Day 2!

Yesterday’s sessions began with a bang and ended with a boom! Dr. Jones took the leadoff position and opened up the day with his key note message titled Three Perspectives on Family Ministry. And Dr. Baucham closed it out with a message that summed up the entire purpose of the conference; Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. There were 5 sessions yesterday and 1 Q&A panel during lunch, in which all of the speakers sat on stage and answered questions for about 30 minutes.


Dr. Jones began the day by explaining the three different types of family ministry; Family-Based Ministry, Family-Equipping Ministry, and Family-Integrated Ministry. But before describing these different types of ministries, Dr. Jones said that it should not be our goal to model another church’s ministry, because if we do, we are not modeling Christ, but a flawed ministry of man. According to Dr. Jones, every ministry has a story line behind it, not the history of the church, but its set of assumptions and beliefs and where those assumptions and beliefs came from. The current church today has been customized to replicate the world’s story line or the world’s model! What we have done with the church is similar to what the Israelites did when they built the golden calf; they invoked a story line from the culture around them. They turned to gods that were common of the people around them because they didn’t trust the one true God! In a similar manner, the church has taken the culture’s story line and implemented it in the church! So, what do we do? Dr. Jones presented 3 models of family ministry that are intended to help churches return to the authoritative Word of God. But before any transitioning can begin, Dr. Jones says that there are 5 questions that the church leadership must stop and ask:

1) Am I and the other leaders in the church doing what we are calling them to do? (If the church is asking fathers to accept their role as leaders in the home, then the church leaders must make sure they are doing the same).

2) Do I have a series of objectives that are drawn from scripture? (Break it down into small parts).

3) Do I have a plan in place to have parents acknowledging, training, and holding accountable?

4) Do I have a plan for spiritual Orphans and Widows? –Titus 2

5) Am I going to stay long enough for lasting change?


With those 5 questions, Dr. Jones then presented the three Christocentric models of family ministry. I will define each of these for you as he has defined them:

Family-Based Ministry:
Calls parents to engage actively in discipling their families through activities that bring generations together for service, learning, or community-building. Ministries remain segmented by age and life-stage. Activities bring generations together, often through events designates as mother/daughter, father/son, parents/children, youth/senior, and so on.

Family-Equiping Ministry
Calls parents to engage actively in discipling their families by developing a culture that, at every level, expects and equips parents to replicate or to reinforce at home what is learned at church. Ministries are reorganized and planning processes are reworked so that every aspect of each ministry resources, trains, or involves parents so that families become fundamental contexts for evangelism and discipleship.

Family-Integrated Ministry:
Calls parents to engage actively in discipling their families by eliminating systematic age-segregated activities and learning experiences. Church is completely intergenerational.


Following the morning key note, Dad and I both decided to go hear Dr. Jones’ session entitled Making the Transition. The main premise of this session was that the programmatic ministry model (age segregation) is a faulty broken model. Why? Because it is built upon false assumptions. In this session, Dr. Jones began by answering questions with regard to his keynote presentation. After at least 20 minutes of Q&A, Dr. Jones gave 6 additional things that our churches must learn to appreciate and do before a transition to family integration can take place:
1) We must re-present maturity as a desirable goal-conform to Christ.

2) We must re-envision the teenage years as preparation for maturity, not a time to step out of reality. How can we expect them to act like adults when they become adults if we are letting them act like kids while they are young adults?

3) We must develop milestones to move our children toward Christian maturity.

4) We must give child training (Children must be viewed as a blessing, not a burden, and parents must learn how to raise Godly men and women).

5) We must develop programs that help adolescents have respect and love for intergenerational relationships. [Don’t think of this as an “efficient” (see last night’s post) curriculum based program].

6) We must celebrate marriage and family as God has designed it.


For the second break out session of the day, Dad and I split up. I decided to listen to Voddie Baucham’s session Church and Family Synergism in Discipleship. Dr. Baucham defined for us the proper balance between the church and the family in discipling believers. How are young men and women to act? What role are the elderly to play in the lives of the young men and women in the church? To answer these questions and many more, Dr. Baucham had us turn to Titus chapter 2 - specifically verses 1-5. In verse 2, Dr. Baucham pointed out the verb “be.” “Older men are to BE sober minded.” His argument was that not only do men have to be old to teach our younger men, but that in addition they must have character. The verb “be” implies something that is developed. Therefore, we must have old men of character and maturity teaching our younger men. According to this passage, Dr. Baucham rightly stated that godly men and women are to be an instrument for discipleship, not discipleship that supersedes that of the parents, but discipleship that confirms that which the parents are instilling in their children.


Also, as you read through Titus 2:1-6,notice that there are requirements for older men (vs.2), older women (vs. 3), Younger women (vs. 4), but when we get to younger men (vs. 6), all we get is self controlled; there is no list. Why is there no list? In Dr. Baucham’s own words, “I’m glad you asked! He suggested Titus 1, which gives us the list of requirements for Elders, is a list to which every Christian man is to seek to aspire. Therefore, in light of chapter 1, there are three reasons why there is not list for young men in chapter 2. First, he gave us a typical logical Voddie Baucham response: “There is no list in chapter 2!” Second, Elders are to be examples to the flock – Titus 1. And third, there is nothing in Titus 1 that we would be willing to give up for our own sons! Look through the list in Titus 1 and try to identify one thing in that list that you would not want your son to have! You can’t!


Dr. Baucham takes this a step farther and says that the character of our young men is also determined by the men that the father likes to be with. But not only that. In his own words, “We are making a statement of what we believe about Biblical manhood by who we have as our pastor!” If he is afraid to preach the Word of God, afraid to speak the truth, then he is not a godly example of biblical masculinity to our young men!
Dr. Baucham said, “Children are not being taught in their home! They are being taught by non-biblically qualified elders, and godly mature men and women are not being seen or respected! Instead, young people share their ignorance with their peers.” With tears streaming down his face, Dr. Baucham kept driving his point home. He said that so many young people don’t even know when an elderly person in their church has died, much less care!
So, to summarize Dr. Voddie’s message, I would say that if you want to know what biblical synergy must be in the church and home, it is found in Tutus chapter 1 and chapter 2.


The last break out session that dad and I attended was Designing a Biblical Order of Worship. Richard Rector and Stephen Bratton, music directors at Grace Family Baptist Church (GfBC), taught this session. Their main argument was that Biblical worship is a return to Sola Scriptura, and that there are two methods of worship; the regulative method and normative method. The regulative method argues for worshiping as mandated by scripture, while the normative method argues that if scripture doesn’t speak against it, it must be okay to do it. The normative method is very common today. So many worship leaders lead their congregations in songs that are popular among the church at large instead of singing songs that they believe are theological and biblical. In Richard Rector’s own words, “Test the things that are said in other churches and determine for yourself if it is Biblical...Don’t depend on someone else’s particularity for your gospel; do it because it is Biblical!”


We must return to a scripture based form of worship. And with that in mind, Mr. Rector gave three key points to establishing a Biblical form of worship:

1) The Elements of Worhip
a) Read the Word
b) Sing the Word
c) Pray the Word
d) Preach the Word
e) See the Word in the sacraments

2) Substance of Corporate Worship – All that is said and done should be in accordance with solid, Biblical doctrine.

3) Forms of Worship – Not the same thing week after week

4) Circumstances of Worship – What time will the service start etc...These are things that are not written out in scripture but none the less, we know from scripture what we should and should not do.

After Mr. Rector presented these four points, he and Mr. Bratton walked us through a Sunday morning at GfBC; but I will be blogging about that experience tomorrow, so check back!!


By the time this last break out session ended, we had about 10 minutes before Dr. Baucham presented the last key note session of the conference. We both bought a few resources before piling into the auditorium to hear Dr. Baucham Speak on Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. And let me just say in advance, I will not get ANYWHERE near doing him justice by summarizing his message! NOWHERE near! HE ROCKED THE HOUSE, with a message that addressed the entire underpinning argument of the conference; the gospel must be preached!


Dr. Baucham began by arguing that from Genesis to Revelation, with every book, and even with every Bible character, we must preach in a Christocentric way. But before going into his main points of the evening, he thought it best to go ahead and address a couple of myths about the FIC.

Myth #1: The FIC waters down theology because of the children present in the service

Myth #2: The FIC always talks about the family. In his own words, “Who could come up with that many lessons on the family?”

This led into his first point which was:

First, We Preach the Gospel – It doesn’t matter if we preach through the Old or New Testament, through an epistle or through a book of law, through a gospel or through a book of prophecy, we must preach the gospel!

Second, We Practice Systematic Exposition – When reading or preaching scripture, the FIC does not preach or read according to topic of the day, instead it preaches through books of the Bible and its people read through books of the Bible, so that the flock is fed properly, and theologically.
Third, We do it all with a Redemptive Historical Hermeneutic – The entire Bible is ALL about Jesus; it is one long story.


Dr. Baucham does not believe that preaching morals or character traits that we can gain from Biblical characters is the biblical method of preaching. Just read through the epistles and you’ll see that even when the apostles preached about great figures of the faith, they drew all their points back to Christ, not to the faulty character of man! Why would we desire to be like any other than our perfect, sinless savior? Something that Dr. Bacuham said that resonated in my mind as it bounced off the walls and sunk into the hearts of everyone in the room is, “If we are not preaching what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are not preaching the gospel!”


However, Dr. Baucham clarifies that this does not in the least mean that we don’t address other issues, but that when we do, we address it in reference to the gospel. “In light of 1 Peter 2 and 1 Peter 3” Dr. Baucham said, “We should be ready to preach the gospel even if it costs us our lives!” The entire purpose of the FIC is not to preach about families, but to preach the gospel. Dr. Baucham points out that family integration is about discipling; discipling is about preaching the great commission; and the great commission is about Christ. See! It all goes back to Him!
What is this gospel we are to be preaching?

First of all, the gospel does not rely on the effectiveness of man for the effectiveness to save. In our humanistic culture, the church has adopted the view that the preacher has to appeal to the people so he can move the men. If we buy this lie, then we begin to measure men by their success and not by their faithfulness. The gospel is the POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION, NOT THE POWER OF MAN!!! Yet we seem to think that the only way we can win people to Christ is if we have a “gifted,” “professional,” “efficient” preacher! This shows our lack of faith and trust in God! The person presenting the gospel is just the agent who brings the message of salvation, not the means through which it comes!

Second, failing to preach the gospel leads to misplaced faith – 1 Corinthians 2:5. It leads to legalism or works righteousness, which, in our flesh, is what we want! When we study a character such as Abraham, and get a list of a few things that we need to do better, all we are doing is, in Dr. Baucham’s own words, “Flexing our works-righteousness muscle.” If we preach character traits of these characters, all we are doing is saying that we can make our standing better with God by working on a few little things, that we can make ourselves more righteous by doing 1 or 2 things.


The other thing that we have to be careful not to do is turn passages of scripture into moralisms. As Dr. Baucham said, “If all you want is moralisms then go get Aesop’s Fables! But don’t do that to Scripture!” We don’t read Scripture so we can learn a few morals, we read so we can see the redemptive plan of God through all of history.


Not only should we avoid self righteousness and moralisms, but we should also avoid allegories where they are not intended in Scripture. We should not look at passages in proverbs, for example, and say “This must symbolize the cross, this must symbolize the grave etc...” The Bible does use allegories, and there are plenty of places where they are used, but we should not apply allgories where they were never intended. In the end, the gospel is all we have! We have nothing else! Thus everything we preach must be Christ centered!


Upon the conclusion of his message, instead of erupting in applause and a standing ovation, the auditorium became stone silent. With the exception of a few babies crying, there was virtually no noise in the entire room! God used Dr. Baucham in such a powerful way to present a message that was so good, and so true, that it had sunk into the hearts of everyone and left us speechless!

Once again, if you possibly can, try and come next year! I think it will only get better :)
I should have something posted about the worship service at GfBC tomorrow, so check back!


In Christ’s Love,
Josh