A New Denomination

by   Bobby Welch                                                                                                                                               Vol. V, No. 2, April 1992

[The following article by Rev. Bobby Welch, pastor of FBC, Daytona Beach, Florida was reprinted in the Spotswood Baptist Church newsletter.]

I want to say a word to First Baptist folks to offer some perspective on reports you are now hearing and of which you'll hear about the Southern Baptist Convention.

The liberal-moderates of the convention have now officially formed their own convention but are, for the present, not officially leaving the [Southern Baptist) convention. Out of 14 million SBC members, a group estimated at 6,000 met in Atlanta [in August 1990] to confirm these actions. They insist they are not really organizing a new convention, but the facts are overwhelmingly apparent. This group has its own institutions and schools, fund-raising mechanism, publications, etc., etc. That is definitely another convention!! All the while they are publicly and privately doing all possible to get Southern Baptist churches and members to stop supporting our convention causes through the Cooperative Program, as we've done in the past, and instead give the money and support to their new organization. "Why don't they just go ahead and leave?" you are probably asking.

To me, this group is exactly like a group that sometimes springs up in a church. This group has its own ideas, theology, methodology, and no longer wants to follow those upon which the church was founded and has moved forward. Very seldom do such dissenting groups have the grace and responsibility to simply go and continue their "new idea group" somewhere else. Usually such a group will stay within the mother church until it has collected as many people as it can and milked them for all the money possible. Then and only then will the group leave.

As I see it, this is precisely what is happening now with this liberal-moderate group within our convention. I was given a fairly detailed five year plan that was circulated at that group's meeting last summer [1990] which advocates exactly what I've said above with the date to withdraw formally from the Southern Baptist Convention to be in four years. Seems to me they are following that plan with little or no deviation. Their approach is doomed to failure because they are going to split many fine churches, ruin many pastors' ministries, and drive away thousands of wonderfully dedicated church members.

Otherwise, all across our 14 million member convention there is an increase in practically each and every area with optimism and excitement higher than it has been in the last decade. This coming decade should be one of our greatest history making eras in reaching the lost for the Lord! I've never been prouder or more thankful to be a Southern Baptist. Jesus is Lord!