‘Tis the season for looking back over the past year and remembering significant moments. I thought I’d review a few of what I thought were great moments in the SBC in 2017. These are my own observations from my limited scope, but were to me evidences of grace in the denomination I call my home.
- Gateway Seminary and Lifeway dedicate new buildings
A small but bright point for me: Southern Baptists making fiscally sound decisions and moving to facilities that are progressive and make economical sense. After years of struggles with zoning boards and other obstacles to growth, Gateway finalized a move to their new Ontario Campus in 2016. This year, they dedicated a new satellite campus in Fremont, keeping a promise to maintain a presence in the Bay area. In another relocation, Lifeway moved a few blocks away to a more streamlined facility and one that met the changing needs of the organization. Others can opine on the specifics, but these were a couple of denominational bright spots my book.
- Russell Moore apologizes
One of the low periods in SBC life this year was the controversy surrounding Dr. Moore’s opposition of Donald Trump during the 2016 election and remarks that offended those who voted for him. Moore apologized for his remarks during the election cycle which resulted in a show of support from the ERLC trustees. Key SBC leaders were pleased with Moore’s apology and statement of unity and eased the denominational crisis.
- SWBTS demonstrates a unity across soteriological lines
This one is not a news item and is totally anecdotal but, again, this is my personal list. Here at Voices, we have already reported Southwestern Seminary’s gracious hospitality toward the 2017 Pastor’s Conference. The preaching colloquium led by Dr. Allen and SWBTS and NOBTS faculty was excellent. The preaching slate for the PC covered the spectrum from Traditionalist to Strict Calvinist and all were warmly welcomed by Dr. and Mrs. Patterson and the SWBTS team. In the presentation, Dr. Allen quoted from all sides of the soteriological spectrum in his passion for text driven preaching. Never once did we sense that Calvinism/Traditionalism was an issue at all by anyone at Southwestern. But the really cool “shining moment” for me was a month later seeing SWBTS exhibiting at the Gospel Coalition Conference in Indianapolis. Far from treating the TGC crowd as Reformed bogeymen, Southwestern was handing out t-shirts and actively engaging and recruiting TGC attendees to come and study at SWBTS. Kudos to Southwestern!
- The Caskey Center debuts on the national denominational stage
One of the added blessings of having the Caskey Center at NOBTS sponsor the pastor’s conference last year was the opportunity to introduce the center to the denomination as a whole. Before SBCPC17, most Southern Baptists had not heard of the Caskey Center, whose emphasis is on equipping bi-vocational and smaller-membership pastors and churches in gospel ministry. Every session of the PC included a presentation by the CC, including data on smaller membership churches gathered in partnership with Ed Stetzer. I’m thankful for this ministry and that it was introduced to many Southern Baptists in 2017.
- Passing the Alt-Right Resolution at the SBC Annual Meeting
While this also made the list of negative moments in 2017, in the end, Southern Baptist passed this timely and pointed resolution. Yes, as a whole we didn’t “get it right.” The Convention meeting was marked by a lot of confusion and it looked really bad for the SBC. More significantly, our brothers and sisters of color for a tense few hours weren’t sure whether they had a true home in the SBC. To be sure, the messengers had no racist motive in not initially supporting the resolution and most had never heard of the Alt-Right before Phoenix, much less read any of the truly horrific tweets by racist Alt-right trolls. Yet, when the leadership realized what had happened and what was at stake, they used every obscure parliamentary trick they could find to get a resolution back to the floor – in the end, the resolution passed in a virtually unanimous vote. We didn’t handle it at all well but, in the end, we passed the resolution and made a definitive statement against racism and the alt-right (and educated Southern Baptists about Alt-right racism in the process).
- Dwight McKissic’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post
Pastor McKissic wrote the original resolution that got rejected initially by the committee and failed a subsequent vote to be considered on the floor. If any minority pastor had reason to be hurt and desire to leave the SBC, he would be on the top of the list. Indeed, after the resolution debacle, an African-American pastor wrote a pointed piece for the New York Times and gave all the reasons he could no longer be part of a denomination complicit in the rise of racism in America. But that pastor was NOT Dwight McKissic. Pastor McKissic showed himself a true statesman as he wrote a counterpoint op-ed for the Washington Post, “I’m a Black Pastor. Here’s why I’m staying in the Southern Baptist Convention.” (Honorable mention: McKissic later hosted a multi-denominational worship service and panel discussion on race and the Alt-Right which included SBC president Steve Gaines). Dr. McKissic’s friendship and his leadership on this issue was a bright spot for me.
- State Conventions Renounce Alt-Right Racism
What Southern Baptists bungled at the national level, we got right at the state level. Multiple state conventions passed resolutions about Alt-right racism. Some were newly written resolutions, others closely followed the wording of the national resolution, but the message was clear: Southern Baptists denounce alt-right racism.
- Minorities represented at the Pastor’s Conference
Here at SBC Voices, we have called for a greater representation of non-Anglo Southern Baptists in the life and leadership of the SBC. We have called for an accelerated and intentional appointment of trustees and other leaders from among our brothers and sisters of color. While we did not make much of it at the time, we very intentionally sought out preachers across the racial and ethnic spectrum of SBC life. In the end, half of the twelve preachers at the SBC Pastors’ conference were men of color. By design, the team and speakers spent much time together before and during the conference and enjoyed great spirit of fellowship and unity. As icing on the cake, Rev. Dr. H.B. Charles was elected the first African-American president of the SBC pastor’s conference.
- Rev. Shane Hall’s reminder that “Christ is Enough”
The theme of last year’s PC was “Above Every Name” and that theme was brought home in the final sermon of the conference. Pastor Shane Hall preached from the closing verses of the book of Philippians, recounting his battle with stomach cancer and passionately proclaiming that whatever happens, that Christ is Enough! That sermon was the most profound moment of 2017 for me. If you haven’t heard the sermon I commend it to you – go watch it!. (Please continue to keep brother Shane and his family in prayer in his ongoing battle).
I’m thankful to be a Southern Baptist and see God to continue to be at work in us. These, for me, were nine shining moments in the SBC in 2017. I look forward to seeing what God will do in the coming year!
Feel free to share in the comments additional glimpses of grace you saw in the SBC last year.
You’re a positive guy, Todd. Since almost all of your list dealt with either the SBC annual meeting or the PC, let me add one to it: it wasn’t hot as Gehenna in Phoenix for the meetings, only hot.
Well, the SBC PC was a major part of my participation in SBC life in 2017, so naturally many of my observations originate there.
My word for 2018 is “joy” and I find that for me, that starts with seeing the evidences of God’s grace around me and focusing on the good things I see. For all it’s frustrations, I found many positive things going on in the SBC this year.
Todd, I appreciate you and your thoughts but #2 is not a shining moment. It represents one of the lowest moments in SBC history as a good man trying to stand for biblical principles amidst trying times was manipulated into an apooogy by coercion. Jack Graham’s $1M threat is one of the worst things I have ever seen in SBC life and the fact that it caused Russell Moore any issue is all the more disturbing. When we care more about money and perceived slights than we do about integrity and truth than we have truly lost what we are… Read more »
Ryan, I am a huge Moore supporter and agree that many (most) of his comments were misunderstood and taken out of context. I also agree that Dr. Graham’s action was wrong and probably brought the issue to a head. Still, I believe Dr. Moore’s apology was sincere and not coerced. In the months leading up to the election, Dr. Moore was not always clear in his pointed critiques on certain kinds of support for Trump. This was especially true on twitter, where the 140 word format did not allow the nuanced arguments seen in his articles, and in the MSM… Read more »
Todd, I know you are a big fan of Dr. Moore. Me too. Although I appreciate your point I disagree. He had nothing to apologize for. His comments- even on social media- were clear. They were interpreted uncharitably by a small group of SBC power brokers to protect their sensitive egos regarding their hypocritical support of an unfit candidate, who, if he had been running with a D after his name would have been the target of their disdain and attack. I appreciate that Dr. Moore had no other choice. He is a man under authority and he either had… Read more »
I guess we just see it differently. If you bracket out those leaders and “power brokers,” there were a lot of rank and file Southern Baptists who voted for Trump as the lesser of two evils and interpreted Moore’s remarks as an attack on their difficult decision. Understandably, they took that personally. Even though this was an incorrect perception, it was there and not because someone told people that’s how they should feel. Communicators are responsible for making sure their message is understood by the hearer.
I have to agree with Ryan. We had a man who was one of the few voices of sanity among prominent evangelicals during the last election cycle, and he was punished for it. We sold our birthright for a place at the table, and it doesn’t really look like we even have a place at the table. But money talks.
I have to agree with Todd on this one. The 2016 election was a difficult decision to say the least, and people were vilified on both sides of this issue, or should I say all sides of this issue. Dr. Moore contributed to the problem in that sense.
Having said that though I do appreciate Dr. Moore being a prophetic voice and not simply telling folks what they want to hear. In that respect I think Dr. Moore is doing a great job.
I think Ryan and Bill may be missing the fact that they being strong anti/Trumpists and followers of Russell Moore read his comments differently than the Joe Average SBC member Trump voter (who had never heard of Russell Moore before this) who just saw some SBC big shot insulting them for doing what they thought was right. Admittedly, I wasn’t unfamiliar with Moore and I was a little confused on who he was criticizing and I wasn’t sure if he was a Hillary supporter or not (found out eventually he wasn’t but I didn’t know that at first) . So… Read more »
Todd, this is a good post. I can tell you were well trained in seminary. 🙂 Some Voices readers may not know that Gateway Seminary (formerly Golden Gate) moved their main campus to Ontario in southern California. As you wrote, Gateway did build a new, smaller campus in Fremont, California, which is near Oakland. The Fremont campus represents the generous of gift of a Southern Baptist church. The church decided to disband, and they gave their property to Gateway. Dr. Jeff Iorg leads Gateway Seminary in a marvelous way. In speaking to our state missions leaders in the West, they… Read more »
Thanks for the additional information, Dr. Terry. I edited the post to add the move to Ontario.
As for my seminary training, whenever I know you are reading my work I always wonder if I put the commas in the right place. I need that list of comma rules!
When my wife, who makes her living as an editor, proofreads my stuff, she’s always removing commas. I’ve never gotten over writing speeches, where I got in the (admittedly) bad habit of using grammar markings for speech markers–pauses, longer pauses, shifts, etc…all based on my own way of speaking/doing.
Now there’s a comma everywhere. I make the Shatner Comma look restrained.
Using commas correctly makes one’s writing credible, convincing, and clear. (Take that William Thornton!) Actually, different publishers and institutions have different style manuals that vary somewhat in their punctuation specifications. Todd and my other doctoral students had to follow the rules found in in Kate Turabian’s style guide, which is an abridgement of the University of Chicago Press’ style guide. Many magazines are minimizing the use of punctuation marks, but most seminaries still use Turabian.
Well I personally appreciated your particular pedagogic practice of pressing us preachers to properly place punctuation in our papers.
Wow, there are just too many p’s in that comment, Todd!
I wish that either MSWord would include Turabian in its title page templates or that I could convince a few seminary profs to take MLA…I like Turabian: easy to read, easy to follow, but Word 2016 is not behaving well for making it work.
Probably a problem with the keyboard operator. 🙂
About MSWord and Turabian–I believe at some of the SBC seminaries’ website you might find a template that helps. Recently, I had to start using Microsoft Office 365, and it is very different and disconcerting.
I think the update is wrecking the templates I’ve found.
Naturally–everything works fine, but Microsoft had to change something 🙂
Todd: Great post. I wouldn’t necessarily agree that all of these posts are shining moments, but they are all noteworthy. The LifeWay and Gateway matters were big. The main reason is they show the desire and willingness to change. The SBC needs to continue to take risks for the sake of reaching people. The dialogue between a couple of commenters above on the Trump matter illustrates the divide that I see threatens the SBC more than anything. Moore, Graham, Jeffress, and Falwell are all my brothers in Christ. On a spectrum, their theologies are very similar. If we cannot find… Read more »