In this episode of Theology Applied, I asked Pastor Tom Askell, president of Founders Ministries,

to explain what he sees as the three biggest threats currently facing the Southern Baptist Convention,

as well as the ensuing battle for biblical faithfulness.

Applying God's Word to every aspect of life.

This is theology applied.

All right, so I'm privileged to have as a special guest on this particular episode, Pastor Tom

Askell. Pastor Tom Askell is a local pastor in Florida. He's also the president of founders ministries.

He serves both at the local church level and with founders ministries alongside Jared Longshore,

who's a guest that we've had on this show in the past. And so today, Tom, I want to talk to you

about the SBC and some of the looming threats that you see kind of down the pipeline with the SBC and maybe some that are already upon it.

But before we get into it, could you just take a moment and introduce yourself to our listeners who you are, what your ministry is about, just so they get a sense of who we're interviewing tonight?

Sure. Well, I'm a local church pastor. I pastor the

Grace Baptist Church of Cape Coral, Florida. I've been doing that for 35 years. And before that,

I was a pastor of a church in College Station, Texas, and then an assistant pastor of a church in

Dallas, Texas. I went to school at Texas A&M and Southwestern Baptist Theological

Seminary, moved here with two kids, two-year-old and six-month-old, and now we've got six

kids and 14 grandkids, and we're just having a wonderful time. God's been very kind to me in this

church. I also was a part of the original seven men that started founders ministries back in 1982.

So I've been involved with that.

I've been the president of that for, I don't know, a long time, 20, 25 years, something like that.

And then we just this last December, December of 2020, we announced the opening of the

Institute of Public Theology, which will begin classes, God willing, in a couple of months in the

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