SBC too liberal?

[Revmitchell]

Sure is a lot of visceral doom and gloom on this board, mistrust of leadership of any sort, and amazingly enough everyones differing opinion is in the majority. How about that.

The truth is it is all defense rather than a positive encouragement and desire to support the kingdom of God.

Its all an inward nuerotic focus and excludes the kingdom, and God.

Good luck with it all.

 

[2BHizown]

When I read James I am convinced that almost every denomination and convention is leaning towards liberalism in its practice because it moves from a position of obedience and loving God to a political position in an attempt to simply survive.

It reminds me of the story "The Lifesaving Station" at http://www.fcclighthouse.com/

I agree totally! I cant believe the poster that said SBC and liberal dont even belong in the same sentence! Surely you jest! I'm sure it doesnt apply to all SBC churches but so many have lost their way in an effort to appease and to gain numbers!
I was a member of one SBC church that after 9/11 invited a 'muslim priest' to speak and even gave him a standing ovation! Unbelievable! This is a man being honored in the pulpit that denies the deity of Christ! People need to wake up and hear whats happening! Christ Himself told others to count the cost, be ready to lose your life to protect the surety of Christ and His gospel! Compromise is rampant and sermons aren't even based on God's Word many times! There is a famine of the Word and people neither know nor understand what is expected of them to become a disciple of Christ. 'Just sign a card, pray a prayer' and thats your guarantee of going to heaven'.
What a dreadful shock for the multitudes is waiting if someone doesnt wake up, kneel down and find out what God said!
Thankfully after that 9/11 incident I both confronted the pastors and prayed that God would lead me to a real church where His word was preached and He was fully honored in worship as a holy God! My prayer was answered and I am now fed scripture, not email jokes or trivia, but God's holy word, three times weekly! I love HIs word and Him and in His word I find His whole truth!!

 

[gb93433]

• There is an incredible amount of cynicism about the current leadership because of the culture of mistrust that they have created
• The so-called “conservatives” are turning on each other to create even more divisions in unity and fellowship

According to scripture they are deluded and worldly.

James 1:22, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for [once] he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

 

[PastorSBC1303]

Sure is a lot of visceral doom and gloom on this board, mistrust of leadership of any sort, and amazingly enough everyones differing opinion is in the majority. How about that.

The truth is it is all defense rather than a positive encouragement and desire to support the kingdom of God.

Its all an inward nuerotic focus and excludes the kingdom, and God.

Good luck with it all.

You took the words out of my mouth.

I never realized there were so many experts around the BB.

 

[Jack Matthews]

I have to disagree with this part of your analysis. A number of things have changed in the SBC:

• There is an incredible amount of cynicism about the current leadership because of the culture of mistrust that they have created
• Fewer churches want to be publicly identified with Southern Baptists
• Younger SBC leaders are starting to recognized and expose the tactics and powerplays of the SBC leadership that were previously used on those they unjustly maligned as “moderates” and “liberals.”
• Cooperative Program gifts are down
• Seminary enrollment (of graduate students) is down
• The so-called “conservatives” are turning on each other to create even more divisions in unity and fellowship
• A very large number of people are alienated from the Convention and Convention causes, and are pursuing other ways to fulfill the Great Commission (for instance, through the Baptist General Convention of Texas)

Cynicism about current SBC leaders goes back to at least as long as I have been a Southern Baptist. Criticizing the SBC and Tennessee Baptist Convention leadership was a favorite pastime of ministerial students at the university I attended. I think that's par for the course.

The SBC does seem to be going through a statistical down cycle, though the total membership does increase. But it seems that there is something that isn't quite right about the way the records are kept, for there to be 16 million church members, but only about 5 million actually in worship each week. There's a discrepancy there somewhere.

I once heard a pastor say that it was probably easier to herd cats than to put the 40,000 churches of the SBC under a single label. Nashville probably has as high a percentage of SBC congregations as any city in the country, especially with Lifeway, the SBC Executive Committee and the Tennessee Baptist Convention here, along with a Baptist university, and yet, within a 5 mile radius of our church, you won't find two churches that are exactly alike in either style or theology.

I do find the decision of the GARBC not to continue its relationship with Cedarville University because of its fraternal relationship with Ohio Southern Baptists to be elitist, exclusive, and childish. It also sets a very bad example for those who are not Christians to see brothers fall out and behave so badly in public.

 

[Revmitchell]

Criticizing the SBC and Tennessee Baptist Convention leadership was a favorite pastime of ministerial students at the university I attended.

This favorite past time seems to have carried over to the BB. Maybe the passing of time could be better spent.

 

[Joseph M. Smith]

I agree totally! I cant believe the poster that said SBC and liberal dont even belong in the same sentence! Surely you jest! I'm sure it doesnt apply to all SBC churches but so many have lost their way in an effort to appease and to gain numbers!

I am the one who said that, so I do need to chime in. Admittedly, the statement was a bit of homiletic rhetoric, as obviously I do not know the theological stances of millions of people. But what I mean is that the general posture of Southern Baptist churches and people, as I have read or experienced it in over 40 years in ministry, is quite orthodox. You just do not find, at least in any public way, the kinds of stances you might find in United Methodist, United Church of Christ, or some Episcopalian parishes.

Now, what do we mean by "liberal"? It is a term that gets tossed around to label all sorts of things. It really, technically, means that one has a low Christology and a weak anthropology. In other words, liberalism means that one does not affirm the uniqueness of Christ, so that He is no longer the way, the truth, and the life; and/or that sin is not a profound and universal flaw in the human character. Liberals think that if you are sincere you are saved and that if we just fed, clothed, and educated people they would be in good shape.

In other words, views of Biblical inspiration, understandings about ethics, concepts of church government, preferences about worship style are secondary, and do not make one a "liberal". If an SBC person or church is concerned to redeem people from their sinful state by proclaiming Christ as the only way to reconcile with God, then it is not liberal, but is right on target ... as are other churches.

Jack Matthews' postings on the SBC fundamentalist convergence have been right on target, too, in my opinion. But I have to say that, sadly, I also agree with the commentator who described his observations as disagreements. They really weren't disagreements; they were extensions of Matthews' points, and they do demonstrate that the kind of accusations that the conservative resurgence in the SBC stirred up are damaging both to koinonia and to kerygma.

 

[StefanM]

The SBC is too uptight, not too liberal, IMO.