Dew nominated to lead New Orleans Seminary

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Haruo]

Gotta look up the University of Birmingham. Do we know if that's a residential doctorate or pure distance learning?

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Ga., gives me serious pause, however one of the better pastors that I worked with while serving on the NYS Board of Missions is a graduate of Liberty, which gave me pause when I first met him.

[JE Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

The worn out, silly code talk of search committees, "God's man, etc., is just a cliche. God may have little involvement in the choice. Every single failed SBC leader was "God's man" leading one to the obvious conclusion that God may be omnipotent but he is manifestly inept at choosing leaders.

The terminology is a way to signal the peons that the choice is not to be criticized, lest one criticize the Almighty himself.

The NOBTS choice is very qualified. It's a challenging situation. We have too many seminaries competing for students and that at a time of flat revenues and church growth.

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[JE Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[JE Pettibone]

Sandy writes "Ultra conservatives are as much in need of revival as moderates or liberals from my perspective."

Ed: Perhaps more so. tic BTW, in my observation of SBC Seminaries over the past 64 years New Orleans has consistently been the most conservative of the 6.

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]

[JE Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: As you write "I believe in spontaneous movements of the Holy Spirit on people in Bible conferences or revival meetings resulting in conviction of sin and repentance that produces a visible, emotional reaction in the people who are present. I don't necessarily see that those kinds of things are limited to the "ultra-conservative." I don't know the history of those kinds of things at Toccoa Falls College, but I wouldn't say they are the exclusive domain of conservatives. I would hope that all Baptists at least would be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit especially when he has been invited to be present in a gathering of Christians". We Agree.

And Sandy just when was it that you where at Southwestern?

[Sandy]

I enrolled in Southwestern in the fall of 1987, during the presidency of Dr. Russell Dilday. Trying to make a comparison of how conservative an SBC seminary was in the decades prior to the conservative resurgence is going to be based on the opinions and conversations of those who attended them at the time. When I was in college in the late 70's, the professors in the Bible department where I went to school were pretty unanimous in their evaluation that Southwestern was the most conservative of the six. Of the four professors in the department, one had both masters and doctorate from Southwestern, and two of the others had a masters from Southern with a doctorate from Southwestern. The other one had degrees from Moody and from Regents Park College at Oxford. There was no encouragement from them for ministerial students to go to Southern, and while Golden Gate was the top choice for students at the college I attended, the profs promoted Southwestern as the more conservative of the two. New Orleans was never mentioned, as far as I can remember and I don't know anyone from college who went there.

[Haruo]

Remind me to ask the Holy Spirit about their preferred pronouns. Feminine in Hebrew, Neuter in Greek, Masculine in Latin.

[Sandy]

So this selection at New Orleans more or less eliminates the possibility of an exec of one of the SBC entities being someone from one of the well-represented minority groups within the convention. There are some disappointed bloggers, a few, not many. Otherwise, other than a few isolated spots on the internet, most Southern Baptists are more than likely not aware of who the individuals are or where the vacancies were located.

I saw a few comments about such selections being made based on the merits of the individuals hired, regardless of their racial background. You should always want the best man (or woman) for the job, right? But I doubt that's possible in the SBC. Leaders in the SBC are selected based on the number of influential friends they have on whatever trustee board or search committee is operating at the time. All of those individuals that have been selected this time around have rotated from multiple boards and committees and are denominational insiders with the exception of Dr. Dew. Most individuals associated with the growing minority churches in the SBC don't have time for the meetings and tea parties it takes to be appointed to a committee or a board. It will be a while longer before there is change in this regard.

It's hard for me to see how they can argue that women can't serve in denominational leadership and claim that has anything to do with Biblical instruction. Denominations aren't churches and are not mentioned in the Bible. There are no Biblical qualifications from a Biblical perspective for denominational committee or board service.

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: Sandy, I would guess those making the decision on filling the top post in SBC entities would justify ignoring females as prospects because ones filling those positions need more significant local church experience than their understanding of Baptist Polity permits. I further suspect this a major factor in their refusal to permit female pastors.

I wish Dr. Drew and all at New Orleans Baptist Seminary well because two of my favorite CBFers and one of my favorite pastors in my SBC days where alumni. There may be more among my Baptist friends but those three the are the first off the top of my head.

I am not sure it would be fair to blame the institution for Patterson.