Jonathan Brooks

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Jonathan Brooks

Jonathan Brooks

@JonathanRBrooks

Jesus follower. Sinner being sanctified. Husband of an incredible wife; father of 5. Lead Pastor at Christ Fellowship in Raleigh NC. Also, Gamecock for life!

Raleigh, NC Katılım Aralık 2010
610 Takip Edilen383 Takipçiler
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
Wisdom from Lord of the Rings: “in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him … we live now upon an island amid many perils, and our hands are more often upon the bowstring than upon the harp.”
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
A small, though significant, portion of these declines could also be related to churches not participating in reporting. Many SBC churches, including the one I pastor, don't report our numbers to the SBC. I think there are a lot more churches like us (not reporting numbers) than there were 20-30 years ago.
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Sam Rainer
Sam Rainer@SamRainer·
What's often missed in the declines of the SBC (and other denominations) is how it's largely a story of the Baby Boomer generation holding the numbers up--for now. Longform article coming on Monday, but here's one stat: "The SBC’s biggest challenge is actuarial. Among Southern Baptist adults, only 6% are under age 30, and only about one in five are under age 45. About 45% of Southern Baptist adults are Baby Boomers, more than double the Boomer share in the general adult population."
Ryan Burge 📊@ryanburge

New data from the Southern Baptist Convention is out. They've lost another 390K members. Fourth biggest drop in history. 12.3M now. I built three projection models to predict when membership will drop below 10M. It's very likely to happen in the next decade.

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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
The article still says “This being the case, he still speaks as though “same sex attraction” is not sinful in itself.” I don’t believe that’s an accurate description of Allberry’s view. He acknowledges he has the capacity to be attracted to a man. Is an acknowledgment of that capacity sinful? Or, is it an honest assessment that allows someone to be aware of their particular potential temptations?
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Michael Clary
Michael Clary@dmichaelclary·
Update: I’ve been told that Allberry actually does NOT support someone making homosexuality part of their identity. I misrepresented his view on that point and wanted to correct the error. From his book, Is God Anti-Gay?: “Same sex attraction is not a good thing. It is... a consequence of the fall. ...This kind of attraction is not something God designed for us, and it contradicts his design.” Page 63 “I used the term ‘same-sex attraction’ just then because an immediate challenge is how I describe myself. In western culture today the obvious term for someone with homosexual feelings is “gay.” But in my experience this often refers to far more than someone’s sexual orientation. It has come to describe an identity and a lifestyle. When someone says they’re gay, or for that matter, lesbian or bisexual, they normally mean that, as well as being attracted to someone of the same gender, their sexual preference is one of the fundamental ways in which they see themselves. And it’s for this reason that I tend to avoid using the term. It sounds clunky to describe myself as “someone who experiences same-sex attraction.” But describing myself like this is a way for me to recognize that the kind of sexual attractions I experience are not fundamental to my identity. They are part of what I feel but are not who I am in a fundamental sense. I am far more than my sexuality.’ Page 10-11 (Kindle Edition).
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Michael Clary
Michael Clary@dmichaelclary·
The Side B framework tells men their homosexual desires are not sinful. And a man who believes his that desire is not sinful has no reason to fight it. If he makes it his identity, he has every reason to befriend it, explore it, protect it from outside interference. You cannot fight an enemy you've been told is a friend. My latest essay (I hated writing this) dmichaelclary.com/p/sam-allberry…
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Luke Stamps
Luke Stamps@lukestamps·
Give me Piper's decades of faithful biblical exegesis and exposition over whatever is motivating this pile on.
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
I listened to @gavinortlund's podcast on the question of the Sons of God in Gen. 6. But, two questions never seem to be dealt with in relation to the Sons of God being spiritual, angelic beings: 1. If spiritual beings, did they take on flesh (become incarnate) in order to procreate with the daughters of man? If so, is that not problematic to the uniqueness of the incarnation of Christ? 2. If spiritual beings, not incarnate, caused the daughters of man to become pregnant, is that a virgin conception? If so, is that not problematic for the uniqueness of the virgin birth of Christ?
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Jonathan Brooks retweetledi
Andrew T. Walker
Andrew T. Walker@AndrewTWalker·
The video grotesquely depicting the Obamas deserves condemnation. It is vile, and the fact that it emerged from within the White House—out of an abundance of incompetence, I believe—only compounds the disgrace. If you can't bring yourself to see that or say that, something is broken in your moral calculus. At the same time, what deserves equal scrutiny is the moral asymmetry on display. Many who are properly outraged here have no problem indulging or excusing the normalization of anti-white racism (see the heinous video circulating from a sitting Congressman to understand how this sentiment is not an exception on the Left). And here is the deeper point: Christianity offers a better moral grammar than our tribal outrage cycles. The image of God inheres in every human being without addition or subtraction. That metaphysical reality—not partisan convenience—grounds why impartiality must govern our concept of justice and moral critique.
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Daniel Ritchie
Daniel Ritchie@DanielRitchie·
From what I’ve seen in the SBC, the vast majority are a people that love Jesus and love others well. The example below is an example of the small, spiteful fringe that still exists in our convention.
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
If this is true then it will always leads to errant theology. They would be picking a religion that makes room for their politics. That means their political convictions hold authority over their interpretation of Scripture instead of Scripture holding authority over their development of political convictions.
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Ryan Burge 📊
Ryan Burge 📊@ryanburge·
I wanted to discuss this sentence from @jdgreear "A change of politics is downstream from discipleship; it shouldn’t be the gateway to it." Here's the issue with this statement: Empirical evidence is mounting that people pick their religion based on their politics.
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Alisa Childers
Alisa Childers@alisa_childers·
This is the best explanation of the cultural moment I've read yet.
Michael Clary@dmichaelclary

When I think about many of the Christian leaders I once looked up to, I wonder how many of them are feeling a lot of cognitive dissonance these days. In my seminary and early church planting days, I was taught a model of cultural engagement that emphasized non-offensiveness as a ministry non-negotiable. As I implemented this methodology in my ministry, I found it wholly inadequate for the challenges of real ministry. So I rejected that approach. It took me several years to fully deprogram my ministry instincts and retrain myself to be more bold and outspoken. Then I think of men like Charlie Kirk. He didn't go to college or seminary. He didn't build a platform by adopting the tactics of the credentialed experts. He built his platform with guts and grit. If Charlie Kirk had gone to a typical seminary, he likely would have lost his edge. He would have learned to be more careful. He would learned to be more measured. He would have had his prophetic voice educated right out of him. He may have ended up as just another celebrated academic, publishing white papers at ETS, and speaking on the lecture circuit. I'm not against those things. My point is that our institutions produce academics when the need of the hour is more prophets. We need men of courage and conviction these days, but the evangelical leadership that shaped the last generation of pastors trained men to bury their courage. How many men go to seminary and graduate more on fire for Christ? That's why I think many older Christian leaders are feeling cognitive dissonance these days. The man who arguably had the greatest gospel impact in a generation did not go through their credentialing process, and did the opposite of what they would have trained him to do. How do you make sense of that? And then, I'm disturbed by this thought: how many young men have had their wings clipped by the credentialed class who told them "you can't offend people if you want to be effective in ministry"? How many men sought training for ministry only to have the leaders they respected train the zeal right out of them? Kirk's death has awakened the consciences of a generation of young men. They admire his courage, boldness, clarity and zeal. In the aftermath of Kirk's death, many of these young men are looking for leaders who can sharpen them and direct their zeal. Who do they have to look to? Kirk's bold voice, testimony to the gospel, massive appeal, and effective platform are a rebuke to the credential class who would have advised him to tone it down so he could play the long game and have a nice career. Don't get me wrong, there's still some very courageous voices out there, but many of them are speaking from outside the system, because their bold voice is a threat to the status quo. Going forward, the status quo is not gonna cut it. Everyone senses it. The way forward is more voices in the mold of Charlie Kirk, but the bench is pretty thin of men who can train the next generation of Charlie Kirks. So I find it ironic that God used Charlie Kirk, who did the opposite of everything Christian leaders are taught to do, and ended up building a ministry platform that produced the largest single gospel preaching event in human history. "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise." 1 Cor 1:27

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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
It doesn’t require boldness to preach on cultural issues to a crowd who will amen and agree with everything you say. Boldness is faithfully preaching God’s Word expositionally, pointing people to the glory of God and addressing whatever sins the text puts in front of you - come what may. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t address cultural issues that people in our church will amen and agree with - I just don’t think we should call it boldness.
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
Josh - it also could be because they’re too busy preaching expositionally through a book of the Bible and the text didn’t address culture wars on a given week. Why suggest people question their pastor’s faithfulness because he’s not meeting an arbitrary standard for addressing culture wars often enough?
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Josh Daws
Josh Daws@JoshDaws·
You want to know why your pastor is silent on the culture war? Because he’s afraid of losing people who have bought into this pernicious crap. He wants a diverse church more than he wants a church boldly advancing the gospel and opposing wickedness in the public square.
Tom Buck (Five Point Buck)@TomBuck

Southern Baptists, this is who helps train your church planters for @NAMB_SBC and @sendnetwork. Here are clips from his sermon series, “Why America Continues to Be a Racist Country.” Clip 1 - “ Why do we have to explain racism to white people?… Racism is a system we’re all experiencing…. I’m experiencing its detriments, white people are experiencing its benefits… you just get the good part.” Roberson recommends white people to read “Color of Compromise” and says, “ White people act differently when there’s a black person in the room.” Clip 2 - “ Racism is an entire system in our country…. If you want to be an activist, check your grandmother. Your Thanksgiving table needs to get checked.” Clip 3 - “ White people have to lead the charge to eradicate racist thinking in our country.” “ We have to have a whole re-orientation of the way we do seminaries. Race must be central to understanding God in America, because racism is central to America.” (Roberson says you can’t be on “mission” in America without believing this! Does NAMB believe that?) Whites “want black and brown people scattered in the room like Skittles for a good Polaroid but you don’t wanna understand the story. So we have to have a whole re-orientation of the way we have conversations in education.” Does @kevezell agree with this? Does NAMB and its trustees believe America continues to be a racist country? Is this the “orientation” of how NAMB missionaries are being educated?

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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
@AgainKmisc32112 My concern is that he said this: “in order to accomplish the Great Commission we need to advocate for it (conservatism) at the political level.” It's the "in order to" that's a significant problem. While one can argue it may be helpful, "in order to" claims that it's necessary.
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 I’m all for conservative policies for the sake of justice and human flourishing, but the gospel is the power to save in any climate or culture. It matters not if a county is blue or an unreached tribe is demonic - the gospel saves. The Holy Spirit awakens. God rescues. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, but with God all things are possible. (Matt. 19:23-26)
Josh Howerton@howertonjosh

The new explosive reality that needs to detonate in the heart of EVERY pastor in America...

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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
@JoelWBerry Joel - he literally says “in order to accomplish the Great Commission we need to advocate for it (conservatism) at the political level.” By definition he’s putting politics first.
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
I read your article to mainly be arguing that theism must precede and is necessary to substantial and meaningful conservatism. I agree. I don’t understand that to be what Josh is arguing. He’s arguing that conservatism leads to Christ; that conservatism is an evangelistic tool. My difficulty with this is the centuries of mission work that did not see that as a necessity. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. It doesn’t require the tracks to be greased by conservatism. I agree that conservatism is the natural outcome of faith in Christ, but I have trouble arguing it’s the genesis of faith in Christ (“pre-evangelism”).
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 I’m all for conservative policies for the sake of justice and human flourishing, but the gospel is the power to save in any climate or culture. It matters not if a county is blue or an unreached tribe is demonic - the gospel saves. The Holy Spirit awakens. God rescues. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, but with God all things are possible. (Matt. 19:23-26)
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Josh Howerton
Josh Howerton@howertonjosh·
The new explosive reality that needs to detonate in the heart of EVERY pastor in America...
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Jonathan Brooks
Jonathan Brooks@JonathanRBrooks·
@PastorMark “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. 16:18
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Pastor Mark Driscoll
Pastor Mark Driscoll@PastorMark·
God has bypassed the church pulpit and given His gospel to influencers, politicians and podcasters, and it’s because most pastors have become useless motivational speakers.
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Tony Reinke
Tony Reinke@TonyReinke·
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Keşfet

@gavinortlund @IMB_SBC @DanielRitchie @jdgreear @williamwolfe @between2worlds @alisa_childers @elonmusk