Soteriological Heresy in the SBC--

[Sandy]

..says William Thornton

http://sbcvoices.com/there-is-clearly-s ... n-the-sbc/

William made some good points in his blog. There's not much that the SBC president is going to be able to do about the baptism numbers in the SBC. You would think, though, that in a time when declines in attendance and membership, and in baptisms, are considered to be in crisis mode in the denomination, a pastor of a church that seems to be bucking those trends would be seen as an inspiration, if nothing else.

It seems that the ugliness of theological controversy is going to keep the stated priorities of Southern Baptists, those things being evangelism and missions, from ever actually being a priority over the pull of the influence of who gets to call the shots in the denomination.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

Looks like some ugliness is in our future. This is the most negative campaign since the last of the CR elections. Calvinism is a convenient foil for most of the rancor. A lot is generational.

[Dave Roberts]

Another thing that is afflicting the SBC is that the best evangelism and high baptism rates among Baptists came in conjunction with times of high birth rates among Baptists. At the present time, if the statistics for white protestants hold true for Baptists, we are not having enough children to keep our ranks up. Unless Baptists return to real personal evangelism outside our religious ghettos, I see the same trend affecting both the SBC and CBF. Growth will not come from Mohler's "full quiver" theology.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

Even though baptisms and missions support are the constant themes of denominational political campaigns in the SBC, if resolving the problems associated with both of those had anything to do with who got elected President, or could be fixed by a denominational emphasis, then the slogan "a million more" wouldn't just be for '54, and the big issue would be figuring out what to do with the excess giving to the CP.

I'm sorry to hear that denominational political conflict is creeping back into the SBC. Southern Baptists haven't ever been really good at accepting diversity, or allowing for differences of opinion over theology and interpreting the Bible. Maybe that's a bit of an inferiority complex that developed when the South lost the Civil War, or something like that. If this is generational, then the younger generation needs to learn a bit about putting commitment to mission and purpose above personal career advancement opportunities. Four years as head of a mission sending agency isn't enough to bring about the kind of consistency and stability it needs to succeed, and denominational ministry is no place to work if your interest is personal career advancement and you're ready to move on when a better opportunity comes along, or you intend to use your position as a platform for launching a personal writing or speaking "ministry". I would bet that a lot of those cultural issues are behind some of the conflict, anyway.

[ET]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

But it's in the Bible...

[Tim Bonney]