Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Southern Baptist Head Laments Materialism, Hedonism in SBC


On the opening day of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, SBC president Bryant Wright addressed the convention, saying if there is one message God wants Southern Baptist individuals, churches and the convention itself to hear, it is that they have left their first love, as Jesus describes in Revelation 2.

Wright addressed on Tuesday five challenges Southern Baptists face on a daily basis that slowly pull believers away from Christ.

The first challenge he spoke about was materialism – which he says is the number one idol in SBC churches, pointing to studies that show evangelical Christians give less than 2.5 percent of their income to the Lord’s work. He said there’s a clear message in that fact.

“What it says to us is, no matter how much our people profess to love Jesus, they really love their money more than Jesus. There is no way, when a person is continually stealing from God that they can claim to have a real love for Jesus Christ. Money, possessions have become a priority.”

He shared a story about the entire offering being stolen from the business office of his church one Sunday afternoon many years ago. People were outraged and it was the talk of the congregation throughout the week.

“I heard the comments all week long,” Wright said. “I just kind of silently smiled and looked forward to preaching the next Sunday on stealing from God from Malachi 3:8-10. I reminded our congregation – I said, ‘Many of you have been outraged that thieves broke into the business office, stole the entire Sunday offering. But the fact is, the overwhelming majority of you that call yourselves Christians rob from God every single Sunday.’”

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