June 17, 2002
Lukewarm spirit now greatest threat, Merritt says
___By Mark Wyatt
___California Southern Baptist
___ST. LOUIS--In a speech occasionally punctuated by the arrests of shouting gay-rights protesters, the outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention warned the "danger of a lukewarm spirit" has replaced liberalism as the greatest threat to the convention.
___James Merritt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., used his final SBC presidential address June 11 to call the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination to faithfulness and a renewed emphasis on evangelism.
James Merritt Sandy King photo/BP
___"We face a secular culture that is becoming increasingly strident and militant in its anti-Christian, anti-truth, anti-God mentality, and I fear the danger of facing this spirit with a lackadaisical heart," Merritt declared. "We face a world whose heart is becoming increasingly cold that needs to feel the hot fire of evangelism, and I fear the danger of seeing this need with a lackluster passion."
___Merritt cited 2 Timothy 4:7-8 as a "blueprint" for Southern Baptists to be faithful until the biblical promise of Christ's return is fulfilled. An approving audience responded with sustained applause as Merritt first urged Baptists to be "faithful to the fight."
___"Christianity is not for the faint of heart. There is no place for conscientious objectors in the kingdom of God," Merritt said. "When you come to Jesus, he does not invite you to a picnic. He calls you to a fight."
___Merritt cited a newspaper account of a speech by a Dartmouth professor who noted Christian songs and prayer in schools now are "under proscription" while abortion, pornography and homosexuality have become commonplace.
___"The very moment a parent suggests that some books are not suitable for elementary school children because of sexual explicitness or obscene language, the entire academic establishment explodes in indignation and cries 'censorship!' In contrast, whenever a school library discovers some long-forgotten volume which political correctness now decrees might offend one group or another, that book is instantly yanked," Merritt said.
___"When the school inflicts books on youngsters ... which deliberately undermine the moral and religious convictions of parents, it is termed 'education.' But when parents complain, they are portrayed as 'narrow-minded' or 'intolerant.'
___"More and more, we are being told to sit down, shut up, go along and get along, be inclusive, be tolerant, be nice and be quiet. We are told we ought to keep politics out of the pulpit, but I believe whenever the political impacts the spiritual and the moral, we have the biblical responsibility to address the political."
___Merritt appeared undeterred as St. Louis police arrested a dozen protesters inside the convention center while he was speaking. The protesters, who began walking toward the platform individually or in pairs, did not resist arrest but continued shouting slogans against Southern Baptists' anti-homosexuality stance as they were led away.
___Numerous other arrests were reported outside the convention center, where fewer than 9,000 messengers were registered for the SBC's 145th annual meeting.
___Referring to various protest groups who frequent SBC meetings, Merritt said, "They have let me know in their correspondence, 'We are not going away.' Well, I've got news for the pornographer, the adulterer, the homosexual, the pedophile and the abortionist: We are not going away either.
___"We may be a denominational David standing against a world full of Goliaths, but we have the slingshot of truth in one hand and the Rock of Ages in the other, and we are guaranteed to have victory in Jesus. And so, Southern Baptists, until he comes, be faithful to the fight."
___Second, Merritt called on Baptists to be faithful to the faith.
___"I want to say to every preacher here, regardless of your style of worship, whether you are sinner-sensitive, seeker-sensitive--I don't care if you don't have enough sense to be sensitive--keep the faith," Merritt said.
___Responding to popular church growth methods, Merritt said Baptists should be faithful to preach the faith. "We are being told today by some church-growth gurus, baby-boomer experts and church-marketing agents, 'Don't preach on hell, don't talk about money, don't mention politics, don't be controversial.'
___"We ought to be real in the way we practice the faith, and we ought to be relevant in the way we preach the faith. But we should never shy away from preaching the whole counsel of God," Merritt said. "Drama is wonderful, praise and worship music is refreshing; but what God has promised to honor above everything else is the preaching of his word."
___Citing a study by the SBC's North American Mission Board, Merritt said 84 percent of Southern Baptists "are not regularly involved in personal witnessing of any type." Baptists must get back to evangelism and realize "just like Jesus Christ, we have come to seek and to save that which was lost," he declared. "If we ever lose that distinctive, we will fall by the wayside and join the ranks of other denominations whose corpses litter the religious highway today."
___In addition to being faithful to the fight and the faith, Merritt said Baptists also must be faithful to the finish.
___"God is not concerned with how fast you run in your race, but how far you run," he said. "It is not how you start the race; it's how you finish the race that counts with God. All that matters is that you hit the finish line with his approval.
___"It doesn't matter what the politically correct, the intellectually elite or the financially powerful think about your ministry ... as long as when you hit that finish line the Lord Jesus is standing and the Lord Jesus is clapping when you get there," Merritt continued.
___Merritt used the example of Secretariat, the Triple Crown-winning racehorse, whose performance in the 1973 Belmont Stakes remains unequaled. "He not only won the race by 31 lengths, but he set new records along the way because he ran each quarter mile succeedingly faster," Merritt explained. "For one and a half miles, that thoroughbred got faster and faster.
___"My fellow Baptists, let us run our race the same way. Let's hit the tape with chest out, head high, running harder and faster than we did from the beginning."
___Merritt's speech concluded the convention's opening session that began with President George W. Bush addressing the gathering via satellite from Washington. Merritt expressed appreciation for the president's leadership in the war against terrorism.
___"But ... far greater than the task of freeing this world from the horror of terrorism is the task of freeing this world from the tyranny of sin," Merritt said. "Far higher than the power of nuclear missiles is the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
___"Every Southern Baptist pastor, every Southern Baptist church and this entire denomination has been given the highest power to carry out the greatest task. So until he comes, let us exercise this highest power carrying out this greatest task being faithful to the fight, faithful to the faith and faithful to the finish."
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