November 5, 2001
SBTC celebrates growth, commends Baptist Press
___By Toby Druin
___Editor Emeritus
___FORT WORTH--The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention celebrated its third year of existence Oct. 29-30, adopting an $8.9 million budget for 2002, topping the 1,000 mark in registered messengers, counting more than 900 affiliated churches and sniping at the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Executive Director Jim Richards denied charges the convention has been proselytizing member churches from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. However, he said the SBTC would have the "validity" to approach BGCT churches because it is the only convention in Texas whose budget is in total cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program budget and the only convention in the state "with Texas churches only."
___The references were aimed at a BGCT budget option that eliminates or reduces funding for some SBC agencies and the BGCT decision to permit full affiliation by out-of-state churches.
___The SBTC convention was held in Will Rogers Auditorium at the same time as the
___Richards started it in his executive director's report in the opening session, noting that "another convention" had cut its funding to the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries but that SBTC churches had more than made up the difference.
___Others followed suit. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, presented a resolution on biblical inerrancy--"the same motion rejected by the Texas Baptist (BGCT) Executive Board" in September, he said.
___McKissic asked SBTC messengers to affirm a statement that says, "We believe in the divine inspiration of the whole Bible and the inerrancy of the original manuscripts." His request was approved unanimously when SBTC messengers voted to suspend the rules and consider it immediately instead of referring it to the resolutions committee.
___McKissic made the same request of the BGCT Executive Board Sept. 25. He served on the BGCT board, even though his church was dually aligned with the SBTC. Five days after the Executive Board tabled his motion, McKissic's church withdrew completely from the BGCT.
___Three SBC agency representatives also made comments about the BGCT. Bill Merrell of the SBC Executive Committee mentioned that BGCT restrictions on gifts to SBC seminaries had prompted a new classification of "other designated gifts" but that other conventions had "stepped up to the plate" to support Southern Baptists.
___Richard Land noted that the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, which he heads, had been totally defunded by the BGCT, "and we're proud of every reason they chose to defund us," he said.
___Texas Baptist leaders have criticized Land and the ERLC for advocating an accomodationist perspective on church-state issues and for engaging in "overt political campaigning," a charge Land previously denied.
___Land presented cufflinks with the ERLC logo to former chairmen of the ERLC who now serve in the SBTC, adding that BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade, who also at one time was chairman of the SBC commission, was not receiving a set.
___Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said that as a Kentuckian he had come to Texas "with fear and trepidation." But he changed his mind, he said, and no longer worried about "what the Baptist Standard thinks, but what standard Baptists think."
___Aside from chiding the BGCT, the new convention carried on its business on a positive note, marking three years of growth and progress.
___The financial report noted that in three years the budget has grown from $903,500 to $8.9 million. Cooperative Program giving was up 143 percent in 2000 and thus far is up 184 percent in 2001. This year's budget of $4.24 million was met in six months, and the $721,900 monthly giving required to meet the 2002 budget already has been exceeded the last three months of this year. The SBTC sends 51 percent of its Cooperative Program receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention.
___Messengers were told the SBTC had started 83 new churches in the state through October. President Rudy Hernandez noted in his report that 104 Hispanic congregations are affiliated with SBTC. ?
___George Harris, pastor of Castle Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio, was elected president of the convention, succeeding Hernandez, who resigned to join the convention staff as a consultant in outreach to Hispanics. Gregg Simmons, pastor of First Baptist Church of Borger, was re-elected first vice president; Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, was elected second vice president; and Bob Pearle, pastor of Birchman Baptist Church of Fort Worth, was elected recording secretary, succeeding Gerald Smith, layman from Mansfield, who chose not to seek another term. All were elected without opposition.
___Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and his wife, Dorothy, were given the convention's distinguished service award, the Paul Pressler Award, named for the Houston layman who is credited, along with Patterson, with masterminding the fundamentalist takeover in the SBC. In accepting the award, Patterson said, "Any award with Paul Pressler's name on it is an inspiration to my heart."
___The convention adopted resolutions on moral decline and Christian holiness, the family, stem-cell research, affirmation of President George W. Bush and his leadership in the war on terrorism, evangelism and church planting, gratitude to God for SBTC growth and affirmation for Hernandez.
___They also passed a resolution of support for Baptist Press, the public relations arm of the SBC that has been accused of disseminating false and malicious information about the BGCT and its institutions. The resolution said Baptist Press reporters and editors "always perform at the highest of Christian and professional standards."
___The resolution also affirmed the SBTC's monthly magazine, the Southern Baptist Texan.
___Most recently, Baptist Press and the Texan have been criticized by BGCT leaders for a story that attempted to link Buckner Baptist Benevolences to Planned Parenthood and support for abortion. That story was characterized by Buckner's president as "public relations terrorism." The reliability of Baptist Press also was challenged by BGCT leaders because of a BP report on the BGCT's Oct. 25 Executive Board meeting. That story, written by the wife of the Texan's editor, contained multiple factual errors that have not yet been corrected.
___Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church of Plano, called SBTC messengers to a deeper commitment to prayer in his convention sermon.
___As did many speakers, Graham alluded to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and said Satan is the ultimate terrorist and combating him will take the same kind of "believing prayer" that freed the Apostle Peter from jail in Acts 12. Believing prayer, Graham said, has God as its focus and is fervently offered by the church.
___Americans may have been shaken by the events of Sept. 11 but have not yet truly turned to God, Mohler said in a message challenging Christians to seize the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ with the world.
___Graham and Mohler each noted that Allah, to whom Muslims pray, is not the God of Christians.
___"Allah is not Jehovah," Mohler said. He added that "Jews and Christians do not worship the same God," echoing a statement he made in a Southern Seminary chapel address the week before.
___Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, was elected to preach the convention sermon next year in Houston. The SBTC will meet in Corpus Christi in 2003 and Dallas in 2004.
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