Over the next two days, INJOY Stewardship Solutions has dispatched me to attend the Southern Baptist Convention. My objective here is to bring you the top leadership lessons and quotes from the event.
Before getting to the content, I want to make you aware that this Thursday, June 17th at 11:00 AM EST my friends Joe Sangl and Michael Lukaszewski are hosting a FREE webinar entitled How Pastors Can Earn Extra Money. Currently over 700 pastors are signed up!!! This webinar is for pastors or church leaders looking to make more money on the side and have multiple streams of revenue while still serving their churches. This teaching will help you relieve stress and focus more on your calling. Click HERE to register.
The following are 52 leadership quotes and lessons from outgoing SBC President J.D. Greear’s address to the convention. A quick note – if you are unfamiliar with Pastor Greear, he talks so fast and provides so much content that any live blogger will miss key elements of his message. I want to state just in case it does not come through in the quotes below, Pastor Greear does as good a job as anyone in getting the delicate balance between theological accuracy and exposing cultural sin with the justice required for issues like racism and sexual abuse right. It’s a fine line and he walks it in a God-honoring fashion.
I hope you enjoy these quotes. They are profound.
- “We pray this will be a prayer meeting with a little business mixed in rather than a business meeting with a little prayer mixed in.”
- “I am a few hours away from having the most coveted job in the Southern Baptist Convention, being a past president.”
- “It’s been a tough 30 years these last 3 years.”
- “I’m not sure any of us were ready for 2020.”
- “COVID did not create the divisions in our denomination, it just exposed them.”
- “We are at a defining moment in our convention… It might be the most important crossroads in our generation.”
- “Thank God for those who stood for the truth (40 years ago in the face of liberalism).”
- “The price of doctrinal integrity is eternal diligence.”
- “We are a convention who holds each other and our leaders accountable… No compromise will be tolerated.”
- “Who are we?”
- “We seem pretty sure of where we are going but do we know who we are?”
- “The curse of liberalism is real.”
- “The most dangerous thing about the leaven of Pharisees is it grows in orthodoxy.”
- “Believing in the sufficiency of Scripture means not giving divine authority which does not have a chapter and verse.”
- “Don’t look for accountability in leadership while not stopping gossip in ourselves.”
- “Justice is a major thing in our Bible so the angel of light is going to create counterfeits.”
- “CRT arises out of a worldview at odds with the Gospel.”
- “We must fight with our brothers and sisters of color to fight against all forms of discrimination.”
- “We don’t bend the truth to please anybody but in our haste to condemn outsiders, we ignore their questions.”
- “The court of the Gentiles must be kept clear to remove as many obstacles as possible to build bridges with them.”
- “What does it say about us when we allow this (character assassination) to go on?”
- “It makes us smell like death when our theology is squeaky clean.”
- “If we don’t arrest this leaven of the Pharisees we will not only lose our brothers and sisters of color, but also our children.”
- “Great Commission Baptists are ready in large part to walk into the future.”
- “The difference between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below is not its content, it’s its posture.”
- “Many of our divisions are based on 90% distortions and outright lies.”
- “Every lie weakens our resolve in getting the Gospel to the nations.”
- “We need to stop dividing over the things that don’t matter and focus on the one thing that does, the Great Commission.”
- “We’re going to be Great Commission Baptists.”
- “I was raised on soul winning. I was saved on Friday and knocking on doors on Wednesday.”
- “Last week my One (who he is praying becomes a Christian) expressed his faith in Christ… Personally evangelism is the heartbeat of our convention.”
- “People of color are not only welcome in our convention but essential to our future.”
- “Last year 60% of our plants were multi-cultural or non-Anglo churches.”
- “Every church is responsible to plant.”
- “There are more Southern Baptist churches today than McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subways combined.”
- “181 members of the International Mission Board serve overseas.”
- “We will exalt the Gospel above all. The Gospel is our north star.”
- “The Gospel saves our souls but also guides us into truth.”
- “If we keep the Gospel the center, we will eventually become the people God has called us to be.”
- “Ministry is hard.”
- “The Gospel that unites us is bigger than the cultural differences that divide us.”
- “God has not us to preach primarily save America politically but to make the Gospel known to all.”
- “Whenever the church gets in bed with politics, the church gets pregnant and the offspring doesn’t look like God.”
- “We are not the people of the elephant or donkey. We are people of the Lamb.”
- “We ought not make it hard for Gentiles to come to God.”
- “God has not called me to save America politically. He has called me to preach to save people eternally.”
- “We will unify around the Gospel.”
- “Gospel maturity is knowing which things should divide and which things should not.”
- “If we’re going to divide let it be over something worth dividing over.”
- “Are we a cultural affinity group or are we a Gospel-centered people?”
- “Are we Southern or Baptists? Let us be Gospel-centered.”
- “Let’s make war against sin and Satan.”
Also, click Complete Content Listing From 2021 Reach Conference Prior To The SBC Convention for the notes from the first two days of the convention as well as 11 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Johnny Hunt’s Report to the Southern Baptist Convention on Evangelism.
The Top 100 Leadership Quotes From 2020 is my latest ebook. The wisdom contained in these pages from top business leaders, pastors, coaches, and superlative thinkers sustained countless leaders in the most turbulent year anyone can remember. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.