Debates, New Plan to Boost Baptisms on Southern Baptist Agenda

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Southern Baptist head Frank Page has hope that the nation's largest evangelical denomination can move beyond the divisive issues and seek revival around compassion.

"I hope the primary issue that will be discussed is seeking God's reviving Holy Spirit and His hand upon us," said Page, according to the San Antonio Express-News, "and seeking the energizing power of the Holy Spirit in soul-winning, missions, and evangelism. But there will be other issues, no doubt, that will come forward."

Thousands of Southern Baptists kicked off their annual meeting Tuesday morning in San Antonio, Texas, and much of the attention is focused on resolutions and votes addressing issues that have been more widely debated this past year.

Scattered across the Southern Baptist blogosphere are outspoken pastors, often referred to as reform-minded bloggers, who are jotting their likes and dislikes as well as expectations of the two-day SBC meeting.

The Rev. Benjamin Cole of Arlington, Texas, wrote on a Sunday blog that there are no longer any liberals in Southern Baptist Convention leadership and that fundamentalists have stayed and have "continued to exert a controlling influence in the life of the Southern Baptist Convention."

Cole fears that the denomination is focusing more on ecclesiology (church doctrine) and less on Christology.

"As far as I know, the Conservative Resurgence was about the inerrancy of the Bible … not the inerrancy of Baptist theology or practice," he wrote.

The Rev. Wade Burleson of Enid, Okla., believes the most important vote of the SBC this year concerns the adoption or rejection of the Executive Committee statement regarding the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which states:

"The Baptist Faith and Message is neither a creed, nor a complete statement of our faith, nor final and infallible; nevertheless, we further acknowledge that it is the only consensus statement of doctrinal beliefs approved by the Southern Baptist Convention and such is sufficient in its current form to guide trustees in their establishment of policies and practices of entities of the Convention."

According to Burleson, adopting the statement would "send a strong and irrefutable message" to Southern Baptist agencies and leaders that the "2000 Baptist Faith and Message is the only consensus statement of doctrinal belief approved by the SBC, and to establish doctrinal guidelines or policies that exceed the BFM 2000 is an act contrary to the wishes of the Convention herself."

"I pray that the adoption of the statement passes at the Convention, as it did in the Executive Committee of the SBC, WITHOUT opposition," the Oklahoma pastor wrote on his blog on Tuesday.

Some, including Burleson, have disagreed with the Southern Baptist Convention's mission agencies that voted to bar its missionaries from speaking in tongues and from private prayer language. The charismatic practice gained wide public attention in the past year, and this week, some are poised to propose a resolution against the charismatic practice while others have planned to submit one defending it or at least pushing the denomination to adopt a formal stance on the issue.

If the Executive Committee's BFM 2000 statement is approved, it would also communicate to the denomination that "there is plenty of room in the SBC for both interpretations" of speaking in tongues, Burleson noted.

Just weeks before the annual meeting, LifeWay Research released study results that showed half of Southern Baptist pastors believe in speaking in tongues of private prayer language. Some have criticized the timing and methodology of the LifeWay report but Ed Stetzer, the director of LifeWay Research, stated they're "just reporting facts."

Another issue drawing increased concern in the denomination is clergy sexual abuse. A recent ABC 20/20 report revealed several child abuse cases in local Southern Baptist churches where ministers went from church to church sexually abusing kids.

Among others, Burleson expressed deep concern and made a motion Tuesday morning that the Executive Committee examine the feasibility of launching a database of "credibly accused" sexual predators as a resource to churches.

As the controversial issues are likely to come forward during the meeting, SBC's Page still hopes to find common ground around the mission of the church.

"There is some hope can pull back together with a common motivating factor of missions and evangelism," the denomination's president said, according to the Associated Press.

With baptisms declining within 16.3 million-member denomination, SBC leaders are considering how to reverse the decline and plan to unveil a multifaceted 10-year evangelistic strategy this week. A week ahead of the annual meeting, some 1,000 volunteers participated in the annual "Crossover" outreach across 18 San Antonio communities. Door-to-door evangelism, festivals and games for youth brought 55 local SBC churches and Southern Baptist agencies together to spread the Gospel.

"It ... shows what can happen when local churches, associations, state conventions and NAMB (North American Mission Board) all come together to share Christ," said NAMB President Geoff Hammond.