Mike Corley comments on The SBC's Annual Meeting...
"In a discussion today with a friend who is attending the convention, I posed the following question, “If every Southern Baptist church is autonomous, and the denomination’s leadership cannot mandate what churches and members do, then why even bother to have a convention meeting, let alone introduce and debate resolutions?”
"...for the last several years, one prominent SBC pastor has introduced a resolution that in effect states that if someone wants to be a member of a Southern Baptist church, they must actually be born-again. In other words, to be a member of a Christian church, you must actually be a Christian. Amazingly, that resolution has not been approved."
"Here’s the point, the meetings, the resolutions, the debates, the special programs and cute curriculum titles mean absolutely nothing, if the SBC and in fact all denominations, are not willing to take a firm and solid commitment to the truth."
I'm assuming that Corley is talking about Tom Ascol. I wonder if it was someone different proposing the resolution, what the response would be? What if it were Jerry Vines or Johnny Hunt proposing integrity in church membership? I bet it would fly right through the resolution committees and be approved without debate. It seems to me that you cannot be heard unless you are a "successful" pastor of a mega-church in the SBC (and being arminian probably doesn't hurt either). That seems to me to be the reason a Godly man like Ascol cannot get a clearly biblical resolution to even get considered. Plus it would mean removing the names of millions of people from church roles. That's not the kind of numbers that the SBC is looking for...and that is what it's all about right - the numbers?
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree.
After listening to Sunday night's Pastor Conference webcast (Chuck Colson's commercial for his & Rick Warren's biblical worldview series)
and listening to several hours of Tuesday's activity, I am convinced that the SBC is causing more confusion regarding the Truth of the Great Commission.
How wrong can you be before you are not right?