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- My name is Alan Nelson, pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. I've seen some of the videos coming out today about why
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- SBC. And as a member of the majority of churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, that is churches with membership under 100,
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- I thought that I would weigh in. Now, if you're asking why I'm outside, well, Bart Barber gets to do it, right? But no, the real reason is we have women's
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- Bible study on Mondays, and so our church is a pretty small building and it would not be conducive to me doing this video in there.
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- So here I am walking out in our field by the church. But I wanted to weigh in because a lot of people are saying why they're
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- Southern Baptist and being appreciative of the SBC. And I want to say I'm thankful for the legacy of the
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- Southern Baptist Convention. I'm thankful for many things that the SBC has done over the years. I remain grateful for many of the missionaries that are out there today, even with NAM as the issues that NAM has.
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- I'm grateful. I know there are some faithful church planters out there and some faithful missionaries in the
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- International Mission Board. But the reality is that while all these things are good, most of these videos about the why
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- SBC are talking about their love for the church. In the Scriptures, we're not commanded to love the
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- Southern Baptist Convention, but we are to love the church. We know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
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- And so what I want to say as a representative of the majority of churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, this is a problem and it's got to stop.
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- That is, the SBC platform and leadership and the elite in the SBC asking for churches like mine to continue to fund the endeavors that are not only contrary to our beliefs as conservative
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- Baptists, but contrary to the very Scriptures and antagonistic to the glory and honor and desires and will of Christ our
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- King. And so as we think about why SBC, really the idea is people want to say that we have to have this partnership of churches in order to better fulfill the
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- Great Commission. That is, we're better together than we are apart. That's just not in the Scriptures. That is, that we need to have this fund and partner together in order to fulfill the
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- Great Commission. God is going to fulfill the Great Commission through faithful local churches.
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- And so on paper, I'm in agreement with the Southern Baptist Convention. I love the idea of partnering together, but what
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- I'm trying to communicate is this is not necessary. Further than that, let me say this, this is a terrible idea when you're partnering together with churches that compromise on your conservative, biblical,
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- Christ -honoring positions. The leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, the platform, is asking churches like mine to continue to fund something that the
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- SBC is not guilty of. Barber has admitted the Southern Baptist Convention is not guilty of covering up abuse.
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- Why should churches like mine send mission money to an organization that wants to tie this all up in knots and honestly not honor or help sexual abuse victims?
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- This is terrible. Further, when we are giving to the North American Mission Board, while there are faithful church planners, but in that organization, when we give to that, we are continuing to fund a machine that does not care about faithfulness and integrity and commitment to what
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- Christ would have us to be committed to in the honoring of Christ. So I'm going to New Orleans this year, by the way, and me and the other pastor here, our wives, and my oldest son, we're going to go.
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- We're going to be messengers. We're going to vote for Mike Stone. We're going to vote against Rick Warren. We're going to vote for the amendment of Mike Law's amendment.
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- But it's really terrible that we're even having to vote these things, right? It's terrible that we're at a place as a convention where we're really going to decide whether or not we should have a church ordaining women should still be in fellowship with us.
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- And the people on the platform, people on the SBC Elite, they've not publicly spoken out well against Rick Warren.
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- Our president has not spoken out well against Rick Warren. It's a travesty that we would even entertain the idea that we're going to begin partnering with churches that are blatantly in contradiction, not only to the
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- Baptist faith and message, but most importantly, to the will of Christ. So we've reached a point, we've done this year after year,
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- Anaheim and Nashville and now New Orleans, but we've reached a point where we've really got to make a decision.
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- Like I said, I'm going. I'm going to vote for Mike. Mike Stone is a friend, and I think he is the right man to lead us in a good direction, and he should be voted for.
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- If he is voted as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, boy, that will be a mile marker.
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- It's an uphill battle, right? He's going against an incumbent. He's going against a very middle -of -the -road type personality, and it'd be very hard for him to win this election.
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- But if we would go, and if we will show up, and if we'll vote, he absolutely could. So that's why
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- I'm going to go. But the reality is if Pastor Mike doesn't win, if Rick Warren and Saddleback are allowed to remain in, if Mike Law's amendment doesn't get passed, we can't stay.
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- The Southern Baptist Convention cannot continue to ask churches like ours to give our money, which we don't have a lot of dollars, to give our dollars to something that the
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- Lord Jesus stands in opposition to. And so I encourage you to go to New Orleans.
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- If you're Southern Baptist, you need to. But really, this is the year. If these things don't go in this direction, we've got to get out.
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- It's just, it's not worth it. It's not worth our time, our energy, our fighting. God is going to accomplish his commission through the local churches, through faithful local churches.
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- So get out and partner with churches in your geography and seek to honor
