I think there is a lot wrong with the current SBC.
I’ve been vocal about the culture of secrecy, the mega-church mentality, the legalism and so many other things. On blogs, we tend to focus on what is wrong, what is bad, what needs to be fixed.
But, aren’t there some good things as well? Are we all just sticking around because we have nowhere else to go, or we don’t have the courage to leave? What are those good things? Wouldn’t it be good to spend a little time speaking of what we love about the SBC – why we stick with it, even though there are things we don’t like?
WHY I LOVE THE SBC
1) I love the SBC because it has taken a firm and clear stand that we are going to be a biblically-based denomination. We stood against the theological drift that has corrupted so many denominations and led them to evangelical oblivion. We said, “We believe the Bible.”
2) I love the fact that I can send young preacher boys to any of our six seminaries and know they are going to get a solid biblical education. In my younger days, it was not so.
3) I love giving through the Cooperative Program. By giving in the CP model, I can help to support 10,000 missionaries around the world and in the US. I can support six good seminaries. I can be a part of something much bigger than the ministries of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
4) I love the IMB. We are part of the biggest (and I think best) missions organization in church history. Every time we have a missionary come to speak in our church, I am deeply impressed with their knowledge, passion and desire to serve. When we traveled to Taiwan this summer, our missionaries there went out of their way to make us welcome and help us in our ministry.
Okay, here’s your challenge. Tell me what you like about the SBC. What is good about our convention?
Fair warning – the purpose of this post is to be positive and encouraging. Strict moderation will be enforced on this one.
Since, by your own admission, blogs “tend to focus on what is wrong, what is bad, what needs to be fixed,” then let me say that the term “preacher boys” needs to be put in the grave. I cringe every time I hear it — it seems disrespectful and arrogant, even to laymen like me.
No offense meant by it.
“Young preachers-in-training” be better?
Actually, normally I call them “young whippersnappers” but that seemed a little harsh.
Anything you like about the SBC you would like to share with us?
Hands down, “priesthood of the believer”.
I was a believer/follower before the idea expressed in what Herschel Hobbs referred to as “the competency of the soul, in religious matters” was made known to me in explicit terms. That makes the SBC the sounded, most responsible denomination (yeah yeah I know) there is, IMHO.
The 5 other denominations to which I belonged never mentioned that.
That should be “soundest”, and I meant to mention those other denominations occupied childhood to age 43.
1. I like Guidestone and their giant pile of cash.
2. I like the freebies they hand out at the SBC Exhibit Hall.
3. I like our system of cooperative missions support.
4. I like our confessional statement.
5. I like that our clergy do not wear robes or collars.
6. I like all of our entities, agencies and boards.
7. I like our press, our seminaries and our state conventions.
8. I like our music, and our blend of old and new styles.
9. I like our principled stands on moral and social concerns.
10. I like SBC Voices and the one and only Dave Miller.
Aww
In addition to Dave’s list, let me share a few random thoughts of my own:
• I like the partnership in the gospel I experience through my involvement in the local, state and national levels of SBC life.
• I like the camaraderie, fellowship, mutual encouragement I get from the pastors and DOM in my local association.
• I like being in a State Convention that champions the local church and at the same time is consistently increasing the percentage of CP gifts it sends to the Convention.
• I like that any messenger from any participating church can make a motion, submit a resolution, ask a question, or nominate a candidate at our national meetings.
• I like the current trend toward involving younger leaders in SBC life.
• I like that Baptist leaders have given me forgiveness, wise counsel, and an opportunity to grow, even when I acted like a Jerk.
• I like the resurgence of gospel-centeredness among our pastors.
• I like that we are demonstrating willingness to learn from others outside the Convention even while maintaining Baptist distinctives.
• I like that Baptists from all the subgroups of our Convention are uniting to bring about a Great Commission Resurgence.
• I like that we passed a resolution on regenerate church membership.
• I like that I was able to get a quality education and preparation for ministry without having to go into debt.
• I like that Calvinists and non-Calvinists are learning to co-exist in one body.
• I like that churches are willing to send mission teams to help other churches and planters.
• I like that I have a retirement plan that I can trust.
• I like being an inheritor of a rich history.
• I like that the BF&M is sound on the fundamentals and Baptist doctrine while at the same time leaves certain tertiary issues alone.
• I like the seminary medal Dr. Mohler wears at convocation and commencement.
• I like that Baptist churches come in all shapes, sizes and worship styles.
• I like B B McKinney and the Baptist Hymnal.
• I like that I can disagree with leaders about significant issues in SBC-life and still genuinely call them friends.
• I like attending the Pastor’s Conference at both our state and national meetings.
• I like that I can find assistance and encouragement when I need it.
• And, of course… I like potluck suppers.
I can’t believe I didn’t mention potlucks.
When I became a pastor, I weighed 165 pounds less than I do now!
Only one problem with your comment Todd – you took too much of the good stuff.
But it is good stuff.
I like their form of church government that allows people to voice their opinion without retaliation.
I like most of all that has been mentioned. But the SBC is not a denomination. Baptist is a denomination. The Convention is a cooperative. And I have never before seen anyone offended by the term “preacher boys”. It is common and appropriate.
As one who is on the outside looking in (I read this blog, but I am not SBC (yet)
I appreciate the stand for the Gospel and Biblical inerrancy.
I appreciate how many respected SBC leaders really take time to mentor some of the younger generation. I do not see this in Independent Fundamental Baptist circles.
I love Southern Baptists because they first loved me. I was, in the early 1960s in the Rocky Mountain West the object of short-term missionaries from Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and of course, Texas, as well as the women and pastor — W.V. Prindle — who took a scared young girl and gave me the training and the love I hadn’t received in the family to which I was born. For all the other good stuff that’s been said so far, let’s be sure to add the fact that Southern Baptists know how to love.
Sioux City is supposed to get quite a bit of snow tonight. Anyone know if First Baptist Church of Key Largo needs a pastor?
For all the negative stuff that gets tossed about we have to remember we are critical of what we love. I doubt many of us are going over to Methodist and Lutheran blogs and stirring things up.
I did not grow up in an SBC church. The focus on missions and evangelism is partly what brought me here butit was mailnly fried chicken.
This is not a thread about why you thought the pre-CR SBC was better than the post-CR SBC, Gene. Take that stuff to the Playground.
We are not interested in making every single post a discussion of the CR. Please stop doing it.
Missions. Priesthood of the believer. No hierarchal structure telling me what to do as a pastor, rather answering to the local church and to the Lord God.
That would be the first quick responses. Obviously, a lot is bound up in “missions” including how we support, how we cooperate, and more…
Asking the question is kind of like when I ask a lifetime member of my church (who is now around 60) “What is expected of you as a church member?” Now, he’s a model church member, faithful to attend, to witness, to volunteer and help out, and to teach. He couldn’t really answer the question. He does it, he doesn’t know it.
For a lot of the good in the SBC, it’s there, the SBC does it, but it’s hard to articulate sometimes. Disaster relief is good, the local state convention is encouraging. The traditional emphasis on fried chicken is amazing.
That we can fight and bicker and then still have to acknowledge that only Jesus gets to decide who goes to heaven, and that Dave can’t keep me out for bashing the Yankees!
The whole purpose of this comment stream is to give Southern Baptists an opportunity to say what they like and appreciate about the SBC. Lets stick to that, folks.
Those who are not Southern Baptist and would like to criticize the SBC have plenty of other comment streams on which to do that.
The SBC has its good points and its bad. For a sustained effort in missions and evangelism (over 150 years) the effort of this associated band of churches has been tremendous. Things are not perfect. They were not perfect in the NT Church, not even in the Lord’s own, and He was fully aware of the situation. We often grow by our learning from the experiences of others. My prayer is that God might be pleased to grant us as a denomination a another great awakening for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“What Is Good about the SBC?”
Is that a trick question?
The SBC employs a lot of our kin which is good. It also takes them far enough away where they can’t drop in to eat every weekend.