On my last evening in Geneva, I reflect briefly on various evangelical ecumenisms.  I would not be a part of those that we evangelicals usually refer to as the ecumenists--like the World Council of Churches.  (Don't they have offices somewhere here in Geneva?)   

There is another kind of togetherness that I have publicly objected to--Evangelicals and Catholic TOGETHER.  While I wish all of these men well, and some of them are good friends of mine, I fear that some of them--Protestant and Roman Catholic--have so elevated what they understand to be implications of the Gospel to be of equal importance to, and even to be part of, the Gospel itself.  And when that is done, moral agreements may seem to diminish the difference, and at least the significance of the difference, between Rome's understanding of salvation, and that which we understand the Bible to teach.  And in such a situation the cultural periphery is temporarily shored up, while the theological heart sinks into dangerous confusion.  Such togetherness is purchased at too high a price.

There is yet another kind of togetherness that I HAVE been involved in--TOGETHER for the Gospel.  Here we have come together with NO disagreements over the Gospel, but rather having our disagreements reserved for secondary, though important, issues.  In the last few weeks, however, I've been asked a couple of interesting questions about T4G that I thought might be of interest to you, dear reader.  One dear friend asked me if T4G was a 5-point Calvinst rally.  He (a non 5-point Calvinist) asked me this in the best spirit, and I told him honestly that it was a fine question, and that the conference was more a natural outgrowth of friendships.  I even had another friend, an Arminian, tell me how much he appreciated T4G and encouraged me to do whatever I could to "reach out" to Bible-believeing Arminians.  This friend was, perhaps, calling for a meeting for another kind of TOGETHERNESS--Calvinists and Arminians TOGETHER! 

Friends, I will let Al, CJ & Lig explain what they think about cooperation with other evangelicals, but I have always been at least an informal member of Calvinists and Arminians Together!  I'm a Southern Baptist!  I was involved in Inter-Varsity!  I went to Gordon-Conwell!  You may look in the recently released What is a Healthy Church? (Crossway, 2007) and find that it is dedicated to 3 pastors.  Who are they?  Harold Purdy was my pastor growing up at First Baptist Church, Madisonville, KY, and he was a prince of a man and a fine expositional preacher.  Wally Thomas was, during my high school years, an equally fine pa