December 8, 1999
1980-1989: Cloudy, stormy,
sunny and a few showers
___By Presnall Wood
___"Never have Americans looked ahead to a new decade with more uncertainty than they do now with the approach of 1980," was the sobering assessment of a special report by U.S. News and World Report at the close of 1979.
___Texas Baptists were not exempt. There was much uncertainty as they entered the decade of the '80s.
___But Texas Baptists did not live out the 10-year span of 1980-1989 in a vacuum. Large-scale cultural, economic and political events took place around the world. The '80s were marked by such events as the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency of the United States, the breakdown of communism in Eastern Europe, a pressing economic recession, an aggressive participation by some Christians in partisan politics and revolutionary developments in technology as people found themselves using personal computers. Social issues such as AIDS, gambling, abortion and women's roles in society commandedattention.
___Against this background, Texas Baptists sought some certainty in the midst of uncertainty. The story of Texas Baptists in the '80s reads something like a weather report--mostly cloudy, threatening storms, very sunny and welcome showers.
___
A BANNER representing the launch of Mission Texas in 1985 proclaims the goal of starting 2,000 new Baptist churches in the state. (Photo: Texas Baptist Historical Collection)
Mostly cloudy.
___The cloud of controversy that rolled out of the 1979 Southern Baptist Convention in Houston hovered over Baptist attitudes and actions throughout the '80s.
___The 1979 SBC revealed that two Texas Baptists--Paul Pressler, a layman from Houston, and Paige Patterson, president of Criswell College in Dallas--had put together a 10-year plan to get messengers to the SBC to elect a president who would use his appointive powers to help them gain control of SBC institutions. Charging that theological problems existed in some SBC institutions, as well as some affiliated with state Baptist conventions, the group won every SBC presidential election in the '80s.
___While successful in winning control of the national SBC, the group had no success in Texas, the largest and most influential of the state Baptist conventions. Rising in Texas to challenge and defeat the conservatives was a group that came to be labeled moderates, who charged the conservative group was more about power and politics than theology and belief in the Bible. By a rather large majority, messengers to the Texas Baptist conventions in the '80s consistently affirmed the Texas Baptist leadership and their institutions, thus rejecting the charges of liberalism.
___
___The controversy produced some threatening storms. The venerable T.B. Maston of Fort Worth wrote the Baptist Standard Oct. 29, 1980, concerning the controversy: "I consider the present crisis the most serious our convention has faced during my lifetime, and I have been a Southern Baptists for more than 69 years."
___Serious it was. And that seriousness was seen when the SBC met in Dallas in 1985 with an all-time record messenger registration of 45,519.
___Texas Baptists were in the middle of the discussions. The president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Winfred Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo, challenged the incumbent SBC president, Charles Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta. Stanley won, receiving 24,452 votes to Moore's 19,795. The largest number of Texas Baptists ever to register for any kind of Baptist convention, 12,634, were present.
___Out of the Dallas SBC came a Peace Committee to seek reconciliation among the debating Baptists. Following two years' work and a report adopted in 1987 at St. Louis, little changed. The controversy reached storm proportions.
___Fearing a similar takeover of Texas Baptist institutions--notably Baylor University--a group of moderates under the leadership of John Baugh, layman from Houston, and Moore led in organizing Texas Baptists Committed to preserve historic Baptist principles and protect Texas Baptist institutions from control by conservatives.
___
___To read all of the Baptist weather in the '80s as cloudy or stormy is to miss the best of Texas Baptist life in the decade. There was plenty of sun.
___And that bright sun was led by the two men who served as BGCT executive director during this decade: James Landes, who came to office in 1974 and retired at the close of 1982, and Bill Pinson, who came to the office in 1983.
___The legacy of Landes is that he was a man of God with genuine integrity expressed in graciousness. Pinson came to the post from California on a mission to win Texas to Christ.
___Pinson led Texas Baptists to adopt a program called "Mission Texas," aimed at increasing baptisms 10 percent per year, establishing 2,000 new churches and missions and 20,000 other congregational units, and developing believers and strengthening missions.
___"Mission Texas" was accepted by Texas Baptists, overshadowing even the controversy. Few challenges have been as large and well-received by Texas Baptists.
___Texas Baptists also responded well to partnership missions, with large groups going to Brazil and Australia.
___The annual meetings of Texas Baptists in this decade were generally harmonious, with the convention celebrating its centennial in 1985.
___A new $10.9 million Baptist Building in Dallas was dedicated in December 1988--debt-free with no Cooperative Program money used to build the building, thanks to money received from the sale of the old Baptist Building in downtown Dallas when real estate was at its peak price.
___
___Amid the clouds, threatening storms and sun, some welcome showers of blessing from God came from such groups as Woman's Missionary Union stressing missions, Texas Baptist Men leading the way to help in disaster relief, the Texas Baptist Hispanic Convention keeping focused on growth, the educational institutions promoting Christian higher education, the human welfare institutions helping others and the Christian Life Commission emphasizing faithful involvement in the real world.
___Evangelistic efforts yielded many blessings. One million New Testaments were given away in a one-day Scripture distribution in 1984. The Good News America revivals of 1986 made a significant impact. And the Share Jesus Now emphasis in 1989 also led many people to faith in Christ.
___Pinson reported to the Texas Baptist Executive Board in September 1989 that God had really blessed Texas Baptists in the decade of the '80s. He cited more than 2,500 new congregations started; school enrollments up 20 percent; 19 percent gain in people ministered to by human welfare institutions; best back-to-back year in baptisms and highest total baptisms in a comparable period; giving from 1979 to 1988 increased 105 percent to churches, 84 percent to Cooperative Program, 84 percent to associations, 76 percent to the Lottie Moon Offering, 113 percent to the Annie Armstrong Offering and 144 percent to the Mary Hill Davis Offering.
___Presnall Wood is an editor emeritus of the Baptist Standard
___
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
