In less than a week, many from SETX will join Southern Baptists from across North America in Nashville for the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting. Unlike most convention meetings, where interested persons had only a few months to express concerns, thanks to the COVID pandemic Southern Baptists have had two years to vent their frustrations, and even anger, over one or more aspects of SBC ministry. At times the rhetoric has been as shrill as anything heard in our recent elections, leading many to question how the SBC family can remain intact.
I pray that we do. I am a Christian through the faithful witness of a Southern Baptist church. My call to ministry came while a student at an SBC related university, with my ministry largely shaped by the godly professors and fellow students at two SBC seminaries. Service as a missionary with the North American Mission Board and later two Baptist associations carried me across the country, providing a birds eye view of SBC missions. I realize that other means exist for resourcing congregations and cooperative ministries, but I’ve not seen any that maintain the commitments both to core doctrines and global mission like the Southern Baptist Convention on our best days.
But these are not our best days. Southern Baptists, or at least those with a social media audience, are divided along multiple issues. I’ll not rehash them here. Trevin Wax has written an excellent description of the underlying questions. And you can read the priorities of announced candidates for the SBC presidency here. The issues are important, with well established constituencies making their case for how you should vote next week, and what your church should do depending on the outcome.
As you ponder how your church relates to convention, please consider these points.
First, there is much to rejoice about within the SBC ministries. Critical social media dominates the newsfeed, but if you look for it you will find incredible testimonies of church planters and missionaries across North America and around the world. Though it took a while, the Replant efforts from NAMB, together with state convention and associational partners, has brought more engagement with struggling congregations than ever before. We’re finally asking the right questions. And the young pastors and missionaries I meet are driven by a love for the Lord grounded in God’s inerrant word and deep theology. In fact, much about them frustrating to those of an older generation emerges from their faithfulness to God’s word in today’s cultural environment.
Don’t believe me? Whether you go to Nashville or view the livestream, listen to the IMB and NAMB reports. Attend the IMB sending celebration. Hear the seminary presidents. And if you make it to Nashville, take time for meaningful conversations with your missionaries at the NAMB and IMB exhibits. Don’t just vote for the officers and resolutions and then go fellowship in the hall.
Second, while we have legitimate matters for concern, there is nothing before us that people of God cannot work through in a godly manner. I doubt we will resolve these during a two-day meeting to anyone’s satisfaction. But if we remember we are dealing with fellow Christians who share our convictions on most points and we take the time to listen to one another as we seek the Lord, the SBC can emerge from this well prepared for fruitful ministry.
Finally, let’s remember that we are all sinners saved by grace, who continue wrestling with sin even as we serve the Lord. Through 35 years in ministry, the Lord has allowed me access to many SBC leaders. Every one was gospel focused and well intended. But they were all sinners, with the occasional word or deed that would hurt rather than help our witness. Ok, a few more than occasional. But I can say that about myself too, as can you. Here’s my point: By God’s grace He has taken these broken, flawed Baptists and worked through them to raise generations of ministers and missionaries, to share the gospel among peoples who had never before heard, and to raise a generation of disciples poised to elevate Him in this increasingly secular world.
We should always insist on leaders with the highest spiritual and moral integrity, even as we pursue it ourselves. But when the leaders fail, it’s not time to bail out of the partnership. It’s time for accountability, a return to God’s standard, and continued obedience to Him.
If the SBC vanished today, God’s mission would continue unimpeded. He doesn’t need us. But I believe He has given us in scripture a mandate to cooperate, and as far as I can see, the SBC remains the best platform before us by which to do so.
May the Lord reveal Himself in Nashville, that our partnership will be bound more closely together to the praise of His Name.
Bro. Jim