Bob Simpson

By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Associate Executive Director, Editor of BaptistLIFE

There’s a country song written by singer/songwriter Mac Davis that goes “I thought happiness was Lubbock, Texas, in my rear view mirror…” With apologies to Lubbock, I am glad to have the 2009 finally in my rearview mirror. I broke most of the rules of “pacing one’s self” over the past 4-6 months. I admit it. I did what I have advised and even preached to others that they should never do. I worked at a frenetic pace and did not even take the usual time off to re-group. Admittedly, some of it was self-induced by my having taken on more “projects” in my life than I should have. Some of it was just unfortunate timing for me professionally. Sometimes it just comes at you in waves and patterns that are not always in your control. But, nevertheless, I was wrong to let myself get into that position.

I am pretty efficient most of the time juggling the complexity of what is my life. Most people who know me well tell me that I am multi-talented and very gifted in numerous disciplines. I recognize that. Often, though, I am my own worst enemy when it comes to prioritizing things. Part of my nature is to do it all and do it all with excellence. But the last several months even I got to the point of feeling like I was drowning. Frankly, I didn’t like the feeling. It made me commit to simplifying my entire life as I moved into 2010.

So… I am in the process of slowing myself down. I have made the following commitments to myself which I hope will also be of help to you:
(1)    I will try hard not to let myself get into that condition again.
(2)    I will take what I learned (and felt) and apply it directly to learning to say “no” more often in the future.
(3)    I will stay focused on resisting the professional “creep” of doing more and more beyond my capacity.
(4)    I will make time for re-fueling and re-freshing.

I know my strengths and I know my limitations. This year I have learned that I just can’t do it all. But when I operate within my strengths, I am so much more effective both personally and as a minister.

But now I need to stop staring in my rearview mirror and get focused forward once again. I don’t know whether any of this makes any sense. But I feel better having mused it over. 2010 is a fresh new canvas for me to see if I really learned my lesson. I’ll keep you posted!

Bob Simpson

By Bob Simpson, BCMD Associate Executive Director and Editor of BaptistLIFE

In his latest book, A Simple Christmas, former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, talks about Christmas being a natural transition. He says, “Christmas is, in many ways, a milestone that marks various parts of our year. We will put things off ‘until after Christmas’ or commit to get something done ‘before Christmas.’ Christmas is also the time when you catch up with many people in your life – family, friends, neighbors – whom you might not have spoken to in a while. It’s a time to reflect on life – what you’re doing, what you’ve done, and what you hope to do.”

For me the time of reflection will have to wait. I have been so busy this Fall that I have actually said, “I can’t wait for Christmas to be here!” When I say it, I am immediately reminded of my Mom’s admonition to me a child not to “wish my life away.” I know in my heart she was right. But my present reality flies in the face of her wisdom.

Let me explain. Here at our office we have been renovating part of the building and preparing to move our support staff over to that newly renovated part. It is a messy, dirty, trying process. I literally can’t wait for it to be over. Some have equated it to being pulled through a knothole! Everywhere you walk there is fresh paint and drywall dust. Each new day brings more change and revision to initial plans. There are thousands of details and little time to keep them sorted out. Though all was carefully planned for, most days it feels like things are out of control.

How I would love to blink and it would be Christmas. I’m sure that Mary must have felt this way as she and Joseph made their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey. She must have felt that things were not working out like she had planned. Even their overnight accommodations that first Christmas night were not exactly what she had imagined for her son. But it marked the beginning of some very exciting days to come. First the shepherds came. Then there was the appearance of the star over the stable. After that the Magi came. And the miracle of her newborn son was the icing on the cake. And the Bible says that Mary “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Everything in me wants to press “fast forward” and move past the next several weeks until Christmas. But I am beginning to feel like I need to hang in there and ponder it all as it happens. To miss the lessons of the journey as they unfold would be tragic. The best things in life come when we don’t rush through them. So I am learning to “ponder” the present. It is something I haven’t always done well, but I am committed to doing it this year! Why not join me?

Bob Simpson

Bob Simpson, BCM/D Associate Executive Director/COO, Editor of BaptistLIFE

I meet with a group of peers from time to time just to fellowship and gain insight from them. They, like me, have the title “Associate” in some part of their professional job description. In a sense all of us are subordinate to someone. The Bible has many examples of strategic partnerships among leaders and subordinates. They include Moses and Aaron, Paul and Silas, and Mordecai and Esther to mention a few. These relationships rise and fall on the ability of the two leaders to figure out how the second chair leader can best be empowered to provide maximum influence while submitting and serving the main leader effectively in that relationship.

In contrast to the above Biblical examples, where leaders were ‘joined at the hip’ for purposes of Kingdom advancement, there are many examples in history where this “second chair” kind of relationship was difficult to forge. For example, it was a given for John Adams to succeed George Washington as president of the United States. After all, Adams had been the first vice-president of the country. But, unlike Washington, Adams was not a naturally great leader. He was a lawyer and an intellectual who made his greatest contribution before he became the vice-president. He devoted himself to the cause with fierce integrity and matching intensity to help the nation’s first president. He condemned the Stamp Act of 1765, was one of the first patriots to embrace the idea of independence, vigorously fought for the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence, and gained further distinction as he successfully represented the young nation in the courts of Europe.

But by the time of the nation’s first political election in 1798, Adams, respected but not popular, only received 34 of 69 votes. Subsequently, he spent the next eight years ‘leading from the second chair’ and continuously in the shadow of the ever popular and commanding figure of George Washington.

In their book entitled, Leading From The Second Chair, Mike Bonem & Roger Patterson define such leadership in five distinct bites: “A subordinate…whose influence…with others…adds value…throughout the organization.” Being number two is often misunderstood and regularly unrecognized. But it is a highly valuable factor in the success of most everything I can think of. It’s certainly true in business, non-profit organizations, in politics, in churches, and even in marriages.

All of us are subordinate to someone. That’s just the way life works. Even Jesus, though co-equal with the Father, submitted Himself in order to carry out the plan for our redemption. His example, as always, is one for us to emulate. Philippians 2 reminds us: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant…”

May God help us all, as we are “second chair” to someone, to do it with joy, humility, purpose and wisdom in order to add maximum value wherever our “chair” happens to be located!

By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Associate Executive Director, Editor of BaptistLIFE

In John 17 we find the High Priestly prayer of Jesus. Most scholars say that this is the real Lord’s Prayer. Most folks think of the prayer that starts, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” as the Lord’s Prayer. Actually that is better described as the Model Prayer as it was in response to the disciples’ request to “Teach us to pray.”

In the John 17 prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples – both the remaining 11 at the time and for all future ones. It’s wonderful to know that our Lord prayed specifically for us. He asked the Father for some powerful things for His disciples including (1) that they may know Him; (2) that they would be kept from evil; (3) that they would have joy; (4) that they would be protected and (5) that they would be sanctified.

But five times He prays for something else! He prays for us to be in unity! Why? He gives us the answer in verse 21, “So that the world may believe that You sent me.”

It’s amazing to me that Jesus was linking the success of our Missions…our Witnessing…our World Evangelism to the unity of His disciples. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discern that when we are not in unity, when we fuss and fight, when we argue and split, the world will not believe in Jesus Christ.

Of all the analogies in the Bible to describe the relationship between Jesus and His people, the most powerful and descriptive one is the one where He is the “head” and we are the “body.” When He walked on this earth, He was infinitely winsome. He drew people to him by the tens of thousands. When He left the earth, He suggested that it would be even better when He was gone. Why? Because the Holy Spirit would inhabit the larger body of Christ: the Church. Consequently every time the Body of Christ gathers together, if we are in unity, “in honor preferring one another,” His charisma, His magnetism, His appeal will be exhibited and multiplied through us.

Nothing repels folks like a fussin’, fightin’, feudin’ church. Conversely, nothing attracts and validates the Gospel like a united Church that fully reflects that presence and character of Christ.

Our connectedness, our unity, our love for each other is the most powerful testimony to a lost and dying world of the reality of Jesus Christ! The world doesn’t typically read the Bible. They read us. Let’s give them something awesome…our love and unity…to read!

Bob Simpson

 

 Are You Certain to a Fault? [4:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (27)

By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Associate Executive Director, Editor of BaptistLIFE

This past month I have had the opportunity to volunteer a couple of times for a non-profit community development organization that is making a real impact in the inner city of Baltimore.

I’m telling you this because I want you to know what a valuable experience it was for me. Going in I knew that it was the right thing to do. To be able to give back in a tangible way is so rewarding. My wife, Lorraine, and I also help support this organization financially. But giving of one’s money and giving of one’s time and talents is two very different things.

One morning I was able to help some young men develop their resumes. As a trained marketer, this is something that comes second nature to me. But to two young men in the poorest neighborhood in the state of Maryland, it was crisis of great complexity. To even get a chance at the few and low-paying jobs that are out there for them, they needed to at least have a current and organized resume to present to prospective employers.

I realize that this is only a focus group of one. But I suspect that if we all did our part to help the poor, the homeless, the hungry or the disenfranchised, the sum total would be an incredible impact.

I know this is what our Lord was suggesting to us all in Matthew 25 where He said, “When you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” (Matt. 25:40 NLT)

I’m not sure why churches and individual believers are not more widely known for the high level of volunteerism among those “hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick and imprisoned” that are everywhere around us. There are those, of course, who are doing much.

But I am amazed at how many others within our Christian, and, yes, our Baptist community, who seem to be content to let others do it. There even seems to be a confidence that evangelism always trumps social needs. After all, if we save their soul, isn’t that the most important thing?

Today as I write this, I recall reading in the Washington Post this morning about the death at age 93 of former Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara. He came to public notice when President Kennedy tapped him for service at the Pentagon. He is widely praised for helping the President navigate the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963.

However, this and all of his other positive contributions were eclipsed by his influencing America’s ramp up of the Vietnam War also as Defense Secretary for President Johnson. In his retirement, he wrote in his memoirs of his regret and shame for the escalation of that war. He was so convinced at the time that he was right. But in later life, he showed a desire to expiate the Vietnam debacle. He admitted he had been wrong on Vietnam.

Back to the question: Evangelism vs. Social Gospel? My experience this month volunteering has made me re-think the answer to that question.

If we meet the basic needs of hurting people, it will increase exponentially the opportunities to share the Gospel. Sometimes when we feel most confident, we should consider the possibility that we could be wrong.

As the singing group ‘Casting Crowns’ so eloquently sings:
“But if we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
Why aren’t His feet going?”

Great questions!

If you are interested in giving of your resources (time/talents/dollars), I urge you to do so.  I further urge you to consider the one I mentioned above by calling Becky at (410) 522-0044.

Listen Now!

 

 GCR of "Denomination in the Mirror"? [2:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (27)

By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Associate Executive Director and BaptistLIFE Editor

As I write this, the world has just learned of the death of Michael Jackson. Of course it is a vivid reminder of the brevity and fragility of life. Of all his songs the one I have always liked most is “The Man In The Mirror.”  As I sat through this year’s Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky., I kept thinking that, yes, we may need a Great Commission Resurgence (GRC). Yes, we may need to rethink some of our SBC infrastructure. But more than that, we need an old fashioned mega-dose of obedience.

In Revelation 2, it says, “Yet I hold this against you:  You have forgotten your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (NIV)

If every Baptist in the pews were both a tither and a sacrificial giver, we would have all the resources necessary to carry out the Great Commission in our generation.

If every Baptist gave of themselves to share their faith, feed the hungry, clothe the naked and rescue the disenfranchised in our world, the present SBC infrastructure would be so busy accommodating missions experiences, training leaders to lead our churches, helping the poor and setting a climate for Kingdom advance that we wouldn’t be begging folks for more Cooperative Program dollars in order to survive.

In this month’s Golf Magazine I found a very interesting survey. The editor, David Clarke, reported that in a recent poll of avid golfers, there was a surprise result.  They asked golfers, “What makes you happiest on the course?” They thought that ‘shooting a low score’ would rank very high. It didn’t. They thought ‘playing with your best friends’ would rank right up there. It didn’t. An overwhelming 67 percent of those polled said that their biggest thrill was ‘making solid, consistent contact regardless of their score.’ Of them, Editor Clarke said, “[They’d] rather pure it all day and shoot 93 than chop it around and post 80.”

How ‘bout it Southern Baptists? Are you ready to ‘pure it’ all day? That’s the resurgence we could really use. Maybe that’s us in the mirror this time!