November 10, 1999

Dilday: 'Forget past, focus on Jesus'
___By Scott Collins
___Buckner News Service
___EL PASO--Texas Baptists need to do just one thing, Russell Dilday advised the Baptist General Convention of Texas Nov. 8, during the final BGCT president's address of the 20th century.
___That one thing has two dimensions, Dilday declared. Drawing from the writings of the Apostle Paul, he said Texas Baptists need to "forget the past" and "focus on Jesus."
___Paul was no stranger to denominational controversies, which have engulfed Southern Baptists and Texas Baptists for two decades, he observed.
___The apostle "witnessed his share of ugly debates, name-calling, accusations," Dilday said. "He had watched the sad spectacle of Christians opposing each other, churches wrangling over petty differences, political in-fighting among leaders."
___Consequently, the 20th century brand of Baptist hostility "wouldn't be foreign to Paul," he added. "Controversy had repeatedly hounded his ministry."
___But despite controversy that has marked Baptists at the end of the century, Dilday encouraged Texas Baptists to forget the past.
___"What should Texas Baptists forget?" he asked.
___Answering his own question, Dilday said Texans need to forget their past successes as well as their past differences. "We don't park in yesterday," he said.
___"The work of Texas Baptists will be crippled if we don't put the painful disappointments of these past 20 years behind us," Dilday said. "Turn away from the hurt, anger, unjust accusations, the lies, the shameful political manipulations that have weakened our effectiveness and blemished our credibility before the world."
___Forgetting the past means Texas Baptists will respond to "contentious denominational politicians" and "psuedo-baptists, trampling on our cherished principles" by saying, "Get behind us, Satan. Don't mess with Texas Baptists."
___"We have a job to do," Dilday said. " We will not be detoured into petty debates, or sidetracked by worldly strategies, or drawn back into controversy. We will follow the word of God when it says forget the past. Leave it behind."
___That is what Texas Baptists want to do, he reported. In his travels as BGCT president, he has encountered "a deep yearning, a thirsty craving to leave the past behind," he said. "Texas Baptists are fed up with the unsettling divisions that have infested our convention, and they are weary with all the controversy. We've expended enough energy this past 20 years warding off political assaults and answering false accusations. It's time to move on."
___But as Texas Baptists forget the past, Dilday said, they also must focus on Jesus.
___"The secret of Paul's spectacular ministry was this unified, absolutely singular, undiluted focus on Jesus. That's the only goal, the single target toward which we're to aim."
___The goal of focusing on Jesus is "the right goal," Dilday said. "It (is) the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, the ultimate joy of becoming like Jesus; the singular purpose of obeying and following Jesus.
___"It's the worthiest of all goals--to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus, to lead others to Jesus. Everything else is scaffolding, secondary, incidental to this ultimate structure. For this the Texas Baptist convention exists."
___Because the aim of Texas Baptists is forgetting the past and focusing instead on Jesus, it is important that they stay true to that target, Dilday said.
___"Baptists of Texas, our goal is not to wrestle for denominational power or to win political battles," he charged, "Our goal is not to monitor the orthodoxy of our fellow Baptists. Our goal is not to build giant churches or to promote a mega-convention. Our goal is Jesus--to honor Jesus, to serve Jesus, to bring lost Texans to Jesus so that every Texas knee will bow and every Texas tongue confess that Jesus is Lord."
___Concluding his message, Dilday, who was fired as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1994 by fundamentalist trustees appointed by the SBC, recalled a gathering of students the following day.
___As students congregated on the front lawn of the president's residence, many were wondering what they should do to register their displeasure with his dismissal, he recalled.
___"It was one of those rare moments when the Lord seemed to give us the words; something to the effect that the work of the kingdom is bigger than any of us--bigger than trustees or presidents or students," Dilday said.
___But in addition to the words of encouragement and comfort, Dilday was moved that day to spontaneously lead the students to sing the chorus that begins "Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus."
___"I will always remember that moment," he recalled. "It was a moment that said to them and to us, 'God's way is to leave the past behind and focus on Jesus.'"

___Editor Marv Knox contributed to this article.


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