Mark Dever Notes from Friday morning

Interesting talk this morning about Capitol Hill Baptist's history. I'm not endorsing all of these statements =), but thought they were interesting nonetheless...

• "Southern Baptists are not very theological. Just don't mess with their missions and evangelism."
• Capitol Hill Baptist was originally called Metropolitan Baptist - presumably after Spurgeon's church in London, which was the most popular Baptist church at the time. (I thought this was funny because of how many churches are named after 1. vegetation + 2. a body of water because of Willow Creek =)
• When Mark was interviewing with CHBC back in 1993, he had to tell them his controversial theological issues because they weren't asking -- namely that he was a 1. five-point Calvinist and 2. wanted an elder-led church.
• "Nominating committees are from hell." Not biblical.
• Infant baptism kept Dever from being Presbyterian.
• On music... "I didn't want Gaither; I wanted Bach."
• (There are so many "Bens" in the room that Mark actually had us raise our hands if our name wasn't "Ben"=)
• "You're seeing a protestant evangelical church from the 19th century here. We have nothing new. We have zero new ideas."
• "Sometimes pastors go into a church like they're the first thing that's ever happened to that church. It's the '________ show'!"
• "Buying a cemetery plot at your church is a good way to put to death personal ambition."
• "I think special music smacks too much of a variety show. I assume the choir is the congregation. I'd rather not spend the short time we have together listening to someone else sing."
• "I think there were demons in the minds of some composers in the 19th century [laughs] which has left us with a pretty spotted hymnology."

Comments

[Chris]

wow. i thought some one would have commented before.

never the less, thanks Ben.

i have wanted to go to a weekender but have never been able to go.

as for the comments, i have learned (well, everyone has to learn something) and have come appreacite his view. i think that he is right one some.

what is unique to me is that he is going in the exaxt opposite of all what all the marketing gurus and business leadership guys are telling us we should do as churches and mission.

kind of make me think that we need to examine what we are doing and deeply contemplate before we embark.

Once again thanks. i really do appreciate you willingness to share what you are gleaning.

[Ben Arment]

Thanks Chris, this is a very different conference than my usual fare... but I can learn from anything. Really enjoyable so far.

[Lucas Defalco]

Ben -

I am curious did he tell the story about what happened with the American flag in the sanctuary after he arrived?