Timothy Bonney wrote:I’ve run into a rabid Calvinist or two in my day. Are they not represented in the SBC? You know the dump Deacons and make the church look all Presby with Elder boards and then toss in some double predestination?
There are "rabid Calvinists" in the SBC. William is probably more up on all of that as it stands currently. Since I moved to Pennsylvania, I haven't kept up with denominational politics in the SBC all that much. I continued to work with them in a mission ministry that I'd been involved with since the 90's up until last year, but none of the local pastors, or the students that staffed the local project were involved in that debate. But denominational politics and convention control in the SBC is not about representation, it is about control, as it always has been, even long before the conservative resurgence.
Looking at what is happening across the denomination, I can't fathom the desire for controversy. You still have megachurches that are only now emerging from a pattern of designated giving designed to starve convention agencies with leaders and trustees they don't like or don't agree with (Greear's church only recently decided to give its CP allocation in an undesignated manner) and yet, you have denominational agencies cutting spending, downsizing, and the days of "new leader, new building" are long over. The decline is symbolized by the video below, the implosion of the Lifeway building. The sprawling complex in downtown Nashville, which is next door to the SBC Headquarters, has been sold, and the company is moving to a site in the West End to property owned by Tennessee Baptists, and downsizing. They already sold and moved out of the Golden Gate seminary facility, and I'm guessing that there's still talk of relocating, merging, or closing Midwestern. But I guess they think they need another controversy over who runs the show to move things forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U46m5Vc6WZU