Interview with Dr. Josh Buice on Leaving the SBC

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters. I hope that you and your family are doing well today

I want to thank you so very much for joining me for this podcast I had the special privilege today of interviewing

Josh Bice Josh is the pastor of Praise Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, which is northwest of the

Atlanta area and I'm interviewing him because a couple of days ago as of this recording

Josh made a lot of news and he did so when he made the announcement that he and his fellow elders

Have made the decision for their church Praise Mill to leave the Southern Baptist Convention the

Southern Baptist denomination and they had 100 % support from their congregation to do so and They cited as their reasons for leaving the

SBC The liberal drift within the SBC now when he said that a lot of the

SBC elite came out and they Derided this no, there's no liberal drift in the

SBC In fact, if you follow such things on social media, you know that they have been saying that anytime it's brought up There's no liberal drift in the

SBC. Well, the fact of the matter is that there is liberal drift in the SBC It's very real.

And so I wanted to give Josh this opportunity this platform to just come in and talk about these things they wrote an article that I will link to down in the description, but sometimes it's good to hear and see

See a face and hear a voice and I think that if you'll watch this interview You'll see that he's he's a really nice guy.

Josh is a nice guy known him for about five years. Really really good guy Tremendous pastor's heart and then that comes through in this interview

So I hope that you will watch this all the way through and I will say that there is a there's a bit of a technical issue when you

When you watch Josh his audio my audio is fine for some reason we did this on zoom

No offense to zoom but for some reason his audio is just about it's just a fraction of a second maybe a tenth of a second or so off and so it's a little bit annoying but just Bear with it and the content is good.

So Thank you very much dear ones for watching this and without any further Delay, here's

Josh Josh. Thank you so much for joining us, brother Good to be with you Justin.

Well, it's an honor Josh most of the folks watching us right now will probably be at least somewhat familiar with you and the ministry of g3 but for those of for those who are watching who are not tell us a little bit about Yourself and you're maybe even a touch on your conversion and your pastorate there at praise mill

Yeah, thank you, Justin Well, I have the privilege of serving praise meal

Baptist Church on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia sort of a unique situation for me and my family because I grew up here in the context of this local church and After I was saved and since the call to ministry

I was sent out from this church to seminary and then would eventually pastor two other churches one in Kentucky when

I was a seminary student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Then I also pastored in Middle, Tennessee Prior to being called back here to where my wife and I grew up as children

We grew up in the context of this church. We met somewhere in the hallways of this church building well, we remember when we first met and Really?

You remember when you first met her? Yeah. No. Well, we don't actually remember you don't Young as children.

We just grew up in the context of this church and so it just was the fact we were just children here and so That that's that back story is

I think in extremely important for me because I had the privilege of serving people who served us as children and and of course now with yeah

Emily being here I serve as the pastor of my in -laws my parents my grandmother so it's a it's a unique privilege and then also with with the reality that You know

I've been a member of three churches in my life and I've pastored all three of them because I started here and now

I've come circle and I'm back in my home church setting but all three of those churches have been

Southern Baptist churches now when I came into the life of this church at age seven, my parents had gone through a horrific

Custody battle and there was divorce and a broken home broken marriage all of that And so I was a young confused boy and my grandfather had taken me to church when

I was About six years of age and I made a profession of faith in Christ I came into Praise Mill Baptist Church when

I was seven. They counseled with me regarding membership I told them that I had quote -unquote asked

Jesus into my heart and They would eventually baptize me at about age seven

And so it would not be until I was 25 as a member of this church engaged in various different ministry endeavors in the context of Praise Mill that I was converted after graduating college and working in Atlanta, Georgia I was listening to a sermon on the internet when the

Lord saved me and so at that point my life radically changed and had a hunger for preaching a hunger for teaching and evangelizing and would go and preach and teach in Jails and nursing homes and various other places and then would eventually end up resigning from my job and moving away to pursue formal training for ministry

Wow, praise the Lord praise the Lord I've known you for about five years or so, I guess but I've never really heard that detail of your testimony

And I rejoice in that I think so I wrote a book on that very subject about how so many kids, you know

I was the same way I was I was baptized when I was seven years old in the Southern Baptist Church and was not converted until much much much later well into my adulthood, so Anyway, but praise the

Lord for that so so Josh I guess moving into the the subject matter for our interview today that the the big news has been that You and the elders there at Praise Mill have led your church to leave the

Southern Baptist Convention Walk us through a little bit of why you're

Why you felt compelled to make that decision and what has led to that Yeah, Justin, that's a great question.

I'm through the years I've had the conviction that to be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention I thought it would be wise and good for me to be a part of the annual meetings

So I've taken time every summer to go to the annual meeting of the

Southern Baptist Convention I've gone to state convention meetings. I've Been involved in various different ways in local associational meetings through the years as well however

As we've been watching the what I would consider to be the liberal drift of the

Southern Baptist Convention over the last decade or so Things have really picked up speed

In the last, you know, three to five years But it's been through that last

Decade that I've been sort of watching the trends and listening to the sermons and reading the books and attending the meetings and sort of watching the direction that things were headed and through the elected leaders of the

SBC from you know, the seminary level all the way to the national level

With regards to the ERLC and Russell Moore and others. We've been able to see a

Definite leftward lean and drift of the convention And so this associated ourselves and negative

Designated in years past and just tried to support missions and various different, you know

Moves, you might say from a leadership standpoint regarding our affiliation with the

SBC but Really back in 2018. I was a part of that group of course yourself included others that we were noticing these trends and these problems as it pertains to social justice and we met in Dallas, Texas to talk about this issue of Social justice and the gospel and then what came out of that meeting was the statement on social justice in the gospel

Well when I went into that meeting Justin I was actually Saddened by the state of affairs you might say but but I was hopeful

But I had really no idea coming out of that meeting once we published the statement what would transpire that there would be individuals who would double down the way that they did and Posture themselves the way they did and really attack us in our intentions with the statement on social justice and the gospel and so Really what we've seen is a bright light that's been

Shining down upon these individuals that's exposed them. It's really exposed their motives.

It's exposed their their Their agenda in many ways.

We've been calling this a social justice agenda and then we've been critiqued for that right, look at what's happened through the endorsement of critical race theory and intersectionality

Keep in mind when we went to that meeting in 2018 the Resolution 9 was not in existence at that point, right?

So coming out of the release of the statement on social justice in the gospel

Then the leaders of the SPC led the convention to adopt Resolution 9 and critical theory and intersectionality.

Yeah. Okay, and for those who may not be familiar with it resolution 9 Said that critical race theory can be used as a analytical tool to help us in in our gospel work

Yeah, and so for me when I'm seeing that and the elders that I serve with here in the context of our local church we had once been you know, very much happy to be a part of the

Southern Baptist Convention a convention that had stood for Biblical inerrancy fought the war on you know

The the Bible so to speak the battle for the Bible and you know move through that era of the conservative resurgence

But now we're watching a convention and leaders That are instead of standing on the the authority of the

Bible if you will, they're actually embracing and endorsing godless ideologies

Ideologies that are antithetical to the gospel and to the scriptures, right? So I've been a part of Private meetings and I've been a part of public meetings.

I've been a part of groups that have tried to have conversations Behind closed doors with leaders and sought to work for change within the convention but finally moving into the 2021 annual meeting in Nashville when

I watched the politics continue and The election of Ed Litton as the president of the convention, you know became

Abundantly clear to me that we were at a point where to continue to be a part of this

Group was a violation of my conscience as a leader to take trusted resources

Financially speaking and to put it into the life of the Southern Baptist Convention at any level whatsoever

Was in in many ways a violation of my conscience and I believe a misuse of those funds and So because these leaders are refusing to repent

Then we had no other choice, but to disassociate ourselves with the SBC now the election of Ed Litton Was bad enough at the beginning.

I mean, he's definitely not Complimentarian he wrote is with his wife and all sorts of other issues but then after the election when what's now known as the sermon gate and you've done a really good job of exposing that and Providing commentary on that.

He was exposed as plagiarizing JD Greer sermons well, you would think that These leaders in the

SBC would call for his resignation, but instead They've actually practiced what we have come to know as the 11th commandment

Usual to critique any of the other leaders or entity leaders of the SBC So instead of critiquing or asking for him to step aside

They've actually Embraced him publicly brought him to the seminary circles as an example to young men who are preparing for the

Ministry in the local church and then applauded him. That's exactly what happened with Adam Greenway at Southwestern Seminary and then of course during the election of Ed Litton We saw

Danny Aiken taking to Twitter to encourage the messengers to vote for Ed Litton So again at this point, it seems like it would be

Embarrassing for us to continue to be associated with the SBC We would have to wear a paper sack over our heads to go to the convention.

Yeah indeed Josh Yeah, I share those exact same sentiments with you now in full disclosure a lot of people think

I'm Southern Baptist I'm not I used to be Born and reared in a Southern Baptist Church, and I got two degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary But I've been out of the denomination now for about 11 years for the same reasons that you're articulating here

Shocking to me as you said that is bad enough that Ed Litton Plagiarized voluminous amounts in his sermons, but to be given a platform

At Southern Baptist seminaries and in Ed Litton lied right on the platform in front of everyone lied and he was applauded and That is just uh, that is shocking to me

Yeah, it is shocking to me as well and And as I think about the context where I serve here, this is this is a historic

Baptist Church in Georgia It's the oldest Baptist Church in all of Douglas County on the west side of Atlanta It is it is a church that predates the

SBC by Three years and so I've been asked by members of this church leading up to the vote.

I've been asked By people outside of this congregation. What are our plans as we think about the future and As I think about the reason that the

SBC is really in existence It's for a couple of primary things.

One is theological education So you have the seminary entities and colleges and then of course you have the church planting and mission

Entities or agencies if you will and so for us once we have lost confidence in the educational entities and The church planting agencies, we would not send members of this church

For the most part to be members of churches that are planted through the

SBC Have those elders as elders in this local church, right at that point.

It's just a logical conclusion It makes no sense to stay Involved or associated with the

SBC. So we had to had to disassociate ourselves for convictional and theological reasons

But also it just makes sense at the end of the day as well. Yeah, indeed indeed

Josh you and I talked about this in a phone call yesterday But talking about the doctrinal drift and the liberal drift of the

SBC One of the dangers with the social justice movement. It's not that At least those in our evangelical circles.

They're not outright denying The deity of Christ or the virgin birth

I mean, they're not flat -out denying those fundamental doctrines, but but they're saying the gospel is about these things plus social justice and plus, you know, all this other stuff critical race theory and and Anytime you say the gospel is about Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus plus something

Whatever follows that plus always gets the attention, right? Yeah, and then the gospel gets forgotten eventually the doctrinal slide

Yeah, it and that's exactly what we're witnessing and you're right to say that is that there is a doctrinal drift and a

Theological drift and we've seen that and I think really you can trace it back to the SBC's big tent approach to ministry

And you're gonna be big tent and always try to be the quote -unquote largest denomination evangelical denomination in the country then what you're gonna end up with is

You're gonna end up with this idea of being a slave to pragmatism because whatever the culture says you should do then you're gonna have to Cave into that you're gonna have to hit your wagon so to speak to that train

And so that's extremely dangerous and that's exactly what the SBC has done through the years and You know as it pertains to this idea of adding something to the gospel when you hear people talk and it's like you said

They get a lot right, but they get a little bit wrong I think back to Spurgeon's definition of discernment when he said, you know

It's not about just being able to figure out the you know, what's wrong

It's being able to discern between what's right and what's almost right, right? And so we need to always be mindful of that now

Let me just make something very clear as I as I've led our church and our elders here with me we've walked our church through this process and I sought to articulate this in the article that I published

I Want to be clear that when I'm complaining about the big things that we're seeing as it pertains to critical race theory intersectionality this doctrinal drift towards the left

I will say that I do believe that there are still really good believers in the

SBC Professors missionaries, they're all sorts of really good churches. There's no

Connected to and associating themselves with the SBC, but I think in many ways a lot of these people were a part of church settings and groups and associations that were a part of what we know as the

Conservative resurgence and they said well We won the war on the inerrancy of the

Bible and then they sort of fell asleep at some point and they mean, you know been made aware or or paying attention to what's happening at a national level and So they have failed to see that the

SBC although is a champion in many ways of the inerrancy of the Bible They have completely lost their way as it pertains to the sufficiency of the

Bible exactly Giving themselves over to pragmatism. They have have walked off to the left and it's a it's a tragedy in fact, you and I were in a meeting at Southern Seminary and and Without going to all the details.

I mean it was admitted to us that when the 2000 BFNM Baptist faith and message came out there was a conscience decision to To leave out sufficiency to affirm inerrancy, but leave out sufficiency of Scripture and And when you leave that out, that's that's this is what you get, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know if the Bible isn't sufficient Then you're gonna need to look for analytical tools from the culture, which is exactly what they've done in recent years

So it's one thing to go back to 2019 and Birmingham when the SBC voted and I was actually in the room when it happened to vote to affirm and to embrace and to adopt resolution 9 on critical race theory and intersectionality and I do believe that there was a lot of political posturing and Political maneuvering that was at play to bring the convention to a place of actually adopting that resolution

That's a whole nother conversation, but it's one thing to actually make a mistake

But then after two years because of the break of kovat in 2020 to go into the 2021

Convention where we've had a long time to think about this a long time to talk about it to write

Articles to write articles to have conversations, right and then to be given opportunities

From the floor to officially adopt language That would that would actually make it abundantly clear to the watching world that the

Southern Baptist Convention repudiates critical race theory and intersectionality They refused to do it at every juncture.

Yes, that's a tragedy So again, we we see, you know making a mistake is one thing but to continue to affirm and refuse to admit

Fault is is a completely different story Exactly, you know, it would be one thing if if the leaders of the

SPC were just kind of caught flat -footed They didn't know what CRT was and social justice, but now that we've had years

To examine this thing look at it and consider it and and yet they still even even after years of warning they still

Will not take a stand against it and are embracing it I Saw an exchange

Josh. I want to ask you about this So when you made the announcement a couple of days ago as of as of this recording

January 6 So this this gentleman, I don't know who he is maybe you do but JT English he he responded to your

To your to your assertion that there is a liberal drift in the SPC and he said this he said

One way to find out if there's a liberal drift he puts that in quotation marks in the SPC ask actual liberals

Outside the SPC if they identify with the theological trajectory of the

SPC This stuff is just nonsense and then JD Greer who is the previous president of the

SPC? He responded and he said great point I have some liberal dialogue partners

Whatever those are and they definitely don't think we are coming their direction. So What would what would be your response to that?

JD Greer says his liberal dialogue partners They don't think the SPC is drifting leftward.

So What say you? Yeah, I mean, that's a it's a great question. Well, I tweeted out

I took a screenshot of that by the way, you might not have seen it, but I tweeted out and I said you know, you can actually take two boats that are adrift at sea and They can talk to one another all day long if they're not anchored to the to the floor of the ocean, right?

And and yet, you know Until they look down at their compass, they're not gonna be able to determine how far off course they really are

So I was urging them to rethink their positions and to actually make Scripture their point of reference not other liberals exactly

So that again once again when you walk away from the scriptures you you open the door for massive theological error

Absolutely. Absolutely. Not. I don't know if you've had a chance to see the video I did on homosexuality in the

SPC but I would I would say for those who doubt that there's a liberal drift just This is

January. So just six or seven weeks ago James Merritt who is a current

SPC pastor former president of the SPC tweeted out and commended and endorsed a sermon preached by His son

Jonathan Merritt that we take no we take no satisfaction this or pleasure sadly, we say he is an open homosexual openly so and James Merritt Endorsed this sermon from his son and he called it brilliant and faithful to the gospel and Kind of in the same vein of what we were talking about a second ago

It's not just that he made a mistake and that's a big mistake But when when others criticized this rightly, so he doubled down on it.

He tripled down on it and There was no rebuke from any of the

SPC presidents None of them called him to repent of this and so here we have a prominent pastor

SPC pastor former president Endorsing a sermon by an open

Homosexual and I watched the sermon there was no gospel in it at all Yeah, I mean if you're homosexual, you don't believe the gospel exactly not gonna preach it

And so James Merritt has lost his way this is a man who was once a towering

Southern Baptist leader and in Georgia Baptist circles and Very much closely connected to Al Mohler and preached one of the the sermons there

I believe even at the installation of molar as president at Southern Seminary and so once again a massive capitulation and then you take that with David Platt's Church and the recent video that surfaced with What one of their leaders that was

Making statements about you know, the fact that maybe Jesus experienced gender dysphoria.

I mean literally Lost our way as Southern Baptist and so, you know this is the right time and the right move for our local church to disassociate with a group of leaders that have completely capitulated on massive theological issues

Absolutely, I mean you really have to have your head in the sand to not see a liberal drift

I mean, it's just it's absolutely undeniable and I've shared this with you

Josh and this is just my own opinion and Evaluation of things but it seems to me, you know when you when you think of the judgment of God We often think of earthquakes fires famines pestilences those, you know dramatic things

Sodom and Gomorrah firing down from heaven that kind of stuff but the but the real judgment of God often is his abandonment when he gives people over and when when you see a denomination that prides itself on inerrancy of Scripture and yet welcoming

Female preachers in some cases female pastors, but at least female preachers and embracing social justice and now embracing sermons preached by open homosexuals

That that's what judgment looks like is it not do you do you agree? I do agree

Yeah, I absolutely do and you know again like you made the point sometimes, you know judgment is not

Cataclysmic in some sort of a natural way using the natural laws that God created but sometimes it's just giving people what they want and You know, that's quite apparent as it becomes you know evident week after week with the

Drift of the SPC and the leadership of the SPC So it would be my prayer that they would repent it would be my prayer that they would actually abandon the 11th commandment

It would be my prayer that they would actually admit fault and that they would actually institute a means of you know inner dialogue and You know cross entity critique of one another

Which would actually make the SPC more healthy than it would weaken the SPC and so But as many people have suggested

We've probably reached a place where the SPC will not recover But there's likely not going to be a second conservative resurgence

Yeah, because these the leaders in the SPC today that they are the conservative resurgence

I mean, these are the guys that supposedly won it and you know last year 2021 at the

Southern Baptist Convention that was in Nashville, you know in the in the

South and It was kind of I've referred to it as the as the high -water mark or at least should have been the high -water mark for the conservatives to marshal their forces and get there and and in in right the ship or at least keep the ship from falling off the cliff or the

Falls, but that didn't happen Yeah, I mean I was in the room Justin I can tell you that when there were attempts at the microphone during public debate

Opportunities to specify language of critical race theory and intersectionality to Distance ourselves officially from and to repudiate these godless ideologies.

Yeah, there was applause from the floor when individuals were called out of order or called down from the microphones and It was quite revealing at that point that we had reached a critical moment in the history of the

Southern Baptist Convention Right, right. Yeah, I just don't see how what mechanism would be in place and and even if there were some token capitulation to theological conservative

Thought it it's been said a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still

So, I mean this this should be The very fact that we're even having these discussions shows you how far the

SPC has slid Um Josh let me ask you this. There's there's undoubtedly a lot of Southern Baptist pastors watching us right now.

And as you rightly said there there are some good Men who are serving as pastors in Southern Baptist churches

I have friends who are good faithful men serving as pastors of Southern Baptist churches a

Number of them, but there's a lot of men I think probably watching us right now and they see the same things you see and I see they agree with you and it's a matter of conscience for them as well and their their conscience is being violated by being a part of The SPC and they know that the right thing to do is is to leave

But their churches aren't Necessarily on board the the the person sitting in the pew.

They don't understand these issues I was really I know it's kind of a long question I was really surprised to read in your article that you had 100 % support

From your congregation to make this move to it to agree with you and the other elders there at praise meal

What what would you say to the men out there who are watching us? they they know the right thing they know what needs to be done, but Their their congregation isn't on board or they just don't understand these issues enough to be on board

What would you say to that man? How does he how did you get a hundred percent support?

I don't think you can get a hundred percent support from your congregation that the earth is round, but you got You got a hundred percent support.

So how did you do it? And what would you say to me and who were? Wondering how to go about doing what you've done

Yeah, it's a great question Justin. Well, first of all This is not something that we just brought to the floor for a vote overnight

So this is something that has been in process for the last three years as we've been

Hearing of this liberal drift. We've been talking about the capitulation of the SBC and so since my engagement with The statement on social justice and the gospel back in 2018 all the way to present -day 2022

I've been I've been trying to keep the elders as well as the deacons as well as the members of this church up to speed with what's

Happening. So each year when I would go to the SBC, we will come back and I would give a meeting and in an overview if you will of The the happenings of the

SBC what's going on? What? What's the good and what's the bad?

What's something that we should be concerned about? then as we continue to watch the the controversy of it of the social justice movement to continue to increase

I sought as a pastor to not Drag that baggage into the pulpit every single week and I asked the elders of this church to hold me accountable to that So that every illustration

Culturally speaking was not somehow landing in the social justice arena, yeah, so But once once we got to a certain point and we finished up our series through Romans We determined that it would be necessary to to address the social justice controversy

So I preached a series on social justice and the gospel I held I held meetings here in the life of the church

Answered questions answered emails and just sought to educate the church after the adoption of resolution 9 founders ministries put out a documentary

By what standard and it was basically just giving an overview of what happened in that whole?

Debacle, so we held a meeting here at the church one evening and we watched that once it was released

And then did a Q &A for the members of the church to talk and so after watching that they had already been hearing about the problems that were

You know increasing and picking up speed in the SBC. And so after we watched that film

When we open the floor for Q &A, I feel that the questions and one of the elderly women of the church

Who's in her 90s? Stands up in the back of the room and she says pastor

Josh it breaks our heart to hear this this evening But if it is true, and if it comes to the point where we have to leave the

SBC It will not be that we left the SBC but that the SBC left us

And when you said that you could hear amens across the room and and people agreeing with her statement and it was a very powerful moment and So we moved beyond that of course through the next couple of years and and we've just been trying to be patient with the church

And educate them always remembering that the whole church doesn't have the Capability of attending all of the meetings or going to the annual meetings and having all the conversations

They're not in the room with us when we have all of these different talks with different leaders and that sort of thing

So we just wanted to be very careful and not to just yank the church in a direction just based upon the knowledge

That we had as leaders But always being sensitive to the fact that our church had been supportive of the

SBC causes for so long that we wanted to be clear and articulate with the rationale to separate and so I think

Honestly, it was the work of the elders of this church and the members being patient with one another and seeking to learn is this or is this not really a line of separation and So for us we determined that it was

Yeah, yeah, okay All right. So educate your if you're a pastor educate your folks talk about these things, you know, it's it's not gonna be an overnight

Deal, it's gonna take some time took some time for you but it and if I could add some Justin I would say that One of the big questions that we needed to be able to answer

Rightly is you know, how are we going to continue to cooperate with other churches? how are we going to be able to engage in mission work and church planting and How are we gonna still support

Christian education? Yes for us We had an answer to that and we do believe that one of the strengths of the

SBC through the years Has been cooperation, you know churches coming together cooperating together and you can always do more collectively than one individual church can do all by itself and so one of the the providential developments in recent days and months has been the development and the rise of g3 ministries and the

The g3 church network and so we're a part of that network Which is not mutually exclusive You don't have to just be a part of the g3 church network and then separate from all other networks

So we have people who are part of the SBC and g3 church network But for us we were able to give our church an answer and say well cooperation is good but You know, we predate the

SBC by three years So we can actually fulfill the Great Commission and support

Christian education Apart from the SBC, right? But how is that possible?

And so do we have an answer for that? And for us we we do because we can cooperate with other like -minded churches

Within the g3 church network. We have mission agencies and groups that were connected to like heart cry missionary society international church planters

ICP so we have other avenues of engagement and partners in ministry and then of course with the

Master's Seminary and the Master's University for Christian education as well as a few other friends that we partner with for theological education, right we

You know substantive answers that we could give to the church. Yeah that was gonna be my next question actually, so I'm glad you answered that Josh and and I know because I I was born and reared in SBC when you when you're when you're born into that when you're reared in that That that's your paradigm, right?

I mean you just can't imagine Doing church outside of those parameters when that's all you've known, but what

I've discovered in the last 11 years Is that it you you can you you can that God does not need the

SBC Our church cares about missions. We support missionaries. We just don't do it through the cooperative program we're not

SBC, but you can still do missions and you can send men to to good

Seminaries non SBC seminaries and so the work of the gospel goes on And I want to Say to you

Josh and and other like -minded pastors that you know, all of us in our theological circles

We would say we have a high view of the sovereignty of God we would say that yeah, we're we know that one day we're going to to give an account to Christ for for what we've done, but I But sometimes

I wonder how many of us really do believe that Some do you do

John MacArthur does you know, there are some of these names that we're familiar with it But one day

Josh you and I we're not gonna stand before a denomination. We're not gonna stand before a committee

I'm not gonna have to answer to a committee or the nomination. Whatever the nomination that is we're we're gonna have to stand before Christ and And so I appreciate your faithfulness and commitment

To the truth of God's Word and knowing that we've got we have an audience of one, right?

We've got one person that we've got a place. Yeah, amen. Amen, and thank you for that kind words,

Justin I feel the same about you brother. I will say that you know leaving the

SBC is one thing But I don't treat it like Exiting church membership.

I have church membership on one level and denominational affiliation on a whole different level I think a lot of these men who are champions of the

SBC almost put Affiliation in the SBC at at least the same level as church membership, and I would just reject that.

Absolutely Yeah, we need to have a higher view of church membership Then we do some sort of denominational affiliation if the denomination goes to the left.

We don't have to Exactly that's exactly right. Yeah, it's it's a very freeing thing.

That's been my experience in the last 11 years It's a bit. It's a very freeing thing I Mean, I'm aware of what's going on in the

SBC, but but but it's very freeing for me to know that I'm That I don't

I'm not entrapped by those things anymore. You know, it doesn't have any bearing on our church or what we do and Gospel work goes on Yeah well,

Josh, thank you very much brother for your time and for your courage and Your encouragement to other pastors.

I know we're watching right now as we close out how can how can people find out more about praise meal maybe if they live in the

Northwest Atlanta area or G3 sure Yeah, so praise meal

Baptist located about 25 miles west of the city of Atlanta you can find us at praise mill

Calm and then of course, there's g3 ministries. That's g3 men org, and of course, there's a ton of information on there as well as information about the g3 church network and biblical worship workshops preaching workshops

Conferences and and all sorts of blog articles. We just released our first Portuguese article today.

We have a new platform for that and is as well as almost two new unique articles every day coming out of G3 ministries

Scott annual our vice president and editor -in -chief is doing a Wonderful job and we have g3 press just getting started with lots of good resources.

They're about to come available So you'll want to find out more information there Okay. All right,

Josh. Thank you so much brother blessings to you and to the Saints there at praise meal

Thank you, Justin. God bless Okay, dear ones

Thank you so much for watching until our next time together May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of his