http://timmybrister.com/2007/09/19/an-outsider-look-at-unregenerate-church-membership/
Of note:
A story is told in Kenya of a prominent pastor from the United States who visited Nairobi and was introduced to the Kenyan church leadership as ‘pastor of one of the largest churches in America, with more than 20,000 members. Each week more than 8,000 attend his preaching.’ Visibly moved, the Kenyan leader led his brothers to pray for the American pastor who could not find more than half of his church members on Sunday morning!”
and
Just the other day I heard of a church in Mississippi who had planned on hosting a conference under the theme of “Church Discipline” only later forced to cancel because not one of the over 700 pastors contacted expressed interest in attending.
I know I'm a mere nobody, but here's a challenge to my SBC brothers and sisters:
Press the SBC Pastor's Conference to work with the IMB to fly over several pastors from overseas to come and preach on this subject at the Pastor's Conference in 08 or 09. Yeah, I know, it'll never happen...
Press your State Convention's Evangelism Office to fly one or two in for your state evangelism conference. That might be more doable.
The SBC spends millions of CP dollars overseas to plant churches. Well, it's high time they hear from these churches. Dare I say that a few sermons from men like these in Kenya would sound very much like the African Bishops currently hounding the Anglican Communion over other issues....
Excellent post, Gene. And I loved the last sentence. I would not be surprised if over the next century the heart of orthodox Christianity is found in Africa since Europe has already largely abandonded it, and the USA is right behind them (actually, I'd say we're already there in all but name).
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