I have been attending a Southern Baptist Church since 9 months before I was born, and I’ve been a member of one since I was baptized in February of 1964, holding membership at churches in Iowa, Georgia, Taiwan, Florida, Texas, and now Nebraska.
When my ministry in Sioux City ended I immediately began preaching at a Nebraska church that was loosely affiliated with the American Baptist Churches (we were guests at the convention last year, not messengers – it felt weird!), but was exploring affiliation with the SBC. The same day they voted to seek affiliation with the SBC, Jenni and I announced that we would like to join the church (technically, I’m still interim, though they’ve suspended the search team and I’m not putting out resumes).
I explored other denominational avenues during the Conservative Resurgence, not knowing how things might go, finding a fail-safe in the E- Free denomination. I was often unhappy with the tactics of some CR leaders, but pleased with the outcome and we stayed home. I’d seen the damage liberalism could do when professors from Southern and Southeastern taught theological horrors at my little Baptist college in Florida.
The SBC has often irritated and annoyed me through the years, and sometimes broken my heart. We have majored on minors, fought tooth and nail about things that didn’t matter, been too tied to political parties, and been reluctant to deal with real issues. We played the denial game and pretended racism was not a real issue among us, driving good and godly African Americans from our fellowship. Our good-ole-boy system protected itself and sexual predators instead of honoring God and protecting survivors. We will answer to God for that. We allowed powerful men to take control of our denomination and refused to hold them accountable, and their arrogance damaged our entities. The social media boom shed light on where this darkness reigned, but unfortunately, many of us blogged, and tweeted, and “Xed” in the power of the flesh instead of the fruit of the Spirit. We have done untold damage to the reputation of our Savior and the Body of Christ. It is not hard to find true criticisms to lay at the feet if our convention.
In spite of all that negativity I have one positive conclusion:
I am thankful to God for the Southern Baptist Convention.
With all its faults, I am grateful to be part of this convention. After a year of being on the outside looking in, I am glad to be inside the fold again. Every year, we gather at the annual meeting and I think, “It’s gonna be a disaster,” and then God seems to steer us away from the brink. He blesses us and keeps us from our worst selves, in spite of ourselves!
I am not part of those who want to police churches and excise churches as some do, but I am thankful to be in a confessional convention, one that holds closely and faithfully to God’s word and refuses to succumb to the call to reject God’s word and yield to worldly ways.
We have elected (in my humble but correct opinion) perhaps the best convention president since Adrian Rogers, my friend Bart Barber. That might be hyperbole but I appreciate that he is a normative church pastor whose agenda is not to make a name for himself, but to build us up. He genuinely cares about our convention. Would that we could make him president for life, but those blasted bylaws! I love having a president who loves our convention.
We have an International Mission Board that seems to be rebounding from dark times. When the direction of the SBC was wrong (in my, once again, humble but correct opinion) it was the IMB (FMB at the time) that was the gravity that kept drawing me back. I have worked with our missionaries in Taiwan, Tanzania, and Senegal and have met other missionaries from around the globe. I have yet to meet one I wasn’t impressed with. Paul Chitwood seems to be doing a great job. I appreciate the work of Kevin Ezell and NAMB as well. Our worldwide missions program is for real.
I am thankful to be part of a convention that, with all our faults, failings, and troubles, takes world missions seriously.
There are undeniably problems in our seminary system, but we have some great schools. In recent years, two schools have turned a corner, Midwestern and New Orleans. They had gone through deep trials. Midwestern is strong again and NOBTS is showing strong signs of rebounding. The work Jamie Dew is doing (dewing?) at New Orleans is remarkable.
I am thankful for Southern Baptist churches. Yeah, many are messes, but the vast majority of them are fighting the good fight, preaching the inerrant word, seeking to reach a world in need. There are bad applies among us, but most of our pastors are faithful men of God. There isn’t a perfect church among us – not one even comes close. Some are totally toxic and all are filled with sinners, but Jesus walks among the lampstands!
It felt odd to me that when so many people were threatening to leave the SBC, I was encouraging a church to join. I’m happy to once again be part of the family. It’s a dysfunctional family, for sure, but it’s my family and I love it. It ain’t perfect, but what in this world is?
I am thankful to God for the Southern Baptist Convention.
