Southern Baptists aren’t what they used to be–and Tuesday’s developments at the convention are proof.
Right out of the gate at 8:30AM a challenge was made to the order of business. Vice President Mike Pence had been invited to address the meeting today, but Garrett Kell, a young Virginia pastor, brought a motion to not allow Pence to speak and instead spend the time in corporate prayer.
I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but Kell’s reasoning is an object lesson in the age dynamics within Southern Baptist life. First, he said, many minorities feel alienated by the present administration and hosting the Vice President would hamper our relationships with them. Second, such a message would diminish the gospel by entangling it with politics. And third, our mission partners around the world might be jeopardized if the nations in which they serve feel threatened by the present administration.
The Chairman of the Order of Business Committee responded with the various biblical texts that call on Christians to honor our secular authorities and persuaded the group to defeat Kell’s motion. But a substantial number of younger messengers voted for it. The next time something like that comes up I expect it to be approved. The millennials are much more sensitive to minorities’ perspective on the church’s connection with political and economic power structures than their elders.
Later in the afternoon came the main attraction: the Presidential election. The two candidates well represented the two generations. Ken Hemphill, 68, was the favored son of the traditional group. Hemphill is the kind of institutional candidate long favored by the denomination with a long, distinguished career as pastor, seminary president, author, consultant.
His opponent J.D. Greear, 45, is at the other end of the spectrum. His church, Summit Church in Durham, N.C., is a pacesetter for the new generation. With multiple campuses, conservative theology, modern worship, effective evangelism and a worldwide footprint in missions, Summit is the new model for Southern Baptist success.
The election was held late in the morning and the results came in a few hours later. Greear won in a landslide, garnering 69% of the vote.
But the presidential election only codified what’s apparent everywhere in the convention. Take the worship, for instance. In past years, the corporate worship consisted of a few hymns with maybe a famous soloist or two performing familiar songs.
Worship here couldn’t be more different. A large choir leads from the rear of the stage. An orchestra plays in front. On the stage’s front a praise team and praise band lead the way, directed by different singers. The music is modern, engaging, loud and scriptural. And all around the auditorium the crowd responds with raised hands and loud voices. Worship here is another sign of the changing of the guard. It’s participatory and personal, touching the heart as well as head.
In the middle of worship last night, and in the aftermath of the presidential election, I turned to Pam and said, “This isn’t our parents’ SBC.”
But the more things change the more they stay the same. And the highlight of the evening finally came at 9:00 last night, after Ravi Zacharias preached a long (and excellent) sermon. He preached for almost an hour and a half and when I told Pam how cool it must be to preach that long she rolled her eyes and warned me, “Don’t even think about doing that.” Following his message the International Mission Board took the stage and we commissioned 79 new missionaries, including a young lady who grew up in our church.
And this is when it became clear that for all the changes taking place in the SBC, changes I view as good, healthy and necessary, the main thing has stayed the main thing. IMB President David Platt–another key, young leader–captured the unchanging foundation of our denomination in his opening remarks: “We exist to combine the efforts of our churches for the spread of the Gospel in the world.”
Thanks to the Washington Post for the image at top