Texas pastor Dwight Mc-Kissic, who has been at the center of a debate in the Southern Baptist Convention over speaking in tongues, has resigned his trustee position with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, Arlington, Texas, told the seminary’s trustee board chairman in a June 20 letter that his role as a trustee was a "huge distraction."
"I’ve been distracted and consumed with SBC/SWBTS matters the past nine months in a way that I haven’t been the past 24 years," McKissic wrote. "It has taken a tremendous toll on my family and ministry, and my wife believes it has negatively impacted my health. I simply want to return to the place I was prior to being a trustee."
McKissic told of his personal use of tongues during a sermon in the chapel of the seminary last August. Two months later, the seminary trustee board — with McKissic dissenting — voted not to hire professors or administrators who promote charismatic Christian practices, which include speaking in tongues.
Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson said, "It is well known that we have not always agreed, but we are brothers in Christ and I love this pastor."
McKissic has criticized an International Mission Board guideline that says missionaries who currently practice "ecstatic utterance as a prayer language" will not be accepted. (RNS)
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