t want those things. I dislike, however, the attitude that seems to desire to overlook the “business” portion of the annual meeting in favor of more “spiritual” experiences. I even heard, after last year’s meeting, that it was very refreshing but would be more so if they would replace the business sessions with worship services. Now I’m in favor of worship, but this sort of attitude is a part of, I believe, the move to reduce our opportunity to engage the process. What’s most difficult about this move is that it’s hard to criticize. I almost guarantee that someone will criticize this post because they assume that I’m not being “spiritual” enough. Again, it’s not that I oppose the spiritual portions, but the convention is intended to be a business meeting. It has become a worship rally with a limited amount of business opportunities. This cuts down on the time allowed for actual business, and allows a tightly controlled leadership group to continue to manipulate the process by not allowing for a variety of opinions to actually reach the floor of the convention.

For instance, if you consult the website for this year’s annual meeting you’ll notice that (by my count) they give a total of 125 minutes for business across the 2 days. When you add in that almost an hour of that time is given to the election of officers, that only leaves about 1.5 hours for business total over the two days. That may not seem too bad to you, but when compared with the music/preaching portion of the meeting that takes up 340 minutes of the meeting (of which, by the way, prayer and baptism time is not included, if so it would stretch out another hour or so), it’s really not much of a business meeting, is it?

In closing, let me restate that I love worship, I love networking, and I value all of those times at the convention. I’m not trying to remove them from the schedule, but that’s not why I go. I’m going to participate in the business of the SBC. I’m going in order to make a difference. I hope that you are too.