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.

What it takes to get Baptist Press off the sidelines

Apparently, it takes a prominent state newspaper editor writing an opinion piece about calvinism (the link is to Peter Lumpkins' blog where he puts Harris' entire article, with permission).

Just a single day is all it took for Baptist Press to chase down every SBCer that Harris' mentioned in connection with his article, "The Calvinists are Here" which BP's Erin Roach wrote up in Encroachment of Calvinism' concerns editor.

I admit to being a Baptist Press watcher and reader and they seldom touch anything that is unpleasant, critical of the SBC, or uncomfortable. Don't look for much from BP on Phil Roberts' resignation as Midwestern Seminary head, for example.

But they nearly melted their rusty journalistic gears getting in action after Harris wrote this article.

I've said for years that if you want a good coverage of Baptist news, it is necessary to read Associated Baptist Press in addition to Baptist Press. You would be an ignorant SBCer if you stuck with BP only.

Gerald Harris, by the way, is editor of the Georgia state paper, The Christian Index. The Index alone has provided much of the coverage of the North American Mission Board and all of its debacles and disasters of the past decade or so.

Gerald Harris might not be a journalist, his background is as a successful pastor, and he might not be the most elegant writer, but he has seen to it that The Index does some authentic news coverage, something rare at BP.

...but it's good to see our in-house news/pr outfit with some rumblings of real journalism and reporting again.

The rising stock of Kevin Ezell and our North American Mission Board

If you are the president of the North American Mission Board you go to work in a suburb of Atlanta named Alpharetta. Your office is about 20 minutes from the Georgia Baptist Building in another suburb of Atlanta, Duluth. Your employees are members of Georgia Baptist churches around Atlanta and you're smart enough to know that they rub shoulders with GBC employees.

You’re also savvy enough to understand that denominational employees, folks who work for you and whom you pass in the hallways in Alpharetta, aren’t afraid to talk about their work. You probably understand that if they are unhappy they will find an outlet to express it.

Not having been born yesterday and probably being seasoned to such things as a pastor, you are well aware that the Georgia Baptist paper, The Christian Index, has an office in the GBC HQ in Duluth and that the editor, Gerald Harris, has been friends with some of your employees for years. You presume that friends talk. You also know that Harris and The Index has given close scrutiny to goings on at NAMB and hasn’t hesitated to print the results of such scrutiny.

You probably understand the need for some old-fashioned schmoozing with Gerald.

Sorry, Plodder doesn’t have a schmooze report for Kevin Ezell and Gerald Harris but it carries weight with him when Gerald Harris says that

“Ezell’s stock is rising.”

Harris reaches vast numbers of SBCers, thousands, with The Christian Index. I reach, well, dozens and have been quite critical of NAMB over the past few years. They have deserved it. No SBC entity has deserved to be criticized more so than NAMB and they still have some work to do to regain my complete trust.

But from this distance, I join Harris in viewing Kevin Ezell’s stock as rising. HQ personnel have been cut, a good move, though painful. Baby NAMBs have been established, jury is out on those but this is what was expected. NAMB has acutely sharpened their focus on church planting, something that was needed. We will see how it goes.

But what I like best about Harris’ evaluation of Ezell is his description of him as being open and transparent. If we have a leader who is genuinely open and transparent, that will go a long way to restoring trust in our sadly dysfunctional agency.

My church is collecting an Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, the thirtieth consecutive year that a church I pastor has done so. We may not exceed last year’s total – things are extremely tight – but I feel better about NAMB than I did this time last year.

I believe I will hang onto my stock in Kevin Ezell and NAMB and watch it’s value rise.

IMB Search Committee: Take your time but get it right.

What’s up with the International Mission Board trustees and their search committee for the new leader?

Not much that I can see. Periodically, the committee tells we SBC commoners that they’re still looking but when they get the job done they will “have full confidence that we’re presenting God’s man.” The search committee chairman said that back in September.

I grant that the committee is genuinely interested in finding and doing the will of God in this matter; however, the ‘God’s Man’ talk is sorely overused and virtually meaningless. Would any search committee present a candidate for any position and say that he is not ‘God’s man’? Uh, no.

Nonetheless, this is one job, one position that we need to get right. God forbid that we have to go through a couple of ‘God’s men’ like the last two NAMB CEOs.

Plodder eschews inside information and cannot add any insight to what is going on. Actually, I am so much an outsider that I haven’t the foggiest idea what the problem is but most of us could guess. Perhaps the committee is divided. Perhaps they are courting a consensus candidate who can’t make up his mind. I don’t know.

I will say that the IMB absolutely must not end up with a leader who is lacking in a couple of key areas:

• He must have a record of stellar support of the work of the IMB, the Cooperative Program, and the Lottie Moon offering. Whatever NAMb has done, is doing here, I don’t think you can make even a weak case for an IMB leader who has not been a strong believer in the work of the IMB. But should the search committee be mezmerized, and no group is more susceptible to such than a Southern Baptist search committee, by one who has no record of support but whom they think is irresistible because of perceived gifts and abilities, we will be in for some acrimony.

• He much have solid missiological knowledge and overseas experience. I cannot imagine the leader of over 5,000 missions personnel not having some life experience overseas with another language and culture.

There are plenty of people who meet these two requirements.

Gerald Harris, editor of our pretty good state paper, The Christian Index, editorializes about the search and makes some good points. Harris points out that since Jerry Rankin announced his retirement the trustees have had a solid SIXTEEN months on this task.

This search committee has been working longer than any I can recall in national Southern Baptist life. I hope the length of time is rewarded by the right person being chosen. We absolutely cannot afford to go through turmoil on this one.