Why am I starting this blog?
What could I possibly have to say that anyone else would want to hear? Those are fair questions, and questions I’ve
been asking myself as I’ve considered this. Southern Baptist churches have been an integral part of my life since the day I was born. I grew up in a Southern Baptist family
in a Southern Baptist community and have known it all my life. I came to Christ through Southern Baptist
ministry. I learned to love Scripture
through Southern Baptist ministry. I learned
to love the lost through Southern Baptist ministry. I also learned to be theologically arrogant and
legalistic within the SBC. I have both
lost my way with God and found it through my involvement in SBC churches.
I’ve admired SBC leaders, and I’ve lost faith in some. I have spent more sleepless nights
and more gut-wrenching days through my involvement in Southern Baptist churches
than through anything else in my life.
Why? I’ve asked myself that
question a lot over the last several years.
Why can trying to serve Christ and live a life for God within the church
be so difficult? And why is it often - perhaps
most often – so needlessly difficult? Those are some of the questions and related
topics I hope to probe in this blog.
There are many blogs that deal with church and SBC issues
that are fed by seminary students, pastors, entity leaders and seminary leaders. Over the last few years, I’ve grown quite
interested in many of them. I’ve come to
recognize names in the blogosphere that I would not otherwise know. I’ve come to see what turns your cranks and
energizes your emotions. I share many of
the same interests – but this blog will look at these issues from a different
perspective: the engaged layman’s
perspective. That’s why I’ve subtitled
it as a View from the Pew.
There are also many blogs that exist to criticize,
condemn, slander and revile movements and individuals associated with those
movements. This blog will not be one of
those. In fact, that’s the very reason I’ve
chosen to write under the pseudonym of “SBC Layman”. This blog is neither about me nor about gaining
personal notoriety. Nor is it about
bringing any ill repute upon my church or questions about specific leaders I
might know. I want the assessment of
what I write to be based on its content and not the person that writes it. I may from time to time discuss individuals
as appropriate within the issues of the day, but I have no intent to use this
blog as an attack platform.
For several years now, I’ve sat on the sidelines and watched
the conversation. I have very
deliberately stayed out of it – much of it descends into tit-for-tat so quickly
that I didn’t want to be involved with it.
Lately, I have begun to comment on blogs – it seems I can’t keep myself from
it. When I read my comments, they look
like blog posts unto themselves. That’s
why I’ve decided that maybe now is the time to start a new blog. If I can’t cut down what I say on someone
else’s blog, maybe I need a spot of my own to babble. My ultimate goal is to help find ways to
solve our problems that grow us in Christ and bring others to Him. I certainly want that for myself.
So here we go! I can tell
you with confidence that the View from the Pew is different than the view from
the pulpit. Is there a place in the
conversation for a View from the Pew? I
think so, but ultimately you will have to decide.
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