NEW YORK (ABP) — Four conservative pastors have joined the increasingly wild and wooly frontier of blogs discussing the state of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Robin Foster, Wes Kenney, Tim Rogers, and Joe Stewart have announced the launch of a new blog called SBC Today (www.sbctoday.com).
Rogers, pastor of Yadkin Baptist Church in Statesville, N.C., said the blog will be used to help restore Baptist unity “through Biblical discipleship and Baptist identity.”
“A lot of the controversy in the convention is there not because of entity heads not doing what a few people think they should do or shouldn't do. It's because of a Baptist identity crisis,” he said.
The Aug. 20 announcement of the new site came soon after several prominent SBC leaders retracted endorsements of another collaborative Baptist blog, SBCOutpost (www.sbcoutpost.com). Some have criticized the blog for personal attacks on denominational leaders.
Bart Barber, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, called SBCOutpost “a rotten journalistic news source but an excellent blog.” But he added that a “shadow” site would be useful in Baptist dialogue as well — “a real opening for someone to create a site that actually does some of what SBCOutpost promised … but was unable to deliver.”
He added, in an Aug. 18 blog post, “If someone could create a site that would take a positive, uplifting approach to current SBC events, facilitating discussion of ideas without publishing personal attacks, I think that they would be bringing something edifying and worthwhile to Southern Baptist life.”
According to Rogers, plans for SBC Today were laid soon after this summer's annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The four founding pastors had heard about the possible advent of SBCOutpost and thought it was a strong concept. But their blog isn't meant to be a competitor or a “knee-jerk” reaction to SBCOutpost, Rogers said.
“We prayed about it, and we talked about it and said why don't we start one ourselves, but we don't want to do it in a reactionary way to SBCOutpost,” he said.
Rogers said the new blog will be different, too, in that site administrators “won't let someone be berated or put down.” He said criticisms of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson have lent to an antagonistic feel of SBCOutpost.
And as a way to help avoid personal attacks, readers will also be unable to post comments on articles written by guest contributors, he said.
“We want to debate issues. As far as attacking people and attacking entities, we're not going to doing that, and we're not going to allow someone else to do that,” he said.
Kenney, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Valliant, Okla., said in a press statement that the blog will mostly include articles from its founders and others among “the best and brightest in Southern Baptist life.” Barber, for one, has said he will occasionally contribute to what could become “the premier conservative blog in the SBC blogosphere.”
In addition to the new endeavor, Rogers said the four will continue to maintain their personal blogs. Foster is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Perkins, Okla., and Stewart is pastor of First Baptist Church of Littlefield, Texas.