For the past several weeks I have been thinking about what Dr. Jeff Straub, professor at Central Seminary, posted on a blog site. I will quote his two postings so that you can see what I have been musing about. Any misspellings and poor grammar belong to the author, they have not been inserted by yours truly or anyone at the blog site.
Posted 9-20-10
I really am puzzled who get listened to on the internet . . . you can be a ministry drop-out, working in the secular world with a blog site and be certified to comment on a man like Mark Dever. Or you can be a pastor of a pretty small church but because you are all over the internet making comments and are blunt, then you are qualified to speak. Mark Dever has done more than most men for the cause of Christ. Do I like his view of eschatology . . . no. But he is not the enemy.
Where was the loud cry when John Vaughn spoke for Clarence Sexton and with Jack Schaap. Oh yea, and Mike Schrock was there also.
So, given the choice of hearing Mark Dever or Jack Schaap . . . hummmmmmmmm this is really a tough choice to make . . . NOT! Mark has done much to help redirect the SBC ship and, if you actually know anything about him, his music, preaching and style of ministry, is as strong as anything . . . no its really stronger than most everything in fundamentalism.
I for one wish I could go to Lansdale in February and am glad both Dave and Kevin have chosen to ignore the lunatics and do what is right.
Posted 9-21-10
________(blog site administrator), I weary of the foolishness of the internet. Some guys (and perhaps ladies, though I am not shooting anyone in particular, but I'll be an equal opportunity critic) seem to have nothing else to do but comment on everything. Like the rest of the world needs their opinion about everything. Often these discussions are DOMINATED by the same voices. It used to be that, in most cases, someone actually had to have something credible to say to be heard. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry with a computer can start a blog and pontificate. They don't actually have to be qualified to say something to merit being heard, they just have to have a computer keyboard. That alone is their entrance into the conversation. Ok, so the internet gives the little guy a voice . . . Why is it the big guys never participate in these discussions? Most are too busy in the Lord's work.
Mark Dever does not care what we think of him. And frankly, why should he. What have we done to merit his consideration? Mark has done more to promote true biblical Baptist ministry in these days than most anyone I can think of. This doesn't mean he is without flaw. Can this same argument be used of Billy Graham? Of course, but who is talking about Billy Graham? Most guys who criticize Dever, don't know much about him except that he is a Southern Baptist. Truth is his preaching is substantive, whatever you think of his eschatological views, his church is top shelf, and his ministry to the wider church is outstanding. We all ought to read Polity or Nine Marks. I don't know of a fundamentalist who is making the kind of impact that Mark is making.
Most of us need to put away our keyboards and go back to the work to which God has called us. Do we really need to weigh in on every conversation, multiple times? Would our sheep be better fed if we devoted more time to them? I really wonder how some guys feed their sheep with the amount of time they spend at their key boards. They troll the internet blogs entering into everyone's conversation. Do we find Dever, Mohler, Piper, MacArthur doing this? They don't need to. They actually have a voice, a legitimate voice.
_______(blog site administrator), I'm not knocking ______(blog site name) here, but I am saying that I weary of these kinds of forums that give universal access to most any one with an opinion. Many guys have too much time on their hands. I just wonder if, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will not be severely rebuked for our misuse of time. We are to redeem the times. I am not sure that the internet is the appropriate place to do this. Why should we care what a guy thinks who has no real standing? Small churches are not in and of themselves a problem. Many faithful men has pastored them. But since most pastors of small churches have little help, they must do everything themselves, which means they have little time to waste. Let's be about our business and give our keyboards a rest. Or maybe we just need to turn off the modium.
I removed names and the blog site name because they are unnecessary to the overall scheme of things. Besides, I don’t care to advertise for them.
The tenor of Dr. Straub’s two postings over two days is telling. I get the sense that he is rather condescending toward the little guy. He speaks of concern for time management for pastors of small churches, but one would have to ask of him, a seminary professor, how much of his time did he use to become aware of a “pastor of a pretty small church” who blogs?
To be honest with any readers, I was a bit taken aback when I read his comments. I am a pastor of a small church out in the Pacific Northwest, where most pastors I know pastor small churches (the largest, sound works I am aware of flirt with 150 on a Sunday morning, most of us run 50 to 100 on a Sunday morning, still more are running 20 to 40). Some of us are out in cyberspace blogging (personally, besides myself, I know of two other pastors who blog, two of us have our own blogs). So, with that said, most of the pastors I know out here fit Dr. Straub’s description.
Dr. Straub’s comments are in a thread that is about Tim Jordan’s Advancing the Church Conference next February at Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA. Along with Mark Dever, who is the keynote speaker, Dr. Kevin Bauder, Dr. Straub’s “boss” at Central, and Dr. David Doran, president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and some of Calvary’s seminary faculty will also be speaking. Some have raised legitimate concerns about these self-identified fundamentalist seminary presidents working in common cause with Mark Dever. The blogosphere is full of men rationalizing away separatism in order to make this convergence palatable for Fundamentalists. But, I digress.
One must ask, what does it take to be “certified to comment” and therefore “qualified to speak” concerning any man, movement, issue, or whatever, let alone Mark Dever? Must that person have a college education to be “certified” and “qualified”? If so, how much education is necessary; an associate degree, a bachelors, or a masters, maybe an M. Div, a ThD or a PhD? Or does that person need years of ministry experience? If so, then how many years; 5, 10, 20, 30, or 50? Or does he need to have been a member of Dever’s church for X number of years? Yes, I am being facetious here. Dr. Straub’s comments are absurd.
As he closes his rant (for lack of a better term), he states, “why should we care what a guy thinks who has no real standing?” Yes, Dr. Straub, WHY do you care? By your statements you have taken considerable time surfing the internet to find this “pastor of a pretty small church” and locate his haunts in the blogosphere and find that he is, “all over the internet making comments and are blunt,” and that he “comment on everything.” Maybe Dr. Straub was using hyperbole in his statements, if so that makes his commenting that much more condescending to men who, by reason of God’s calling, have not “despised the day of small things” and pastor small churches around the world. By that very fact (that they pastor small churches), many do consider them to not have a standing. Talk about arrogance! I thought we were beyond comparing ourselves amongst ourselves as to how many we had in services last Sunday in order to show our worth. I guess I was wrong.
One must ask another question, “why are there pastors of pretty small churches out on the internet blogging?” Because men like Dr. Kevin Bauder, Dr. David Doran, and now Dr. Tim Jordan are out there seeking to influence men who are Fundamentalists to “moderate” their separatist position by bringing in that “careful, limited form of fellowship” with Evangelicals. I for one, don’t buy their reasoning and will speak out against them.
Dr. Straub, neither Mark Dever, nor Al Mohler, nor John Piper, nor John MacArthur should have a voice, a legitimate voice within Fundamentalism. Yet, sadly, many a Fundamentalist has heard the siren call of these men and has not resisted that call of compromise.
For all you “pastors of pretty small churches” keep it up! Voice your concern! Cry out against compromise! Hopefully, these men, who by the nature of their positions (seminary presidents, professors) are men of some standing by default, will get the message that they have no standing, no hearing with many of us who are “pastors of pretty small churches.”
