The Conservative Baptist Network has issued a comprehensive report called “The Evidences of Concerns Within the Southern Baptist Convention”. It reflects a well-intentioned effort to detail the questionable actions the denomination’s leadership has taken during recent years that suggest a leftward drift taking place.
Take the time to peruse this document. It is fairly eye-opening.
But we also need to be aware of opportunities to help fix this situation.
The Southern Baptist Convention will be meeting this year in New Orleans June 13-14. Concerned Southern Baptists– including folks who are not clergy– can attend the meeting if they are appointed by their church to attend. That is the only opportunity to vote for more conservative leadership within the convention.
We are going to need laymen going to the meeting in large numbers– and voting the right way– in order to right this ship. The usual institutions within the convention flood the meeting with attendees (the seminaries and mission boards, for example), and these tend to skew somewhat leftward. Many clergy also support the current regime, so we cannot rely on clergy alone to make this happen.
Those interested who are members of Southern Baptist churches can inquire with their church staff about how to get appointed or nominated to attend.
TC: I am going to send this to my friend in Texas who is very involved in the 16,000 member First Baptist Church of Dallas. Maybe he and others from the congregation can go to New Orleans.
Thanks so much, Fred. That has historically been a conservative church; and if they go, they need to be able to identify the conservative candidates or “slate” for leadership. (I don’t know that those have come forward as of yet.)