In this brief post, I want to give a small voice to the apparent voiceless perspective of Southern Baptist college students who are observing what is going on in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Collegians see the Great Commission Resurgence as a Strategic attempt to putting feet to the Conservative Resurgence. Actions suggested by the GCR should be the natural result of the Biblical mandate according to college students. These mandates declared by the GCR are clear and accepted by most who care enough to know about it; however, the tactic of enforcement is not. Collegians believe resurgence and reform happens from the inside out not from the outside in. Most believe resurgence, reform or whatever word is used... is sparked by the work of the Holy Spirit at work within individual churches not from a convention task force.
The GCR appears, by most college students, to be a battle between old militant fundamentalists and younger conservative Southern Baptists with a Reformed disposition. It’s a clash between culture warriors and younger hipster baptists who are embracing infant baptism, keg-party Bible Studies, and potty mouthed pastors. Southern Baptists are being faithful to their historical roots of majoring on the minors here in this debate. I hear time and time again college students wanting to separate themselves from denominational affiliation because they disdain such disunity and hierarchical dogma. This is why collegians are flocking to non denominational churches and inter-denominational conferences. Is it any wonder most college para-church organizations like Passion Conferences aren’t denominationally affiliated?
It’s unfortunate that outsiders looking in see Baptists in yet another quarrelsome controversy especially when such reform is needed. Does the SBC need to catch up to the 20th century and be more effective with the Great Commission? Yes.. The SBC even needs to catch up to the 21st century...If that’s possible. Unity is needed most in this initiative. Regardless, we must watch out how outsiders looking in see how we act as a form of ministry itself. They are watching.. An unbeliever once told me that my denomination was more concerned with politics than telling him about Jesus.
Thanks, Chad.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for you: What do you think the SBC will look like in 20 years?
Another: How long do you think denominationalism will hang around?
Appreciate your opinion.
Blessings,
John
John, those are interesting questions. I believe your first question may be the harder question to answer.
ReplyDelete1. There is no doubt a decline in the SBC and Denominationalism. My best guess is the future of SBC will be completely decentralized. We may easily see the end of conventional associations of churches in a little over 20 years. However, I see more SBC churches in 20 years than ever before. Now, they won;t be a typical FBC church, but they will be a cool hip name with SBC theology. I do, however, see a renaming of the SBC in the next 20 years because of its lack of geographical charity. so i hope that answers your question... more churches, less associational organization. I feel like there will continue to be a polarization from Mega churches and smaller churches. I see Mega churches getting bigger and Smaller churches getting smaller. Many of these smaller churches will be house churches and church plants. This will be largely due to the influence of Mega church pastors in the convention. Unfortunatley, Many of our rural churches will have to shut the door as the WW2 generation continues to decline and their children rush to the city. THe good news is that church planters will move to the city and plant more churches in those areas than ever. The reality is that we are seeing the beginning of this movement now and will be in the heart of this change in 20 years.
2. Denominations will always be around... according to how you define the term. Historically, we have always had some form of denomination and even non-denominational churches are some form of denominational identity. We are seeing a wave of inter-denominational churches that are simply scared of promoting their "identity" but they do usually have a denominational identity. Denominational organization will end as we know it, but not the denomination itself will stay around