SBC preview and predictions

Next week. Baltimore. There will be strutting. There will be stuffing. There will be puffing. There will be frivolity. There will be hand-wringing. There will be resume passing. There will be business, elections, motions, promotions and emotions.

It's the annual mobocracy called the SBC Annual Meeting. Here's my preview.

Elections

We've got a duke's mixture of candidates. One megachurch pastor. One microchurch pastor. One large church, ethnic pastor.

The first is Ronnie Floyd who lost to Frank Page back in 2006, primarily because his megachurch Cooperative Program giving was a micropercentage, 0.29. Since then, his church is giving a large amount and decent percentage, less than the average but good enough for my threshold.

The microchurch pastor is Jared Moore, PhD student, current first vice president. He is an outstanding pastor but is uninformed on many aspects of SBC work, a judgment I make from exchanges with him over the years on blogs. Needs experience, age, and smoothness. The SBC president can't do a lot to help but can easily do a little that will hurt. There is an affinity in the SBC for small church pastors but not nearly enough for a majority...and unlike last years VP election, there will be a quorum this year when the vote is held.

The ethnic pastor is Korean Dennis Kim. His large church is a mission machine. He is below the radar in the SBC, though not because of any deficiency in accomplishment.

Moore has no chance and Floyd is clearly the favorite but I would vote for Dennis Kim. I like the idea of moving away from megachurches and the oligarchy of megachurch pastors and their members that dominate important positions, trusteeships, and committees.

I'd predict a Kim victory but conventions are lightly attended these years and the middle-aged greybeards like to attend and I'd guess there are enough to elect Floyd. There's really not much the SBC president can do, or has done, or will do.

Reports

NAMB assembled a group of pastors to "assess and respond to stark patterns of decline in Southern Baptists' evangelism and baptisms." They met. Ed Stetzer threw a bunch of statistics at them. The have a report and some recommentdations.

Pastor's Task Force on SBC Evangelistic Impact and Declining Baptisms 

These are good people and this was a serious effort but the conclusion was to round up the usual suspects. Let's pray more, witness more, make disciples, try and "leverage" the next generation to do better than we have.

I expect most SBC leaders to do some handwringing over the report, same as in previous years. I don't have a solution to this but, my how we do like to lament the lack of baptisms.

Paige Patterson will be asked about his Muslim student at Southwestern Seminary. He will unless he stacks the mics with friendlies who prevent the question. He has responded with a statement already. Trustees either have the guts to address the matter or not. I cannot see much happening from the convention floor.

Russell Moore may be asked about his hires at the ERLC. The Gospel Coalition seems to have moved to the ERLC under Moore. He should be asked in particular about his new spokesperson who has acquired a reputation for brusque twitter exchanges. This isn't helpful. Richard Land, before he resigned, was perceived as just another ascerbic Republican talk show host. Moore better pay attention here.

Motions

The Executive Committee has a monumental change proposed for the SBC Constitution. They propose tweaking the messenger allocation formula. That looks fine to me. They also propose linking the SBC Constitution in regard to what constitutes "in friendly cooperation" to the Baptist Faith and Message. This part of their motion should be tabled or removed.

Motions from the floor always provide some unexpected entertainment. One never knows what an SBC messenger will come up with.

Miscellany and questions

I wonder if Frank Page will make note of the fact that the Executive Committee received more designated funds than Cooperative Program funds in the last fiscal year? We are mostly a societal giving convention at the SBC level.

Just how much did Golden Gate seminary receive for their prime acerage in Mill Valley? Should be the largest SBC real estate transaction ever. LifeWay had far more acreage at Glorieta but sold it for a buck.

Last year we had the Calvinist committee making their report. That is long forgotten and we are probably worse off in this regard than one year ago. Will someone make a splash about the Calvinists? God only knows but I'd guess that someone will.

What blogger will be elected as a VP this year?

I'd be there for the duration, brethren, but will watch from afar. Have fun.

Tragic, high profile Baptist suicides

In widely reported news Rick Warren's son committed suicide last month. Because of the high profile of his father, the tragic death of Matthew Warren triggered a considerable discussion among both church and secular observers.

There is a book coming out soon authored by SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page about his daughter's suicide back in 2009.

Nashville reporter Bob Smeitana has an article on the subject that focuses on Frank Page:

Suicides, assaults drive Southern Baptists to focus on mental illness

Page and several other Baptist leaders plan to meet in Dallas, Texas, this spring to address mental illness. The meeting was prompted by the Newtown, Conn., shooting and has gained more urgency since the suicide of Matthew Warren, 27-year-old son of California megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren.

The publicity and action of such a meeting of high profile Baptist leaders can only help an area in which we are relatively weak, and silent. 

Although suicide has touched every church I have ever pastored and every community that I have lived in has a story about a pastor suicide, the subject is somewhat taboo among the brethren.

In the article linked LifeWay's Ed Stetzer is quoted:

In a blog post after learning of Matthew’s suicide, Stetzer wrote about how mental illness has affected his own family. Several of his relatives have taken their lives, as did a parishioner in a church that he served as a young pastor.

“We need to stop hiding mental illness,” Stetzer said.
Stetzer said some evangelical Christians think that if they pray enough or become more spiritual, then their mental illness will go away. But they don’t look at other health issues the same way.

“People who become a Christian and have a broken leg will still have a broken leg,” he said. “We tend to think that Jesus fixes what is in our heads, and medicine fixes what is in our body. Sometimes what is in our heads needs medicine.”

Stetzer is right and the sooner SBC pastors and others understand that, the better off we will be. We tend to believe we (and our families) are bulletproof. We are not.

Frank Page said,“I do not want you to imagine what that is like [to have a child commit suicide],” he said.

I have sons and a daughter and do not want to imagine what this is like.

What some important SBCers say about Calvinism

In their own words:

Frank Page, President and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention; October 18, 2011:
 

I think one of the issues which is a tremendous challenge for us is the theological divide of Calvinism and non-Calvinism.  Everyone is aware of this, but few want to talk about this in public.  The reason is obvious.  It is deeply divisive in many situations and is disconcerting in others.  At some point we are going to see the challenges which are ensuing from this divide become even more problematic for us.  I regularly receive communications from churches who are struggling over this issue.

Jerry Vines, former SBC president, June 11, 2012:

To deny the strong influence of New Calvinism at Southern or Southeastern is to try to hide the Elephant. I sent a number of young people to both seminaries. Some, not all, returned with unkind, critical attitudes toward their childhood pastor. I am not the only pastor who has experienced this. Even some pastors’ biological sons have caused them personal sorrow because of their conversion to New Calvinism. Perhaps some would have turned out that way regardless. But there is too much of this kind of thing going on to overlook it.

 Ed Stetzer, LifeWay Research, June 14, 2012

If we truly believe the Baptist Faith and Message is our doctrinal standard, then we cannot say that Calvinism, within a Baptist theological system, is itself a problem. Baptist Calvinism fits within our confession; therefore it is reasonable that some in our convention of churches hold to both the Baptist Faith and Message and to a Calvinistic interpretation of Scripture. We can (and should) cooperate in pursuit of the Great Commission. But we also can (and should) differentiate those who are within our confession and passion about cooperation, and those who have let Calvinism define their ministry and culture—an often elitist and agenda-driven Calvinism that is not fitting well in our convention.

Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, June 6, 2012:

...the last thing Southern Baptists need, now or ever, is the development of theological tribalism among us. We must all repent of the sin of building a tribe when we are called to serve the Kingdom of Christ. The more Calvinistic Southern Baptists, and here I include myself, are deeply theological and passionately concerned to get the Gospel right. The Calvinists I know are transforming their beliefs into an absolute renaissance of missionary commissionings and Gospel church planting. At times, however, Calvinists can be tribal and elitist, more concerned with counting points of doctrine and less concerned with pointing us all to the mission of the Gospel. Such a tribalism is inconsistent with the very beliefs we cherish. This goes to show that we, too, can be inconsistent in faith and practice. Of such tribalism we must all repent.

Bill Harrell, former chairman of trustees, Executive Committee of the SBC, October 26, 2006:

“...we must deal with Calvinism. I have solid Christian friends, some of them pastors who are Calvinists, but I think they are wrong about the tenets of five point Calvinism. In my opinion too much of the New Testament must be ignored or radically interpreted to embrace the five points of Calvinism.”
Harrell further explained, “I think the problem of Calvinism in the SBC could be solved if we establish one ground rule. If a man wants to start a Calvinistic church, let him have at it. If a man wants to answer a call to a Calvinistic church he should have the freedom to do that, but that man should not answer a call to a church that is not Calvinistic, neglect to tell them his leanings, and then surreptitiously lead them to become a Calvinistic church. That is not to suggest that all of our Calvinistic friends do that, but when it is done it is divisive and hurtful.

Gerald Harris, editor of The Christian Index, February 12, 2012:

There is a growing perception that Southern Seminary has become a seedbed for a brand of Calvinism that is quite different from the Reformed theology of its founder, James Petigru Boyce, and also a training ground for Reformed church planters. Therefore, it appears that some of our institutions and agencies are giving, at the least, tacit approval to Reformed theology or are, at the most, actively on a path to honor, if not implement Reformed theology and methodology in their institutions.
While most of the Reformed pastors and churchmen I know are gracious and godly people with a profound devotion to the Word of God, Southern Baptists must decide if they are satisfied with what I would call the presumable encroachment of Calvinism in SBC life.

Eric Hankins, preamble to the Calvinist/Traditionalist Statement, May 30,2012:

For the most part, Southern Baptists have been glad to relegate disagreements over Calvinism to secondary status along with other important but “non-essential” theological matters. The Southern Baptist majority has fellowshipped happily with its Calvinist brethren while kindly resisting Calvinism itself. And, to their credit, most Southern Baptist Calvinists have not demanded the adoption of their view as the standard. We would be fine if this consensus continued, but some New Calvinists seem to be pushing for a radical alteration of this long-standing arrangement.

 Frank Page, May 31, 2012:

"Given the depth of the fracture lines around the issue of soteriology across the Convention," Page said, "I sense a need to assemble a representative group of Southern Baptists who can hammer out such a consensus 'accord' that will enable the majority of Southern Baptists to work together for the Kingdom purposes which initially bound us together, an initiative I plan to announce at this year's annual meeting."

I am hopeful that Page's initiative can avoid a protracted, bloody denominational conflict.

Annual Church Profile, RIP?

Well, no. It's not dead, just weathered with age and dying.

It is noteworthy that the Florida Baptist Convention reports that a significant number of their churches are not reporting data for the Annual Church Profile, that statistical summary of church attendance, finances, and other information.

An article in the Florida Baptist Witness reports that fully 15.6% of FBC churches have failed to provide such data "despite repeated efforts to collect the information."

To be frank, I came to look with some small degree of disdain at the ACP when the materials would show up in my church's mailbox each August or so. Nonetheless, I'd see to it that the information was provided, though in somewhat of a desultory manner. I confess that I got to the place where it seemed in some ways that the information was useful mainly for denominational statistical voyeurs and chest thumping ministerial braggarts who liked to see if anyone else was baptizing as many folks as they were.

Perhaps I was just a bit burned out on the thing.

Whatever the motivation or lack thereof, there is a general trend of churches tossing the ACP packet in the old garbage can and forgetting about it. It looks like 2011 will surpass 2010 and set a new record of low response rates.

Which raises some questions:

1. What will we do in associational meeting if we can't take the fresh statistics and see who's baptizing the most or who's not doing much? And, it has always been a part of evangelists' repertoire to declaim about how many SBC churches baptized no one last year. They will not know how many.

2. How will pastors searching for a new place of service know if a church that has their resume has enough money to pay them enough?

3. Great Commission Giving? Who would know? It would be extremely tedious, perhaps impossible, to go to each SBC entity and see what churches are giving directly to them.

I give credit to LifeWay and my state convention for simplifying the form and asking for less information the last few years but it looks like that will not be enough.

How about LifeWay offering a gift card to Outback Steakhouse for a completed form? That would guarantee full compliance, and quickly.

LifeWay's Ed Stetzer, our stat guru, said that the record low response rate...

"may be an indication that some churches no longer value their connection to the SBC, but I am guessing it is because many do not see how important the ACP is."

Stetzer further states that...

...“we measure points to what we value,” he added, “If we want SBC churches to grow, want new SBC churches to be added, want more individuals to be involved in Bible study and missions, and want churches to cooperate in Great Commission giving, we should be willing to measure our progress.”

Sorry, Ed, I'm not buying your second point. Filling out the ACP isn't much of an indication that we don't value growth or the progress of the Gospel. Let's go to Occam's Razor for this one. We're tired of it, or, reporting to denominational entities is not considered to have a lot of value. Stuff like that.


But even an 85% response rate is sufficient for adequate statistical analysis if we want to perform those but I might suggest that what we would really like to know is what certain individual churches and pastors are doing, or not doing.

Of course the gold standard is not the ACP, which may simply be made up numbers penciled in by whomever fills the form out in a church, but rather the state convention report of what money is actually received. Those represent real checks written to the Cooperative Program or to the various mission offerings. Attendance and baptisms, however, may or may not be real figures.

I'm a bit of a statistical junkie myself. I'd like to see full cooperation on the ACP though I fear that we will continue to set records for low compliance.

I'd take the Outback gift card, though, in an SBC triple-bypass heartbeat.

Christmas on Sunday - This is just crazy

In 2005, the last time Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, a few churches made news by cancelling their Sunday services. How is it looking six years later? Well, let's see.

In 2005 the New York Times story was entitled When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off. This year the story by some (this is Ed Stetzer's) is Pastors Plan to Host Christmas Services Despite Busyness of Christmas Day.

See the difference?

I easily achieved irascible curmudgeon status some years ago, so my response is: This is just crazy!

Christian churches worship on Sunday (save for the sabbatarian Adventists, Baptists, and other small groups) and, since Christmas periodically falls on our day of worship, it makes for a special Christmas worship celebration.

Right?

Yep...for most of us, that is. But not for some megachurches and hyper-family-friendly churches for whom Christmas is so special that they cancel Lord's Day worship when December 25th comes on Sunday. I would surmise that any church holding any events on any Sunday is family-unfriendly in our society, think soccer games and letting the little sleepyheads sleep in, but I digress.

Has Christmas become so secularized, so piled with warm family traditions, that the clamor in the 21st century is not that Christians not be distracted by the peripheral Christmas matters but that Christians not be inconvenienced by having to gather for corporate worship on Sunday, December 25th?

Alas, seems the trend. How dare churches be so family-unfriendly? Where will we be in 2016 or 2022, the next two years Christmas lands on a Sunday.

Such a brave new Christian world we live in.

Plodder’s assessments:
This is a megachurch thing and no one tells a megachurch what to do, sometimes not even Jesus.

This is a contrarian thing worn like a badge of honor: 'We don’t wear ties, sing hymns, or do what others do, like worship on Sunday. Deal with it.'

The thinking is, 'Sunday/Schmunday, it’s just a day like any other day. None of this stuff about the day of the resurrection.' We can just do it on the Day of Absence (Saturday).

The thinking is, “We’re relevant, family friendly, sensible and spiritual…and you’re not.”

My thinking is: This is just crazy.

But let's be forward thinking and move ahead to Easter, the Day of the Resurrection. Easter will fall on a Sunday this year. Families will gather. Traditions will be observed. Plodder is looking for the really family-friendly church to cancel worship on Easter Sunday.

In a manner of speaking he will probably not be disappointed.