The Challenge of Being Baptist: Owning a Scandalous Past and an Uncertain Future

7 Toward a Baptist Future

107 7 toward a baptist future The Challenge Ahead V If Baptists are a case study in denominational transition in twentyfirst -century America, then great challenges lie ahead for all Protestant traditions as churches, boards, agencies, schools, and other institutions confront the period of permanent transition that has descended on religious bodies across the nation and around the world. Contemporary congregations, whether thriving or declining in membership, focused or distracted in their identity, face great challenges related to the nature of the church, the purpose of its ministry, worship, and sacraments, and its sense of mission. New generations of Christians and seekers, many unfamiliar with old traditions and common practices, require knowledge and training , often in the most basic rubrics of the faith. And if Baptists in general are a case study in such institutional and ideological transitions, Southern Baptists are surely a case within the case. America’s largest Protestant denomination (sixteen million by some counts) has engaged in a variety of highly public disputes for more than thirty years. At their annual convention gatherings Southern Baptists consistently address numerous public issues including critiques of the “homosexual agenda,” abortion , secularism, theological liberalism, public schools, cussing 108 the challenge of being Baptist preachers, and repentance from their own early support of slavery. Conflicts between so-called conservatives and moderates extended to every segment of denominational life from the national convention to local congregations. For many observers, “The Controversy” that dominated the history of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for decades began at the denomination’s annual meeting in Houston, Texas, in June 1979. Although divisions between so-called moderates and conservatives were evident by the 1960s, the Houston Convention marked the first election of a series of denomination presidents who would use their appointive powers to install conservative majorities on the trustee boards of all Convention agencies. These trustees would then promote a “course correction” that would deliver the SBC from the jaws of theological liberalism and confessional compromise. Moderates, on the other hand, viewed this effort as a “takeover” movement that would undermine Convention unity and distract it from its evangelical mission. Adrian Rogers, then pastor of Belleview Baptist Church, Memphis, and a prince of the conservative pulpit, was elected president on the first ballot with some 51 percent of the vote over numerous other moderate candidates. For over thirty years Southern Baptist majorities have elected conservatives who facilitated the doctrinal and practical confessionalism supported by those who desired a “course correction” in the theological life of the denomination. By 1985 conservative dominance of the denominational system was solidly confirmed with the election of Atlanta pastor Charles Stanley as Convention president at an annual convention held in Dallas in the presence of at least fortyfive thousand messengers. This represents the largest meeting of the SBC that was ever or undoubtedly will ever be held. The Controversy was fierce and divisive, impacting every segment of SBC life. Many state Baptist colleges and universities relinquished or significantly redefined their relationship with their respective state Baptist conventions. Faculties at Conventionowned seminaries experienced extensive turnover, with several Toward a Baptist Future 109 forced terminations. A greater degree of doctrinal and confessional unanimity came to characterize Convention programs and employment. Trustees were changed, agencies were changed, and the departure or disengagement of moderates was under way. The conservative course correction succeeded in accomplishing its essential goals, but even that success could not stem the tide of statistical decline that descended on the denomination by the early 2000s. The still formidable SBC retains its significant numerical dominance in American Protestantism, but Convention demographics , like those of other Baptist groups, reflect a denomination in a considerable transition, if not outright decline, torn by internal controversies on one side and megachurch competition on the other, held together by an aging constituency, faltering finances, and turbulent identity crises. OtherBaptistdenominationalgroupsreflectthesedemographic realities even if their internal struggles have been less public than those of the SBC. Indeed, while certain congregations are thriving, many Baptist communions across the theological spectrum from liberal/progressive to conservative/Fundamentalist are experiencing general declines in denominational statistics and identity. Inside a new century, Baptists are redefining themselves, disconnecting, reclaiming identity, rejecting identity, or experiencing varying degrees of schism. Thus Baptists represent a case study in the changing nature of religion and denominations in twenty-first-century American culture. They are at once a sectarian movement standing against culture, fighting “worldliness” in its varied...