September 11, 2000
TOGETHER:
Texas convention targeted by Southern Baptist leaders
___It is my responsibility to keep Texas Baptists informed.
___In this column, I have told the stories of Texas Baptist life--our people, our churches and our institutions. I have shared with you the incredible mission outreach of our great convention as we have networked together across this great state to start new churches, more than 1,400 in the last five years. The minister of missions movement is growing rapidly as more and more Texas churches see the need to make local-church missions a priority for their people.
___It appears that over the past four years our cooperating churches will have baptized more people than in any four-year period in our convention's history. You have given to missions and ministries and started, sustained and strengthened churches and institutions with record-setting offerings. Texas Baptists are going about doing good. To God be the glory!
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___Now, it is my responsibility to inform you about the most recent developments in the ongoing struggle for the future of Baptists, and particularly, Texas Baptists.
___To say it plainly: Our wonderful state has been targeted by Southern Baptist leaders who are fearful that Texas support is fading away.
___They are aware that our Baptist General Convention of Texas voted last fall to establish two study committees to look into the theology, philosophy, and strategies of our mission-sending agencies and the seminaries. They know there is deep dissatisfaction with the changes made in the Baptist Faith & Message statement. They know Texas Baptists do not believe any Baptist should be subjected to signing any statement that is used as a creed to coerce the conscience.
___Many Texas Baptists are in a deep dilemma.
___We love Southern Baptists--who we have been and what we have stood for. We love the great mission ventures that have put us in the forefront of evangelical witness around the world. We love and pray daily for the missionaries Southern Baptists have sent around the world. We have had confidence in the Southern Baptist seminaries and have rejoiced that so many of our young men and women have felt called to Christian service.
___But things have changed. A few days ago, a tape of the SBC annual meeting discussion regarding the Baptist Faith & Message was sent out to all Texas Baptist pastors by a group that identifies itself as Southern Baptists of Texas.
___Feedback I have received indicates some are left confused about where Texas Baptists stand on the issue of Jesus as Lord of Scripture and the key to a fully Christian interpretation of the Bible.
___The Jesus we worship is the Jesus Christ who inspired Scripture, who is the reason the New Testament could be written and who is the end to which the Old Testament points.
___We do not worship a Jesus of the imagination or of dreams. The Bible is the normative witness that reveals the parameters of our faith and the true character and vision of our Lord Jesus.
___In the discussion on the tape, attempts are made by the authors of the new Baptist Faith & Message to suggest that if we choose to retain the phrase from the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message that says: "The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ," we open the door to wild, individualistic opportunities for misinterpretation of Scripture. Nothing could be further from the truth.
___Jesus Christ controls Scripture. He interprets Scripture. This is clear in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). And Jesus Christ controls us. We are free to follow him. We are not free to follow anyone who leads us away from him, his lordship and his authority.
___Recently I received a copy of a letter sent out by Southern Baptist Convention leaders to all the associational directors of missions in Texas. They have been invited to a meeting to be held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to hear appeals to keep the churches in their associations supportive of the current direction of the SBC. This is the first time such a meeting has ever been held. Not any of our BGCT leaders were notified of the meeting, nor given any opportunity to speak. I hope SBC leaders understand that this kind of meeting, without BGCT leadership involved, will encourage division in our churches.
___I am distressed for our churches and our associational leadership as they are caught in this divisive bind.
___Granted, Texas Baptists will likely be presented with proposals at our annual session in Corpus Christi to redirect some of the funds which have traditionally gone to Southern Baptist Convention entities. But keep this in mind: Texas Baptists have and will honor every church and individual as they choose, under God, to direct their tithes and offerings. No cooperating BGCT church ever will be prevented from sending what it desires to give to Southern Baptist mission and education causes. You will be loved and honored, even if we disagree over the nature of SBC leadership.
___What makes Texas Baptists special in these days of denominational stress is that we do honor the autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of believers to seek God's will and to give their monies as they deem best.
___One of the things a state convention can do for the churches is to combine our resources and talents so that studies of how our mission dollars are used-- that would be difficult for most local churches to make--can be made by representative leaders from our churches and associations. It is likely that the seminary study committee will be ready to make a report at the Corpus Christi convention. The mission-sending study committee is very carefully going about its task and will be ready to make its report next year. When the reports are made, every Texas Baptist and every Texas Baptist church will have the opportunity to make their own decision as to the wisdom, judgment and integrity of the reports. Then this convention, which has served Texas Baptist churches for so long, will honor the decisions that you make.
___No church has to decide to walk away from the BGCT if they want to support Southern Baptist causes. You can do as you always have done.
___You can give to support our Texas Baptist church-starting efforts; our institutions that care for children, families, the mentally disabled and the elderly; the institutions that have provided health care in six separate systems; the nine educational institutions where 3,800 students are preparing for life in Christian ministry careers; the two seminaries where 350 young men and women are now preparing for service in our churches.
___You can do all of that and still give as you believe is right to Southern Baptist causes. But if your church decides they have to leave the BGCT in order to support Southern Baptist efforts, then you are left without the opportunity to support the causes of Christ in Texas that mean so much to us all.
___These are difficult days for us all. But with God's help we can get through this together.
___We are loved.
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