Don't mischaracterize younger ministers

I just finished reading Mr. James L. Smyrl’s letter, “Content to Preach the Word,” published in the Index June 8. At first glance, I was not sure to which event he was referring. Upon reading his letter a second time, I believe him to be responding to the Younger Leaders summit, hosted by Dr. Jimmy Draper, which served as a sort of culmination of a year’s worth of Dr. Draper’s and his staff’s work and energy.

As one who participated in both the dialogues and summer meeting, I am compelled to respond to Mr. Smyrl’s mischaracterization of what transpired. Lest the readers be misled, they should be reminded that Draper first mentioned the dearth of younger involvement in convention life during the Lifeway report at the 2004 annual meeting in Indianapolis.

He and Lifeway then initiated a series of “listening sessions” and “dialogues” to bring younger pastors and church leaders together with associational, state convention and SBC leaders to discuss matters pertinent to and pray for the future of the SBC. Had Mr. Smyrl attended one of those sessions, surely he would not have come away with the impression that the participants’ sole concern was to bemoan their own lack of status or clout as denominational personalities.

Further, I cannot help but wonder if he watched via Internet the same meeting at which I was present last summer. One of the speakers was a state convention representative who spoke of how the younger generation of pastors and church leaders operates from a deep sense of mission. Another was a pastor who spoke of the need to find creative means by which to tell the Bible’s story to an unchurched generation. A third was a middle-aged pastor who already enjoys leadership prominence in his own state convention. A fourth was a young pastor who presently serves as a Lifeway trustee. A final pastor spoke of the convention’s need to have a more clearly defined vision and to be known for what we’re “for” more than what we’re “against.”

Each of the speakers was invited by Dr. Draper and were given their topics for discussion. And, considering that a state convention staffer, an entity trustee, a middle-aged pastor, and two church planters with “post-denominational” leanings were on the agenda, it would have been rather absurd for them to have spent their time bemoaning how they’d been “slighted” or leading “a round table discussion over their exclusion from leadership” since three of them already enjoyed positions of “convention leadership” and the other two wouldn’t likely desire such positions in the first place.

The several hundred young men and women who gathered at the meeting did so to express their gratitude to Dr. Draper for his efforts (and for speaking up about the elephant in the living room that many of his peers seem content to ignore indefinitely), to witness the culmination of six months worth of meetings in which many of them had participated, and to attempt to begin to express a missional vision for the future of the SBC.

As a younger minister, I am fully aware that some of my peers have, at times, been guilty of speaking before listening, or for failing to exercise adequate discernment when speaking or writing about some current convention leaders. But those issues – as well as issues that have arisen in the last year concerning IMB policies, trusteeships, presidential nominations, etc. – have little to do with the meeting that transpired last summer at Nashville’s Global Cafe.

I, for one, am grateful for Dr. Draper’s foresight on this matter. I am grateful that Drs. Reccord, Hawkins, and Welch saw fit to acknowledge Dr. Draper’s concerns and to address the participants, and for Dr. Chuck Kelley, who remained in attendance for the entire meeting.

I do not presume to know Mr. Smyrl’s motivation for writing his letter. I just find it regrettable that one who did not attend or participate in the meeting would (hopefully unintentionally) mischaracterize it so badly.

Editor’s Note: The Index asked James Smyrl to briefly respond to the above letter writer’s concerns. The following are his comments. – J.W.

“The absence of insightful organization, lack of proper promotion and consistent condescending content of the meeting served as yet another demonstration that those seeking places of leadership need more time sitting at the feet of our heroes.”