October 13, 1999
Reconciliation Forum plans statewide meeting for dialogue early next year
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___IRVING--The Reconciliation Forum will sponsor an open meeting early next year to allow Texas Baptists to discuss harmonious resolution of their differences, leaders of the group have decided.
___About 40 members of the forum, a 70-member multi-partisan group of the "reconciliation movement" within the Baptist General Convention of Texas, met at First Baptist Church of Irving in early October. They assessed the group's 18-month history and explored ways to continue its cause.
___The movement started in the spring of 1998, primarily launched by pastors concerned about polarization among Texas Baptists. Of particular concern was division regarding the state convention's relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention, which has taken a decidedly rightward turn during the past two decades.
___That concern grew last fall, when Southern Baptists of Texas, a group that had criticized the BGCT for not walking in step with the SBC, split from the state convention. That division galvanized many Texas Baptists' desire for healing within the state.
___Several hundred pastors and some laypeople have attended forum-sponsored dialogue sessions. The meetings have been designed to enable Texas Baptists of various theological/political persuasions to talk to one another about differences.
___"We have been heard," acknowledged Henry Adrion, one of the movement's founders and retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Texas City. "Our main desire was for some friends to get together and talk, with no (political) agenda.
___"Where do we go from here? This is difficult, because we never thought we'd get this far. ... I would hate to see the reconciliation emphasis fall by the wayside. But we don't intend to create a political party."
___"My concern is with people in the BGCT who don't identify with any group, who feel excluded," added D.L. Lowrie, co-chairman of the forum and pastor of First Baptist Church in Lubbock.
___The perception created by years of convention controversy has distorted many Texas Baptists' understanding of their relationships, Lowrie noted.
___"As Texas Baptists, we don't appreciate the unity that is underneath us," he said. "We are more unified than we've been led to believe. When we talk together, we're not that far apart.
___"The great body of Texas Baptists are committed to the faith and doctrinally sound. We talk about issues, and we speak the same language. It wasn't until we got into the SBC thing that we thought we were apart."
___Baptists in Texas ought to relate to each other the way they relate to other groups, suggested Steve Lyon, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who is working in the BGCT minister/ church relations office during his sabbatical this year.
___"If we can get along with other (non-Baptist) Great Commission Christians," Lyon asked, "why can't we get along with Southern Baptists of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship," which branched off of the SBC in 1991?
___"Why can't we be like the Baptist World Alliance," which cooperates with all kinds of Baptist groups from around the globe? he asked. "We can say, 'I don't agree with you about some things, but let's go out and win the world to Jesus.'"
___The reconciliation movement's challenge is to "walk in the middle and hold on to both sides," said Ed Wiggins, director of missions for North Central Baptist Area.
___The challenge is compounded by the necessity of promoting reconciliation without promoting politics, stressed Bennie Slack, co-chairman of the forum and pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville.
___"I'm concerned about creating another organization and what it would become. I fear another organization," he said. "Is there a solution to our problems that is not political? As soon as you vote on it, boom-boom-boom, it's political."
___Forum participants discussed the need to bridge the gaps between political factions as well as the importance of including younger Texas Baptists, for whom the two-decade-old theological/political controversy means nothing.
___Lowrie proposed "a statewide y'all-come meeting" to be held early next year. The aim of the meeting will be reconciling Texas Baptists, Lowrie pledged.
___"I would die willingly for the reconciliation of my Baptist brothers and sisters," he said. "Our focus needs to be on Texas. We're together; we've got a lot in common. We need to stay focused on making the state convention the strongest in the world."
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