#sbc2009: Johnny Hunt & The GCR, Morris Chapman, and Competing Camps in the SBC

The Great Commission Resurgence is on full display today at the SBC Annual Meeting. Dr. Al Mohler of Southern Seminary made the motion to call for a study committee to assess the GCR and to bring the GCR out at 1:50pm ET (12:50 CST) and debated at 7:30pm ET, 6:30pm CST.  Dr. Morris Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, in his report, spoke against the GCR in so many words. He also asked 5 questions about the Great Commission Resurgence. According to Baptist Press, these were the questions:

1. "Is the Great Commission Resurgence more about the Great Commission than about the Southern Baptist Convention?

2. "Like the Conservative Resurgence, does the Great Commission Resurgence offer a clear objective and transparent process for achieving that objective?

3. "Does the Great Commission Resurgence seek to bring together all Southern Baptists at the national, state and associational level, or does it unnecessarily alienate certain demographics?

4. "Does the Great Commission Resurgence declaration honor the long-established trustee governance of our entities, wherein the trustees are elected by the SBC from among pastors and laymen throughout the convention?

5. "Does the Great Commission Resurgence seek personal transformation of our hearts or institutional transformation of our structure?"

Dr. Chapman also made statements against Calvinism saying that we must beware those who focus on God's sovereignty and deny man's responsibility, or something along those lines. A firestorm erupted on Twitter over the comment and Dr. Mohler even made a disparaging remark about it, saying that he was "founding a new recovery group for all those who experienced whatever that was. Speechless."  Wow. That is strong.  I get a sinking feeling that the principles in the Great Commission Commission (the 12 entity heads of the SBC) are locked in a death-grip battle over who is going to lead us into the future. 

HERE IS WHAT I SEE HAPPENING:

There are now 3 camps in the SBC leadership fighting over the future vision:

1. GCR camp composed of both Calvinists and non-Calvinists who want to cooperate on the basis of and for the sake of the gospel and see Southern Baptists become more effective in ministry through whatever means necessary. Dr. Danny Akin of SEBTS, Johnny Hunt, SBC President, and Dr. Thom Rainer of Lifeway lead this camp, with Dr. Al Mohler of Southern Seminary falling in with them.
2. Baptist Identity camp composed of those who see renewal coming from a return to traditional Baptist distinctives and theology and a narrowing of the parameters of cooperation to those who fit within their understanding of what a Baptist is historically. Dr. Paige Patterson of SWBTS leads this camp.
3. Institutional Traditionalists: This is the group that I believe Dr. Chapman represents. It is primarily non-Calvinists who are basically satisfied with the status quo in Convention structure and believes that we need to try harder at what we have been doing. Not ideologically motivated like the BI group, but rather, motivated to keep the institutional nature of the SBC working as it has through the CP, state conventions, etc.

Where does that leave us?  Unless God brings people together, we are left in a battle over the future and the soul of the SBC. Let's see how Dr. Johnny Hunt addresses our situation:

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SBC president, Johnny Hunt, is speaking and giving his address. Here is a summary of his words: God is speaking to us through the events of the day to get our attention to get us to turn to Him. Our affluence and prosperity has caused us to become gluttonous and focused on our possessions.  We need Jesus. We need to humble ourselves. It is a scary thing to be opposed by God because of our pride. The church has become like those in Laodicea, becoming lukewarm. We are comfortable and complacent, apathetic and indifferent. We do not realize our need for Jesus. We have lost the fire in our soul and we no longer shed tears.  We need more emulation of the Word of God to match proclamation by those who preach. Like Laodicea, we have become self-sufficient, self-confident, and self-occupied.

One of the greatest things to fear is our perception of what strong is. We think that we are strong because of our wealth, our size, and our prominence. But, is that what God considers strong? No. He wants us to humble ourselves. We must repent and be refined by the fire. Persecution is coming to refine us.

Is there a vision problem in the SBC? The Church at Laodicea in Revelation missed Jesus because they thought that they were rich and in need of nothing. They did not have proper perception of their wretchedness. There is no revival without prayer. Are we praying? Do we sense a need for God? What are our motives? Prayer causes us to check our motives and we need to do this consistently. He is speaking about his dependence on God when he first started his ministry and is asking if we still have that dependence on God. NOTHING will happen if we are not dependent on the Spirit of God to move. We have become professionals and we no longer need God for all that we do. We are to seek the person of Jesus instead of His provisions.  

We need to turn from our wicked ways. We need to turn from our own ways. We should want Jesus and His way.  We should want to see a passion for the Great Commission rise among us. According to Lifeway Resources, we are in a decline that if we go the same rate we are going now, we will be at 7 million people instead of 16 million by 2050. We are aging. We need to join with our brothers of ethnicity in advancing the gospel through our churches. This must begin in the pulpits of the 43,000 churches. People are not looking for a program to follow, they are looking for a vision to embrace. It starts in our churches and goes all the way through our convention.  It is not about structure or bypassing the trustees. He believes in what we are doing through cooperative missions, but it needs to rise up from the local church.  It all starts with us.

We should be talking about giving more money because we are talking about the lostness of the world, not the payrolls of people. We have to proclaim a vision. We do not have a money problem - we have a vision problem. 

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Me:  Hunt did a great job, in my opinion. He articulated well the heart behind the GCR and why we need it. This whole convention is calling the SBC to repentance over the hardness of our hearts, our pride, and our self-sufficiency and lack of need for God. 

Of course, if any of this leads to more decentralization, it will fail like everything else has. Dr. Hunt spoke to the need for individual people and churches to be awakened and live for God. He is right. That is all that will save us - we need Jesus, not more bureaucracy or centralization so that fewer people hold more power. The local church must step up and come alive. Will a GCR study committee or denominational restructuring cause that to happen? No. But, it is not a bad conversation to have and maybe we will begin to carry it out on a grassroots level.

From what I can tell, the fireworks really start tonight at 6:30pm CST. Tune in at sbcannualmeeting.net to watch it.  I was a part of one of these debates in San Antonio over the Garner Motion and I can tell you that it gets pretty fast and furious. Different camps are stacking microphones and nothing happens by accident. I'll be watching and reporting and will give you some background information on what is actually taking place. 

Comments

[Big Daddy Weave]

Alan,

I had been looking forward to your live blogging posts on the SBC. But for some reason your posts have yet to show up in my RSS reader (Bloglines). I just happened to find this post via Google Blog Search!

[Marty Duren]

Of course, if any of this leads to more decentralization, it will fail like everything else has.

Did you mean to say centralization? The sentence seems to conflict with the rest of your statement.

Nice analysis on the three groups. It's hopeless. Join the ChurchAsMissionary movement and get on the cutting edge!

[Alan Cross]

Yeah, thanks Marty. I meant to say "centralization" in the first sentence of the next to last paragraph. Good call.

As far as it being hopeless, I think that the SBC, if it goes the way I think it will, has unleased a tidal wave of missional activity amongst its churches. If that happens, then decentralization will take on a life of its own and ChurchAsMissionary type thinking will become the norm. Eventually, the SBC structure will adapt to that on many levels. A bureaucracy cannot contain what is likely to happen if local churches become engaged. But, organization can facilitate movement if it will exist for that purpose.

Still have some hope, but I'm not stopping what I'm doing to wait for the SBC to figure it all out.

[David Wilson]

Agreeing with Marty. The outcome may be that more missions activity will be done than could have happened under the old paradigm. So I am hope full about the hopeless SBC.

[Grady Bauer]

I think there are exciting days ahead. I often get frustrated because the IMB seems so slow to innovate....but in fact it's not so much their role to innovate....rather to embrace the innovators. As more and more churches become missional and become church-as-missionary...then hopefully the IMB will embrace this and they will evolve to match the churches. Since the IMB isn't called to do missions on behalf of the SBC they can truly serve as the enablers....hopefully this truly is a turning point in the SBC.