A Great Convention! Patterson elected, family article added to BFM.
by T. C. Pinckney Vol. XI, No. 6, June/July 1998
Something over 8,500 messengers from Southern Baptist churches gathered in Salt Lake City 7-8 June for the Pastors’ Conference and 9-11 June for the annual convention where the two most dramatic events were the election of Dr. Paige Patterson as the new SBC president and adoption of a new article on the family for the Baptist Faith and Message.
New president: Patterson was associate pastor of First Baptist, Dallas, and simultaneously as president of Criswell Bible College for seventeen years. A graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, he is best known as an architect — along with Paul Pressler, layman from Houston — of the conservative resurgence within the SBC, an effort which they began during the 1970's. Since 1992 Patterson has been president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC. He is the first seminary president to serve as president since L.R. Scarborough, president of Southwestern, in 1939-40. During his six years at Southeastern enrollment has increased from some 450 to 1700.
He was elected by acclamation, there being no other nominations. Shortly after his election Patterson stated that his goal is for a million people to be baptized in the year 2000 through Southern Baptist evangelistic efforts at home and abroad. "We've had 20 years of controversy that I happen to believe was essential. That's all behind us now," Patterson said. "What is before us now is to unify our hearts and minds on one objective -- being faithful to that which Christ asks us to do."
Whether the nearly 16 million members of the Southern Baptist Convention feel good about his election probably depends on whether they share his vision of leading a far greater number to faith in Christ, he reflected. With the emphasis Patterson intends to place on worldwide evangelization, he said anyone who believes the Bible is true and is "deeply concerned about reaching the world with the message of Jesus Christ is going to be increasingly happy in the Southern Baptist Convention."
As to whether there will be efforts to reach out to moderate Southern Baptists who have criticized the conservative resurgence, Patterson said, "Those with serious questions about the validity and veracity of certain portions of the Word and who do not have a deep commitment to missions are going to be less happy with the Southern Baptist Convention of the 21st century."
BFM Article on the Family: Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting added a statement on the family to their 35-year-old Baptist Faith and Message statement during the Tuesday afternoon session, June 9, in Salt Lake City's Salt Palace Convention Center. The four-paragraph statement was adopted as presented after the failure of two efforts to amend it.
The proposal was brought to provide "in unequivocal terms the clear teaching of Scripture" on the family, said Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and chairman of the committee that prepared the proposal. "Divorce, homosexuality, abortion and abuse all tear at the fabric of the family," Jordan said prior to the vote. "While there has been a barrage of books from every perspective on family, we have failed to give a clear call to biblical principles of family life."
A seven-member committee brought the proposal to SBC messengers as the result of a motion passed at the 1997 annual meeting that asked SBC President Tom Elliff to appoint a committee to produce a statement on the roles of husband, wife and children in the family.
"The statement on family is thoroughly biblical," stated Jordan. "Every line is deeply rooted in the clear teaching of Scripture. ... Our intent was to craft a confessional statement that declared what is believed rather than to describe what is disbelieved. It is a positive declaration of biblical truth regarding family. "While cultural standards are like shifting sand, this article stands on the firm foundation of the Word of God. We believe the proposed article captures the essential teachings of Scripture in regard to family," he said.
One amendment offered from the floor suggested changing paragraph 3, sentence 5 to read: "Both husband and wife are to submit graciously to each other as servant leaders in the home even as the church willingly submits to the lordship of Christ." The author of the amendment, Tim Owings, First Baptist Church, Augusta, GA, said: "We need to be very clear that when we amend the Baptist Faith and Message, a document that has stood us well as Southern Baptists for nearly three decades, that we do so scripturally. "Paul's admonition to the Ephesians as recorded in Ephesians 5:21 and as cited in the committee's report clearly states: 'Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,' " Owings continued. "Husbands, wives and children are as followers of Jesus to submit to each other and supremely to the lordship of Christ. If we are going to amend the Baptist Faith and Message, let us do so being true to holy Scripture and not contrary to it."
A second amendment suggested adding two sentences to paragraph 1: "The Bible contains many examples of the diverse manifestations of the family. Single adults, childless couples, widows and widowers can comprise legitimate and biblical expressions of the family." The amendment's author, Dennis Wyles of First Baptist Church, Hunstville, AL, said: "I pastor a church that has many members that would be described by the statement as it stands written without amendment, so I am grateful to this committee for your fine work. I also have many members in my congregation who are single adults, who are widows, widowers, married couples without children. "I read in the commentary section (which was prepared by the committee to more fully explain the statement and was distributed to messengers) that those situations are addressed, but they are not addressed in the body of the article that will appear in the Baptist Faith and Message, so I'm simply asking that we include a broad, biblical statement about the family and not just one about marriage and parenting."
In separate votes by uplifted ballots, each amendment clearly failed.
The statement became Article 18 of the Baptist Faith and Message, which was first drafted in 1925 to serve as "information to the churches" and "guidelines to the various agencies" of the Southern Baptist Convention. Revised in 1963, the statement is not officially a creed since it is not binding on churches or individual believers. Southern Baptist agencies, however, require employees to accept its tenets.
The statement as adopted reads:
"God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
"Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church, and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel for sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
"The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
"Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents."
Convention Schedule Shortened: Messengers voted to reduce the annual meeting from three to two days beginning in 1999. Sessions will end Wednesday night rather than noon Thursday. Time will continue to be reserved on Wednesday afternoons for “seminary luncheons and other necessary meetings.” The abbreviated schedule was made possible in part because of the SBC restructuring completed last June which reduced the number of SBC agencies from 21 to 15, which also reduced the number of reports that have to be scheduled. Another factor is that the conservative resurgence has now been settled at the SBC level, and consequently not merely as many contentious issues are addressed and not as much time is necessary for debates.
Resolutions: Seven resolutions were passed, six substantive and the standard one of appreciation. It was most appropriate in Salt Lake City, the capital of Mormonism, which asserts that the Bible is corrupted in hundreds of places and which claims to have three other more authoritative scriptures that we “affirm the finality, sufficiency, and exclusivity of the Christian Gospel and of biblical revelation as the sole source of saving truth. ”A second resolution “On Moral Character of Public Officials” “implore(d) our government leaders to live by the highest standards of morality both in their private actions and in their public duties...” Another resolution on women in combat calls “upon the President, Congress, and all military leaders to reverse the present policy and to restore the historic limitation of military combat service to males only.” Number four called upon Congress to stop funding religious bigotry and urged them if the National Endowment for the Arts and Public Broadcasting do not stop “these outrageous incidents” top stop public funding of those organizations. Number 5 applauded efforts in various states to strengthen marriage. Number 6 deals with President Clinton’s Executive Order which “prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce” and calls upon Congress to nullify that Order. A motion to amend from the floor would have requested Clinton’s home church to prayerfully consider disciplinary action against him if he does not rescind the order. The amendment narrowly failed 1071 to 1005.
CrossOver Salt Lake: For the last several years the convention has been preceded by a CrossOver” evangelistic campaign in the host city and surrounding area. A preliminary report on Crossover brought by NAMB vice president John Yarborough, revealed that 19 block parties had been held and that 18 churches participated in doing door to door canvassing. There were 1,713 professions of faith, about ten percent by Mormons. One striking fact is that while Hispanics comprise only about 10% of the Salt Lake area population, some 750 accepted Christ; that’s 44% of the total professions.
In response to TV commercials and full-page newspaper ads, over 3,780 calls to a toll-free number asking for a free copy of the "Jesus" video. These will be personally delivered to the homes in the next few weeks.
Participants emphasized the major role played by prayer in the successes. Prayer efforts included 100 days of prayer, 40 days of prayer and fasting, and one four-hour prayer meeting on 30 May.
Other Items of Interest: Messengers approved a Cooperative Program Allocation Budget of $155,005,723 for 1998-99, which represents a $6.8 million increase over the 1997-98 budget. The new budget is the same as actual receipts for the last completed fiscal year, 1996-97.
As first vice president, messengers elected Rick Ferguson, pastor of Riverside Baptist, Denver by 61.12% over William L. Wagner, missionary emeritus of Mill Valley, CA. For second vice, Mike Gray, pastor of Southeast BC, Salt Lake, was elected with 57% over Manuel Galindo, Texas, with 24% and Paul Blanchard, Louisville, with 18%.
Virginia was well represented with 380 messengers registered, eleventh among high attendance states. Dr. Jerry Falwell and seven other messengers from Thomas Road BC, Lynchburg, were present, the first time Thomas Road has been officially represented. Falwell first became affiliated with Southern Baptists in 1996 when his church gave $1,000 to the SBCV. Fifty percent of that contribution went to the SBC and made the church a cooperating Southern Baptist congregation.
Two Virginia churches had eight messengers present: Thomas Road and Good news BC, Alexandria. Good News has 171 total members. One Virginia church had ten members present but I was unable to determine which church it was.
The Baptist Sunday School Board is now LifeWay Christian Resources of the SBC. LifeWay president Jimmy Draper explained that this name is based on John 14:6 where Jesus said he is the way, the truth and the life. Draper also explained that when the BSSB began, its only mission was to provide Sunday School literature. Now their mission is greatly expanded, including music, videos, training courses, building helps, and other resources. The new name is certainly a better reflection of this group's role.
Dr. Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board, reported on NAMB’s first year and emphasized that, “Our prayer is for a growing network of on-mission Christians and on-mission churches that will partner as never before in evangelistic and church-planting strategies throughout North America” which ties in with the debut of NAMB’s new bi-monthly magazine, On Mission. Reccord announced details of a plan to conduct two major evangelistic projects each year in 17 major cities beginning in 2000 with campaigns in Chicago and Phoenix. The effort, known as Strategic Focus Cities, will mobilize thousands of Southern Baptist volunteers and other resources to share the gospel through mass media, planting new churches, special events, door-to-door campaigns, sports clinics, and other efforts. Next year NAMB will conduct a pilot project for Strategic Focus Cities during “Arms Around Atlanta,” an evangelistic effort surrounding the convention’s 1999 annual meeting there. Churches and individuals wishing to participate in the Arms Around Atlanta or any other NAMB effort may call NAMB at 770-410-6000 and ask to be connected to the right office.
Forty-six new home missionaries were appointed during the convention, bringing the total appointed thus far in 1998 to 137.
See separate article covering the remarks of Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board.
Virginians elected to first terms on SBC committees and boards were: Committee on Nominations: John T. Howeth, pastor, Cardinal BC, Ruther Glen, and John Simms, layman, First Baptist, Roanoke; SBC Executive Committee: Archie R. Smith, layman, Kempsville BC, Virginia Beach; and Annuity Board: Danny M. Gregg, pastor, Wayne Hills BC, Waynesboro. Re-elected to second terms were: Southern Seminary: Howard A. Baldwin, evangelist, Richmond; Southeastern Seminary: Charles W. Waller, pastor, Covenant BC, Warrenton; and Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission: Ronald W. Lee, pastor, Princess Anne Plaza BC, Virginia Beach. [Based upon BP releases.]