What Will Be the Legacy?

Near the end of his convention sermon on Wednesday morning, Stuart Davidson, pastor of Eastern Shore Baptist Church, Daphne, asked messengers what legacy their personal lives were building. The issue of legacy seems an appropriate question to ask of the 2017 annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.

What will be the legacy of this important meeting? There are several possibilities.

The days and weeks leading up to the report of the Samford Relationship Study Group of the State Board of Missions was a tense time. Many wondered what would happen. Some feared what might happen. And several groups worked to tap down emotions that could be divisive. Would this controversy be the legacy?

Hallway conversations said the Resolutions Committee was considering whether or not to present a resolution dealing with sexual abuse. Unofficial accounts said debate waged between leading the convention to take a stand on this public issue or to heed warnings about the possible political implications of such a resolution in the state’s current race for United States senator.

Would the legacy be the committee’s decision?

Encouraging reports

The ministries of Alabama Baptists all presented encouraging reports. Messengers saw lives changed by these ministries, learned of record offerings for hurricane relief, heard about expanding opportunities at related colleges and faithful service of all they support in Alabama through the Cooperative Program. Would the ongoing work of the entities related to the state convention be the meeting’s legacy?

The legacy could be the inspiration provided by the outstanding sermons of Davidson, convention president John Thweatt and Derek Gentle, pastor of First Baptist Church, Tallassee. It could be the work of laymen like Rick Burgess and Kevin Derryberry who drew the largest crowd of the convention on Tuesday evening or layman Malachi Gandy of Bush Memorial Baptist Church, Troy, who described his personal experience in making Christian disciples.

Would the words of lay Alabama Baptist leaders be the most lasting part of the annual meeting?

Instead of choosing a single event, perhaps there is a word that embraces the many varied parts of the annual meeting. If so, that word has to be “hope” for hope is what messengers clung to as they departed Huntsville at the conclusion of the 195th annual session of the state convention.

In practically all controversies, parties see facts from their particular perspective. Caution, and even mistrust, can filter perceptions. The Samford Relationship Study Group called its report of the history of the committee’s work “facts.” But in Samford University President Andrew Westmoreland’s brief response during the discussion time following the report, he indicated differences in understandings of certain “facts” shared by the study committee.

Whose understandings are right and wrong is not the issue. We celebrate that all parties worked to be transparent with Alabama Baptists. That in itself provides reason for hope. Power and manipulation cannot long live where transparency reigns. At the same time we recognize that those closest to a controversy are not always those with the clearest perspective despite their best efforts. If they were, there would be few controversies.

Still hope persisted at the end of the day. Samford remained a part of the state convention. Yes that relationship is evolving as the report stated but Westmoreland described Samford as “velcro” that would stay stuck to Alabama Baptists. The convention promised to continue working with Samford. Hope believes those promises and works to make them come true.

The Resolutions Committee reported out resolutions on several important topics including one on “Gospel Unity for All Races and Ethnicities in Alabama”. But the committee did not bring up the topics of sexual abuse or harassment of women.

Online statement

Hours after the convention ended, however, an ad hoc group calling itself the Alabama Baptist Pastor Group circulated a statement online denouncing “Sexual Abuse, Assault, Harassment and Exploitation of Women” (see story, page 5). The statement drew early endorsement from Alabama Baptist leaders such as convention president John Thweatt and Alabama Citizens Action Program Executive Director Joe Godfrey.

The statement continues to circulate on social media and had 59 signatures at press time.

The reason for hope is that an increasing number of convictional leaders are finding ways to articulate a biblical view related to a growing number of important moral and ethical issues of the day without regard to politics. That is what Baptists have done on issues such as gambling, alcohol, abortion, homosexuality and more. Why should sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation of women be any different?

Despite the backdrop of denominational controversy for the past several months and the continuing decline of financial support through the Cooperative Program, Baptist entities have persevered in faithfulness to their various charges from Alabama Baptists. One could not listen to the reports from convention-related entities without a new sense of appreciation for their contributions to Kingdom work in the state and beyond.

As Gentle quipped in his sermon, Baptists persevere and God preserves. Alabama Baptist entities continue to persevere at their assigned tasks and they continue to make a difference in the lives of individuals, churches and the denomination as a whole. They continue to trust God to preserve. What could be a better legacy of hope than that?
Hope abounded in the sermons and testimonies. Thweatt reminded messengers, “Character matters regardless of the leader. Whether you are the president or a pastor, whether you are a senator or a Sunday School teacher, whether you are a governor or a greeter, character matters,” he declared.

Sell out to God

Burgess captivated listeners as he paced back and forth across the platform of Whitesburg Baptist Church urging listeners to quit playing games and sell out to God. Even the opening song of the convention shared by the Alabama Baptist Singing Men and Alabama Baptist Singing Women illustrated the timeless hope of the gospel message. The arrangement combined a song written in the 1700s with a song written in 2015 and both stressed the grace of God.
The eternal hope of the gospel should be a legacy of every convention and the basis for our hope in God through Jesus Christ.

The road of life is filled with bumps. That includes the road of relationships among Christians. Sometimes we may feel afflicted, perplexed, even persecuted. But we are never crushed, never in despair, never forsaken and never alone (2 Cor. 4:8–9). We are part of a Christian family and individually and corporately, our hope is in God. That is and always will be our ultimate legacy.