Bring it on – your nomination, that is

The 2006 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting will be held in Greensboro, N.C., at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex on June 13-14. It will be the fifth time the Convention has met in North Carolina, but the first time since 1916 when it met in Asheville.

Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., will complete his second year as president of the Convention and no doubt continue his “Everyone Can” challenge to win and baptize one million souls for Christ in 2006.

A recent Baptist Press article indicated that the “Everyone Can” challenge is gaining momentum as the annual meeting draws near. However, it appears that there are other issues that are becoming frequent topics of conversation as the Convention sessions loom on the horizon.

This year’s Pastors’ Conference is taking on a different look under the leadership of Bryant Wright, innovative pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta. Wright says, “My desire is to bridge the gap between the emerging young leaders and those who have served us so well for many years. Some of the young leaders have felt disenfranchised and I am excited about the challenge of encouraging many of them in building up the Kingdom of Christ.”

There are emerging young leaders who are flexing their muscles and convening at the Younger Leaders Summit II in the War Memorial Auditorium at 10 p.m. on Monday, June 12 following the annual Pastors’ Conference. Ed Stetzer of the North American Mission Board has been named the moderator of the Summit and intends to present the next steps in NAMB’s missional ministry initiative at the meeting.

Another recent development that has made the news is the “Memphis Declaration”, a 990-word document, issued by 31 conservative Baptists expressing displeasure over what they call a “narrowing of cooperation through exclusionary theological and political agendas” in the Southern Baptist Convention. The declaration dealt with a variety of issues ranging from repentance of triumphalism about SBC causes to an inattentiveness to convention governance.”

Additionally, there is a strong Calvinist movement within the Southern Baptist Convention. Some contend that the debate over Calvinism may be the next major theological controversy for our denomination. Fisher Humphries and Paul E. Robertson in their book God So Loved the World: Traditional Baptists and Calvinism believe that traditional and Calvinist Southern Baptists can function together graciously and lovingly, but that may be an unrealistic hope.

On another front, in January International Mission Board trustees in an unprecedented move voted to remove Oklahoma trustee Wade Burleson from their board due to “issues involving broken trust and resistance to accountability.” Burleson had posted comments on his weblog disagreeing with the board of trustees regarding their approval of missionary policies concerning baptism and private prayer language.

In March the trustees rescinded their action to remove Burleson, but a May 8 news release by Associated Baptist Press indicated that the controversy might not be over. Fellow Oklahoma pastor Winston Curtis of Highland Park Baptist Church in Duncan has written an open letter to Burleson, asking him to meet with him and trustee leaders to discuss Curtis’ “concerns”.

Furthermore, recent developments at the North American Mission Board relative to a called trustee meeting and the subsequent resignation of NAMB president Bob Reccord have created a vacancy at the helm of one of our most strategic agencies.

With all of the seemingly compelling issues that abound is it possible to get Southern Baptists together and devoted to the principal tasks of evangelism and missions? The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message article on Cooperation states: “Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ’s people.”

When electing officers and representatives to serve on committees and boards we need some guidelines. Let those who are elected be inerrantists. Let them be committed to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. Let them come from churches that give significantly through the Cooperative Program. Some have suggested that we should never require a certain percentage of CP giving for the churches that field nominees for leadership positions lest the Cooperative Program become the coercive program, but each person elected by the Convention to any responsibility should be a champion of the CP in their church and in their elected office.

I understand that constant vigilance must be maintained to preserve the victory of the conservative resurgence, but I think we have come to the time when we need to see multiple nominations for each convention office both on the national and state level.

Surely, this would create a greater sense of openness and expectancy at each convention meeting. It would place the Convention back into the hands of grassroots Southern Baptists and give everyone an equal sense of ownership.