the bittersweetness of sort of being back in the Southern Baptist loop

Stealth Baptist
I'm attending a stealth SBC church now. We're stealth because we don't have "baptist" in our name. I think they changed the name to save on printing costs. I'm not sure of that though. At least its a place where I feel comfortable inviting people to check out the claims of Jesus Christ.

Warm fuzzy
There is comfort level of being a part of a large organization. For me, it's knowing that there is some sort of support network. The ability to share and retrieve information related to the Mission increases dramatically when you're in the SBC loop. I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy as I write this.

SBC doesn't stand for Stupid Baptist...yet
Granted, the SBC has its share of flaws. One that personally ticks me off right now is a controversy over something that isn't fundamental to carrying out the Mission of the Church. It's a controversy that has caused many to spend more time involved in writing postition papers than carrying out the Mission. Not good. I personally think they would rather argue than lead people to eternal hope. It's also causes others to spend their precious time making sure there is a balanced rebuttal to the whole thing. For those who care, check out the blog called SBC Outpost. My bud Marty Duren is just short of genius because his blog is so much cooler than mine.

Mission
In the grand scheme of things, nobody empowers people to be on Mission better than the SBC. You can plug into the system or you can create your own system. Very nice. We've come a long way baby.

Have a nice day......Yes, it's OK to hum the BonJovi tune right now.