Being Tuesday at the end of a Four-Day Weekend, I sat down to write. In the midst of thinking through some options, I decided to go in to my twitter account and search for what is being said about “Baptists.” These are the first eight I found:
Real-time results for Baptist
(FYI: the first word is the user name and linked to their profile.)
msignorile Hr 1: Discussing Baptist preacher Steven Anderson and Pastor Wiley Drake, praying for Obama to die, and execution of homos. half a minute ago from web
clarkfrailey Coffee Creek Baptist Church Weekly eNewsletter – http://eepurl.com/dbc7
4 minutes ago from MailChimp
ssrebelsam The inner Baptist in me just gets so happy when a woman gets up and preaches . And that’s why I am a Methodist.
8 minutes ago from TweetDeck
striegelm Syncing my Iphone and getting ready to run an errand in preparation for GA’s tomorrow night at Emmanuel Baptist Church. 10 minutes ago from web
kernpegues Scott Thomas responds graciously to the misrepresentations of @acts29 by Baptist Press, et al http://bit.ly/17b6TR
11 minutes ago from TweetDeck
cerner1 See how Integris Baptist & Oklahoma Heart Hospital are using healthcare IT to improve care & patient safety http://bit.ly/A5rjL
12 minutes ago from web
calgays Lesbians claim assault at Memphis church: A lesbian couple, attending a Baptist church to meet a Memphis mayoral.. http://bit.ly/kx90L
12 minutes ago from twitterfeed
plazapreacher is pondering how to be baptist. Or maybe it is not that important. http://preacherontheplaza.wordpress.com
13 minutes ago from web
Yes, we Baptists get bad press. But, the thing about twitter is that it is not the “press” but the people. Some of the above statements are made by Baptists themselves. Some are not. The honest question is “what message are we giving to the world?”
As the Southern Baptists are considering a Great Commission Resurgence, we need to think more about our message. If we are truly a people that loves God, we are to be a people that loves our neighbors as our selves. Our focus should be on the world’s need for salvation—and not every petty fight that comes along. We need to be theologically strong and biblically accurate—in every way—especially in our love for others.
We are to be the ones to declare the truth of the gospel—and, at times, sound the call to repentance. However, are these calls falling on deaf ears if we have not loved the people?
