Guest Blog: John Waters on "A Vision for Georgia Baptists"

Below is a guest blog from Dr. John Waters, pastor of First Baptist Church, Statesboro, Georgia. John will be nominated for president of the Georgia Baptist Convention on November 14-15. John is my friend; I know his heart. I am excited that he is available to serve our state, and I've asked him to share his vision for our state convention. You can learn more about John Waters's candidacy by clicking on the website: http://johnwatersforgbc.wordpress.com/ -- Bob Rogers

More than eight months ago, Wayne Robertson from Valdosta, Georgia, announced that he would nominate me as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention when Baptists gather for our annual meeting this November. If elected, I welcome the chance to come alongside Dr. White, executive director of the GBC, to encourage him and to support him in his work. I want to bring a fresh, new vision to our state convention where all pastors from every part of the state feel involved and connected to the work of God’s Kingdom through Georgia Baptists.

My vision to lead the GBC flows out of the Great Commission. Georgia Baptists of all types and styles can come together for the common work of the Great Commission, recognizing that a cooperative, unified work is necessary to be faithful to the Scriptures. With the lostness of Georgia growing greater each year, I want to call for “all hands on deck” to reach the lost, strengthen churches, grow disciples, and serve our communities. Instead of labeling or grouping pastors into categories such as young, old, contemporary, traditional, etc., I will ask Georgia Baptist pastors to commit to a unified category—“Great Commission pastors.” As president, I trust that each pastor can look into the mirror and judge for himself whether or not he’s being faithful to the Great Commission call of Christ. I would encourage pastors to pursue the Great Commission in whatever church or ministry context they find themselves. A church in Atlanta may accomplish it differently that a church in Ringgold. A small, rural congregation will go about it in a different way than a large, suburban congregation. A church plant inside the I-285 perimeter will flesh out the Great Commission is ways that are unlike the approaches of a county seat church in south Georgia. But the unifying factor in all of our work is a commitment to the Great Commission. As president, I will encourage pastors to be champions of the Great Commission and to be faithful to the call upon their lives. When “all hands” are on deck together, churches will be strengthened, the lostness will be penetrated, and lives will be changed.

The time is too short, the need is too great, and the call is too clear for Baptists not to be working together, in a spirit of inclusion and cooperation greater than we’ve ever seen before. As GBC president, I want to bring a renewed sense of unity and agreement among the pastors of our state, casting a fresh vision of what we can do together as the Body of Christ.

Georgia Baptist Convention concludes

I really enjoyed the Georgia Baptist Convention as it concluded today at FBC Jonesboro. The preaching and music was incredible. Here's a picture of the mass choir from our three Baptist colleges that sang.
I enjoyed meeting people and seeing friends. I even talked to a lady who was in the movie Fireproof. They had a huge BBQ on the church grounds for all the messengers for supper. That's a lot of BBQ, since we had 1,545 registered messengers! I saw Paul Moore from Elim-Egypt Baptist north of Guyton and Marty Youngblood, the student minister at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, and Curtis Meador, who used to pastor in Garden City and is now an associational missionary.
We approved the name change of Shorter College to Shorter University, to take effect in about a year. We approved the 2009 budget, which was a 5% decrease, due to the economy. We approved a missions partnership with New York City Metro Association.
The convention approved a controversial new policy which allows the Executive Director and Administrative Committee of the Executive Committee to refuse a gift. The purpose of this new policy was to avoid a situation where somebody gave a gift that we didn't want, such as property that needed environmental cleanup, or money from an organization that we don't agree with. The reason it was controversial was that it would allow them to refuse money from a Georgia Baptist Church, and thus that Georgia Baptist Church would be unable to send messengers to the convention. The specific example given was a church that had a female pastor, when Southern Baptists do not approve of female pastors. (FBC Decatur has called a woman pastor.) But those who object fear that it put too much power in the hands of a few, and that it could open a Pandora's Box of reasons why they might not approve of something a church did, and thus refuse their money and lock them out of having a voice in the convention. It was debated in the morning, then came back up for another vote in the afternoon, and after debate the decision was sustained. I do not support female pastors, but I voted against the new policy, because I'm concerned that it is a dangerous precedent to put too much power in the hands of a few.
We heard some more outstanding sermons. Fred Evers gave a powerful sermon from Psalm 115 about how God alone is God, and with the growth of pagan religion and secularism in America, we must stand up and say that our God is the only God.
Bucky Kennedy, pastor of FBC Vidalia, was re-elected as president. He did a great job of presiding over the meeting, keeping things on track and using his sense of humor to keep people in a good mood. He kept reminding us about the BBQ, and then he said, "Next year we're going to have a wild game supper. Whatever you kill on the way to the meeting, load it up and bring it-- deer, possum, cat or dog. The theme of next year's convention will be 'you kill it, we grill it.'"
There's a picture above of Bucky Kennedy preaching.
There wasn't much to the resolutions. The only resolution presented other than thanking the host church was that we adopted a resolution asking the Congress to recognize the 400th anniversary of the King James Version Bible in 2011 by issuing a commemorative silver dollar. Although I was glad to honor the anniversary of the KJV Bible, I was a little surprised that we had no resolutions about the important issues facing our nation today.
The final sermon was brought by Jonathan Falwell, the son of Jerry Falwell. He talked about how he took the pastorate of his father's huge church last year when Jerry Falwell died. He brought a great message about how the great established churches and the great new contemporary churches in America need to work together instead of being suspicious of one another. He pointed out that the woman at the well asked Jesus how he was going to bring her water when he didn't have a bucket (John 4:11). He said, "She was focusing on the bucket instead of focusing on the living water." He said it's not important whether we have contemporary in the bucket or traditional in the bucket, whether a coat and tie in the bucket or a loose shirt, blue jeans and flip flops in the bucket. What matters is that the bucket has the living water, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ!"
And finally, among those nominated and elected to various boards of the Georgia Baptist Convention, I was elected as an at-large member of the Executive Committee, for a term lasting until 2013.

First night of Georgia Baptist Convention

I'm in Jonesboro, attending the Georgia Baptist Convention with our associate pastor, DBG (Dr. Bill Gammon).
We saw two Effingham County pastors: Erik Palmberg from New Providence Baptist Church in Guyton and Bobby Braswell from Pineora Baptist Church. We also saw our ministry resource consultant, Ted Kandler, who is also a messenger from FBC Rincon at the convention.
This year we're meeting at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro. After declining attendance (from over 4,000 early in the decad, down to only 1,400 last year) they decided to stop meeting in convention centers and instead meet at large local churches. I'm glad. FBC Jonesboro looked very full tonight, but it was also more personal and intimate in a church than a convention center. It reminded me of the warm feel of the Mississippi Baptist Convention that I attended for years at FBC Jackson.
Bucky Kennedy really shucked the corn in his president's sermon on David and Goliath. Wow! He was all over the place. At one point, he went and played a sloppy version of "Chopsticks" on the piano to illustrate how poorly he played piano, then he had a real pianist come and play "Amazing Grace," and while she prayed he pointed out how God makes beautiful music with our lives when we place ourselves in His hands.
One of the comments from Bucky that I wrote down was his statement about how Christians are known too much for what we're against instead of what we're for. Then he said, "It's time to stop protesting before men and start praying before God."
Another good comment from Bucky: "I don't want them to like me, I want them to love Him."
We heard "This Hope," the incredible men's vocal group that did a concert a few years ago at our church. DBG was amazed at their vocals, and got excited about the fact that "This Hope" will be doing one of the concerts during "Marvelous Mondays in July" at our church in 2009.
The missionary sermon was brought by Steve Parr. Awesome message. He talked about "The Great Lost Cause" of evangelism from Luke 15:4 when the shepherd left his 99 sheep to go after the one that was lost. His point was that going after the lost should be our great cause. Steve showed a video of a grainery dropping grain from a conveyor belt and said that's how many people are going that rapidly into hell. He told a story of a woman who was upset that a 14-year-old girl wore short pants to church when the woman didn't even know the girl's name or whether the girl knew Jesus as Savior. Steve said that the girl didn't call him and ask what to wear, and he doesn't wear shorts to church himself, but instead of being upset that a 14-year-old girl wore short pants to church, she should be rejoicing that a 14-year-old girl wanted to come to church and hear about Jesus. Amen!
Tomorrow we will be at the convention all day. They're providing a free BBQ dinner to all messengers. Should be a fun day.