September 7, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS — James Noble said the imaginary letter he had to read to the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference on Monday was stained with water — maybe the sweat of the author’s brow, maybe tears.
But either way, he felt that the writer of the imaginary letter — John the Revelator — would have agonized over the words he had to say to the pastors of the SBC.
In the voice of John and in the tone of his letters to the seven churches in Revelation, Noble challenged pastors to address issues the convention faces.
“My brothers, the point that I’m trying to make is that God our heavenly Father is calling you to a life of faithfulness,” said Noble, senior pastor of Kingdom Community Church of Anderson in South Carolina. “He wants you as pastors to be faithful for His Church; therefore, be faithful or be forgotten.”
As John, he addressed a variety of issues facing the SBC today, from who should serve in the role of pastor to how to keep from elevating the Cooperative Program too high.
Looking in on the racial division of the SBC’s churches, he asked pastors why Sunday is the most segregated day of the week.
“Jesus broke down the walls between us. There is only one race of people in God’s body — the Christian race,” he said. “Coming together is not a race issue but a blood issue. It’s not about the removal of the color of skin but removal of the state of sin.”
God is building a Church of difference, not of sameness, he said.
“If heaven is an integrated place,” Noble asked, “why in the world isn’t the Church?”
He also challenged SBC pastors to face the sexual abuse issues in the Church. Speaking as John, he said, “My brothers, you must right these wrongs … you must repent of these sins corporately, individually and holistically. All involved in these evil acts must have the courage to step down from positions of leadership in every arm of your convention.”
Now is the time to “practice what you preach,” he said. “Now is the time to raise up a generation of pastors, denominational leaders and future presidents of your seminaries who will honor God’s word that says ‘be holy, for I am holy.’”
Now is the time to “teach your convention to redeem the time and walk circumspectly in your world because the world is watching,” Noble said, speaking as John.
The solution is the Word of God, he said. “It is the norm of all norms, and it cannot be normed by anything else. … The Bible means what it says, and it says what it means.”
He challenged them to stand strong.
“My brothers, you have many reasons to be faithful — the visible body return of Christ, the righteous reign of Christ and the eternal dominion of Christ,” Noble said.
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This story first appeared in The Baptist Paper.
