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Francis Schaeffer on the Origins of Relativism in the Church

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

How Come the Problem is Always That the People Ain't Doin' It Right?


Okay, I am officially not impressed.  WITHOUT NAMING THE PROGRAM, lest I stir up a real hornet's nest, let me note that I have looked up Oklahoma Baptists' latest attempt to pin the blame on their Sunday School classes "train" their Sunday School classes--and I am decidedly NOT impressed.

I didn't really think I would be.  I have been involved in Sunday School for a long time now.  Been to the seminars, Glorieta Tulsa Style an' all that, been to the teaching/training sessions offered at individual churches, completed coursework, read books, and let me tell you in all sincerity, there is really only so much ground you can cover.  The horse was beaten to death long ago.  I ceased hearing new material years ago.  Just like the reality is that there are only so many ways the body can move, the reality is that there are only so many ways you can do/use/abuse Sunday School.  The reality is that you can, if you are at all interested, learn every cotton-pickin' thing the Oklahoma Baptist General Convention wants you to know about Sunday School in less than a month.

And I'm to believe that the problem is that the Sunday School teachers need more training?

Oklahoma Baptist leadership PERSISTS in acting as though the problem is the people in the pews, specifically, the people in the pews who are or SHOULD BE attending Sunday School classes.  Like true ideologues, when things aren't working, they blame execution--that is, OTHER PEOPLE aren't doing it right.  If ONLY the Sunday School leadership would just do their jobs right, revival would break out across the state, then the nation.  That it hasn't happened that way can be nothing but a CLEAR indicator that Sunday School just isn't being done right, since we all know that problems cannot POSSIBLY come from the pulpit, other ministerial personnel, or possibly state leadership, or brain death in what SHOULD be seminaries but all too often are (judging from the results I've seen) centers for intellectual indoctrination, or un-coped-with demographic shifts.

I have another line of thinking to throw out at you: how long has our current leadership, leadership that certainly hasn't managed to improve Baptist standing in Oklahoma, been in place?  The answer, as far as I can tell: sixteen years.

Sixteen years of, as far as I can tell, decline and failure--and we don't consider that we might need a change in leadership!  Instead, we conclude that the problem is that Sunday School teachers either haven't had enough training, haven't reviewed the basics sufficiently, just aren't paying attention, aren't executing...or...or...something.

Must be them rascally ol' Sunday School teachers, I'm tellin' you, they just don't know how to do things...
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1 comment:

  1. Otter LimitsAugust 15, 2012 at 7:13 AM

    Is it possible that this is indicative of the possibility of the decline of the Southern Baptist Convention in Oklahoma as we know it?

    That is, is this the only case in which leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention is failing its membership?

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