GRITS For the SBC

G - Great Commission Focused
R - Repentance from Arrogance and Divisiveness
I  - Intentional in Seeking Unity
T - Total Commitment to the BFM2000
S - Sensitive to the Views of Others

Like it our not... Southern Baptist are a very diverse group of people.  You may not agree, but I believe that is a good thing!  I know there are those within the Southern Baptist family who are obsessed, it would appear, with imposing their identity and doctrine upon all Southern Baptist regardless of the utter destruction such an agenda would have to the Convention if successful. 

I believe there is great strength in diversity, even if it means that we must at times agree to disagree on some pretty important stuff.  Other denominations have gone down the path of seeking a very "narrow identity", and sometimes even a "forced conformity", and each time it has not ended well for them.  

Just as most of us have our own preference for what we like to eat for breakfast, most of us have a preference for the church in which we worship.  We want breakfast made "our way"... and we church done "our way".  Let me just say that "there is absolutely noting wrong in either of these".  One of the great blessing of freedom in this great nation is that if I don't like what they are serving for breakfast at one restaurant I can simply go somewhere else.  Don't like what they are serving at McDonald's?  Then go to Waffle House.  Don't like what they are serving at Waffle House?  Then go to Denny's.  No, where we get into trouble as Southern Baptist is when we feel the need to order breakfast for everyone else.  

Have you ever saw a couple at a restaurant and the man ordered for both himself and his wife (without asking her)?  I don't know about you, but on the few occasions that I have witnessed this I got a knot in the pit of my stomach because it was obvious to all that the wife was living under the domination of her husband.  Is this what any of us really want for the Southern Baptist Convention?  I certainly hope not, because the movie Sleeping with the Enemy depicts what will happen if any one group of Southern Baptist think they can "rule" over the convictions of other believers... it will not end well. 

Perhaps it is time that all parties within the Southern Baptist Convention started allowing their brothers and sisters to order off the menu for themselves?  And don't forget the G.R.I.T.S "I'll have mine with a little cheese please". 

Grace for the Journey,    

Southern Baptist Theological Confusion

As I have been saying for a long, long time... The Majority of Southern Baptist are "Atheological".  

Atheological refers to one's lack of  concern for theology, and this new survey from LifeWay research shows that about 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors, if not unconcerned about theology, are at the very least "Greatly Confused!" 


"If a person does not care about their theology, they miss the importance of rooting their entire life in the true knowledge of God and a true, coherent, rational, theological worldview. A person's relationship with God is built on the foundation of what one believes about God and what it means to be right with God, and this is the most important determining factor in shaping the way a person lives. An atheological person does not seriously reflect on their own foundational worldview assumptions (e.g., what is truth, who is God, does this matter?), nor do they see how doing so would be relevant to everyday life." - [http://www.mormonwiki.org/Atheological_tendency] 


Some are trying to use the above survey data to say that the majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the growing influence of Calvinism in the SBC.  If that is true then an equal majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the lingering influence of Arminian (Non-Calvinism) in the SBC.  But neither of these are what this survey truly shows... 


No, this survey shows that, sadly, over 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors are "atheological".  


I don't have any data to back this up, but it is my suspicion that this is largely a generational issue as theology was not stressed in seminary in the previous generations of Southern Baptist as, thankfully, it is today.  I pray that as the years go by that we begin to see an improvement in these numbers.  


Grace for the Journey   

Dr. Mohler (vs) Peter Lumpkins: Do the Clothes make the Man?

Dave over at SBC-Voices appears to have gotten a little squeamish over me and others raising the issue of Peter Lumpkins (P-Lump's) appearance and dress at the SBC convention last week. So I will post it on my blog where I have no issue with such a discussion taking place.

I have always been told that how a man dresses says a lot about the man, and that both men and women dress to communicate a message to those who see them.

Watch the following video and tell me what your response is to the dress, appearance, and demeanor of both men.

YouTube - Al Mohler Responds To Peter Lumpkins

Motion to be made to form GCR study committee | The Pathway

It is being reported on "The Pathway" web site that a motion will be made at the SBC Convention this coming week to "study the GCR Task Force Report"...

I would be very interested in knowing who will be speaking to this motion, and who will be speaking at the meeting prior to the convention at the Hyatt Hotel in Phoenix to discuss their strategy... That information will tell me all I need to know about this motion...

I don't have the facts yet, but I would be highly surprised if this is not an attempt by the ANTI-Great-Commission-Resurgence folks (yes they are still out there) to kill or hinder the work of the GCR in the SBC. Regardless of the vote in Orlando last year these folks just can't get over the fact that they lost this issue and move on.

Below is the full article from "The Pathway" web site:

------------

PHOENIX – A group of conservatives intend to make a motion Tuesday at the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting in Phoenix calling for the creation of a committee to study various aspects of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report.

It is not known who will make the motion, but it is being supported initially by about 100 messengers. Those messengers are scheduled to discuss the motion and other issues before the SBC at a public meeting, 5 p.m., Monday, at the Hyatt Hotel across from the Phoenix Convention Center. Current and past SBC leaders are scheduled to speak as well.

The motion states, “that the Convention create a special committee to be called the Unity Committee, to review, evaluate and make recommendations about perceptions and realities about the impact and implementation of the GCR Task Force Report during the past year by SBC entities, state conventions and related organizations and networks, that the committee bring a report and recommendations to the 2012 SBC annual meeting; and that the Committee be comprised of 21 members to be appointed by the President, fully representational of Southern Baptists and that the minutes, records and proceedings from the Committee’s meetings and work be open to the Southern Baptist public and available to all Southern Baptists no later than 12 months after it has given its report to the SBC.”

BY STAFF Motion to be made to form GCR study committee | The Pathway

------------

Wade Burleson: Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent: The 21st Century Demise of the SBC

The 2011 Annual Meeting for the Southern Baptist Convention officially begins next Tuesday morning, June 14, 2011. Membership in SBC churches has decreased for five years in a row, dropping 500,000 members since 2005. Attendance at this year's Southern Baptist Convention will be the lowest in nearly five decades, struggling to reach 5,000 in attendance. What has happened to the SBC?

There may be as many postulated reasons for the precipitous decline in the SBC as potential messengers in Phoenix next week. From my own personal experiences with the inner workings with the SBC I offer five reasons why the SBC is perilously close to becoming purely irrelevant. It is possible for changes to occur to prevent the SBC from her imminent and ultimate demise, but it will require immediate and effective leadership, something not yet demonstrated at any level of the SBC. The five reasons for decline are:

(1). The demonization of disagreement.

When we conservative evangelicals spend more time defining why other people are theologically wrong rather than powerfully living out the gospel of Jesus Christ, we construct our own platform for decline. The fanatical attempts to demonize other evangelicals who express a desire to cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention in church planting and missions--a demonization due to perceived disagreements over secondary issues--guarantees the demise of the SBC.

(Continued in the link below)

Wade Burleson: Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent: The 21st Century Demise of the SBC