#sbc2009 SBC motions and Danny Akin, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, and Book Banning Dominate the Afternoon at the 2009 SBC Annual Meeting

In the afternoon motions at the SBC, someone made a motion that Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA - that his books be banned from Lifeway stores.

(Update as of 9:15 CST, June 23, 2009 - Thankfully, the more outlandish of the following motions did not make it out of committee.  All of the "charges" so to speak against Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor from Seattle who is gaining influence through his popular Acts29 church planting network, were dropped and the motions against him were denied. He was not banned, per se, but there were motions brought up that would have banned his books from Lifeway, the Southern Baptist bookstore, if they had been accepted. I am thankful.  We should focus on more important things.)

• Someone else made a motion that Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research and Alvin Reid and Danny Akin be investigated because of their relationship with Driscoll and the issue of alcohol.  Huh?

• Another motion concerns the fact that Pepsi is advertising for Gay and Lesbian issues and the motion desires to keep them neutral in the culture war - if not, they want to boycott Pepsi.

• Another motion was made to remove books by T.D. Jakes, John Hagee, Catholics, and The Shack from Lifeway.

• Yet another motion was made to adopt the American Christian flag to unite us together as believers and a bunch of other stuff in the longest sentence ever uttered - sorry, I couldn't follow. Wow.

• A lady stated that if anyone drinks alcohol or uses an inappropriate word, they cannot be involved with SBC entities.

• Another motion asked for a clarification by the SBC on a distinction between the use of the alcohol, which is a matter of individual conscience and the practice of getting drunk, which is clearly a sin. The man wanted the SBC to try and settle this issue biblically.

• Another motion on the KJV of the Bible.

• Another motion asking that the SBC refrain from the use of secular music in their promotional materials.

• A motion that I had no idea what was being said.

• A motion that the U.S. government adhere to biblical counsel and support Israel so we can avoid God's wrath and gain His blessing.

• A motion that we use American made curriculum and not that Chinese curriculum in our Lifeway Sunday School material.

• A motion to ask Mark Driscoll to come and address his accusations from the SBC in the light of Matthew 18 - finally, something Biblical!

• A motion to partner with other likeminded believers in whatever way possible for God's glory.

• A motion to issue a strong denunciation to our president, Barack Hussein Obama over his declaration that June is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender month and that we remind him that he is acting against God's will.

 I didn't get them all, but you get the idea.

Timmy Brister said that these motions are evidence that Southern Baptists have lost the gospel.  There are always really silly motions that emerge at the SBC as anyone who can walk to a microphone is capable of presenting a motion. It really is a shame. Hopefully, these motions will be rejected.  

Danny Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is speaking saying that the GCR would be a return to Jesus movement. His prayer is that we become Jesus intoxicated people.  He is asking God that He would extinguish sinful self interest in our lives that keeps us from what really matters. God does not need Southern Baptists, but we desperately need Him. We must be a Christ-centered people.

Akin goes on:  We must be a Gospel saturated people. What is the gospel? Many people do not understand what the gospel is. Akin says, the gospel is the good news that King Jesus died and paid the full penalty for sin. He rose from the dead and saves all who trust Him. The person who has Jesus plus nothing actually has everything. 

2 1/2 times the number of women on the mission field to the number of men. In West Africa, of the 50 missionaries there, 48 are women, 2 are men. We are failing by not calling our men to do something great for Jesus. Young men are sitting home playing video games. Why are we not calling men to sacrifice all and give their lives for Jesus? We are failing. Where are the men?

Dr. Akin then called for Southern Baptists to sacrifice to get missionaries to the field, since we have fallen $29 million short of our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal - which would have put over 600 missionaries on the field. He stated his dream of the convention coming together to affirm the Great Commission Resurgence by calling for unity and unanimity in affirming the GCR.

ME:  This is really interesting. Dr. Akin and others are calling for Southern Baptists to vote and affirm the GCR by saying that an affirmation of the GCR is an affirmation of the Great Commission and Biblical Christianity to the point that a church that does not affirm the GCR is not a biblical church. He didn't say that directly, but it was implied by so closely tying the GCR to the Great Commission and making them basically synonymous. If the messengers heard this and internalized it, there is no way that they will not affirm the GCR - they can't.  I wonder if the opponents of the GCR will highlight this fallacy tonight during the debate over the GCR. I am a supporter of the GCR, but the GCR is not the Great Commission, per se. I think that you can be against the GCR and still support the Great Commission.

If given a chance to clarify, I am sure that Dr. Akin would say that the GCR is not synonymous with the Great Commission. He doesn't believe that. But, while he might not have meant it that way, but that is how it came across.

The debate tonight will be interesting.  I wonder if the Baptist Identity camp or the Institutional Traditional camp will oppose the GCR, or if they will see it as a wave crashing on the beach that they will just let play out by backing up and letting the momentum subside. Often, if something is opposed, the proponents get even more invigorated to fight for what they are proposing. If something is ignored, apathy sets in and not much happens. I wonder which way the opponents of the GCR will go?

Around 8,500 messengers are at the SBC this year.

For further reference, Todd Littleton makes an interesting comparison between the GCR and the Conservative Resurgence over Inerrancy from the 1980's.

David Phillips makes some great suggestions for how he would restructer the SBC if he had his way.

Comments

[Grady Bauer]

I agree with Timmy Brister...these motions represent what is wrong with the SBC. We are cutting people on the field...declining in membership and baptism and we have people wanting to boycott June (gay pride month), pepsi and ed stetzer....makes me want to cuss and have a drink :-)

[Alan Cross]

I just tweeted this, but thought it belonged here. SBCVoices responded to the motion on President Obama and Israel by saying:

SBCvoices: motioned: congress + PRez to obey the Bible & love Israle so God won't kill us @obama #sbc2009

Those motions were something else.

[Keith Powell]

I have not been affiliated with an SBC church forover mfour years. This insanity that is the SBC makes it difficult for ANYONE to get a heraing for the gospel.

Boycott Pepsi? Reall? It's a company with a mission to make money. Gays are as much consumers as heterosexuals! Should we boycott Pepsi because it seeks out and sells to theological liberals, too? And, by the way, who gets hurt in these boycotts? The employees, that's who. Families who are already struggling with a shaky economy and uncertain markets. This type statement again confirms the fact that most "Christians" only see to the end of thier nose.

One last observation ... how many backing this little effort were against the bailout of the auto companies? How many of them said "capitalism or bust?" PepsiCo is a capitalist success story. Get yourselves into a place where you don't contradict yourselves ... how about a resolution against anymore stupid resolutions?

Keith Powell
Tucson, AZ

[Alan Cross]

Keith, you're not telling me anything I don't know. Most of these resolutions are ridiculous and make no sense. I heard from a reliable source that Roger Moran, the fundamentalist from Missouri, has been behind much of this and is passing out flyers around the convention hall. Something must be happening because this is unusual, even for the SBC.

[Mark]

It's amazing that there was a homosexual boycott called for and then a video on how LifeWay is reaching out evangelizing homosexuals with a sort of task force. How do those work together?

Maybe we should boycott Pepsi because they hire and pay unbelievers that are heterosexual, homosexual, just out right sinners! Coke doesn't do this, ya know. ;)

[Jeff Moody]

Per our discussion yesterday: We must boycott the College World Series of Baseball because it is played in the month of June (Gay and Lesbian month) and while no alcohol can be served in the stadium, alcohol can be purchased somewhere in Omaha, Nebraska. Why did no one bring this up?

[Ken]

"Dr. Akin then called for Southern Baptists to sacrifice to get missionaries to the field, since we have fallen $29 million short of our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal - which would have put over 600 missionaries on the field."

My math is not very good. Why does it take $29 million to put over 600 missionaries on the field?

[Brian]

Ken,

$29 million divided by 600 is $48,333, which seems to me to be a minimal annual budget for a missionary family to rent a house/apartment, buy necessities, travel to their field (international airfare can be $1000 a person depending on destination), and carry out ministry projects.

I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the IMB and NAMB, since I'm not SBC, so I don't know if the LMCO is the main funding drive for all SBC missionaries, or if each missionary family itenerates to raise their monthly support and cash budget (like in the A/G where I hang my hat).

[Grady Bauer]

Ken and Brian,
The majority of funding for people serving with the IMB comes from the annual Christmas offering...with a little extra from the Cooperative Program. the number of $48 K per unit seems kind of high...knowing what I make but it would include...7 weeks of pre-field training, housing, insurance, retirement (for long-term units),travel, office expenses, ministry budget. There is a policy in place that prohibits IMB personnel from raising support for projects or ministry needs...so if we don't have a ministry budget we have to hope someone offers to support us...we can't ask.

I also know that we have some buffer money and for the last few years we've been taking from that to support the current number of people on the field. Although giving is usually increasing it's not keeping up with cost of living due to the dollar losing value in the majority of countries. So this cut helps us to fund with the amount we're expecting to receive over the coming years.
Grady

[Jennifer S]

Also the IMB does have a stateside staff that earns a salary by helping to manage and train the missionaries, so that amount would have to reduce the $48k figure.