Month: February 2006

EMPOWER EVANGELISM CONFERENCE: Mohler: Stand on truth amid change

EULESS?Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. told those gathered at the annual SBTC Cooperative Program Luncheon Feb. 7 that amid rapid cultural decline and consequent challenges, Southern Baptists must stand on truth.

Mohler thanked the SBTC for its support of SBC missions causes and said when those in SBC entities think of friends, “we think of you.” He also thanked SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards for his support, stating that Richards “is one of the most forward-thinking and theologically minded leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Preaching from 1 Kings 18 and 19, which recounts Elijah’s confronting of Ahab and his subsequent flight from adversity, Mohler said standing on truth will eventually put you amid controversy.

“And if you’re going to stand there you are going to find yourself permanently fixed in some level of controversy.” Mohler said well-meaning Christians sometimes ask him: “How long are we going to be in this level of controversy? When are we going to get past it? Well, I think it is about the last chapter of the Book,” Mohler quipped.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah found himself in a controversy worth having, opposite the prophets of Baal, over God’s true identity.

Mohler noted that in 1 Kings 18:17, King Ahab accuses Elijah: “‘Is this you, you troubler of Israel?’

“It’s a wicked king who considers God’s prophet the troublemaker.”

“That’s where we are,” Mohler said. “We’re living in the midst of a wicked society that thinks God’s prophet is the troublemaker. Some things never change.”

Mohler said the problem of hesitating between two opinions, which Elijah confronted the people about in verse 21, is a real temptation for today’s pastors?even those who believe the truth.

“A denomination which hesitates between two opinions on key issues of truth and crucial issues of doctrine,” Mohler stated, “is a denomination that has swallowed the poison pill of accommodation and compromise and it will reap what it has sown.”

A church cannot be unclear about what it is truth and what is and is not the gospel. Likening double-mindedness to mental illness, Mohler said such thinking “is the affliction of our age.”

“If the Lord is God, follow him,” Mohler said, citing the text. “But if Baal, follow him”

Elijah thought he alone was left as the prophet of God; he was mistaken, Mohler noted.

After God called down fire and brimstone in awesome power, Elijah became fearful of Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, finally hiding himself in a cave, thinking he alone was left as God’s man.

“This (fear) is the pastor’s dilemma,” Mohler said. “This is the Christian leader’s predicament. Even denominations find themselves in very similar challenges,” Mohler said.

When God confronts him, Elijah again mistakenly states that he alone is left among God’s prophets. Instead, God informs him of 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

“One of the reasons for us to gather together is to remember that we are not alone,” Mohler reminded.
“We are not alone. There are faithful churches all over this country. There are faithful churches all over this state. It’s not our doing, it’s God’s doing. God has his faithful all over the world. But sometimes, in some contexts we can stand alone, but even then we’re not really alone.”

After the successes of the conservative theological resurgence, “We arrive in the year 2006 ? in a year in which it would be very tempting to hide in a cave,” Mohler said.

Referring to a news article that claimed Southern Baptists were scared of modernity, Mohler stated, “I’m not scared of it. But I do fear it. I see the worldviews taking captive soul after soul after soul. I fear the theological accommodationism that has taken denomination after denomination, church after church, institution after institution.

“I’m not intimidated by modernity. I just intend to fight that aspect of it with every fiber of my being.” Souls hang in the balance, he added.

Mohler said Baptists don’t have to be thankful for the theological controversies of the past, but they must be thankful for what God did through them.

“Your state convention is proof positive that there are people who will take a stand for truth and do the right thing.”

Cutting corners

We don’t print rumors. It’s happened several times in the SBC. A church or agency faces transition and there is speculation about who or where or why but no one will go on the record because it’s not appropriate. All that’s left is rumor — maybe accurate rumors in the end but nothing ready for publication.

But here’s what happens. In the rush to be the first, some news writer will publish the rumor after finding someone willing to say he heard it was true. This happened when Ken Hemphill left Southwestern. In another case, a prospective president of a Baptist college was named before the process was nearly complete. He withdrew his name after the embarrassing revelation. It happened again recently when Mac Brunson (of First Baptist Church of Dallas) announced he is going in view of a call to FBC Jacksonville, Fla. After that first guy trots out his gossip, other news agencies get calls from their editors to play catch up. Everyone piles on the story after that, even though it’s not ready.

In the SBC, a dissident news service called Associated Baptist Press and a few papers like to play “gotcha” with the convention. Sometimes they get the story first because they’re trying harder. Sometimes they only aggravate a sensitive time at the affected institutions. Being first sometimes is not worth being mischievous on other occasions. It’s just not that important.

I could hear the disappointment in Mac Brunson’s voice Feb. 12 when he spoke of being robbed of the opportunity to share the news with his church. The Dallas paper ran a speculative story based on the dissident news agency. The Fort Worth paper countered by saying the transition was a done deal. Maybe Dr. Brunson was naive to think that everyone in Jacksonville and Dallas would allow him that prerogative, but a desire for connection with even a mega-church congregation is one thing that makes him one of the good ones. He should have been allowed to announce things in his own time.

We could have published the rumor months ago. It’s been said that two people can keep a secret, so long as one of them is dead. With the search committee, church staffs, families, trusted friends involved in two large churches, word got out somehow that Mac Brunson was being considered to follow Jerry Vines. Hundreds of people had heard the rumor by Christmas. The TEXAN could have been first and maybe we could have even messed things up, but we don’t print rumors.

Standards should be higher in the press generally. Pressure to compete should not trump fairness to even public figures. Among Christians, the standard should be higher still. We learn things that need not be told. We hear things that we should not wish to be true just so we can make a splash or win a prize. The competition that keeps us sharp also tempts us to cut corners.

Let me be plain. The Associated Baptist Press story about Mac Brunson was based on hearsay from a church member who was not a church spokesman. The reason it was central to the story is that no church official?in Dallas or Jacksonville?would confirm the rumor. The people whose business it is to make that announcement wouldn’t, so someone else had to suffice. And ABP just had to use it so they could beat Baptist Press and maybe get quoted in some big city dailies. Mission accomplished.

There is no pressing need for jumping the gun on stories like this. There are some good and godly reasons to not do that. There are some even better reasons to avoid printing rumors.

SBTC board adds 2 ministry associates

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New Orleans director of missions tells Texas DOMs to ‘Pray big’

EULESS?The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Board unanimously elected two new ministry associates to the convention staff during a meeting Feb. 6 at the First Baptist Church of Euless, filling positions in evangelism and disaster relief.

The meeting coincided with the SBTC’s Empower Evangelism Conference.

The board elected Jack Harris of Grapevine as senior associate for personal and event evangelism, and Jim Richardson of Atlanta, Ga., as director of disaster relief. Both positions are new. Richardson is the first SBTC ministry associate to work exclusively with disaster relief.

SBTC Evangelism Director Don Cass introduced Harris as a longtime friend, having met him in 1978. He described him as a “soul winner” who practices what he teaches others to do.

Harris told the board about his conversion in the sixth grade in Lubbock and later his call to ministry in 1974 at First Baptist Church of Carrollton after he had begun a career in corporate finance. In 31 years of ministry, he has started and led evangelism programs in every church he has served, he said.

Harris said he and Cass would be assessing the needs of churches in equipping members for personal evangelism.

“It will take some time to get our feet on the ground and get a feel for understanding what the churches need and where they are,” Harris said. He said he has served mostly in larger churches, but he said he is eager to help small-attendance churches make the most of their evangelism resources.

“Without personal evangelism, we will not reach Texas and we will not reach our world,” Cass said.

“The world, the lost, do not attend our worship services,” he added. “We must take the gospel to them.”

The board also elected Jim Richardson as SBTC director of disaster relief?a newly created position. Richardson has held a similar post with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

Previously, disaster relief, chaplaincy and Texas Baptist Builders fell under the auspices of men’s ministries, led by Gibbie McMillan. Late last year McMillan took an assignment within the SBTC to coordinate hurricane recovery and relief. Other duties previously under the men’s ministry umbrella have been reassigned to other SBTC departments.

Texas Baptist Builders will work with the SBTC church ministries team in assessing projects, and through the missions team for construction. Disaster relief will work through the SBTC missions team, the church ministries team will coordinate men’s ministry, and the evangelism team will direct chaplaincy efforts.

Richardson spent 10 years with Georgia Baptists, helping develop the state’s disaster relief operation into one of the largest in the Southern Baptist Convention, he said.

EULESS?Joe McKeever, director of missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, encouraged SBTC directors of missions to “pray big” at the 2006 Empower Evangelism Conference that took place at First Baptist Church in Euless.

McKeever, a minister for more than 40 years and an accomplished artist, has been on the forefront in helping rebuild churches and providing relief to residents in New Orleans and surrounding areas since Hurricane Katrina hit last fall.

Previously totaling 135 churches and missions in the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, McKeever said the association has either temporarily or permanently lost almost half its churches since Katrina.

But in the rebuilding process, McKeever said God is doing great things in the city and it’s “a fun time to be a Southern Baptist in New Orleans.”

He shared with the Texas DOMs several things he’s discovered about New Orleans since the disaster occurred last fall: Every person was affected by Katrina, and everybody is tired of the subject, and God is using it to work amid the devastation.

McKeever said, “One of our pastors [working with the disaster relief] said, ‘We have led over 600 people to the Lord.’ Before Katrina, Baptists were known for what we are against. Since Katrina, we are known by what we are for.”

He concluded by encouraging the SBTC ministers to “pray big” that God would take New Orleans back, that he would do a new thing in the city, and that it whatever happens as a result would be a “God thing.”

“When it’s all over,” McKeever said, “let us be able to say, ‘God did this.'”

Dallas pastor Mac Brunson may leave FBC Dallas for Jacksonville, Fla., church

Executive committee of IMB trustees propose withdrawing motion for SBC to remove Burleson; preferring internal approach

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.?Members of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville will vote on a new pastor for the first time in more than 65 years Feb. 19 when Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, will preach in view of a call, the Jacksonville congregation’s pulpit committee chairman announced Feb. 12.

The announcement comes only five days after Jerry Vines?pastor of First Baptist Jacksonville for more than 23 years? preached his final sermon to the congregation, which has been led by a series of co-pastors, starting with Homer Lindsay Sr., and continuing with Homer Lindsay Jr. and Vines.

Brunson, 48, has been senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas since 1999, and also serves as chancellor of the church’s Criswell College. He made announcements about the call of the Jacksonville church in each of the church’s three morning worship services Feb. 12.

Brunson expressed “great grief” that “the press and certain people have robbed me of a sacred obligation I have of talking to my congregation.”

Speaking to his congregation about the initial reports based on rumor, Brunson said, “That’s the press. That’s the mouth of people. You’re going to have that ’til Jesus comes and then Jesus is going to clear that up,” Brunson stated in the final morning service Sunday.

“Instead of grieving about the press or gossips,” Brunson asked his congregation to turn their attention to John 21 to discover that God “has a plan or purpose for your life individually, my life personally, and this congregation collectively. It centers around two words?follow me.”

Brunson told the Dallas congregation that he had declined an offer in 2004 to become co-pastor of a prominent church, without naming the church, and then explained that when the First Baptist Jacksonville pulpit committee contacted him, he initially declined to be considered, but began reconsidering later in 2005 because of the persistence of the committee. He decided he would not make a decision until after Christmas.

During a trip to the Holy Land, Brunson said he became convinced that God was leading him to Jacksonville. While traveling at night on the back of a camel up Mount Sinai, Brunson said he prayed for two hours that the God who spoke to Moses through a burning bush would offer him so much as a matchstick of light to direct his path.

“There were these two great congregations, the convention looking on and watching and I’ve got my family. I’ve got to know what your will is for my life,” Brunson said he told God. “Some of you folks think I’ve been plotting and planning this for the last five years?that it’s some great devious scheme of some kind. The fact is you’re just mistaken. You’re looking at a man who has wrestled and struggled with this and sought godly wisdom, godly counsel.”

Brunson was pastor of Green Street Baptist Church in High Point, N.C., from 1992-1999, and served previously in churches in Virginia and South Carolina. He was president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 2003 and president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina from 1997-1999.

He was one of the featured speakers at this year’s Pastors’ Conference at First Baptist Jacksonville, and Vines called him out of the audience to pray at the beginning of the Feb. 7 service in which Vines preached his last sermon. While never mentioning any future plans, some viewed the act as an implicit signal of Brunson’s future call to Jacksonville after months of speculation in Florida and Texas that he would be Vines’ successor.

UPDATED Feb. 16

The nine-member executive committee of the International Mission Board’s trustees will recommend at
the board’s March 20-21 meeting in Tampa that trustees reverse a Jan. 11 motion asking the Southern
Baptist Convention to remove Wade Burleson of Enid, Okla., as a trustee.

IMB trustee chairman Thomas Hatley of Rogers, Ark., told the Southern Baptist TEXAN the
committee determined that the board has the authority to address the matter internally without
the necessity of making a recommendation to the SBC. Burleson has vocally?and allegedly improperly,
according to the trustees?opposed the board’s action on new missionary candidate criteria; however
it was Burleson’s conduct as a trustee?not his opposition to the recent actions that prompted the earlier
effort to remove him as a trustee, according to an earlier IMB release.

Meeting Feb. 10 in Atlanta, the committee reviewed the Burleson matter and acted unilaterally to offer the
new plan. The committee includes the chairman, first and second vice chairmen, recording secretary and
chairmen of the board’s five primary standing committees. Hatley informed trustees of the proposal
through e-mail Feb. 15.

“As a board we continue to affirm our missionaries, our president, and our staff, and we stand with them 
in leading Southern Baptists to reach the harvest fields of our world,” Hatley told the TEXAN on Feb. 14.

Several weeks from now Hatley will release an historical and theological explanation of the board’s 
November decision to assess missionary candidates’ use of “private prayer language” and mode of 
baptism.

Misinformation disseminated through informal weblogs caused confusion in the minds of some Southern Baptists, Hatley said. He said he hopes a detailed accounting of the timeline and rationale for those standards will help separate those issues from the matter of Burleson’s personal conduct as a trustee and answer questions that have arisen.

When the original action proposing removal was announced, Hatley said the board first explored others ways to handle the impasse with Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., and immediate past president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

“The decision to seek removal was based on broken trust and resistance to accountability, not Burleson’s opposition to policies recently enacted by the board,” the official Jan. 11 statement read. At various intervals of the Jan. 9-11 meeting Burleson posted updated reports on his interaction with trustees, refusing trustee requests to stop the practice out of concern that inaccurate and confidential information was being disseminated.

Burleson said he used the weblog to express his concerns to a broader Baptist constituency, believing potential missionaries could be held back due to the new criteria and accusing certain trustees of “political power plays” and private caucuses.

Burleson, on his weblog Feb. 12, stated, “Trustee leadership has been very communicative with me these past three weeks, and I appreciate their hearts in dialogue. I have been asked to prayerfully consider shutting down this blog. Let me be clear. I have said, from the beginning, if I can be shown where my blog violates any policy or procedure of the IMB I will cease blogging immediately. In all fairness to my fellow trustees, blogging by a trustee is something new, and for everyone[‘]s benefit I am considering possibly ending the blog until an official policy on blogging can be established in the [upcoming IMB trustee] meeting.”

Later, on a Feb. 15 post, Burleson expressed gratitude to those who made suggestions about the weblog, stating, “I have chosen to continue blogging in support of our efforts through the International Mission Board and will continue to be extremely conscientious, as in the past, to fully abide by every policy and procedure of the IMB. I am always positive about our work, conscientious about confidentiality, and will only write those things that I believe can improve our cooperation together to win the world to Christ.”

Texas team seeks ways to aid Lebanese Baptists in 4th year of venture

Jimmy Pritchard’s mind’s eye saw a stereotypical Middle East culture where Islam dominates and freedom is repressed. But once he was on the ground in Beirut, Lebanon with his fellow Baptists from Texas, he said was “blown away.”

“I could have easily been in any urban area of the United States,” he said.

“I found it to be a very Westernized culture,” said Pritchard, pastor of First Baptist Church of Forney, who ventured to Lebanon Jan. 17-23 with an SBTC contingent. “We found a lot of secular Muslims–people who have bought into Western materialism but aren’t reading the Koran, aren’t practicing.”

Pritchard joined a small group of pastors and church leaders, including SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards and Terry Coy, SBTC senior church planting associate, in seeking ways for SBTC churches to partner in 2006 with Lebanese Baptists.

The SBTC is entering its fourth year of partnership with Lebanese Baptists, who count among themselves 28 churches, a Baptist school in Beirut, and the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, which trains nearly 60 students from various Muslim-dominated Arab countries.

Additionally, Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board employs workers who are active in Bible distribution and house church planting in Beirut, where nearly everyone lives in multi-story apartments.

Among Arab countries, Lebanon has the greatest religious freedom. In Beirut, Muslims and Christians–most embrace merely a cultural Christianity–have lived peaceably with each other since a 16-year civil war ended in the early 1990s. Beirut has flourished amid the rebuilding. Western stores and restaurants are common in downtown Beirut.

“The beauty was incredible, but the warmth and generosity of the people was unexpected and unbelievable,” Pritchard noted.

Even in heavily Muslim west Beirut, where a contingent from Forney joined IMB missionaries in Bible distribution, the team was usually respectfully received, Pritchard said.

“We did have a situation where a Muslim answered the door and refused the Bible,” stating he had a Koran and didn’t read it. “Why would I want another book I won’t read?” he asked.

“It’s an open opportunity,” Pritchard said. “Once they realize that materialism will leave them hollow, they will be open to the gospel. (The materialism) is fresh and new for them, but they’ll reach the end of that road as well.”

Pritchard said his church plans to participate in the partnership by sponsoring a student at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. For about $9,500, a church can pay a student’s tuition and living expenses for a year.

Richards said this was his second trip to Lebanon and God’s work is evident.

“Muslims are being won to Christ. Ministers are being trained and sent out to other Muslim countries. The International Mission Board personnel continue to coordinate door-to-door visitation and Bible distribution in Beirut. Beirut is a gateway city giving anyone who goes there an opportunity to touch lives throughout the Middle East.”

In fact, Beirut is a destination for many tourists and temporary workers from throughout the Middle East, Coy said.

IMB missionaries, Coy said, are requesting “strategic prayer” for their work among Muslims—something an SBTC church or church members could undertake. Furthermore, small SBTC churches or associations could pool resources to send missions teams to Lebanon for work with Lebanese churches or to work alongside IMB representatives.

“We are trying to encourage those who went on the trip to take the next step,” Coy said.

For more information on the SBTC-Lebanese Baptist partnership, call the SBTC Missions Office toll free at 877-95307282 or e-mail tcoy@sbtexas.com.

REVIEW: Pastoral search book misses the mark

“In Search of a Leader” is a book by Robert W. Dingman that was recommended recently to the SBTC Minister-Church Relations office as a resource for churches seeking a pastor. Upon reading it, I do not recommend it. Dingman states the book is a “practical handbook” providing “valuable guidance” to churches, educational institutions, parachurch organizations, and professional search personnel.

Dingman fails to achieve that objective.

Overall, the book is unhelpful for search committees and is inconsistent in its assertions with the doctrinal position of the SBTC and the Southern Baptist Convention.

To be fair, despite its conspicuous weak points, it covers the following topics well:

The importance of keeping the church informed on the progress of the search;

The family, and job description, but leaves out what is the most important factor for the success of a search committee.

Furthermore, two items that are alarmingly absent are the importance of checking the Constitution and Bylaws of the church, and conducting background checks. Dingman does mention a charter (page 47), but his mention of it concerns the ground rules the committee sets for itself and records in its minutes.
Moreover, the omission of conducting background checks is perplexing. It would seem that someone who has worked with search committees for 25 years (as he indicates he has) would understand the importance of conducting background checks.

Finally, the book neglects to point out the crucial function of the search committee in helping the new pastor establish himself in his new position and community.

In addition to some of the book’s obvious deficiencies, there are other areas with which I strongly disagree.

Dingman asserts that ideally, there would be no interim period after a pastor leaves. This is hardly ever the case. The role of interim pastor is critical for allowing the congregation to heal from the loss of its former pastor and prepare for the arrival of the next.

In dealing with divorce, infidelity, other sexual sins or integrity issues, Dingman seems to fundamentally confuse forgiveness with the privilege of pastoral ministry and fails to adequately deal with the consequences of such sin.

The author advocates many reasons for termination. His list appears both careless and callous and does not allow for communication, reconciliation, training, or mediation.

Dingman doesn’t believe God will lead a search committee to one and only one candidate, and seems to suggest that he doesn’t even think God should.

Some stereotypical generalizations in the book?evangelists can’t be effective pastors, great communicators can’t be good administrators, 65-year-olds cannot be founding pastors?seem simplistic and restricting.

Dingman has a very low, pessimistic view of employees or leaders in Christian organizations.

He is open to women as pastors or co-pastors, (suggesting that excluding them is discrimination), and is, at best, unclear on his opinion as to whether committees should consider homosexual candidates.

He tries to make the book generic for all denominations and Christian organizations, which generally renders it of less value for all.

And most flagrant, Dingman believes that the only real reason for praying as a search committee is that by prayer, “they are more likely to be building the needed trust and basis for cooperation.” He states that prayer “should precede and conclude the meetings. An appropriate prayer that ends a bruising committee meeting can go a long way toward restoring a spirit of cooperation.” He does not believe that by praying, God will lead a committee to the candidate he desires for them. Prayer is reduced to a good luck charm.
There are many helpful resources that pastor search committees can use to aid them in their role. LifeWay’s “Pastor Search Committee Handbook” is an invaluable tool that no search committee should be without. The appendixes in this book are the most valuable I have seen in any work. The SBTC has also produced a booklet, “The Pastor Search Handbook.” Many churches across the state and country have used this resource, now in its third edition.he importance of an ethical search committee or “team”;

The importance of realistic expectations placed by a committee on a candidate;

The necessity of holiness on the part of the minister.

Also, there were some helpful suggestions on how to find resumes, questions for the candidate and the
church to consider, interviewing and follow-up etiquette, and helpful appendixes.

But, as stated, the book’s weak points are conspicuous.

First, Dingman is anemic on his covering the visionary influence of a pastor. He sees the “board” as the custodians of the church’s vision; the role of the pastor is to “energize it.”

Second, the book inadequately covers the important process of narrowing a large stack of resumes to a more manageable number (only three brief paragraphs are given to this topic). In this same section on narrowing the list of potential candidates, Dingman never mentions the role of prayer. He lists credentials, money, background, skills, education, family, and job description, but leaves out what is the most important factor for the success of a search committee.

Moreover, the omission of conducting background checks is perplexing. It would seem that someone who has worked with search committees for 25 years (as he indicates he has) would understand the importance of conducting background checks.

Finally, the book neglects to point out the crucial function of the search committee in helping the new pastor establish himself in his new position and community.

In addition to some of the book’s obvious deficiencies, there are other areas with which I strongly disagree.

IMB disagreement not all bad news for SBC

Wade Burleson and the International Mission Board trustees have made the headlines recently in Baptist life. It is amazing how Baptists can raise a ruckus. Disagreements turn off some folks. I have found it somewhat refreshing, though. Let me explain.

For too long I have been deafened by the silence of doctrinal debate in Southern Baptist life. We struggled for 20 years to establish the basis of our belief concerning the nature of Scripture. Southern Baptists settled the discussion by saying the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. We had little time to discuss other doctrinal issues.

Now some who advocated biblical inerrancy seemingly fail to see the reality of biblical sufficiency. If we have an inerrant Bible then there are specific doctrines the Bible teaches. I am not going to argue the details of the IMB rhubarb, but I would like to use the two doctrinal issues as a case in point for doctrinal debate.

Regardless of the position you take on speaking in tongues, the practice has never been widespread in Baptist churches. Pentecostalism at the turn of the 20th century and the charismatic movement in the 1970s popularized tongue speaking, but neither made it biblical. Whether you are a closed dispensationalist or require tongue speaking to conform to rules found in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14, the modern practice in American churches does not qualify as scripturally authentic. There is more I could say but I find the baptism controversy even more intriguing.

Liberalism, neo-orthodoxy and existentialism had an impact on how many people approach the practice of Christianity. This approach would place the highest value on the individual’s experience and personal opinion. You see baptism is not a personal issue. It is not about “how I feel about my baptism.” It is not just the sincerity of the candidate. It is about scriptural authority. The question is whether baptismal authority is individual or congregational.

Jesus gave the commission to baptize to the local church. If the commission were given to every believer then any 9-year-old girl who was a Christian could baptize her convert in the backyard swimming pool. Jesus vested the authority to baptize in the church. The Baptist Faith and Message says baptism is a church ordinance. The local church is the custodian of the ordinances. Only a New Testament church can administer scriptural baptism. There are a few identifying marks of a New Testament church. Are all Baptist churches, New Testament churches? Probably not! Are there New Testament churches that are not Baptist churches? Sure, because what makes a New Testament church is what it teaches, not the name over the door. By the way, one of the identifying marks is that a New Testament church will teach security of the believer.

Of course those who want individual autonomy on the practice of baptism have started name-calling. They will say if you believe in local church authority for baptism you are a “Landmarker.” Those of us who stood for inerrancy were called “Norrisites.” When someone cannot defend his position he usually attacks the other person.

Southern Baptists had better be careful about walking down the path of Neo-Ecumenism. Cooperating with Catholics, Assemblies of God and other denominations in the areas of social and moral concerns is biblical and mentioned in the Baptist Faith and Message, Article 15. However, Neo-Ecumenism in ecclesiology and missiology will produce dysfunctional, confusing and contradictory results. If some churches wish to be “non-denominational,” God bless them, but they should not masquerade under the guise of being Baptists.

Doctrine does matter. It is not too late to raise the banner of doctrinal sufficiency of the Scriptures and reclaim our heritage as people of the Book.

Straight talk

Baptist news is a target-rich environment these days. We have a lot to talk about. New appointment guidelines for missionary candidates, the SBC will be asked to remove a trustee this summer, the SBTC has removed a church, and so on. Let me offer some thoughts on a variety of timely issues this week.

The IMB & baptism
This issue is old news unless you read the “new media,” Internet blogs, specifically. Since the November International Mission Board meeting, private web logs have been abuzz with criticisms of the board’s guideline regarding the baptisms of missionary candidates. More recently these criticisms have centered on the supposed connection between Landmark theology and the IMB’s focus on a missionary candidate’s baptizing church.

The IMB is requiring that candidates be baptized in a church that immerses people after their profession of faith and that believes baptism to be symbolic rather than sacramental or regenerative. They further require that the baptizing church believes in eternal security. This means a candidate baptized in an Assemblies of God church or a Free Will or General Baptist church would need to be re-baptized before being accepted for missionary appointment.

A couple of points about this seem important. First, this is not Landmark theology. Nobody in this discussion has suggested that Baptists, specifically Southern Baptists, are the only legitimate expression of New Testament Christianity. In fact, the guideline does not stipulate that the baptizing church must be a Baptist church at all.

Second, the guideline defines “like faith and order” in the same way that most SBC churches do when they receive members. Right or wrong, this is the environment the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board must work within.

One reason for this policy is that some churches no longer examine prospective members. Another possible reason is that “big tent” evangelicalism appeals to some pastors so that members from other denominations are received by statement with little thought to their understanding of Southern Baptist doctrine. The churches need to do their work more thoroughly. Regardless, the mission boards can’t take anything for granted.

The IMB & Wade Burleson

In a kind of aftershock to their November action, IMB trustees voted to ask the SBC to remove Oklahoma trustee Wade Burleson. Some of the trustees I talked to are pretty gentle souls. While they were careful to guard the confidentiality of board executive sessions, there was a general sense that Burleson is an intractable person. His voluminous blog entries would lead to that same conclusion.
Regardless, the IMB is going to have to make its case for the action they’ve asked the convention to take next June. Our messengers are going to have to know why they should take serious and unusual action against a trustee they elected only last June.

Trust does not enter into this. I think we do trust our elected board members. I have great confidence in the commitment and heart of the trustees I know. We’ll be asked to take action for ourselves, though. We will need enough information to make us believe what the board has come to believe?that Wade Burleson is unqualified in some way to complete his four-year term. I’m not saying they can’t but I’m saying they haven’t made that case in public yet.

Creationism & Intelligent Design

While not a specifically Southern Baptist story, a Pennsylvania town’s smackdown of the teaching of any alternative to Darwinism has emboldened that religion’s partisans. Southern Baptists do find themselves embroiled in this debate at all educational levels, and on both sides. The most common error is to equate Creationism, the belief that the God revealed in the Bible made everything, and Intelligent Design, the belief that observable creation is too elaborate to be the product of random chance. The more clever of ID’s critics call it “Creationism lite.”

Here’s an important distinction: all Creationists believe that intelligence and purpose may be inferred from what we can observe and measure. All those who believe in Intelligent Design are not necessarily Creationists, though. Those who follow ID have at least rightly seen that Darwinism is not compatible with theism. They would not consider themselves the leading edge of a fundamentalist deconstruction of modern science.

The error is one part politics and two parts ignorance, I think. Many reporters are heartened by events that seem to discourage the religious right. That’s the political aspect that makes the story front-page news. This distaste for some religious views makes them impatient with explanations offered by religious people. This is largely their ignorance in covering the story. The other part is the looming deadlines that keep them from even knowing what diversity exists within the non-religious scientific community.
A scientific theory, Darwinism, whose adherents are unable to bear the suggestion in a textbook or classroom that some educated and thoughtful people see it differently, is too easily threatened to maintain its monopoly.

The fact is that some smart and highly educated people find faith in Darwinism more difficult to maintain than the belief that someone designed this on purpose. It is also quite possible to substantiate this view with scientific data. Our schools are teaching bad science when they refer to Darwinism as the proven and established scheme for explaining the diversity of life on earth. It is doubly bad when they are free to ridicule any contrary theory simply because it is contrary.

Roe v. Wade & compassion

It should be hard for this anniversary in January to pass without some comment. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gone to various crisis pregnancy centers around the state to present financial gifts from SBTC churches to help with their ministries. Most of these centers are funded by groups of diverse churches; others are attached to a very large church that can provide people and financial resources on its own. Here’s what they all have in common: they love women.

They want to help them more than time or money or access allows. They want to know what happens to them after they deliver their babies. They want tell them about Jesus.
Crisis pregnancy centers depend on volunteers. What staff members they do pay work for peanuts and give more time than they’re asked for. Doctors and nurses often volunteer to provide prenatal care. I’ve yet to be in a CPC that didn’t convict me with their commitment and heartfelt compassion for women and babies.

Is this true of abortion clinics? I don’t know from experience and what we see of them in the news is often not their best side.

Doubtless many of the directors and workers in the abortion industry have sincere convictions about freedom of choice and equality for women. It seems it would become an academic exercise at best, though. It’s about winning the political battles and spinning the awful details of their work. The bald truth about CPCs is a much easier story to tell than the plain facts of an abortion clinic. Do you suppose that’s a problem for the workers? Are they thrilled to tell the stories of lives they’ve touched through their work the way CPC workers are thrilled?

It’s not an absolute gauge but that difference in attitude and experience implies something about the nature
of a ministry. I can’t imagine too many people envying the joy of an abortionist’s work. Perhaps the employees of abortion mills are also victims of our American Holocaust. Join me in continuing to pray for freedom and life for all these victims of pro-death culture.

Weblogs & dialogue

The immediacy of electronic communication has ramped up our expectations. I can now get