JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Dissatisfaction brewing within the Southern Baptist Convention “could re-ignite a battle we don't want to fight again,” David Dockery warned fellow denominational leaders at a conference on Baptist identity.
The need for greater unity among Southern Baptists emerged as the overriding theme at the “Baptist Identity II: Convention, Cooperation and Controversy” conference held Feb. 15-17 at Union University.
However, presenters and participants frequently differed over which issues merit cooperation, which outside groups Southern Baptists should cooperate with, and what methodology should be used. Some speakers also argued over just how far Southern Baptists need to go to uniquely identify themselves.
“Defining our circumference is necessary, but we should not expect or demand uniformity, lest we impose a straightjacket on Southern Baptists,” said Dockery, president of Union University.
“The current frustrations and disappointments that some of our younger people have — and I understand their frustrations — could re-ignite a battle we don't want to fight again, he said. “We must seek to establish a new consensus. Otherwise, I fear we drift apart.”
Dockery emphasized the need for a united front, saying biblical passages stressing unity, such as John 17 and Ephesians 4, are being ignored. And he suggested it is a lack of understanding of Baptist history that leads to disputes among Baptists today.
“Throughout most of the 20th century, being a Southern Baptist had a cultural and programmatic identity to it unlike anything else,” Dockery said. “This kind of intactness provided Southern Baptists with an identity unmatched by any other denomination.”
The self-evaluative conference came amid intra-denominational disagreements among Southern Baptist conservatives, who have controlled the 16 million-member SBC for almost three decades.
Recently, internal differences — over issues such as control and cooperation, speaking in tongues, the place of women in leadership roles, censorship and alcohol use — have signaled some unraveling at the edges of the denomination. For well over a year, some conservatives have expressed their displeasure with what they perceive as narrowing fundamentalism in some SBC circles.
SBC President Frank Page, who was elected with the support of those reformers, began the identity conference by urging Southern Baptists not to let peripheral issues divide them from their ultimate mission.
“If we continue to break into factions that continue to fight each other and focus on turf-protectionism, the future will not be bright,” said Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C.
“[The Apostle] Paul didn't say, ‘Whose side are you on?'” Page added. “He asked, ‘Are you preaching Jesus Christ?'”
Ed Stetzer, a missiologist at the North American Mission Board, told his audience that Southern Baptists spend too much time objecting to terminology and not enough working together toward achieving common visions.
“I am ready to see Southern Baptists united by our mission. Personally, I'm ready to cooperate, even with those who are different than me,” Stetzer said. “I want to be in a convention where we agree on enough to get on mission. If we can't do that, we should start preparing now for our ultimate denominational demise.”
Stetzer's comments came as he spoke bluntly to a sparse crowd Feb. 17, the final day of the conference. More than 300 people attended the Feb. 15 and 16 sessions. His address, “Toward a Missional Convention,” included several exhortations for Southern Baptist congregations to follow the lead of other denominations in becoming “missional.”
To be “missional,” Stetzer said, congregations must contextualize their message to the culture and cooperate with Southern Baptist churches that have methods and practices different from their own.
If Southern Baptists truly want to change the prevailing culture, they have to become culturally relevant once again, not just biblically faithful. “Our churches must be culturally relevant, biblical faithful, countercultural communities,” he explained.
“Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone's house. It's where someone lives,” he said. “We must pay attention to the culture if we are to be truly missional.”
While Stetzer's delivery and approach may have deviated from how the conference's more conservative speakers discussed the same issues, Stetzer's call for unity — and the need to address differences from within the SBC — echoed pleas voiced by several other speakers.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson echoed the unity theme during the second day, chastising those who spread slander and gossip from within Baptist ranks.
“That should be shameful among any Baptists today,” Patterson said.
Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School, called his unity speech a “summons to humility” and questioned just how much further Southern Baptists must go to uniquely identify themselves.
He admonished his audience to a “particularity in the service of unity” that preserves theological consistency but allows for ecumenical cooperation.
“Isn't there something a bit narcissistic about focusing on our Baptist identity?” George asked. “There is a fine line between retrieval [of one's religious traditions] for the sake of renewal, and retrieval for the sake of a projection of a Baptist-centricity that is self-serving and self-gratifying.”
Several speakers emphasized that the result of all the current fragmentation and fighting among Southern Baptists is taking a very tangible toll on the denomination.
Thom Rainer, president of Lifeway Christian Resources, the SBC's publishing arm, said that despite having SBC membership that is 130 percent larger than it was half a century ago, overall baptisms are down by 5,000 a year.
“On any given Sunday, only about 7 million [of the 16 million] Southern Baptist members attend church,” Rainer said. “That which is dead cannot tell another dead person how to have life.”
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