by Bret Capranica | Jun 24, 2009 | Southern Baptist Issues
What an enjoyable day it has been today at the SBC – primarily a day to celebrate the Lord’s goodness in the 150th anniversary of The Southern Baptist Convention. Our day began with the consideration of resolutions. This is generally a very lively event as it is an opportunity for people with strong convictions to attempt to have the convention publicly agree with those convictions. The most notable resolutions of the day were: 1. The resolution addressing Barak Hussein Obama. It was a good balanced resolution affirming Scripture’s call for us to pray for those in leadership over us. It also acknowledged his obvious love and commitment to his wife and children. The resolution was also clear in its call for the President to abandon his commitment to those policies that he promotes and Scripture directly opposes. 2. The resolution on adoption was a joy for me to affirm. It was also a joy to see Russell Moore with his three adopted sons with him as the Convention unanimously affirmed it. I enjoyed having him sign his recent book on adoption. Very little business seems to be conducted this year from the floor. Which made for a fairly positive Convention overall. The key preacher of this year’s convention was David Platt. His message this morning was a passionate call to keep our focus on the key issues of meeting the needs of others through the gospel and proclaiming the greatness of God. The afternoon for us was spent at Southern Seminary for the annual luncheon afterwhich we toured the campus. We watched the chapel service from Heritage Hall and...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 24, 2009 | Southern Baptist Issues
Today was one of the best days at the Southern Baptist Convention I’ve had in a long time. There was plenty to get the blood pumping – both good and bad. Dr. Danny Akin began the day with a great review of 3 John and an exhortation to those at the Founders’ Breakfast. Here’s his words of caution: 1 Don’t make Calvinism such a priority that you cannot work with other confessional Christians for the Great Commission. 2 Take the high road in your rhetoric even if others don’t. 3 Avoid being a theological elitist. 4 Be known as a Great Commission Calvinist. 5 Cultivate a passion for the nations and go to them. 6 Get involved in church planting. 7 Do not be known more for following Jesus than John Calvin. The next event was the opening of the Convention. The highlight of the morning session was the CEO of the Executive Committe, Dr. Morris Chapman’s report to the SBC. He came out swinging at everyone. While always gracious in his demeanor, he proceeded to attack virtually everyone in the room. The Calvinists seems to take the bulk of his invectives. I do not believe Dr. Chapman is completely ignorant of what Calvinism truly believes, so I have to think that he knew that he was setting up and knocking down the poorest of straw men. He suggested that Calvinism taught that God was so sovereign that man had no responsibility to believe and repent. How sad. He went after those who supported the Great Commission Resurgence and while gracious, nonetheless went off on a tangent. His report...
by Bret Capranica | Jun 23, 2009 | Featured Articles, Southern Baptist Issues
Here’s more on the current trends and debates in the SBC in advance of this week’s annual meeting. Perhaps this is a generationally driven debate. Younger generations (I still wistfully place myself on the senior end of this group) are questioning the viability, reasonability, and rationale of being a part of a denomination that appears more and more irrelevant to the daily life of the local church. I don’t think what I have said is an overstatement. You need only listen to this generation speak of their experiences with denominational life. Other groups are rising up who are more streamlined and focused on what matters biblically and how they can assist churches to accomplish it. The Great Commission Resurgence group is rightly focusing on the downward trend of the next generation’s involvement and commitment to an old and waning way of cooperation among churches. Personally, I believe there are good reasons to remain committed to the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe our cooperative way of funding missions allows us to do much more than we could any other way. Yet, herein lies some of the problem. Doing more tends to bring about more bureaucracy that lessons more action. I think we need to define “missions” biblically and root it fundamentally in the local churches. Yet, if focused and streamlined, I believe our missions agencies could be increasingly on mission and less self-focused and self-promotional. If local churches were headquarters for the mission organization and seen, not merely as a pool from which to draw people and money for their own program, but rather seen as the center for missions,...
