New Texas Executive Director

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                       Vol. XII, No. 9, October 1999

Texas is BIG! Not just geographically and not just in the opinions of Texophiles, but also in Southern Baptist affairs. Of the 40,000 plus SBC churches, approximately 5,500 are in Texas. Thus what happens in Southern Baptist affairs in Texas should be of interest to all of us.

There are two state conventions in Texas (as there are in Virginia): the older and increasingly liberal Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), and the new (constituted 10 November 1998) and conservative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC).

The SBTC is, of course, still relatively small, but it is growing rapidly. Since the first of January an average of one new church has applied to join every other day, and they total 225 churches as of 14 September. You may wish to visit their web site: www.sbtexas.com. You can also subscribe to their newspaper, The Southern Baptist Texan, through the web site. In summary, the SBTC is new, still small but growing quickly, gives 50% of all undesignated receipts to the SBC budget, and is thoroughly conservative biblically. I know their executive director, Jim Richards; the chairman of their executive board, Dee Slocum; their state president, Stan Coffey; and a number of the members of their executive board. Finer, more committed, Bible-believing Southern Baptists you won’t find anywhere.

The BGCT, on the other hand, has moved increasingly away from the SBC as the SBC has returned to the full authority of God’s Word. The latest BGCT news centers on the upcoming replacement for Dr. Willam M. Pinson, BGCT executive director, who retires 31 January.

In August, the search committee nominated Phil Lineberger, pastor of Williams Trace Baptist Church in Sugar Land, and Lineberger welcomed the nomination, saying, “I’m very humbled, and I’m looking forward to the challenge...” Soon after that announcement, however, Lineberger withdrew, saying he could not gain any sense of peace that it was God's will for him. Then the search committee met again and turned to Charles Wade, immediate past president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and pastor for 23 years of First Baptist Church, Arlington, Texas.

Wade was among the organizers of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a denomination-like organization formed in 1991 in protest of the Southern Baptist Convention's leadership, and was co-chairman of the steering committee for the CBF's 1992 general assembly, a member of the CBF's Coordinating Council from 1991-94 and a program leader at the 1999 CBF general assembly in Birmingham, AL. In 1998, the year after he concluded his BGCT presidency, Wade was among the speakers in a series of CBF rallies across Texas led by CBF national coordinator Daniel Vestal. Wade also has been an executive committee member of Texas Baptists Committed, an organization that has been strongly critical of the SBC.

In the conservative-moderate campaign for the BGCT presidency in 1995, Wade told a rally at a Dallas church that if he, as the moderate nominee, were not elected, "It'll be a disaster for Texas," according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. In 1997, the Dallas Morning News reported that Wade had dismissed rumors that he might run for the SBC presidency. "I don't feel a part of it anymore. It doesn't represent what matters to me," he told the paper.

Regardless of Dr. Wade’s other qualities, the above excerpts demonstrate where he stands and the direction in which the BGCT is heading.

Should, however, you find it hard to believe the BGCT has really become so liberal, consider the following biographical facts about Phil Lineberger, the original selection for executive director: Lineberger was a co-chairman in 1994 of the moderates' organization, Texas Baptists Committed (TBC), and is a member of its executive committee. In the TBC newsletter in 1994, he wrote, "... we must continue to elect BGCT leaders opposed to fundamentalists['] control but committed to being inclusive." If "fundamentalist leaders" are elected, he wrote, they "will not be inclusive[,] and we have the SBC example to prove that won't work." In 1979, he wrote, "one faction of the [SBC] family took control of the denomination by deceptive means. To be frank, they started a lie, 'that our SBC leadership and seminary professors did not believe the Bible.'"

In the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Lineberger recently served on the Theological Education & Scholarships Task Group. He was a worship leader at this year's assembly and, in 1998, was co-leader of a workshop on "Educating Church Leaders: Telling Your Church the Truth about Being Baptist." He also is a director of Associated Baptist Press, a news service heavily funded by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In Texas, he was a member of the Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee and the E/E Funding Committee, groups which recommended a number of changes weakening the state convention's longtime relationship with the SBC.

The above facts should settle the question of which way the Baptist General Convention of Texas has gone. Pray for God’s blessings upon the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. [Data from BP]