SBC People MUST Be Involved for the Future of the SBC

I am sometimes baffled at how issues within the Southern Baptist Convention can so quickly become personal. When I began this blog four months ago I committed myself to focus on issues that concerned me, and never to speak negatively of any individual. Even when others took offense at what I wrote, and as a result, sought to strike back at me in a very personal way, I determined to maintain the high ground and continue to write only about principles.

However, what I can't understand right now are those who seem to think the SBC will change without involving oneself in the dynamics of convention operations and procedures. The idea that the convention can magically "change course" without offering some tangible, pertinent motions or resolutions, is really a bizarre notion. In fact, those who believe that might as well not participate in convention business anyway because they will have no effect on the convention through the success of their local church.

I pastor the greatest church a pastor could ever wish to shepherd. Our missions pastor, Dr. John Stam, has just informed me that we have invested over an average of $400,000 per year in missions these last four years. We send mission teams around the world, and many of our church members are actually living on the mission fields including Japan, Russia, Africa, India and other far reaches of the world. We have baptized over 100 people each of the last two years, and our people are very, very active in reaching people in our community and our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

However, the SBC will not change because we at Emmanuel Bapist Church are a great missional church.

The SBC changes because missional people take the time to show up at the Southern Baptist Convention in a spirit of love, prepared to address the critical issues, and vote their consciences.

For example. Someone has taken the time to write a possible resolution for the June 2005, send it to me for feedback, with questions about how to properly present it. I do not know if this individual will actually present this resolution for adoption by the SBC or not, but I can guarantee you one thing --- if this person presents this resolution to the Resolutions Committee for possible adoption by the SBC, he/she will have a tremendous impact on the direction of our SBC. This person is GETTING INVOLVED, not just complaining. Here is the resolution:

On Baptist Dissent

WHEREAS, the Christian Gospel is a call unto the individual conscience to choose the narrow way of everlasting life, into which few pass through a difficult gate, against a wide way of eternal destruction, into which many pass through a wide gate (Matthew 7:13-14); and

WHEREAS, implicit in the call to follow Christ is a call to dissent from the wisdom of the world in favor of the wisdom of the cross, which is foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-25); and

WHEREAS, our Lord was himself a dissenter, refusing to acknowledge to submit to the superfluous laws of the scribes and Pharisees, choosing rather to suffer affliction outside the camp, and to whom all Christians are exhorted to go (Hebrews 13:13); and

WHEREAS, every tributary of Baptist identity includes at some point an era of dissent from institutions, doctrines, and systems of belief that violate the teachings of Scripture and the individual conscience; and

WHEREAS, both our Anabaptist and English Separatist forefathers knew the power of dissent to shield the soul from compromise on matters essential to faith, church polity, and the ordinances, often suffering ostracism, exile, and even death for their refusal to violate the unpopular and resolute conviction that the church was to be free from governmental control, the ordinance of baptism was to be upon profession of faith, and the individual conscience was to be unencumbered by the unbiblical traditions of men; and

WHEREAS, Baptists in the early American colonies were most influential in protecting liberty of conscience, freedom of religion, and the prerogative of every person to speak, publish, and worship freely; and

WHEREAS, the Baptist witness has been a consistent and prophetic voice for protecting these liberties for all people, but especially for religious minorities when their essential and inalienable liberties have been abridged, compromised, or threatened by the majority; and

WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention, organized in 1845, was originally founded on a platform of dissent against movements that would have undermined the suitability of Baptist missionaries in the South to serve on foreign fields of service; and

WHEREAS, Southern Baptists have continued to cherish and protect the privilege of principled dissent among its constituents, affirming the place within the denomination for all Baptists who would cooperate around missions, uphold biblical authority, and maintain Christian virtue; and

WHEREAS, even when the Southern Baptist Convention was unfriendly to those who upheld biblical authority, and inerrantists were underrepresented or unrepresented on denominational boards of trustee, the majority of Southern Baptists rose up to reassert the basis of cooperation around missions, biblical authority, and Christian virtue; and

WHEREAS, Southern Baptists continue to maintain a prophetic voice of cultural dissent, speaking regularly against abortion, homosexuality, gambling, and other popularly supported social vices; and

WHEREAS, Southern Baptists continue to maintain a prophetic voice of theological dissent, refusing to blend our witness in missionary enterprise with those who deny fundamentals of the faith such as the full deity and humanity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of salvation by faith alone; and

WHEREAS, whenever there continues to exist portions of the world where religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and principled dissent are not tolerated by oppressive regimes, Southern Baptists have worked through diplomatic, missionary, and political means to speak for oppressed religious minorities and to persuade those regimes to understand the value of such freedoms;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in annual session in Greensboro, North Carolina on June 13-14, 2006, recognizes the rich heritage of principled dissent that has given voice to our distinct witness as Baptists; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we continue to express our desire to see all people of the world, regardless of their religious heritage or tradition, share in the freedoms of conscience and speech and press that we have enjoyed ourselves; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize majorities are not always right, and it is necessary for the voice of dissent – the minority voice – to be welcomed and heard if we are not to become authoritarian in our doctrinal confession or tyrannical in our denominational governance.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that when their manner of dissent has been Christlike, principled, and within the parameters of Evangelical orthodoxy, we affirm those within our own Southern Baptist fellowship who have voiced their own dissent regarding policies of our institutions, articles of our confession, and governance of our agencies and boards; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we believe all attempts by those who call themselves Baptist to silence the principled dissent of fellow Baptists within our denomination, or of other believers in our nation, or of any person in any other country, are both a compromise of our cherished Baptist witness and a disservice to the Kingdom of God; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that we wish to continue the tradition of welcoming principled dissent, freedom of speech and of the press, as the bedrock basis upon which a diverse people, such as Southern Baptists, can continue to work together for the greater good of evangelism and missions both to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation of the world.

Can you imagine what would happen if our convention actually passed this resolution? It would send a very strong message about the direction we want to move in the future.

Frankly, I am thankful that there are many young leaders who are carefully, prayerfully and seriously crafting important motions and resolutions for presentation to the SBC.

If you think this type of preparation is not needed to direct our convention for years to come you may really be naive about the nature of our work as a Southern Baptist Convention.

In His Grace, and Happy Resurrection Sunday!



Wade Burleson