On May 4-5th we, Eureka Baptist, hosted the Be Not Conformed Conference. This conference was
sponsored by the ministry Truth Script. This was quite the weekend! This was the most people
that Eureka Baptist had on site in probably fifty years (back in the day when they had revival
meetings). Over the two days, over two hundred people both our people and people from the
outside attended the conference. Remarkably, people from ten different states were in attendance.
Who would have thought that the outside Christian community would descend on Eureka. But
that is precisely what happened and it should not surprise us that the Lord led us to do such a
conference. Over the past number of years, the Lord has blessed us abundantly. He has built a
strong and growing army of soldiers of the cross at Eureka Baptist. In hosting this conference,
we wanted to inspire the Christian community to courageously follow Christ in the age of
opposition. We are living in hard times as Christians in America. As the years have gone by the
hostility toward Christianity has ramped up from a world that does not love God. But the sad
reality is that the opposition doesn’t just come from the pagan world, it also comes from within
the church. As I planned this conference, I invited Christian leaders who I believe have shown
Christian courage in these difficult days.
At this conference we heard from two men who have been persecuted by the evangelical
institutional establishment. We first heard Dr. Russell Fuller’s story. He was an Old Testament
professor at the largest Seminary in the world, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for
twenty-two years. During the height of the Woke invasion in American evangelicalism during
2018, Russell noticed this Social Justice ideology being pushed onto the students at his seminary.
He could not stay silent and this action led to his termination in 2020. It was inspiring hearing
Dr. Fuller’s story. He is a man who has counted the cost. He showed that he was willing to stand
on the Word of God when the pressure was the highest. This is rare to see in our day. We also
heard a similar story from Pastor Jeff Kliewer. Jeff pastors at Cornerstone Church in Mt. Laurel,
New Jersey. Much like what happened at Southern Seminary, Jeff noticed the Social Justice
ideology being pushed by the Evangelical Free Church leadership onto the churches within the
movement. He needed to do something. After failed efforts to get through to them he wrote a
book titled, Woke-Free Church. This book showed that the Free Church leadership clearly has
pushed this false teaching onto the churches. In the book Jeff showed their error and called for
their repentance. Instead of repenting Jeff was attacked in a twenty-six-page report that amounts
to a character assassination. Since they could not engage on the substance of the issue this is the
only thing the corrupt leadership could resort to. Jeff told the story of how he got cancelled, and
his cancellation came in the form of his ordination being censured. Anyone who listened to Jeff
could see that he loves the people who did these evil actions against him. He desires for their
repentance and that they could move forward in peace. Both Russell and Jeff’s stories tell us of
the climate in American evangelicalism. So many others can tell a similar story when concerns
are raised concerning the leftward direction that leaders have taken different Christian
institutions.
We also heard from Jon Harris who has faced lots of opposition himself as he took a
strong stand against the Social Justice movement in the early days (in 2018) when there were
very few saying much as all over the place Christian leaders were compromising. At this
conference Jon provided a post-mortem. He diagnosed why there were so many Christian leaders
who led poorly during the Woke invasion. Jon described that there are four different types of
leaders in the broader Christian community right now. The first three are not to be followed and
the fourth are. The first are social activists. These are those who get in the ministry to push a
Social Justice ideology, bringing churches further and further to the Left. The second are
managers. These are those who have no problem signing a sound Statement of Faith, but in order
to get along with compromised evangelicalism they also are willing to compromise. The third are
academics. These are those who strongly condemned Social Justice in the general, but when it
came to specifics would never say where the poison of Social Justice was being taught. Jon
explained that in the second and third category these poor leaders lacked a fundamental biblical
virtue; namely, courage. Then he described the fourth category. These are the Shepherds who are
there to protect their sheep. They are willing to identify the problem and say where the problem
is taking place. In order to turn around American evangelicalism there need to be far more men
in the fourth category.
The fourth speaker we heard from was David Wheaton. I appreciate David because he
has taken biblical stands on controversial issues where many have shied away from. David gave
an excellent message from the book of Daniel. In it, he explained that we are to follow the
example of Daniel who lived in a hostile society but was faithful to God even though it came at a
great cost. We were reminded that it is our faith in the Lord and our love for the Lord that
enables us to be courageous in an oppositional world. Russell, Jon, and Jeff also spoke a second
time. Russell on Social Justice’s abuse of Scripture. Jon on the importance of being active in
proclaiming biblical ethics in the public square, and Jeff closed out the conference by preaching
a sermon titled, Worldly Drift from Romans 12:1-2. It was a memorable conference that we
won’t soon forget. Our prayer is that everyone who came was inspired to faithfully follow Christ
in this age of opposition. We have prayed for this and may we continue to pray in this way.
Thank you to all the volunteers who made this conference happen. You helped make this a
special weekend that I trust many will remember in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Seth