Where are You and Your Church Heading?

by Dr. J. Michael Palmer                                                                      Vol. IX, No. 10, Nov/Dec 1996

As we move toward the twenty-first century, much misunderstanding remains about the direction of churches, denominations, seminaries, etc. After the continual barrage of criticism in denominational and secular media, some people in Virginia probably think the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia are a bunch of rednecks trying to return to "a million I more in '54."

I remember a denominational leader in 1991 demeaning our SBC seminaries by calling them "Bible schools." We are supposed to believe that conservatism is synonymous with academic destruction. Unfortunately some do believe that.

And yet the opposite is true. Read below what J. I. Packer wrote about conservatism in the book Power Religion, edited by Michael Scott Horton.

"Now take conservatism. A relatively modern word, with a sociopolitical focus, conservatism also I has two tones or meanings, each determined by usage.

"One sort of conservatism is a heroic resolve to preserve whatever in one's heritage one sees to be truly valuable; to hold onto it and defend it, come what may, and to call back to it those in the community who are drifting or have drifted from it and may indeed be actively undermining it. Such conservatism calls for a responsible use of one's intelligence and critical judgment and also for the courage to swim against the cultural tide where necessary, in order to safeguard what is right and precious. That sort of conservatism – creative conservatism as I venture to call it – may prove to be the most radical, realistic, hard-thinking, forward-looking, and stimulating option that the marketplace of ideas has to offer. Such is tone-one conservatism.

"The other sort of conservatism, however, is a blind, stubborn, "Archie Bunkerish" adherence to what is old and conventional just because it is old and conventional, a knee-jerk reaction of the mind expressing nothing more respectable or responsible than prejudices that one refuses to examine. Jesus noted that no one, after drinking old wine, wants the new, "for he says, 'The old is better'" (Luke 5:39). He was exposing the psychology of that kind of conservatism, namely, a wish to be soothed and massaged and made to feel easy by a constant flow of the familiar. Such is conservatism, tone two: a nostalgic syndrome that buries its head with regard to the future and seeks only to hang on to the past. I label that, in King James language, "carnal conservatism," since the inertia of mind at its heart is flesh-fed, just as it is flesh-pleasing. Both sorts of conservatism exist: the first is praiseworthy and the second pathetic."

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia seek to be creative as they swim against the cultural tide in our state. They are purpose driven under the Word of God and the Spirit of God. They seek no acrimony. In Packer's example above, they are "tone one" conservatives. It is time for like-minded folks to join hands together as we attempt to win our state for Christ. Do not let the criticism of others stop you from investigating this new opportunity to help develop an exciting and powerful team.

[Mike Palmer is pastor, Green Ridge BC, Roanoke.]