jd greear
James David "J.D." Greear (born May 1, 1973) is an evangelical American religious leader who is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina. He served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2021. He entered the PhD program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1999, graduating in 2003 with a doctorate in philosophy, concentrating primarily on Christian and Islamic theology. His dissertation was titled Theosis and Muslim Evangelism: How the Recovery of a Patristic Understanding of Salvation Can Aid Evangelical Missionaries in the Evangelization of Islamic Peoples.
JD Greear
"This amendment forces conformity down to tertiary levels in ways that will both violate local church autonomy and are inconsistent with our past practice. If we continue down this road, we might become a Convention that spends its time focused on who is in and who is out instead of on the best ways to reach our communities and glorify Jesus. If you want a harbinger of that, just take a look at Southern Baptist social media feeds right now. Is this what we want our Convention to be about? I'm tired of micromanaging churches; I want to be about the Great Commission. There are too many people on their way to Hell for us to get quagmired in policing each other."
--JD Greear; Christian Headlines; J.D. Greear Supports National African American Fellowships' Challenge of SBC's Ban on Woman Pastors 7.14.23
--JD Greear; Christian Headlines; J.D. Greear Supports National African American Fellowships' Challenge of SBC's Ban on Woman Pastors 7.14.23
JD Greear
This is about as harsh as you can get. God looked at us, and he didn’t see wayward children, or pitiful lost causes. He saw enemies. We may want to gloss over that, but if we do, we miss the majesty of God’s forgiveness. When he chose to push anger away and bring compassion near, it wasn’t like me forgiving my daughter after she lied to me. It’s more like me choosing to love and adopt into my family an ISIS member who beheaded my own daughter.
Yes, our sin was that bad. But against the dark backdrop of our sin, the glory of the gospel stands out in stunning contrast. This is why Donald Grey Barnhouse says that there is no greater wonder in the universe than the love of God for us. We see God choose love over wrath, and we can only say, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me–a sinner, condemned, unclean.”
We need not, we dare not, water down the wrath of God. For without knowing God’s wrath, we would never know the amazing depths of his love. --JD Greear
Yes, our sin was that bad. But against the dark backdrop of our sin, the glory of the gospel stands out in stunning contrast. This is why Donald Grey Barnhouse says that there is no greater wonder in the universe than the love of God for us. We see God choose love over wrath, and we can only say, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me–a sinner, condemned, unclean.”
We need not, we dare not, water down the wrath of God. For without knowing God’s wrath, we would never know the amazing depths of his love. --JD Greear
JD Greear
All of Jesus’ promises about the greatness of the Church....are tied to sending out, not gathering in. Jesus once promised His disciples that they would do greater works than Him (John 14:12). That’s a staggering promise. How many pastors claim to do greater works than Jesus? But Jesus didn’t mean that our works would be greater in quality. He meant that the reach and extent of His works would be greater when His Spirit rested on every believer than when that power was concentrated upon one person.
Churches that understand this will devote themselves not to gathering and counting, but empowering and sending. Sending capacity, not seating capacity, ought to be the measure of success for any New Testament church.
This attitude is something a lot of churches are missing. It’s easy to get caught up in drawing people into our churches instead of sending members out into the world, on building audiences instead of multiplying disciples.
But in our day, the act of sending has become more important than ever. Even those in our own backyards will likely have to be reached outside the church. The “nones” in Western society (those who check “none” for religious affiliation) grow each year at an astounding rate. “Nones” don’t casually make their way back into church because the pastor is engaging, the music is cool or the guest services are Disney-esque. They have to be reached outside the Church.
It’s time we returned to Jesus’ strategy for reaching our nation. To do that, those in Christian leadership especially are going to have to first die to ourselves—to our ambitions in ministry, to our dreams, to our hopes of a comfortable life. We should remember we are called by one who came not to be served but to serve, who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich, and beckons us to follow Him. He said, “Except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). --JD Greear
Churches that understand this will devote themselves not to gathering and counting, but empowering and sending. Sending capacity, not seating capacity, ought to be the measure of success for any New Testament church.
This attitude is something a lot of churches are missing. It’s easy to get caught up in drawing people into our churches instead of sending members out into the world, on building audiences instead of multiplying disciples.
But in our day, the act of sending has become more important than ever. Even those in our own backyards will likely have to be reached outside the church. The “nones” in Western society (those who check “none” for religious affiliation) grow each year at an astounding rate. “Nones” don’t casually make their way back into church because the pastor is engaging, the music is cool or the guest services are Disney-esque. They have to be reached outside the Church.
It’s time we returned to Jesus’ strategy for reaching our nation. To do that, those in Christian leadership especially are going to have to first die to ourselves—to our ambitions in ministry, to our dreams, to our hopes of a comfortable life. We should remember we are called by one who came not to be served but to serve, who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich, and beckons us to follow Him. He said, “Except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). --JD Greear
May 19, 2023: Only Sky: The Southern Baptist Convention had its worst EVER membership drop in 2022
If someone doesn’t understand this ratio’s drastic importance, not much else about Southern Baptists will make sense. It’s how J.D. Greear could claim that the Southern Baptist Convention has been in decline for forty years: Their baptism ratio began to tank in the mid-1980s. Even though their membership continued to grow by leaps and bounds, their baptism ratio told the true story: their recruitment simply wasn’t as effective as it’d once been.
If someone doesn’t understand this ratio’s drastic importance, not much else about Southern Baptists will make sense. It’s how J.D. Greear could claim that the Southern Baptist Convention has been in decline for forty years: Their baptism ratio began to tank in the mid-1980s. Even though their membership continued to grow by leaps and bounds, their baptism ratio told the true story: their recruitment simply wasn’t as effective as it’d once been.
April 18, 2023: Baptist Press: SBC leaders, former presidents react to death of Charles Stanley
“I grew up being discipled by listening to the preaching of Dr. Charles Stanley as I rode around town in the backseat of my parents’ car. Dr. Stanley set an example of preaching that was expository, faithful, evangelistic, and Spirit-filled. His effect on a whole generation of preachers and preaching is incalculable.”--J.D. Greear, former SBC president
“I grew up being discipled by listening to the preaching of Dr. Charles Stanley as I rode around town in the backseat of my parents’ car. Dr. Stanley set an example of preaching that was expository, faithful, evangelistic, and Spirit-filled. His effect on a whole generation of preachers and preaching is incalculable.”--J.D. Greear, former SBC president