{"id":3069,"date":"2012-02-22T02:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2012-02-22T00:58:53","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T07:58:53","slug":"sbc-nickname-adventures-in-baby-splitting-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3069","title":{"rendered":"SBC Nickname: Adventures in Baby Splitting? Not!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m in a Seinfeld<\/em> state of mind.\u00a0 First Mr. Mendelbaum<\/a> and now Newman. Even Postal Employee Newman — Kramer’s friend and Jerry’s nemesis in the popular 1990s sitcom\u00a0— was wise enough to know that you can’t split a bicycle in half.\u00a0Upon hearing the news Monday night that the unofficial Name Change Task Force was recommending no official name change for the Southern Baptist Convention, but instead recommending adding an optional nickname — Great Commission Baptists<\/em> — I was perplexed.\u00a0 My initial thought was, “this doesn’t make any sense.”\u00a0<\/em> My wife had a more pithy word to describe the recommendation.<\/p>\n

Surely this Task Force, whose members include\u00a0such Convention stalwarts as\u00a0Dr. Paige Patterson, Dr. Albert Mohler, Dr. David Dockery, Dr.\u00a0Kevin Ezell, Dr. Tom Eliff and others,\u00a0are surely wiser than Newman, thus applying the Old\u00a0Testament principle\u00a0and realizing\u00a0that Conventions — like babies — cannot be split into two different groups with two different\u00a0identities and, knowing the New Testament principle that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” <\/em>must be applied to\u00a0any proposed Name Change recommendation.\u00a0That being the case, it is hard for me to understand how this can be a “win-win”<\/em> for the Convention of churches now known as Southern Baptists. However, with a long drive from Dallas to New Mexico on Tuesday, I had plenty of time to come to an understanding of what I think\u00a0Dr. Draper, in his report to the Executive Committee<\/a> for\/through President Bryant Wright, meant by “win-win.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps he meant it like this:\u00a0 Suppose a good-sized\u00a0County Seat First Baptist Church was in search of a new pastor.\u00a0 The church, although the oldest in the county and the mother church to all the other churches in the area, had hit a bit of a rough spot.\u00a0 Not content to continue on a downward spiral, the Pastor (or Elder if you prefer) Search Committee interviews a nice young man about serving the church.\u00a0 He is passionate and energetic,\u00a0telling the committee that he wants to reach families in the area.\u00a0 The committee likes what it hears.\u00a0 Who wouldn’t want to reach families for Christ?\u00a0 Of course, when the Pastoral candidate said “families,” he really meant people under 40, but the committee thought families included senior adults as well.<\/p>\n

The committee recommends the pastoral candidate to the church and the church, based largely on the committee’s glowing recommendation, calls the new pastor.\u00a0 Eager to make an impact and\u00a0purposefully-driven to implement his vision, the young pastor arrives on the scene, only to find that the church has very few families, at least not how he would define families.\u00a0He’s really not sure how this church\u00a0has survived this long because it doesn’t seem like they know what a “true”<\/em> church looks like. He sets out to “bring ’em in,”<\/em> and,\u00a0in fact, does attract a lot of younger families with children (which is a good thing). So many new families start coming to the church that\u00a0a second worship service needs to be added.\u00a0 Not to worry.\u00a0 An early morning worship experience at 8:30 a.m. would be perfect.\u00a0 Not too early and not too late so as to interfere with Sunday School.<\/p>\n

Just to mix things up, why not try something different at the early service.\u00a0 How about more contemporary songs and a praise band (not that there’s anything wrong with that — another Seinfeld reference)?\u00a0 The folks who have been at the church, despite their initial reluctance and questions,\u00a0get behind the pastor because they\u00a0believe that\u00a0he sincerely wants to reach people for Christ.\u00a0 After all, more families have started coming to the church.\u00a0After the new service is announced, but before\u00a0it launches, the pastor has a change of plans.\u00a0 Not a big deal, really.\u00a0 It turns out that young families with children don’t get up early on Sunday morning (I can vouch for my family on\u00a0that). It would be better if we moved the “traditional”<\/em> service to 8:30 a.m. (old people get up early and they are the only ones who would go to a traditional service, anyway) and the new, contemporary service to 11:00 a.m.<\/p>\n

While some of the older folks are not happy, the pastor begins to pull out the\u00a0Al\u00a0Haig card, “I’m God’s man here and I’m in charge. I cast the vision for my church.\u00a0 If you don’t like the direction that\u00a0my church is heading, then there are lots of other churches down the road that you can go to.\u00a0 Anyway, we’ve attracted 50 new families to my church\u00a0in the long six months I’ve been here.\u00a0 If we lose one or two older families, it won’t matter much because I’m growing my church.”<\/em>\u00a0 Now mind you, this is said to an elderly Deacon and his wife who have been pillars in the church for over 50 years.\u00a0\u00a0What the pastor has just said is, “you can\u00a0shut up and get with the program or\u00a0you can get out!”<\/em><\/p>\n

If you think this is far-fetched, then you have not been in Southern Baptist life for any length of time nor do you know anyone who has been in the SBC for any length of time.\u00a0 Churches have been destroyed because of “driven”<\/em> pastors — driven by methodology, theology, or their own cult of personality.\u00a0 There are Calvinists, non-Calvinists, anti-Calvinists and, Arminians\u00a0among the\u00a0driven bunch.\u00a0 It takes all kinds!<\/p>\n

Why do I share this story?\u00a0 Because the pastor of this story, when selling new — and\u00a0sometimes radical — ideas, will often use spiritual\u00a0language similar to what we have already heard from the Name Change Task Force — it’s a “win-win”<\/em> situation. Tell that to the older Christians who were displaced from the church that they loved and lovingly served for 50+\u00a0years.\u00a0Tell that to pastors and lay folks in the south\u00a0who have labored for the Kingdom by sending missionaries throughout North America and the world, all the while identifying themselves as Southern Baptists but, apparently unaware of the stigma that attaches to the name.<\/p>\n

With all due respect to the unofficial Name Change Task Force, I’m not sure that a committee which was created to circumvent the will of the messengers\u00a0and perhaps contravene the Constitution and By-Laws of the SBC in the process,\u00a0are the best folks to unilaterally declare the nickname option a “win-win” <\/em>(although\u00a0some of our leaders sure like to do things unilaterally; some don’t even need a vote to change the name of a seminary). That only a few EC members had the courage to vote against bringing the recommendation to the floor of the Convention is a sad commentary on the “ends justifies the means”\u00a0mentality <\/a>that is so often\u00a0employed\u00a0in the hardball political process\u00a0of the SBC. And, when trustees dare to speak up\u00a0against the establishment, they subject themselves to ridicule from “denominational servants.”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Nickname path, as has already been demonstrated in the report, is one that will surely lead to more division in the short run.\u00a0How?\u00a0 Wrap your minds around the concluding\u00a0paragraphs of the Name Change\u00a0Task Force Recommendation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“That the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention report to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, June 19-20, 2012, that it will study ways in which the use of the phrase “Great Commission Baptists” might be protected and preserved for use by those churches and institutions (emphasis added)<\/strong>\u00a0which find its use beneficial and will assess how using the phrase in various ways in its communications and publications might be helpful to those groups.<\/p>\n

We deeply believe that if the phrase “Great Commission Baptists” is regularly used in publications and promotions of the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as in state conventions, associations and churches, that it would provide an identification that not only tells who we are, but what our mission as Southern Baptists is — the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before the Task Force Recommendation has even been officially approved by messengers in New Orleans,\u00a0the President of our oldest\u00a0seminary tweeted<\/a> this:<\/p>\n

“Let the word go forth: THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary proudly is a Great Commission Baptists institution”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess Southern now joins Lifeway in demonstrating that they really don’t care what the messengers have to say at the Annual Meeting.\u00a0 But, I do\u00a0applaud the boldness of Dr. Mohler\u00a0in making such a statement.\u00a0 Coupled with the wording of the Task Force Report and Recommendation, Dr. Mohler’s words are a clear signal of where our Southern Baptist entities will head.\u00a0Those entities\u00a0whose trustee boards are populated by “yes men”\u00a0<\/a>— who think their job is to serve the interests of the entitiy head instead of the interests of the SBC — will embrace\u00a0the Great Commission Baptists moniker\u00a0quicker than the\u00a0Kardashians recycle husbands.\u00a0\u00a0 If the Convention messengers meeting in New Orleans vote to approve the recommendation, those who still choose to\u00a0identify as Southern Baptists — folks who cling bitterly to their God, their southern heritage, their outdated identity, their traditions (CP, State Conventions, Local Associations)\u00a0and, their anti-Great Commission mindset — will be on the outside, looking in, and muttering to themselves, “What happened?”\u00a0<\/em>But, the Great Commission Baptists will be a leaner, younger\u00a0and, smaller\u00a0house, much better off without those traditional-minded folk who just didn’t\u00a0understand how to do church in the first place.\u00a0 And, get this —\u00a0no longer a divided house, either.\u00a0 After all, it’s hard to be divided after the troublemakers leave!\u00a0 Just ask conservative Southern Baptists what happened when the Moderates left.\u00a0 Well, on second thought, maybe that’s not such a good idea.<\/p>\n

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I’m in a Seinfeld state of mind.\u00a0 First Mr. Mendelbaum and now Newman. Even Postal Employee Newman — Kramer’s friend and Jerry’s nemesis in the popular 1990s sitcom\u00a0— was wise enough to know that you can’t split a bicycle in half.\u00a0Upon hearing the news Monday night that the unofficial Name Change Task Force was recommending…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,1607,35,1371,37],"tags":[1380,1206,3403,1616,583,1606,755,868,872,3401,3393,1615],"class_list":["post-3069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-great-commission-baptists","category-religion","category-sbc-name-change","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-albert-mohler","tag-david-dockery","tag-great-commission-baptists","tag-jimmy-draper","tag-kevin-ezell","tag-nicknames","tag-paige-patterson","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-executive-committee","tag-sbc-name-change","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-tom-eliff"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Nv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3069"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3077,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069\/revisions\/3077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}