Tim Keller died at age 72, but he did not begin publishing until 15 years ago. Two observations:
1. He made an incredible, lasting impact in just 15 years of writing.
2. He provides an example of wisdom in waiting patiently before trying to say something to the wider Church.
Recently, an unchurched husband & wife were invited to our church by the wife’s hairdresser, one of our members. They both heard the gospel, experienced real community, repented of their sins & placed their faith in Jesus. Today, they went public with their faith through baptism!
Can we quit calling expository preaching verse-by-verse preaching? If you’re going verse-by-verse through a narrative, you’re likely botching the main focus of the text.
Once you discover that Psalms 22, 23, & 24 depict the crucifixion, resurrection, & ascension of Christ, you can’t unsee it. Reading the Old Testament as Christian Scripture never gets old.
Every time this clip makes its rounds on social media I share it, because
@DACarson_
is nailing the heart of the gospel. It's the object of faith that saves, not the amount or passion of the faith exercised. Jesus saves. Bring your weak faith to him.
Today I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a Muslim woman who brought her grandchildren to VBS at our church. Her house sits in sight of our facilities, yet today she finally heard the gospel. Tomorrow she plans to bring her family to our church.
Pray for Haim.
Friends at
#sbc21
, please don’t refer to our brothers & sisters within the Great Commission Baptist family as “Goliaths.” Goliath was a pagan warrior in the lineage of the serpent of Genesis 3 who defied the living God. No one in our SBC family is “Goliath.”
In the past 10ish years, I have earned two degrees from (different) SBC seminaries, served four SBC churches in four states (on staff at three, including two pastorates) & attended all but one national convention (& most associational & state meetings). This is 💯 fear-mongering.
Whether we realize it or not… whether we want to admit it or not… the SBC is experiencing the greatest theological drift since the days of the conservative resurgence. And in some ways it’s worse, because it’s been happening on the watch of the conservative leaders we trusted.
I am a pastor of a local church. I have two seminary degrees. I am a committed complementarian. No one has taught me more in the last year than
@jenniferwilkin
. She is a gift to the church.
#sbc19
It costs $62,000 for
@IMB_SBC
to send & sustain one missionary unit per year (a unit could be a single missionary, a married couple, or a family).
@FBCPrattville
is working to give $124,000 to Lottie Moon so that we can claim two of these missionary units as our responsibility.
I lead a church that happily cooperates at all levels of the Southern Baptist Convention. I pray for our leadership, direction, and entities. But I care way more about the people I'm actually called to shepherd than stressing over every move within the SBC.
Y’all, I’m glad
@jdgreear
&
@SummitRDU
are on the SBC team. They send more missionaries overseas each year than any other SBC church. I praise God for them!
I am blown away by the generosity of
@FBCPrattville
in giving over $142,300 (so far!!) to international missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Our goal was $124,000 to fund 2 missionary units through
@IMB_SBC
, but now we are well on our way to funding 3 units!
I got to baptize my guy TJ this morning. He’s a single dad who came to church two months ago because a coworker invited him. We talked through the gospel over his lunch break after he’d been attending a few Sundays & TJ put his faith in Jesus. He’s so excited to follow Jesus!
A retired pastor took me to lunch today (as he does every few months) to ask me about my spiritual health, my wife, our children & whatever else is on my mind. We rarely talk about the church or churchy activities. He just encourages & prays for me. He is for me & I’m grateful.
Honest tweet coming
My LEAST favorite tweet is the one that begins with "Pastor, ..." followed by advice for pastors from someone who has never been a pastor. I'm grateful for any wisdom I can get, even from those who aren't pastors, but patronizing Twitter is the worst Twitter.
I just completed an
@IMB_SBC
reference for a guy who was a member of the first church I served as pastor. I had the opportunity to disciple him and to perform his wedding, but man, it does not get better than having the opportunity to help send him to the nations.
Watch this update from the president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, and then join me in giving to their emergency fund that helps them minister to immediate needs in Ukraine. The seminary is filled with faculty from
@SWBTS
&
@SEBTS
.
I refuse to be seen as a moderate for acting on my convictions about the inerrancy of Scripture. The Conservative Resurgence taught us to trust the Bible. Now that we do, we want to obey it in every area of life. Am I off for seeing that as the essence of biblical conservatism?
I predict that in honor of Tim Keller tomorrow there will be lots of gospel-centered sermons with winsome asides that answer questions apologetically. I hope it becomes the norm!
I like preaching through whole books of the Bible. It challenges me and allows God's Word to truly set the agenda. BUT then I got to the beasts and horns and weird images of Daniel 7 & 8. And now I'm rethinking everything about my preaching strategy and my life in general 😂
10 yrs ago a seminary preaching professor took points off of my sermon grade in class because I labeled Job a type of Christ. Now, I'm just days away from submitting a PhD dissertation on (among other methods) the manner in which OT figures serve as types of Christ.
#Vindication
There are some exhausted, faithful pastors leading their churches through a global pandemic, racial injustices, and an upcoming election, and they are leading alone without any staff. Praise God for these men, and pray for encouragement and endurance.
@deaninserra
Big birthday parties for a 1-year-old! Why?! They have no clue. It’s a wasted Saturday. I might go all the way up to school age before I’m pro party.
I know the
@SBCExecComm
has been busy, but could y'all start working on a plan to provide plastic straws while we're in Anaheim? If you think the Litton/Mohler/Stone vote was tense, just wait until a bunch of Baptists are given paper straws with their box lunches.
I teach Baptist theology on Wednesday nights at our church, & it’s wild how many people are wanting more. Our theology is fueling evangelism faithfulness, & we’re seeing many come to Christ. It’s just not true that we need to dumb down theology in order to have growing churches.
“Decions are made by those in the room” will no longer motivate anyone to attend the SBC annual meeting if the decisions they made in the room are tweaked or outright rejected by a group of others meeting in a much smaller room.
Tomorrow is my final Sunday as pastor of
@FBCPrattville
. I love these people deeply and can't thank them enough for their prayers, encouragement, and support of my family. It's a gift to have one last opportunity to preach the gospel and to tell the people I love them.
We’re in a dangerous place when we’re afraid of an independent investigation within the SBC. In a time where many lack clarity, it can only help. We preach a gospel of truth on Sundays, so we can’t refuse to pursue the truth the rest of the week.
It is almost like the SBC affirmed a confession statement that many can adhere to while disagreeing on certain specifics, BUT then someone decided that the beauty of the SBC (our unity amid diversity) is now dangerous. 🤷♂️
Today I conclude my official higher education journey. Ten years ago this month I graduated from
@msstate
, and today I receive my PhD from
@SEBTS
. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue higher education, and I cannot thank my family and friends adequately for their support!
My least favorite part of my story is me becoming a Christian late in the game (senior year of college), despite growing up in church. This means I never spoke of Christ at school or practice. Today my 3-yr old talked to me about wanting to share Jesus with his friends at school.
John Stott was a careful theologian, exemplary expositor, and thoughtful missiologist. It's hard to imagine a better model for pastoral ministry in the 21st century.
Shut down crisis pregnancy centers like the River Region Pregnancy Center in Prattville, AL that prays with pregnant moms (and the baby's dads), counsels them, and then resources them with diapers, clothing, food, toys, strollers, and an ongoing support system? Um, no thank you.
Warren: “Crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber abortion clinics by 3-1. We need to shut them down all around the country.”
Some people may call it old school, but today I got to spend time with several 4th—6th graders participating in Bible Drill at our church. You can call it what you want, but watching kids memorize scripture & familiarize themselves with the Bible fires me up.
7 yrs ago I emailed
@DannyAkin
to ask about a worthy mentor for Christ-centered, Old Testament exposition. He humbly & wisely pointed me to his son
@Jonathanakin
. Now, yrs later, I get to join my friend, Jon Akin, in teaching Christ-centered, OT preaching
@SEBTS
. I’m pumped!
The SBC has solid seminaries.
@swbts
is in a strategic location with incredible facilities and amazing opportunities for experiencing rural, suburban, and urban ministries. There are bright days ahead.
I am overwhelmed with God’s kindness and grace this afternoon! He just gave me the gift of leading my “one” to turn from sin and put his faith in Jesus alone. We are beginning to walk together through the Bible next week! I cannot wait to share with my next
@whosyour1_
.
Jonah loved the grace that the Lord poured out on him.
Jonah hated the grace that the Lord poured out on Nineveh.
We are in a dangerous place when we think we deserve grace but others deserve judgment. We have missed the essence of grace altogether.
I could not have had a better, more formative experience than the one I had as a PhD student
@SEBTS
under the supervision of
@DannyAkin
. I graduated as a more articulate theologian, a more faithful expositor, a more passionate goer and sender, and a more committed shepherd.
I'm super committed to expository preaching, but preaching the five woes from Habakkuk 2:6–20 this morning has me rethinking my "never skip a text" policy.
We had quite the surprise this morning when our baby girl decided to make her arrival. Annmarie Hope Hill was born at 3:15 AM. Our hearts are overjoyed! We created her 1st name by combining the middle names of the two women who 1st taught us to put our hope in Jesus...our moms.
Pray for me as I preach tomorrow. I’m continuing our series in Song of Songs, which is hard enough. But my mother and my father-in-law will be in attendance, which makes a hard task infinitely harder. 😂
I’m so proud of the generosity of
@FBCPrattville
in exceeding our $80k goal and giving our largest offering ever to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. We’re on your team
@NAMB_SBC
@sendnetwork
!
I’m happy to support my fellow Alabama Baptist pastor
@EdLitton
as he faces a runoff election at
#sbc21
. He’s a friend and encourager. He would serve all Great Commission Baptists well.
Are you concerned about the future of the church in America? Spend time with young guys who are new(ish) to the pastorate. Most of these dudes bleed the Bible, love the gospel, care for people, & view the Great Commission as a nonnegotiable command to obey & vision to follow.
It's February, the month college baseball begins. Here's a throwback to last summer when the Dawgs became champs. I still sports cry when I remember this moment.
Mississippi State beat the team that beat Clemson.
Mississippi State beat the team that beat Alabama.
I’m basically counting this as a championship for Mississippi State.
Hey
@jdgreear
, thank you for launching
@Go2Years
! Our student pastor
@FBCPrattville
just shared the opportunity with our college students, and many of them are interested in giving two years to a church plant or unreached people group. It is so refreshing to be
#GospelAboveAll
.
I finally watched
@gospel_american
tonight. Wow. It proclaims the biblical gospel clearly while exposing the “American Dream” version of the gospel for what it is...unbiblical. Highly recommended. It is worth the $4.99 rental fee on Vimeo, Amazon, etc.
It’s okay to be theology guy and evangelism/missions guy at the same time. In fact, that’s how it should be. You can have your cake and eat it too. Theology and missional zeal are not opposites.
I’ve shared the gospel one-on-one several times since the last time I personally saw someone put their faith in Jesus. I’ve asked God to allow me to see visible fruit from my weak evangelism attempts. He graciously answered. Today my friend TJ trusted Jesus alone for salvation!
The best piece of pastoral wisdom during COVID-19 has come from
@JimmyScroggins
. I can have an opinion about the reopening of communities, but for the sake of unity & respecting authorities I can still choose to lead my church in a more cautious strategy than my personal opinion.
I look forward to preaching the Word for the first time as Pastor of
@FBCPrattville
tomorrow morning. Are you in Prattville or the Montgomery area? Join us at 9:30 or 11:00 for worship!
Yesterday
@HailStateBB
players hand delivered some season tickets' holders' tickets to their homes. You won't find that personal touch at most universities.
#HailState
It was such a joy to have my mentor and friend preach today. The message was typical
@DannyAkin
: faithful to the text, Christ-centered, and mission-minded.
We were happy to have Dr.
@DannyAkin
, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, bringing the word to us today from the book of Jonah! Grateful for his leadership in our denomination.
It was a privilege to preach
@BoyceCollege
last night. The atmosphere was amazing with such a vibrant student body. My buddy
@dustinbruce
is leading so well,
It’s Saturday night here in a mountain village in Indonesia. Tomorrow I get to preach the glorious gospel in three different locations. Please pray for stamina (jet lag is a beast) and fruit.
I’m so encouraged by the number of theologically-sound, Great Commission-minded pastors in the Deep South. We’ve got some faithful guys down here, and I’m excited to witness the fruit of their ministries in the coming years.
Tomorrow, my closest friend in all the world gets to celebrate the grand opening of the church God is using him to plant in Fort Worth. Join me in praying for
@mattkendrick100
and Redemption City Fort Worth.
@FBCPrattville
is on your team!
I’m preaching Psalm 22 tomorrow, which means I’m really just trying to dodge Trinitarian heresies for 35–40 minutes and end with the Trinity still intact.
If you’re a Southern Baptist (or just a person interested in how faith works in the public square), you need to be really thankful for
@traviswussow
. He’s honestly a breath of air amidst the smog.
Our pastoral team enjoyed a special time of prayer today. We prayed for the SBC & asked God to bring deep repentance. We also praised God for many entities & leaders that make the SBC a family worth joining.
@DannyAkin
@albertmohler
@kevezell
@drmoore
& more keep us optimistic!
I do not know if I have ever heard a more prophetic message than the one delivered by
@drmoore
to begin the
#MLK50Conference
. He is such a gift to the church.
Tomorrow, I will preach through one of the least exciting texts in the New Testament. It’s a passage I‘d surely skip if I didn’t do consecutive exposition. I’m grateful that working through entire books of the Bible forces me to deal with all texts. It’s good for me & our church.
.
@j_lee_hill
& I love & adore our
@highland_gc
family, & we have loved serving here for the past six years! Yet we are thrilled to follow God’s calling to
@FBCPrattville
! We cannot wait to see what the Lord does!
I cannot wait for my city to be flooded with maroon and white fellow Bulldogs next weekend. Welcome to Columbus
@HailStateWBK
! Bulldog fans looking for a church on Good Friday and Easter? Visit us
@highland_gc
!
#HailState
Commissioning missionaries to some of the hardest-to-reach peoples on earth. This is what Southern Baptists do best, and it fires me up! I’m so grateful to be part of this big family of Great Commission Baptists.
#sbc21
There seems to be so much angst as Southern Baptists prepare for Nashville and
#SBC21
. Presidential elections, resolutions, etc. all matter, sure. But can we just admit it? We’re mostly just excited to see some of our friends we only see once a year. It’s been two long years.
I’m thankful I get to serve as pastor of such a Great Commission-minded church. I love our church’s passion for international missions. $181k (and counting) given to advance the gospel globally through the
#LMCO
of
@IMB_SBC
!
We exceeded our $175k goal for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering! Thank you for how you have given! We are so close to $200k, which would fund more than 3 missionaries, so please consider giving to
#LMCO
today. Visit .
Y’all. I can’t even handle someone questioning the integrity or commitment of one of the top leaders & expositors in the SBC. You’ve clearly never met Danny, Charlotte, or their sons if you can doubt his commitment (in any way) to the inerrant, sufficient Word.
Thank you
@DannyAkin
and
@SEBTS
for the incredible education and training I have received during the last 3 1/2 years. I loved my time as a PhD student, and now as an alum I look forward to equipping others to join me as we
#GO
.
5 yrs ago today my newlywed, pregnant wife & I, along with a U-Haul packed with our belongings, arrived in Grove City, OH to begin pastoral ministry
@highland_gc
. We have experienced grace upon grace these 5 yrs, & we pray the Lord finds us faithful the next 5 yrs.
I got to share the gospel for the second time with my ONE today. We’re getting together again in December after he reads a great, little book by
@greggilbert
to help him understand the person and work of Jesus. Thank you
@johnnymhunt
for challenging us to find ONE.
@whosyour1_
I love being overseas to witness firsthand the incredible work of
@IMB_SBC
and the fruit of years of faithful giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Hospitals, seminaries, CHURCHES, and more...all begun because of our cooperation together. I’m a proud Southern Baptist.