Editorial: Young adults will lead with or without us

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NOTE: This editorial was updated Nov. 10 to reflect a change in the original motion submitted by Chris McLain.

A new generation of leaders is on the scene. They’re not coming up. They’re here.

And they’re going to lead, either inside the Baptist General Convention of Texas or outside it. Take your pick. The BGCT would be smart to let them lead within.

They are fun, dynamic, smart, creative, inspiring, committed to Christ, and they want to bring all of that and more to the shared work of the BGCT.

Ah, but they’re young, and I bet you’re nervous about that. You see their potential—for good and otherwise—and you’re excited and worried at the same time.

I’ve heard the concern. They don’t have enough experience. They don’t know what we went through, why we do what we do, and why we don’t do what we don’t do. They’ve bought into Calvinism. They don’t appreciate our traditions. They’re irreverent.

That’s probably all true, which makes them just like us in so many ways. Or it’s not all true, in which case, they’re still just like us in so many ways. If we’re worried about them, we ought to be just as worried about ourselves.

Who are the new leaders?

Who are these new leaders I’m talking about? I’m talking about the 20- and 30-somethings known as Millennials and Generation Z.

A group of them—yes, I’m using “us/them” language, but only for dramatic effect—has submitted a motion and a group of resolutions for consideration during the 2021 BGCT annual meeting.


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The motion submitted by Chris McLain, pastor of First Baptist Church in Bandera, seeks to increase over time the number of Millennials and Gen Z individuals serving on the Executive Board and employed full-time by the BGCT.

Will Texas Baptists agree to allow young adults to exercise that much leadership in the BGCT? I hope so, because if they don’t lead in the BGCT, they’ll lead outside of it.

This is not to say they are looking to leave the BGCT. It is to say that if they aren’t afforded the opportunity to give their best leadership to the BGCT, others alongside the BGCT will benefit from it. Because these young adults are going to lead, no matter what.

Calling us to our better selves

One way these young adults have been leading for a while is in their desire to focus on “unity in essentials.”

In their proposed resolution by that title, these young leaders express their desire to focus on “God’s Kingdom.” To do so, they call on Texas Baptists “to lay down our pride, prejudices, political posturing, and preferences to stand united in our shared mission to share Christ and show love.”

If we don’t appreciate their use of alliteration, let us at least cheer their commitment to the gospel. Maybe that will distract us from the sting of being called out by them.

To focus on the kingdom and the shared mission of the gospel, some young leaders have called Texas Baptists, and Christians in general, to give up the pride that led to denominational squabbles. Don’t misunderstand them. They aren’t calling us to lay down doctrinal distinctives; they’re calling us to quit fighting over them.

I came face-to-face with this position while I was a pastor. I had the opportunity to mentor a couple of youth pastors who each wanted us—by which they meant my generation and older—to get over whatever our problem is or was with other Baptists.

I had conflicting thoughts each time this came up. I thought: “Well, of course, you do. You weren’t there when the other side hurt us. You don’t know the political games they played. You don’t know why we are where we are.” I also thought, “Yeah, you’re right.”

I bet that second thought makes some readers nervous: “Did he really think those young people were right that we need to get over our differences? Is he suggesting we should kiss and make up with those other Baptists?”

“Unity in essentials” sounds good, but how far are we going to go with that? We ought to let the young adults seeking leadership in the BGCT show us what they mean.

Allowing the young to lead us

Do young leaders want us just to “kiss and make up” with those we’ve fought against? And yes, we fought.

I’m not going to answer for them. Instead, I advocate letting them answer for themselves. Let’s give them the microphone, and let’s listen. If we’re listening to them, we will hear them say they’re looking for mentors; let’s not disappoint them. Let’s give them leadership positions, and let’s follow, understanding they don’t expect us to follow blindly.

Most of us who no longer qualify as “young” adults are too close to past fights to see how to focus on “unity in essentials.” We’re too affected by the Baptist battles of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s; the fight(s) over affirming women in ministry; Calvinism vs. everything else; the still-fresh divide over sexuality.

Our decades of experience fighting each other have trained us to fight, not to unite. We’ve just added a new fight over politics, masks and vaccines. We need leaders who aren’t trained to fight.

Our young adults have grown up in a world of difference. They have more experience holding on to what makes them distinct while living at peace with those unlike them than we have demonstrated in our lifetimes. They have much to teach us. This is why we need to allow young adults to lead us. Let’s let them.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @EricBlackBSP.


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