Author: Heath Lambert

A Broken Church and A Broken Team When I became Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville the church was facing overwhelming challenges. Decades of decline in membership created a number of punishing financial realities, the most obvious being $90 million in financial liabilities the church had no idea how to pay. But the most challenging difficulties we faced were related to our staff. Many problems existed. For starters, the staff was far too large. Back then, we had a paid staff of over 220 people. That is more than twice the total attendance of most churches. The big problem was that this was more than double the team we needed for a church of our size. Our church was going broke paying for staff we did not need and could not afford. Another problem was the many on staff...

“Prince William is having an affair!” “Another woman is pregnant with his baby!” “Princess Kate can’t be seen in public because William hit her!” “She is filing for divorce, and another royal marriage is ending!” Those were a few of the reports making the rounds in the last few weeks as the world was ripe with speculation about the reason why the Princess of Wales had not been seen in public for months. Those reports were widespread and viewed by millions of people all over the globe. Of course, we now know those reports are complete fabrications. The princess has announced that the reason for her retreat from public view is the discovery of cancer during her planned abdominal surgery in January. It has taken months to heal from surgery, begin cancer treatment, and explain her condition...

Part 4: We Must Have Solutions That Understand the Way Our Convention Works No Right to Fatigue During the release of the most recent update from the Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force (ARITF), the chairman, Josh Wester, observed a sense of fatigue setting into the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in our response to sexual abuse. He warned against an attitude that desires to move along too quickly. I appreciate Pastor Wester’s service, the hard work of his committee, and his words of warning. Every pastor I talk to in the SBC agrees with them. We know we have an obligation to keep our people safe, and we are not exhausted by that obligation but invigorated by it. A Sacred Obligation Every pastor has a sacred obligation to protect the people in our churches from abuse. Our principal...

Part 3: The Southern Baptist Convention Is a Powerful Force for Good Popular to Condemn The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is going through a difficult time. Scandals, numeric decline, disgraced leaders, and bumbling responses to all the above make it unpopular to praise our convention. In times of difficulty, enemies make their voices heard. It is popular to condemn the SBC as everything from a once-great organization whose time has passed to the embodiment of evil in the contemporary religious scene. In this climate, critics score points when they paint with a broad brush of corruption and predict the end of the SBC. But this currently fashionable trend of convention condemnation is not going to end well because our convention is not condemnable. There’s a time to candidly admit our...

Part 2: Not Everyone Offering Help Is Our Friend When I was in the fourth grade, my mom celebrated Christmas by getting drunk, grabbing a gun, and chasing me and my twin brother out into the snow. The next day, we were being interviewed by social workers, and not long after that, we were moved to a different town and placed in foster care. That probably sounds reasonable. My mom’s behavior was clearly wrong and had to be addressed. It was unthinkable to leave two young boys in such an environment. What was unreasonable about the foster solution was that we had numerous family members—a dad and several grandparents—who wanted to take us. Instead, we were relocated away from the people who loved us. The foster solution was offered by people who wanted to stop our abuse but whose lack of wisdom...

Part 1: Abuse Is a Real Problem, but Is Not What We Were Told From Confusion to Clarity Any encounter with sexual abuse leads to an explosion of pain, shock, and confusion. That was true for me in the fifth grade when my 300-pound older stepbrother dragged me out of bed and sexually assaulted me. Pain, shock, and confusion also struck our convention when we first encountered the abuse that had taken place in some of our churches. But over time and by God’s grace, clarity grows out of confusion. One slow step at a time, you come to understand what is really going on and begin to have a sense of how to move forward. Many developments since 2019 are helping Southern Baptists grow in clarity, but the most recent ones have been an update from the Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force (ARITF)...

The Law Amendment is the current effort to add the biblical requirement for male pastors into the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). I have been a strong supporter of this effort, but that support does not mean I’ve had no concerns. My support for this amendment has not come cheap. Initially, I Had Doubts I had three initial doubts about the amendment. First, I believed the amendment was unnecessary because our statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM), already states that the office of pastor is limited to qualified men. Why would we repeat what is already clear? Second, I believed the amendment was unnecessary because our convention was already working to remove churches that were in error on this issue. Why go to the work of adding a constitutional provision...

At this moment, a committee is meeting to decide whether the Southern Baptist Convention as we know it will continue to exist. That committee is called The Cooperation Group, and more is at stake in their work than you may know. This group was created at the 2023 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in New Orleans because some of our leaders believe the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) is too high a standard for cooperation and must be lowered to maintain the unity of our Great Commission efforts. The Cooperation Group is tasked with making recommendations to SBC messengers at our 2024 meeting in Indianapolis about what doctrinal standards should control the boundaries of our convention. Two Basic Options I am not a member of this committee, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon...

The Law Amendment is one of the most crucial issues facing messengers headed to Indianapolis for the 2024 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The amendment passed by an overwhelming margin in New Orleans and is required to be approved by a 2/3 majority this year in order to be added to the Constitution. I want to help Southern Baptists understand the importance of this decision by examining what the Law Amendment is, what issues are not involved in this decision, and what is really at stake. What Is the Law Amendment? The so-called Law Amendment is an effort to change the SBC Constitution to clarify that the only kind of church in friendly cooperation with the convention is one that “Affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” There...

Longevity In Ministry On Sunday, November 12, the members of First Baptist Church Jacksonville celebrated John Sullivan for his 68 years in ministry. 68 years is a long time to be alive—much less to be in ministry. For some perspective, I am 44 years old. That means that before I took my first breath of air in 1979, Dr Sullivan had been doing ministry for 24 years. That accomplishment is remarkable in its own right. But it is remarkable for another reason. I started in vocational ministry in the late 90s. If you made a list of the leading figures in evangelical Christian ministry at that time, you would discover that many of them didn’t make it. Far too many names on that list have disqualified and disgraced themselves through pride, abuse of power, sexual immorality, and financial scandal. I...