NASHVILLE, Tenn—Despite broad agreement over doctrinal distinctives articulated in the “Baptist Faith and Message” confessional statement, last amended in 2000, Southern Baptists “sometimes disagree over certain theological issues that should not threaten our Great Commission cooperation.”

So begins the first few paragraphs of a much-anticipated report from an ad hoc advisory team appointed last August by SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page to find ways Calvinist and non-Calvinist camps in the denomination could work together civilly and productively to further the gospel.

The 19-member advisory team has issued a seven-page report—unanimously endorsed—called “Truth, Trust, and Testimony in a Time of Tension.” The team included Calvinists such as R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, and Florida pastor Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries, and non-Calvinists, such as Southwestern Seminary’s theology dean, David Allen, and Georgia pastor and former SBC president Johnny Hunt.

“Four central issues have become clear to us as we have met together,” the statement reads. “We affirm together that Southern Baptists must stand without apology upon truth; that we do indeed have some challenging but not insurmountable points of tension; that we must work together with trust; and that we must encourage one another to testimony.”

The statement affirms the inerrancy of Scripture and adds that “[n]either Calvinism nor non-Calvinism ought to be equated exclusively with sound Southern Baptist doctrine nor be considered inconsistent with it.”

It also affirms the lostness of humanity apart from Jesus, the power and exclusivity of the gospel message, the atonement of Christ, the reality of heaven and hell, the necessity of conversion, and the church’s duty to fulfill the Great Commission.

Of particular interest in the Calvinist and non-Calvinist dialogue are several denial statements that aim to communicate what the team refutes alongside what they affirm.

One such statement denies that the gospel “lacks any power to save anyone who believes in Christ and receives him as Savior and Lord” and another denies that the gospel “is without power to save anyone who repents and believe in Jesus Christ.”

On the atonement, “We affirm that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was both penal and substitutionary and that the atonement He accomplished was sufficient for the sins of the entire world.

“We deny that there is anything lacking in the atonement of Christ to provide for the salvation of anyone.”

The statement also affirms “conscious” faith as a necessity of conversion and that it involves “the will of the believer as well as the will of God.”

Additionally, “We also deny that salvation comes to any sinner who does not will to believe and receive Christ.”

Acknowledging tensions in comprehending the doctrine of election, “[t]hese differences should spur us to search the Scriptures more dutifully, to engage in lively interaction for mutual sharpening and collective Gospel effectiveness, and to give thanks that what we hold in common far surpasses that on which we disagree,” the statement reads.

Also, “Southern Baptists who stand on either side of these issues should celebrate the freedom to hold their views with passion while granting others the freedom to do the same.”

Last August, Page said he hoped the team would “identify areas of agreement and disagreement in Southern Baptist life concerning how God’s redemptive purposes are achieved through Christ. Once these are more clearly identified, we hope to develop some positive strategies that will enhance our ability to work together for the proclamation of the gospel and the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”

Noting that Satan “delights when he is able to divide and conquer,” Page added that “if we reclaim the principles of respect, honesty, trust and Christlike selflessness in our dealings with one another, our brightest days of kingdom advance are still before us.”

Besides Southwestern Seminary’s Allen, other Texans on the advisory team included Southwestern President Paige Patterson; Daniel Sanchez, associate dean and director of the Scarborough Institute of Church Planting & Growth at Southwestern; and Tammi Ledbetter, TEXAN managing editor and a member of Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie.

A history of violence associated with this part of town has earned its more infamous shopping center, Greenspoint Mall, the moniker “Gunspoint Mall.”

The Greenspoint area sits on the city’s northeast side, near the edge of Houston proper. Like so many metropolitan regions, it has seen an ebb and flow of prosperity and decline. The majority Hispanic population settled into the void left by residents fleeing the flooding of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. Many are poor and undereducated, most just barely scraping by. Among them is an unquantifiable illegal immigrant population living in the shadows, said Silvano Paiva, a church planting facilitator in Houston for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Additionally, gang violence, drug dealing, and prostitution have blighted the neighborhood. Paiva used to live in the area and is disturbed by its decline. He said the neighborhood is made of “good families” forced to live in an environment with an increasingly degenerative influence on the younger generations.

“The darkness is penetrating at a faster pace than Christians can keep up,” he said.

But light shines brightest in the darkness.

In the heart of this troubled community shines Mission Greenspoint, a Christ-centered ministry operating a stone’s throw from “Gunspoint Mall.” The multi-faceted ministry is staffed by a small brigade of faithful volunteers and three paid employees committed to sharing the gospel with those who have little else besides their faith. Throughout its 15-year history, Mission Greenspoint has aspired to be all things to all people and is now on the cusp of expanding its reach into the community.

One of the ministries serving under the auspices of Mission Greenspoint that would directly benefit from the medical expansion is Greenspoint Pregnancy Assistance Center (GPAC). GPAC Director Flora Lopez said offering medical care would be a boon to the pregnancy center. Abortion-minded women and those wanting to keep their babies would receive Christ-centered care throughout their pregnancies.

And last month GPAC got the news it was hoping for: An ultrasound machine is on the way, donated by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Psalm 139 Project.

Gospel engagement
The growth of services provided by Mission Greenspoint only emphasizes the persistent needs of the community, but Grady Butler, Mission Greenspoint executive director, is not discouraged by the seemingly endless struggle against poverty. On the contrary, every client represents an opportunity to share the gospel.

Robin Tanner, missions coordinator for Metropolitan Baptist Church—one of numerous Southern Baptist churches that partner with the ministry—appreciates the evangelistic emphasis of the ministry.

“Everyone who walks in the door of Mission Greenspoint is going to get the opportunity to hear the gospel,” Tanner said.

Lopez said she chronicles conversations with each of her clients in a journal.

“We really get engaged,” she said. “It’s about their emotional and spiritual needs.”

Her notes allow Lopez to reconnect with each client upon their return. Many are dumbfounded by her recollection and genuine concern. And hundreds each year make commitments to Jesus Christ.
Butler records each decision made—not to keep a spiritual scorecard but as a reminder to himself, the volunteers and the ministry’s supporters of why they persist in their efforts.

In 2012 Butler noted 492 professions of faith. Day-to-day contact accounts for some of the salvations but most were made during events that drew the community to the center—back-to-school supply drives, Thanksgiving food baskets, a Christmas store, and more.

It was during last year’s back-to-school drive that Butler became aware of the pervasive homelessness of some of their clients. Several hundred children live in area motels or a downtown homeless shelter with their families.

Mission Greenspoint is surrounded by the 65,000-student Aldine Independent School District. Eighty-five percent of the district’s students are classified as economically disadvantaged, earning the district federal Title I funding to supplement the school district’s education needs.

Standing in the gap is Mission Greenspoint, providing not only food and clothing but job training, English-as-a-Second-Language classes, assistance with Social Security paperwork and other government forms for Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps.

Some of the classes are offered as need and interests prescribe. The ongoing need is always for food and clothing. The mission does not give vouchers or housing payments but by reducing the financial burden for some basic needs clients can put their own resources toward those needs.

The life-affirming influence of Mission Greenspoint is supported with $47,000 in annual funding by 12 local churches. The offering pays three staff members (the yeomen’s work is done by volunteers including Butler and his wife Cindy) and finances the supplementation of client material needs.

Metropolitan Baptist Church, Champion Forest Baptist Church, and Spring Baptist Church are among the supporting congregations, supplying labor routinely and during large-scale supply drives held throughout the year.

Lopez said the task of caring for the poor and wayward would be overwhelming for those not grounded in their faith and resting on the assurances that God is in control and working out all things for good. She said it doesn’t hurt that God encourages her by revealing victories against the darkness.

Lopez told of a woman overwhelmed with the burdens that come with a husband who abuses drugs and alcohol. His job was in jeopardy. He needed stability and, most importantly, salvation, she told Lopez. The women prayed for the husband. And Lopez made note of their time together in her journal.

Thirty days later she was able to go back to her journal and conclude the story. The wife contacted Lopez and told her that two days after they prayed together the husband gave his life to Christ, went to church with his wife, and put drugs and alcohol out of his life.

One more light to dispel the darkness.

I’ve looked at a lot of resumes. One of my roles at Midwestern Seminary was answering requests for churches looking to fill ministry needs from our collection of alumni and students. Since that time I’ve served on a pastor search committee that received 300 resumes. Some resumes today are a bit more specific than was common earlier in my own ministry. Now we see that some schools and state conventions use forms to ensure that similar information is collected from all submitters. The fields that caught my eye have to do with the types of ministry a candidate was willing to consider. Some men feel called to minister in the suburbs or the Southwest United States or even to certain sorts of people in those places, though that is not as common. I get the idea that we encourage this thinking by the questions we ask when someone expresses an interest in a ministry move.

And I have had colleagues through the years that weren’t “called” to hospital visitation or helping with VBS, or in one very specific case, to setting up chairs in the fellowship hall. The job descriptions of those brethren were much more specific than mine, I’d suppose. The disconnect comes, in my mind, when you consider the claims of the called. If one is called to the gospel ministry generally but doesn’t know what sort of specific ministry at first, then he prepares generally for the gospel ministry until he is called by one ministry or another to do things they need done. The candidate affirms, as does the ministry, the leadership of God in the move. Neither the ministry nor the new minister has any idea what specific things will need to be done, even in the ministry of the Word. Are there places too small or age inappropriate for the minister to invest his time? Actually, I’ve heard of one or two who would set those kinds of limitations on their preaching ministries.

In a few cases I’ve known of people who were certain that they wanted to serve as overseas missionaries, specifically Southern Baptist missionaries, so long as they can do so in just such a way in just such a country. As you can imagine, that’s not always possible and it seems odd that someone who knows little except his own preferences would feel disappointed that leaders assigned the overall strategic responsibility cannot always bow to those preferences. There’s something about some ministers’ understanding of call that holds them back. 

I find this attitude shocking. There are men who’ve influenced my ministry who would drop on me like a ton of bricks if I took that tone about ministry. It seems appropriate that they would. Consider some important concepts in our call to ministry pulled from the ministry license that hangs on my wall.

Gifts—Typically, we teach that spiritual gifts are administered to Christians for use on behalf of the body of Christ for the glory of God. We do not obtain them through practice or desire or education. They are given by the Lord we serve for his purposes. Those purposes are rarely aimed at our fulfilling our own dreams; they are outwardly focused.

Call—Again, this is something not generated from within ourselves or even from our mothers or pastors. We commonly understand the call to the gospel ministry or to a particular one to originate with God regardless of what human means he uses to put us in a place of service. If we’d initiated it we could add fine print to it regarding the where and what sort of ministry we’d accept. I don’t think we can do that, to any degree. We might sometimes mistake this giftedness for talent, the ability to do something that can be refined by practice. Singing or other kinds of musical ability would be an example of this. A talented musician can be a gifted ministry leader but the two things do not necessarily follow one from another. By the same token, the Lord is going to have to supernaturally change my paltry list of talents if he expects me to use my gifts in some kind of music ministry. I don’t expect it but I’d hesitate to tell him he can’t or that I won’t go if he does. If such a strange thing happened, I think I’d find joy in following him even as I do now.

Preach—While we often think of this as a pulpit ministry it is not always. I think preaching takes place in homes, on the street, or in the workplace. It can be a spoken word, a written one, or a song but it must have the gospel as its content and making disciples as its goal. And we often associate the gospel with either the Lord’s commission in Matthew 28 or that recorded in the first chapter of Acts. In both of those, the preaching and teaching of the gospel is loosed on the world in every place the Lord’s disciples go. The call to preach has no imaginable limits unless the gospel does. Called people should not easily imagine limits on their preaching of the gospel.

Opportunity—My license says “as he may opportunity” in reference to my preaching of the gospel. I think the word implies that I’m willing, even eager, to preach as often as possible. My friend Don has filled in for me a couple of times and it was my pleasure to hear him say, “I feel like I ought to say ‘yes’ if I can any time I’m asked.” That’s the way I view opportunity, although we often have a chance to make opportunities. A preacher that doesn’t want to preach, and often, might not be called to preach. It’s not my experience that I get to pick where, to whom or even how.

There’s a trend here. Our call, our giftedness, our message, and our opportunities all start with God. They are not ours to judge worthy or unworthy of our lives. If Christians are called to follow Jesus wherever he leads, so are those called to serve his church in any capacity. Some guys are doubtless on the shelf because they consider some kinds of ministry outside their call. If that’s true, the call didn’t come from God.

I can’t help but think that this is why some small town and rural churches struggle to find pastors. I’ve heard preachers say that they are called to the suburbs and I’ve heard others say they’ll go anywhere they are sent but I’ve very rarely heard men  say they prefer a small rural ministry made up of people over 40. If you’re going to pastor an existing Southern Baptist church, the odds are you’ll pastor one just like that. That is the bride of Christ in her most numerous context. Are you called to serve the church of Christ or not? Look at the resumes of the most prominent preachers you know. For the most part, they’ve served well in ministries that were lesser known. They were good stewards of smaller responsibilities before they were trusted with larger ones.

This issue of the TEXAN has some stories about church planting. We’re in a bit of an odd situation here within the SBTC. We have places that need churches and we have money to help start churches there but we are short of qualified church planters willing to go to the places and people that need them. Our qualifications for church planters are higher than many other places, granted, but I’m also told that too few people are “called” to minister to people within the inner loop of a city. We have more people willing to start a church in the suburbs when we need more willing to start a work in the city. I can’t help but compare this with our IMB candidates. The situation with international missions seems to be the opposite; we have qualified candidates ready to go to the hardest places in the world but too little money to send them. A call to missions is a call to missions. I’m not sure why we should think about a call to church planting in a more limited way than we do a call to reach people in a distant land.

Are you a recent seminary grad? I challenge you to look for limitations in your resume or in your attitude toward your call. Take the safeties off and preach the gospel everywhere you have a chance, for free or for cheap. Your ministry has already started. Have you had trouble finding the spot or ministry you think is the best fit for you? Stop trying to do that; I doubt that you know the best fit for you. Go somewhere where people will let you serve in some way. Find a ministry and let the position come in the Lord’s time. Be patient, yes, but in the meantime, while waiting for that place you’ve dreamed of to come along, preach the Word as you may have opportunity. It is the testimony of your seniors and mentors that you’ll find joy in that meantime ministry.