The way we were

“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past,” says Deuteronomy 32:7.

Once upon a time, people who called themselves Southern Baptist had a firm conviction that they were autonomous churches cooperating with other churches of what we called “like faith and practice” — not “same” practice. We mostly shared a similar confession of faith spelling out the key major traditions of the Christian faith and our Baptist faith in particular.

Some churches even wrote their own confessions of faith, a long-standing historical practice among Baptists. However, even the majority who expressed the common Baptist Faith and Message of the day knew it was written broadly enough to be inclusive to a variety of ways of being Baptist.

Fisher Humphreys, in his enlightening brief work The Way We Were, summarized what he called the six minority traditions that existed within Baptist life: Anabaptist, Calvinistic, Landmark Baptist, Deeper Life, Fundamentalist, Progressive.

For many years, the minority traditions happily existed together in associations of churches because our commitment was to missions and evangelism, not primarily doctrinal uniformity. We served together, went on mission trips together, fellowshipped together, and maybe shared a few laughs together over the differences in our traditions. But in large part, we got along together because we were in the family of God and we did not let our differences drive us apart.

Back then, we still cherished the idea that churches were autonomous and the structure of the “convention” existed to serve the churches. The state and national levels offered many services to churches that sadly no longer exist. Unfortunately, over the years people and ministries have been wholesale fired or deleted out of the budget, all the while there are record offerings — which begs the question, “Where is the money going?”

But that’s for another day. Humphreys concludes his study by highlighting four areas that will be altered in what he calls the “New Convention,” what I see we are experiencing in today’s SBC:

• The diminished importance of the priesthood of the believer
• The loss of congregational decision making by democratic means
• The loss of the principle of the separation of church and state
• The principle of having no creed but the Bible

He elaborates that Southern Baptists have managed to stay together without a prescriptive creed because of our shared experiences and trust in each other. Furthermore, Baptists have “handled their theological differences in an ad hoc manner as they arose,” which may seem a little “messy,” but it has worked in the past. Prophetically, he said this arrangement “will not be given a chance to work in the New Convention.”

“The emphasis seems to be more on motions and resolutions that are targeted toward doctrinal uniformity.”

Which brings me to the present. The SBC will meet next week for its annual meeting. With each successive annual meeting, the emphasis seems to be more on motions and resolutions that are targeted toward doctrinal uniformity.

Of course, the big talk this year (actually a spillover from previous years) is that of the motion for a constitutional change to be presented by Al Mohler, which would further restrict what is considered a “cooperating church.”

Here’s the specific language: A cooperating church “Does not act to affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”

I have been a Southern Baptist pastor for more than 38 years, have three degrees from SBC schools and seminaries, and I can probably list all the female pastors in the SBC I have known on one hand, and none of them were senior pastors. And I’ve lived and served in and near larger cities where this might be thought of as more common. The reality is this is not an issue at the local church level.

Should we part ways and relationships with longstanding brothers and sisters who we have partnered with in the kingdom because they might have a woman in a pastoral role? Fundamentalists can’t help themselves; they must always be engaged in a fight for what’s right according to them. Meanwhile, the boundaries of cooperation continue to shrink.

How did we get where we are? My personal view is simple, speaking as an insider and having served in the SBC at the state and local levels. For illustration, Jerry Falwell is my starting point. In my early years as a Southern Baptist, everyone knew Falwell to be an independent Baptist and very few Southern Baptists took him seriously from a theological and practical standpoint. We adamantly did not want to be independent Baptists.

As the conservative movement grew in the SBC, especially after cleaning house in the seminaries to remove anyone who was deemed “liberal” (actually moderate or progressive) by the new conservative standards, people outside the SBC like Falwell and John MacArthur were given “celebrity” status among the SBC leadership. Slowly, convention meetings and conferences were dominated by fundamentalists who were not Southern Baptists or by SBC pastors sympathetic to their direction.

Then, the Reformed movement became prominent in SBC life from the influence of people again outside the SBC like John Piper, Timothy Keller, John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul.

Within the SBC, almost every seminary president since the “takeover” has leaned toward strict fundamentalism or Reformed theology. Seminary graduates today often are leaving SBC schools as Reformed, which has drastically changed the landscape of the local SBC church. This is important because both fundamentalists and Reformed who lead the SBC share a worldview that doctrinal uniformity or purity (as they interpret it) and institutional control and power must be maintained.

This always creates an “us” vs “them” mentality. You are either “in” or “out” based on your adherence to the “doctrinal” and other rules determined by those in power.

Where Southern Baptists will go from here is anyone’s guess. I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I predict the pursuit of doctrinal unity and the clamp down on power in the SBC will continue resulting in more categories of “us” and “them.” I can only pray and hope I’m wrong because I remember the way we were, and I miss it.

 

Joe Alain serves as senior pastor of Carrollwood Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., and as a hospice chaplain with Chapters Health.