MBC president: Amateurs can be correct

The Apostle Paul knew what he was talking about on deck

KANSAS CITY—Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) hosted Guest Chapel Speaker Mike Green in celebration of Missouri Baptist Day on Sept. 4. In addition to his role as president of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), Green also serves as director of missions for the Twin Rivers Association based in Wright City, near St. Louis.

“We celebrate the fact that we’re in the great state of Missouri, and work with the fabulous Missouri Baptist Convention, about 2,000 churches that help to reach and impact our state for the Gospel,” said MBTS President R. Philip Roberts. “It’s our privilege to work with this great Convention as well as to call Missouri our home. We celebrate by having this day once a year.”

Green, whose original plans involved teaching and coaching at the high school—and then possibly college—level, shared his own hesitant journey into the ministry. He said his forthcoming sermon was given to him by the “beautiful silver-haired preacher” who baptized his wife, and that he would preach it this day for the 100th time.

Beginning with a story from the life of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, Green challenged the campus with three lessons from Paul’s shipwreck experience in Acts 27.

“If I cannot live as I choose, I choose not to live,” said Fleming in response to his doctor’s exhortation to change his lifestyle or he would be dead in a year. “If I cannot live as I please, it does not please me to live.”

Because God gave people such free will, there are three things Christians and ministers should keep in mind, according to Green.

First of all, “we need to know that the experts are not always right,” said Green, noting that the helmsman and the owner of Paul’s ship were the professionals and Paul was the amateur. While the professionals decided it was safe to sail, Paul predicted disaster. The centurion, listening to the professionals, set sail, only to find that the amateur had been right.

Green offered the modern day example of the Titanic. The experts said it would never sink when, in fact, that was all it ever did do.

In the second place, “the majority is not always right,” said Green. “In fact, when it comes to moral issues, the majority is often wrong.”

Although Paul was in the minority, and most everybody else considered it safe to sail, they were all wrong, and the minority was right.

While the majority of married Americans view separation and divorce as viable options, according to God’s Word, the Bible, they are wrong. Green predicted that in the next 10 years, a majority of Americans will wholly accept the homosexual and lesbian lifestyle; however, that does not make it right, he said.

Teenagers think if “everybody’s doing it,” it must be OK. But, “If everybody’s doing it, then that’s a good reason for you not to,” Green challenged.

In the end, Paul—the amateur, the minority voice—was right, but not by his own wisdom. His wisdom and his subsequent prediction had come from God.

And “God is never wrong—never, ever—and He never will be,” said Green.

Green told the story of a friend of his who was murdered while being a “Good Samaritan.” After preaching his funeral, Green was approached by the man’s wife who said to him, “Brother Mike, I want you to know that even though I’m grieving, I know this. It was not an accident. I will grieve, but I will trust God.”

“Do you believe that when God tells you something from His Word, or that still, small voice and you run it by God’s Word, are you willing to stand on that and do what He tells you regardless of what the world says?” asked Green. “Because the experts aren’t always right; the majority is not always right; but God is never wrong.”