First Thoughts | Blog Ministry | First Baptist Church

How Should Christians Think About “Let’s Go, Brandon?”

Written by Heath Lambert on January 23, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

Let’s Go, Brandon? The whole event that kicked everything off happened back in the fall. It happened in early October at the Talladega Super Speedway in Alabama, and Brandon Brown, a NASCAR racer, had just won the race. He was being interviewed on ESPN, I believe, and as the crowd was jubilant there in the post-race euphoria, they began chanting something that could be heard in the microphones on the interview as Brandon Brown was speaking to the reporter. The reporter said, as the camera panned across the crowd, she suggested that the crowd was chanting, “let’s go, Brandon.” The strange thing about it was that anybody who was watching the broadcast knew the crowd was not chanting, “let’s go, Brandon.” In fact, the crowd was not talking about Brandon at all. They were talking...

Light in Dark Places

Written by Heath Lambert on January 17, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

I am sure you have noticed by now that it seems like nobody knows how to talk to each other anymore. Everyone is angry all the time about everything. The way we all talk to one another has sunk so low that it is hard to imagine how terrible it could be to hit rock bottom. Social media highlights this ugly mess. Social media gives everyone a microphone—no group hires you, no committees exert oversight, and no editor can push back. Social media also gives everyone an immediate microphone—you don’t have to think, pray, or receive counsel about what you will write, but you can immediately proclaim your thoughts, regardless of your emotional state. Social media also gives you an immediate microphone to the whole world—a private disagreement between two people or a local problem in one area, immediately...

How Should Christians Respond to Abuse Allegations?

Written by Heath Lambert on January 17, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

Abuse Allegations One of the things you can’t miss in the Christian conversation happening right now is that allegations of abuse are getting a lot of new attention. We have been talking about this in a really fresh way for the last several years. And the first thing I want to say about that attention is that it is really good that we are paying attention to these abuse allegations, into these charges of abuse. It’s really good attention. A lot of the attention that has come about in the last few years, so many of the disclosures have made it clear that this is an area where the Church of Jesus Christ has really needed to grow in wisdom. The church, while not always guilty of malicious intent, has nevertheless good intentions notwithstanding done damage to abuse victims and to...

How Should Christians Respond to Fallen Pastors?

Written by Heath Lambert on January 10, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

Fallen Pastors I want to begin by giving you a list of names. And let’s see if you can notice the common thread that goes through this list. Here they are. Josh Harris, Mark Driscoll, James MacDonald, Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias. I can keep going with more names. You’ve just read the names of very different kinds of men with very different kinds of ministries. But if you’ve been paying attention over the last several years, you know that the common thread that runs through each of those names is that these are men who did not make it in ministry. They are men whose lives and testimonies gave the lie to how they presented themselves. Some of these men ended their ministry in disgrace. Some of these men don’t know that their ministries have been fatally compromised....

My Endorsement for SBC President

Written by Heath Lambert on January 10, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

The Way Leadership Works When God does a great work, he raises up a great leader. This is an obvious fact of Scripture. When God delivered his people from Egypt, he raised up Moses. When God wanted to rebuild his temple and Jerusalem, he raised up Ezra and Nehemiah. When God wanted to preach salvation to the Gentiles, he raised up Paul. Examples could be multiplied with David, Gideon, Elijah, Peter, John, and Jesus himself. What is true in Scripture is also true in Church history. Whenever God has given revival, he has given an Edwards, a Whitfield, a Wesley, a Spurgeon, or a Graham. A rule of redemptive history is that when God’s people are floundering, they are absent a leader. And Southern Baptists are floundering. A Leadership Problem One of the reasons Southern Baptists have been able...

Three Initiatives from First Baptist in 2022

Written by Sean Perron on December 27, 2021. Posted in First Thoughts.

The mission of First Baptist is to reach all of Jacksonville with all of Jesus for all of life. This vision is big and bold. It is a wide vision that includes everything in life – all of life. Whether it is washing dishes, selling property, sharing the gospel, voting, or approaching death, we want to bring every part of our lives under submission to the Lordship of Jesus. All of life includes doing everything in life to the praise of God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 1:12). Each week at First Baptist, we seek to accomplish this mission through the preaching and singing of God’s word. We teach the Bible every week in our Sunday School Classes and Life Groups. We are delivering biblical content to our church with the goal of transforming lives. Yet there is only so much that we can...