Seminary president calls SBC executive’s comments ‘shameful’

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary called comments in a speech by the Southern Baptist Executive Committee President Morris Chapman “disingenuous” and “shameful.”

Seminary President Danny Akin was addressing a panel discussion hosted by B21 at an Acts 29 church start.

“I wish to apologize to my Calvinist brothers and sisters who are here for the horrible misrepresentation of your position this morning,” said Akin, one of six participants in a panel to discuss with young pastors issues surrounding continuing involvement with the Southern Baptist Convention.

B21 is a loose network of persons “seeking to be Baptist in the 21st century.” Acts 29 is a network of churches whose foundational documents are clearly Calvinistic. Many member churches are dually aligned with Southern Baptists, as well as supporting Acts 29.

Sojourn Community Church in Louisville hosted the panel discussion, attended by 400 to 500 filling the main meeting space and an overflow room. Most of the participants were the young pastors, leaders and students whose participation in SBC life is coveted by SBC leadership.

Earlier in the morning, Chapman brought his annual address to the 8,450 messengers registered at the time for the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville, Ky. Although he never uttered the word “Calvinism,” he spoke directly both to it and to the “emerging church” in his remarks.

“Man’s system will be inferior to God’s system now and forever,” he said. “The belief that sovereignty alone is at work in salvation is not what has emboldened our witness and elevated our concern for evangelism and missions through the ages. This is not the doctrine that Southern Baptists have embraced in their desire to reach the world for Christ.

“If there is any doctrine of grace that drives men to argue and debate more than it drives them to pursue lost souls and persuade all men to be reconciled to God—then it is no doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man both are taught in the Bible. Both are necessary elements in the salvation experience.”

“The time has come,” Chapman said,” to stop talking of ‘What made the SBC great’ or ‘What will make the SBC great again.’ All these questions are in direct competition with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He referenced previous controversies over Baptist identity and said, “While the controversy raged and theologians were arguing about Baptist identity, Lottie Moon was boarding a boat to the distant shores of East Asia.”

“The church did not—upon receiving the Spirit of God (at Pentecost)—write a theology text, or form a committee or establish a bureaucracy or construct a building or engage in idle arguments about the extent of the atonement or the nature of election.”

Akin said the next day that he has never heard a Calvinist say that man’s response to the urging of God’s Holy Spirit is not a necessary ingredient for salvation. Calvinist theology has always been present in Southern Baptist life, at varying degrees, he stressed.

The difference between the Calvinist view of salvation and the traditional Baptist view is a matter of emphasis, he said. Both agree God’s sovereignty and man’s response are essential elements of salvation, but each party emphasizes one of those elements.

The B21 meeting was held in Louisville, home of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, whose president Al Mohler is a Calvinist and has returned Southern to what he believes are its founders Calvinistic roots.

After Akin’s opening apology, frank discussion was more about reasons young pastors should stay within the Southern Baptist framework, and financially support a system they do not fully agree with. Panelists included Akin, Mohler, LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer, Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., host pastor Daniel Montgomery and David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.

Akin, Mohler and Stetzer are trusted figures among young pastors and, with SBC President Johnny Hunt, have done much to invigorate active discussion among them about reasons to stay involved with the SBC.

Talking about the Great Commission Resurgence which dominated conversation during the convention’s first day, Akin said: “I don’t want Southern Baptists sitting on the sideline watching what God is going to do. I want to be a part of it.”

Mohler told the pastors and students: “Don’t look for too much out of the Southern Baptist Convention. Don’t find your identity here.” He encouraged them to minister in their churches, find their identity in Christ and plug into the SBC for connections and resources.

Mohler said the SBC has done good things, but growing up in SBC churches, attending SBC schools and seminaries and moving on to lead SBC churches and entities “produced a tribal identity rather than a gospel-centered identity.”

While Acts 29 is a “fascinating model” Mohler said, he warned the audience against “developing a tribal identity.”

Mohler said pastors “can find many platforms” and it is “wrong to think of ‘either or’” when picking a partner. While he said he hoped pastors could identify with the SBC and other ministry partners, “there were hints this morning that’s going to be hard.”

His comment was likely in reference to Chapman’s remarks, and to the steady stream of messengers moving to limit SBC involvement with Mark Driscoll, a plain-speaking Seattle pastor whom many young pastors admire.

Although it was obvious as panelists declined the microphone when the question was asked, “Why should we support our state Baptist convention?” eventually Mohler said pastors and churches “forfeit the right to speak into the situation if you don’t support it financially.”

He encouraged them to “make every single contribution you make in terms of mission and ministry support earn that support. Don’t give a dollar you don’t think is well deployed in ministry, and then hold us accountable.”

Akin said it was easier to support the North Carolina Baptist Convention where Southeastern Seminary resides because “it is moving in the right direction” in terms of “incrementally” providing more Cooperative Program dollars for ministry beyond the state.

Stetzer, who has worked for three national Baptist agencies and has “seen the good, the bad and the ugly,” said he is “not impressed with the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m not getting my identity from it.”

“Now is the time to engage and fix that system,” he said. “But don’t be fooled. The voices of division will become more shrill before we come together.”

Platt, whose church is large and fast growing, reminded the audience that even churches “are not spending money that in every way is accomplishing the Great Commission.” He said he knows that even in his own church, money is spent on self-serving items.

Montgomery, pastor of the host church, said his church “owed the structure for the existence of our church,” although he said six weeks after it started, he was already “taking hits” for doing things differently.

“There is a need for the emerging generation to be schooled in gospel humility,” he said. “There is a need for the generation before us for humility to let us fail.”

He said if Stetzer, who “found” and encouraged him to start a church, had not responded with humility to Montgomery’s early failings, “I would have left the relationship.”