Adrian Rogers’ widow captured unexpected attention at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference June 12 by asserting that her husband would not approve of the narrowing parameters of fellowship in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Joyce Rogers — whose husband served as SBC president and longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, Tenn. — gently scolded Southern Baptists, saying: “Adrian Rogers would not have been a part of some things going on today, getting narrower and narrower about some issues. … Adrian Rogers was a gracious man who worked for unity in the body of Christ. He believed with all his heart inerrancy was a hill to die on. But he still sought unity in the body of Christ.”
Ed Young, another former SBC president and pastor of Second Baptist Church, Houston, likewise called for unity among Southern Baptist biblical inerrantists.
“Southern Baptists have forgotten who they are. And because of this, we do not know where we are going,” he insisted.
“Our theology is biblical; it is not systematic. Therefore we as Baptists, we are not Calvinist; we are not Arminian — we are Baptists. That’s who we are and we always come down somewhere in the middle.”
Functionally Southern Baptists have the Great Commission as their mission statement, Young said. Their marketing strategy is to reach Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
Above all, “we’ve got to have a supernatural healing in the SBC, a healing of relationships,” Young said.
“I was there through all the bloody battles, but let me tell you something, we all believe this book (the Bible),” he said. “We don’t need all of this fighting and cutting and hard line and ruling out.”
Rick Warren told those attending the conference, “People aren’t turned off to Jesus; they are just tired of people who don’t really follow Him.”
Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., could not attend the event but addressed the crowd via video June 11. His “red-letter” sermon — drawing strictly from the words of Christ in Scripture — listed nine ways Christians should imitate Christ:
• Integrity. “You are exactly what you appear to be. It’s not perfection but your life has wholeness and you speak the same in every situation,” Warren said.
• Humility. Lack of humility is the greatest cause of stress in a Christian’s life, Warren said. “Humility is not weakness; it’s dependence on God. Stress primarily comes from the need to control and a lack of trusting God. …
You’ll live with insecurity until you learn to let go and trust.”
• Simplicity. Jesus lived a simple life “and He said, ‘Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.’ Success isn’t measured by your salary,” Warren said.
• Possibility. Christians should be the most creative and innovative people in the world, he said.
• Hospitality. “This is practical love — love in action,” Warren said. “We don’t know how to be nice to one another anymore.”
• Civility. In everything, do to others what you’d have them do to you, he said.
• Charity. “Let your enemy bring out the best in you, not the worst,” Warren said, citing Matthew 5:44.
• Generosity. “Money is to be used, not loved,” he said.
• Priority. Put God’s work first, Warren said, as Christ commands in Matthew 6:33, and all other things will follow.
To read complete coverage of these speakers and others from the Pastors Conference, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org.
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