These reflections come in the midst of me leading another small group through Henry Blackaby’s study Experiencing God, and my attendance at the  February 2021 SBC Executive Committee Meeting in Nashville as our state convention’s trustee. As I share my thoughts, I do so with some major disclaimers. First and foremost, you need to know that these are MY PERSONAL thoughts. I am not speaking in any formal capacity, nor on behalf of any other Executive Committee member, nor for anyone on the Executive Committee staff. Second, I share them with humility knowing that where you have three or four Baptists gathered together you have at least five or six opinions on any given topic. Chances are I could read this next week and wonder what kind of a nut wrote that! I also share them knowing that my reflections are an extremely simplistic way of viewing some very complex and integrally intertwined issues.
 
     During the Nashville Executive Committee meeting, Dr. Ronnie Floyd recast his Vision 2025—a clear and compelling vision that was to be approved at the 2020 SBC meeting in Orlando, which was canceled due to COVID. Dr. Floyd’s passion was bolstered by the fact that we could hear him in person, and that we have the expectation of meeting in person for the 2021 convention this June in Nashville. Having a clear vision is “Good News!” However, at that same meeting, we had to deal with several issues that fall into the “Bad News” category. Those issues are significant enough that even a clear and compelling vision can be drowned out by the cacophony created by unrecognized and unaddressed conflicts. That reality reminded me of an old Hee Haw skit that Archie Campbell did. In the routine, he contrasted the “Good News” and “Bad News” that can arise out of any given situation: Oh that's good.
 
    As I began to reflect on the Good News-Bad News contrast, I thought about the slogan General Motors used in their 1988 campaign to re-energize the Oldsmobile brand: “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Stop and think with me for just a minute about some of the huge changes that have taken place in SBC life in the last fifty-plus years:

• Southern Baptists were transformed from being a regional convention of churches into a national body with churches in every state.
• Southern Baptists became the most ethnically diverse convention of churches in America.
• The southern states, where the majority of Southern Baptist churches are still located, shifted from being single-party states (Democrat) to two-party states and have consistently supported Republican presidential candidates in recent elections.
• All conventions and denominations in America have been deeply impacted by the growth of the mega-church, decline in denominational loyalty, as well as advances in communications (i.e. television) and technology (i.e. internet).     

    The changes mentioned above, and I’m sure you could add to my list, contain some “Good News,” but the “Bad News” is that they have also created tensions, fissures, and polarization. If we are honest with ourselves, we look more like the culture in which we live than we do the model of unity we are called to emulate as described in scripture (John 17:20-23, Romans 14:19, & Ephesians 4:1-6). Unless we address these challenges my fear is that Southern Baptists could go the way of the Oldsmobile. The last Olds rolled off the assembly line on April 29, 2004; however, there are still Oldsmobiles on the highway. I have been around church life long enough to know that there will be Southern Baptists in the world when Jesus returns. The question is “Will we be a thriving growing healthy body of churches or will we be merely surviving.”
 
    Before I suggest how the “Good News” in the changes I mentioned above are at the core of some of our “Bad News,” let me suggest some principles that can help us generate “Good News” in any setting.

• Keep your focus on the main thing. Some of our differences are caused by our focus on minor issues rather than major issues. Paul’s admonition in Romans 14 has direct application for us today—particularly verse 19 where he says, “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” An old cliché comes to mind here: “We can’t see the forest for the trees.” We can become so consumed with minor issues that it is as if we are dissecting the underside of a leaf on a bush in the corner of a giant forest. And when we do that, we begin to lose all perspective. I listened to one individual during a break in my Nashville meeting who was consumed with what I would describe as a minor issue when compared to the huge issues facing one of our entities.
• Use your existing relationships to create healthy dialogue. Often times we have relationships or existing venues that can provide a natural connecting point during times of confusion and conflict. If leaders are willing to use them, they can generate honest healthy dialogue. However, if we don’t take advantage of them, we will invariably create frustration resulting in deeper division and disengagement. The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 is a great example of men willing to use existing relationships to create an environment for honest dialogue. Nothing is ever accomplished by ignoring the elephants in the room.

    In the weeks ahead I will share some more principles that can help us generate “Good News” as well as give you “my take” on how the changes I mentioned at the opening of this article are at the heart of most of the “Bad News” issues we are facing today as Southern Baptists. As I do this, I will also listen to your perspective knowing that unless we discuss honestly we will not diagnose correctly. And when we don’t diagnose correctly, we WILL prescribe solutions that will only make matters worse. Let’s talk together and see if we can see and understand more clearly what God is saying to Southern Baptists today.

 I hope you were able to “feel the love” as I did a two-week Wyoming cowboy-themed Valentine’s Day pause in my articles. Before I pushed the pause button, I was discussing the self-diagnosis of your church’s spiritual health. So closing out my cowboy theme, let me say, “Meanwhile back at the ranch” we were talking about making disciples. In the process, we talked about several metrics—a fancy city word meaning, “What are we counting?”
 
    The first metric we talked about was “counting the number of new people who had been identified, recruited, trained, and deployed during the time frame being evaluated.” The second metric we discussed was “How many professions of faith and how many baptisms did your church report last year?” A third metric was “measuring your effectiveness in ‘winning your own’—those who grew up and were baptized in your church.” The latter suggested a look back to see if you are actually able to identify spiritual maturity in those who had grown up in your church.    
 
    Today I want to mention a fourth metric: “How many do you have attending?” Here again, we face the reality that COVID has significantly impacted our numbers. But setting that issue aside for just a moment, let me point to the reality that in Great Commission Baptist life I have observed a major shift in the last few decades regarding “what attendance we count.” When I served as the Sunday School Director of a church in the ’70s and early ’80s, THE ONLY attendance that was counted was Sunday School attendance. The church I attended did not count worship attendance. Today, when pastors gather and “compare notes”—and they inevitably will—the number one question asked is, “How many does your church run in worship?”
 
    Stop and think about what that subtle shift means. What does it say about our focus? Or maybe more importantly, what does it say about our lack of focus on disciple-making? Now again, I need to interject a reality check. I have experienced “Sunday School done right” while the vast majority of pastors and Christians have only seen it done poorly. What I would suggest is that the BEST disciple-making strategy in the world will not work when it is not implemented well. 
 
    That leads me back to a book I’ve already mentioned: Effectiveness by the Numbers: Counting what Counts in the Church by William Hoyt. It is the best book on church metrics that I have seen. In it, Hoyt writes:

​When things get dark and difficult, stop and look up to God until He refreshes your call. Then look out unto the fields that are white unto harvest and unto the sheep that are weary and scattered. Then reach within yourself and find the strength to keep doing the things you already know need to be done. Get back to the basics. Keep the main thing the main thing. Being “exciting and exotic“ might be something God can use in a different season, but TODAY is not that day. My prayers are with you.

     In the area of penetrating the lostness in our community, Hoyt suggested we could do an in-depth self-diagnose in two additional ways. The first is one many pastors have used and seen: “What is the ratio of church members to baptisms.” Because many churches emphasize worship attendance versus membership, you will note above that Hoyt suggested the ratio of attendees to baptisms. Hoyt suggested an additional metric I had not previously used. With my undergraduate degree in economics and with a deep passion for being a good steward, it really hit me hard. He suggests you divide your annual church income by the number of baptisms per year. He gave three examples in the book that ranged from $72,340 to $270,554! Now Hoyt wasn’t, and I am not suggesting you think in business terms of improving your return on investment. What I am asking is, “Are you stewarding “the widow’s mite” well?” and, “Are you investing God’s resources in the things that produce the greatest fruitfulness?”
 
       Stay tuned for more self-diagnostic tools. But until then, consider using the self-evaluation tools mentioned above. Then prayerfully ask God to give you a discerning spirit to know what the next right step should be.

 In the field of medicine, there are two very broad umbrella categories under which everything is categorized: Diagnostic Health Care and Preventive Health Care. Diagnostic care is what you receive when you have symptoms or risk factors and your doctor seeks to diagnose them—when they identify the root cause and prescribe a solution. Preventive care is given to you when you're symptom free and believe you are healthy—the basic care that you get when you have no reason to believe you are sick.
 
     In last week’s article entitled “How’s Your Spiritual Health?” I pointed out that the average church in America is not healthy. I also pointed out that our actions and attitudes, even after a year filled with unprecedented challenges, still suggest that we think we are okay. We are only seeking preventive care for our spiritual health needs. What I hear from most pastors is something like this: “Yes, things are difficult, but it is because we are living in a very unhealthy culture—one filled with physical health care problems, political strife, economic disparity, and racial tensions. And yes there are unhealthy churches, but not ours.”
 
     One of the reasons for our attitude is that the spiritual health decline we’ve experienced has been very slow. In fact, it has been so gradual and taken place over such a long period of time that we are almost completely unaware of it. Although I could provide all kinds of statistics as proof of the decline, even in the face of those statistics, many would remain unconvinced that “our church” is unhealthy.
 
     I am living proof of how oblivious we can be to gradual health declines. Last year at some insistence from those who “say” they love me, I took a hearing test. This wasn’t just the “Can you hear the beep?” kind of test. They made me repeat words they were saying. I wasn’t totally convinced I had a problem. The test indicated that I wasn’t hearing exactly what they were saying, BUT I’m sure I was hearing what they “should have been saying!” Setting aside all my rationalizations, I had to admit that I needed hearing aids. They were ordered, and when they arrived they were synced to my telephone, and I left the doctor’s office. I did notice some immediate changes. And as I headed down the road, I heard some “new” sounds emanating from my car. My first thought was, “Wow! I’ve got to get that fixed.” One noise that startled me was a clicking sound I heard every time I turned a corner. What I was hearing for the first time in a long-time was the sound of my turn signal. The next morning I had a similar experience as I sat down at my desk and began to reply to my e-mails. I thought I had a nice quiet keyboard. It turns out that I actually have a very loud keystroke.    
 
     Today we have nice soundproof rooms with electronic testing tools to determine if we have hearing loss and then pinpoint the specific frequencies where that loss is occurring. What would happen if we had technology capable of diagnosing the root cause of our spiritual health problems? Would the average church even use them? Over twenty years ago, I was trained and certified to use one of the simplest and best church health diagnostic tools available. I promoted it and encouraged pastors to take advantage of it, but over the years only a handful have used it.
 
      So in lieu of recommending any existing diagnostic tools, let me suggest some self-evaluation questions you can ask to determine the health of your church. Last week I stated that the number one problem we have in the American church is the lack of mature leaders. So, one way to know if you are a healthy church is by asking yourself, “Do we have enough spiritually mature leaders to do all that God is asking us to do in our church? If the answer is yes, then you are a spiritually healthy church.
 
     If you answered no, then your church has some spiritual health issues. Let me suggest some diagnostic follow-up questions:

• “What is your definition of a mature disciple of Christ?” Sometimes we don’t have a clear or Biblical definition in mind. Since making disciples is THE focus of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), it is imperative that your church has a simple, widely communicated, and Biblically based definition. If you don’t know what your goal is, how are you going to accomplish it?
• “Is the lack of mature leadership a new problem?” There are cycles in the life of every church. Sometimes we hit a season where we are sending leaders out faster than we are developing them. You cannot out give God, so if you are continuing to faithfully equip those He has sent you (Eph. 4:11-16), you will be okay.
• “How long has it been a problem for your church?” If it has been a recent occurrence—reread the previous bullet point. If it has been a problem for some time, then go immediately to my next question.
• “What have you been doing to address the issue?” Take a few minutes and think about what your church has been doing to become more effective disciple-makers. Like my hearing loss happened over time, sometimes we gradually lose focus, and we make church about a lot of good things and then we wake up one Sunday morning and realize we are not doing the most important thing—making disciples. 

     All of us have heard and probably used the phrase, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.” With my hearing loss issue, I could have chosen to NOT go to an audiologist. After I went I could have chosen to NOT heed his advice. After I bought my hearing aids I could have chosen to NOT wear them regularly because it took a lot of effort to adjust to them. But I was willing to change, and I can hear better, and people who love me tell me that I am hearing them better.
 
      If your only answer to my last diagnostic question above was, “We have been praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send us laborers for our harvest field,” then I hope you can hear me saying with love and as much grace as I can express in written words, “You have ceased to be a church, and you have become part of the mission field.” The first step in making a change is acknowledging your need for change! Stay tuned as I continue to discuss spiritual health issues.

Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, DoM

     Over the past ten months the word COVID, which many of us had never heard before, has become a word we use at least once a day. The average American has been exposed to more information and disinformation regarding a single strain of the COVID family of viruses (COVID19), than they can handle. One virus has created a global concern for our physical wellbeing. 
 
     What has intrigued me during this season is that it hasn’t generated an equal concern for our spiritual health. Most pastors and churches are working hard to find ways to survive until they can get back to normal. The goal seems to be to get back to where we were a year ago. But stop and ask yourself, where was the American church in January 2020? Was the average church a healthy church? The reality is that in every statistical area we use to evaluate a normal American church, the average church was not healthy a year ago. From my perspective, THE number one symptom that tells me we have a significant spiritual health crisis in our nation is our lack of mature leaders. Let me elaborate a bit on how I arrived at this conclusion.
 
     Phyllis and I began the New Year by beginning the study of Experiencing God during our morning devotionals. Phyllis had never done the study, and I have found it to be very useful at times in my life when I needed clarity from God. In our chaotic world filled with COVID, racial tensions, political polarization, economic stress, and Christianity’s declining influence, I figured it might be a good time to seek clarity from God. The first principle you study in Experiencing God is that God is always at work around us. The question is, “Am I even expecting God to be at work?”
 
     So I started to pay closer attention. I have been doing a major edit on material I have used for decades to help pastor search committees. In preparation for the edit, I read the book Next: Pastoral Succession that Works by Vanderbloemen and Bird. Although they specifically state, “We are not primarily writing on how to establish a pastor search committee;” it has been a helpful resource.
 
     At the same time, I have been working with several pastor search committees. In the process of helping one, I ran across an “interesting” resume. The candidate had sent a self-composed, in depth cover letter that basically described himself as a superman kind of pastor. It emphasized all that he could do and all the knowledge that he had that would transform their church. It was very “me-centered.” His perspective comes from a faulty definition of spiritual maturity. Disciple-making is not simply the transfer of information but is about life transformation (Romans 12:1-2).
 
     All of this, and a variety of similar things, began to create a swirling vortex in my mind. Ultimately, God used these experiences to create an “Aha moment!” If we, Christians and churches—the body of Christ—really addressed the core issue of our spiritual health problem, I wouldn’t need to help so many pastor search committees and Vanderbloemen and Bird’s book wouldn’t have been so popular. The average American church is not raising up leaders from their own harvest field. This is what Jesus commanded us to do in the Great Commission—to make disciples in Matthew 28:19-20. It is what He had told His disciples to do when He sent the twelve out two-by-two in Matthew 9:38. It is what Jesus told the seventy to do when He sent them out two by two in Luke 10:2. But since the average church in America is emphasizing doing and knowing rather than growing in obedience and Christlikeness, when they need a new pastor they have to find one that some other church has been preparing. And because so few churches are raising up leaders for the harvest, it has become more imperative that I have good resources to share with search committees and Vanderbloemen and Bird’s book will continue to sell well. 
 
     When it comes to our spiritual health we are usually treating symptoms and ignoring or glossing over the underlying cause of our spiritual health crisis—our failure to make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples (II Timothy 2:2). My prayer is that your personal walk is significantly better than it was a year ago. But, to be all that God wants us to be, we all need to regularly ask God to put a spotlight of truth on areas where we need to grow (Psalm 139:23-24) and be willing to listen to genuine friends—those will to speak truth into our life (Proverbs 27:6). As we do that, we will be able to diagnose some underlying issues that are negatively impacting our spiritual health. Go and become all that God desires for you.

Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, DoM

 There is no one who is able to set themself outside of our current historical events and view them with absolute objectivity. As we are watching these unprecedented events unfold, we do so with personal perspectives shaped by our life experiences. Having said that, ALL OF US should be able to say that violence and attacks on persons and property are never a proper response. I would suggest that if we can’t denounce violence, anarchy, and murder without adding a single qualifier—anything that in anyway, shape, or form provides a rationalization for them--then we have already lost objectivity and will lose credibility.
 
     As a nation, we are experiencing an increased polarization and calcification that has destroyed any remaining lines of communication that existed between factions. We have also experienced a series of events that have increasingly desensitized us. It has become so common that we dismiss it as normal. We lose our sense of outrage and righteous indignation. Some of us simply “tune out.” The net result is demoralized and defeated people watching as warring factions escalate their response to one another.
 
     But humanity has been down this road before. Genesis 6:5-7 speaks to a time much like ours is rapidly becoming.
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."'
     If you were to stop at verse seven and not know the rest of the story, you would become despondent. However, verse eight says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” God provided light and hope through the obedience of a single man.
 
     After Joshua led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, and he and his generation passed away, a four hundred year period of time passed that Biblical scholars call the Period of the Judges. For four centuries the “People of God” experienced a cyclical life that moved from obedience and blessing to disobedience and social decay. Judges 2:17-19 describes it this way:
“They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.”
      God provided light and hope through the faithful obedience of various men, and at least one woman named Deborah.
 
      The prophet Isaiah lived in a time of national despair. Assyria had conquered and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and almost did the same thing to the southern kingdom of Judah. The first seventeen verses of the book of Isaiah picture Judah as a nation that had turned its back on God. After sowing seeds of sinful rebellion they were now reaping the harvest of cultural decay and national decline. But God gave Isaiah a word of hope to share with the nation:
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’” Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword’; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 1:18-20
God offered the nation hope in the midst of darkness by declaring, “If you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land.”
 
     These are but a few of the many examples we have in scripture. In the darkest of times, God has always set before us the possibility of a future full of hope and blessings. However, it is always a conditional promise that requires repentance, faith, and obedience on our part.
 
      It is interesting to note that in times of cultural distress we most often quote a promise from God that was not one given during a season of difficulty, but at the pinnacle of Israel’s global prominence—the dedication of the first temple during Solomon’s reign. It was God’s response to Solomon’s dedication prayer that is recorded in II Chronicles 6. In his prayer, over and over again he beseeched God to listen when people cried out to Him in times of trouble—troubles that will often be caused by their own sinful actions. You will note that Solomon did not pray “If trouble comes” but “When it comes.” God’s answer was:  
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14
 
     Because we have personal perspectives shaped by our life experiences, we will respond differently to current events. Those various responses will be packed with emotions and driven by our basic human instincts for survival. As I struggle and seek to rise above emotions and human instinct by listening to the indwelling Holy Spirit, let me encourage you to do the same. Let us come together with ears to hear one another’s pain AND to raise our prayers of confession and intercession to God. In the days ahead, Heartland Church Network will be scheduling specific times for pastors to come together, to share with one another, to pray for one another, and to lift our unified voices to God in prayer.

As Christians, we believe in one God who has described Himself in relational terms as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Genesis tells us that humanity was created by Him in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). We too are relational beings, and as such, our spiritual and physical health depends upon having good relationships with one another and with God.
 
     Another recent read of mine has been Finishing Strong by Steve Farrar. [You can find a discussion summary of it on the HCN website resource library] In it, Farrar reminds us of four different research projects that point to the importance that relationships play in our physical health.

At Ohio State University College of Medicine, scientists found that patients who scored above average in loneliness had significantly poorer functioning of their immune system.

• In Sweden, a ten-year study of 150 middle-aged men found that social isolation was one of the best predictors of mortality.
• A report published in the journal Science said that social isolation is as significant to mortality rates as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and lack of physical exercise. In fact, when age is adjusted for, social isolation is a great or greater mortality risk than smoking.
• At Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. David Spiegel conducted research in which patients with metastatic breast cancer were randomly divided into two groups. One group received the usual medical care, while the other received the usual care plus weekly ninety-minute support group meetings for one year. Although he planned the study expecting there would be no difference in life span between the two groups, five years later he found that the patients who attended the weekly group support meetings had twice the survival rate of the other group. (Pages 177-185)

Social science has once again proven Biblical truth. We are relational beings, and healthy relationships contribute to physical health.
 
As we enter the New Year, Be It Resolved that we will place a higher priority on relationships. One way we can do this is by not letting the “new normal” blind us in this critical area. A prime example of “relational blindness” comes from what we now accept as an appropriate response to COVID. I am absolutely convinced that as serious as this virus is; as many unknowns as there are related to its long-term health impact; and as many variables as there are regarding the vaccines being developed for it; that politicians and medical administrators, for the most part, have been blind to the relational needs of people as they are establishing COVID protocols.
 
Doctors and nurses, who are already under great stress, have to constantly adjust to ever-evolving protocols with little, if any, input into what makes sense. Patients are being isolated as hospitals don’t permit even a single family member to visit. This isolation is creating emotional stress for both the patient and the family. As such, they are ignoring the findings of long-established social science AND the basic relational nature of human beings.
 
Be It Resolved that those of us who have the responsibility to make decisions regarding how our church responds to the ever-evolving COVID restrictions, that we will not fall prey to “relational blindness.” Every church will have people who are spread across the full spectrum of the COVID Perspective Scale. As such, any decision you make will upset someone. Be patient with those who take these positions. My council has been for everyone to use common sense, common courtesy, and uncommon grace. But as is often the case, it preaches easier than it is lived out.
 
Be It Resolved that you will sustain key relationships in spite of the challenges. One of Satan’s tried and true ways to keep pastors and church leaders from long-term success is to get them isolated—to cut them out from the herd. Relational blindness applies to those of us who think we can do ministry alone. Farrar’s book on finishing strong points out that one of the key indicators for failing to finish strong is not being involved in a personal accountability group (page 40). If you are not currently involved in a small accountability group with other pastors or church leaders, then I exhort you; I plead with you; I beg you to give me a call, and we can work together to get you plugged into one.
 
May your 2021 be filled with healthy growing relationships!
Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, DoM