The vision is magnificent, the message clear and simple. All who cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) can and should work together with God to empower growth of His Kingdom.
That was the basis of a report presented by an ad hoc group called the Cooperation Task Force to the SBC Executive Committee Feb. 18–19. A week earlier the report was previewed at a joint meeting of SBC entity leaders, state executive directors and state paper editors.
Empowering Kingdom Growth is not only the goal, it is the motto or slogan recommended in the report. The abbreviation — EKG — points to the seriousness of the effort. In medicine, an EKG examines the status of the heart. The new report contends that Empowering Kingdom Growth — EKG — should be the heart of every expression of convention life from cooperating churches to joint efforts expressed through SBC entities.
The report said “if Southern Baptists are more serious about Jesus than anything else, then the time is upon us to project a new, fresh vision for the years ahead.”
Empowering was defined as “to grant permission, to set free, to encourage, to bless, to support someone, to reach for greatness. It does not mean to stay the same, to control, to give strict direction or to limit progress.”
The report then asked what keeps Southern Baptists from being Kingdom people. “Why are we hesitant and given to distractions such as power concerns, money, doctrinal differences, gender issues, congregational size, worship styles and out-dated organizational practices? Why can we not claim a true Kingdom focus and stay with it until Jesus comes again?”
Important questions. While not an exhaustive list of issues before Southern Baptists, each item mentioned is a point of contention. That task force members such as International Mission Board (IMB) president Jerry Rankin, North American Mission Board president Robert Reccord and SBC Executive Committee president Morris Chapman would ask these questions gives the questions more weight.
The report then declared, “The point is, if all Southern Baptists in whatever capacity would begin asking ‘What are we really specifically doing in order to expand the Kingdom of God on earth?’ what a transition that could be! We just might put aside a lot that confuses and separates us and discover a new sense of purpose and action marked by unparalleled results in keeping with the mind of Christ.”
Hooray! Would that not be a wonderful day for Southern Baptists? The report said, “In the providence of God, such a decision could prove to be an unprecedented turning point in Christian history as for the first time a significant group of evangelical believers puts hindrances aside and becomes available to God with the determination that His Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Empowering Kingdom Growth will be a phrase heard and read often in Southern Baptist life in the months and years ahead. The vision cast in the 18-page report is one to which the vast majority of Alabama Baptists can ascribe.
Unfortunately, some questions linger. After the Cooperation Task Force report was prepared and before it was released, doctrinal issues arose. Rankin asked all international missionaries appointed before 2000 to affirm the revised Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) Statement of Faith adopted that year. He told state paper editors Feb. 13 that IMB trustees “refused” to call for such action and that he opposed the board requiring missionaries under appointment at the time the BF&M was revised having to sign the new document.
Still, Rankin asked the missionaries to affirm the document and said he expects 100 percent cooperation. He said no decision has been made about what will happen to missionaries who decline to affirm the 2000 statement.
In the similar time frame, the North American Mission Board announced a gender-based decision. Reccord said the entity he leads will no longer endorse women for chaplaincy positions who have been ordained by cooperating local Baptist churches. Denominational endorsement is necessary for chaplaincy appointment to the military and in federal medical and penal institutions.
The NAMB statement acknowledges that chaplains are not senior pastors of local Baptist churches. The 2000 BF&M says only men can be senior pastors but all other ministry positions are open to women. But the mission board cites a 16-year-old SBC resolution to support its decision to decline affirming ordained women as fit for service in chaplaincy positions.
Only days before the Empowering Kingdom Growth call was released, Chapman announced he would recommend to the SBC Executive Committee that an emerging state convention in Missouri not be recognized as a channel for receiving Cooperative Program funds.
Briefly stated, local issues resulted in a division among some Missouri Baptist churches. These churches said they desired to form a new state convention through which to continue supporting SBC causes. Chapman’s letter, which he publicly released, said “no.” The SBC has a good working relationship with the existing convention, he wrote, and he would not recommend cooperating with any new convention of Baptists in that state.
The SBC already recognizes two conventions each in Virginia and Texas. In those cases, the Executive Committee echoed the words of the Cooperation Task Force which said, “The denomination (convention) is there to serve the people, not to be served by the people, and the primary opportunity for service has to be directed toward the churches where the water first hits the wheel in Kingdom advancement.”
Not this time.
The message of the Cooperation Task Force about Empowering Kingdom Growth sent one kind of message, a message that said the convention would not be distracted by “power concerns, money, doctrinal differences, gender issues, congregational size, worship styles and outdated organizational practices.”
Recent announcements about SBC life sent another kind of message. Somehow, a way must be found to send a consistent message with words and deeds.
Centuries ago it was said that “in things necessary, unity; in things less than necessary, liberty; in all things, charity.” That seems to be a message consistent with the vision of Empowering Kingdom Growth. That is a message Baptists need in a consistent manner.
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