June 21, 2018 Toll free 1-800-803-5201 Vol. 183, No. 25 Informing. Inspiring. Connecting. www.thealabamabaptist.org INSIDE J.D. Greear elected SBC president orth Carolina pastor N J.D. Greear was elected Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president June 12 dur- ing the 2018 annual meeting in Dallas, two years after conced- ing a closely contested election IMB Sending to lead the denomination. Celebration Greear beat out former recognizes 79 Southwestern Baptist Theo- missionaries logical Seminary President Ken Hemphill by a margin of Page 7 69 percent to 31 percent to become the denomination’s youngest president in 37 years. The newly elected president succeeds Memphis-area pastor Steve Gaines who served two one-year presidential terms from 2016 to 2018. Photo by Adam Covington During the 16 years Greear Messengers overwhelmingly vote June 13 during the annual meeting against a motion that would have has led The Summit Church, removed members of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustee executive committee worship attendance has grown from the board of trustees, effective immediately. from 610 in 2002 to just under 10,000, according to statistics Supernatural available through the SBC’s God can lift Annual Church Prole (ACP). Southern Bap- Total baptisms increased from tists, Gaines says 19 in 2002 to 631 in 2017 at Came to do the church’s nine campuses. Page 8 Summit has planted 248 churches to date, including 208 outside the U.S., with a business goal of starting 1,000 churches in 50 years, according to North Carolina’s Biblical Recorder. SBC messengers line up to make motions, share concerns Over the past two years, Summit has given a combined labama Baptists were Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in emeritus status on the same day alle- $1 million through the Cooper- among messengers Fort Worth, Texas — was debated gations surfaced that he mishandled ative Program (CP), making it participating in one of then defeated the next day. The mo- a sexual assault report during his the top CP-contributing church the heaviest years of tion by Tom Hatley of Arkansas pro- 1992–2003 presidency of Southeast- in the state in terms of total business in recent his- posed dismissing SWBTS’s trustee ern Baptist Theological Seminary in (See ‘Ready,’ page 14) Affirmation of Atory at the Southern Baptist Conven- executive committee. Wake Forest, North Carolina. women, proper tion (SBC) annual meeting. Hatley, a former International Mis- ways to deal Held June 12–13 in Dallas, the sion Board trustee chairman, said his ‘Would destroy system’ with abuse sur- annual meeting ran long its opening proposal was based on his percep- Former SBC President Ronnie face at SBC day in part because of 20 motions tion the SWBTS trustee executive Floyd spoke against the motion, ask- proposed by messengers. committee acted with “haste, lack ing messengers to look past whether Page 9 One of those motions — which of proper investigation,” apparent these trustees made the right or dealt with Southwestern Baptist disregard of the seminary’s founding wrong decision and recognize that documents and failure to allow then adopting a motion to remove trustees seminary president Paige Patterson “would destroy our own system of to respond to accusations against government.” To watch the videos from this week’s him. Patterson was terminated May Bart Barber, a member of the 30 from his employment at SWBTS, SWBTS trustee executive commit- issue, visit our YouTube channel or use the where he had served as president tee, spoke on a point of personal HP Reveal app on your phone or tablet and since 2003. privilege, alleging that Patterson, as GREEAR hover over the segments marked “AR.” The previous week, the seminary’s Southwestern’s president, attempted trustees moved him to president (See ‘Business,’ page 4) PAGE 2 / THE ALABAMA BAPTIST / JUNE 21, 2018 COMMENT SBC 2018 Democracy and Accountability at Work he annual meeting of the Southern Baptist cordance with the Second Amendment. Convention (SBC) is often described as the These are not positions one would expect to T largest democratic gathering in the world. hear from a group largely considered to be part This year 9,637 Baptists from across the United of President Donald Trump’s political base. But States, including 452 Alabamians, congregated in the SBC cannot be the most racially and ethnic one room of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Conven- diverse Protestant denomination without that im- tion Center in Dallas to conduct the business of THOUGHTS pacting understanding of Scripture and resulting the largest evangelical denomination in America. political positions. While this was not the largest gathering of SBC By Bob Terry To no one’s surprise messengers condemned messengers (45,519 met in Dallas in 1985), the spousal abuse saying it “dishonors the marriage meeting demonstrated how unpredictable democ- covenant and fundamentally blasphemes the rela- racy can be. tionship between Christ and the Church.” Abuse Going into the meeting, messengers generally victims were urged to contact civil authorities and had a sense of relief after former Southwestern ers be barred from speaking at future SBC annual “separate from their abusers.” Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige meetings. The motions were referred to the SBC While not asking that women serve as pastors, Patterson announced he would not deliver the Executive Committee for consideration. messengers did urge a greater role of leadership convention sermon nor attend the annual meeting. The annual budget sparked another unexpected for women in the church and in the denomination. Less than two weeks before, Patterson had been debate when a motion was offered to defund the Each seminary president was questioned by removed as president emeritus of Southwestern Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). messengers about the treatment of women stu- Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Patterson’s deci- The motion was roundly defeated but only after dents at their respective seminaries and about sion would help avoid a major controversy, most emotional debate. women in leadership. Presidents talked about felt. Re-election of ERLC trustee debated the growing number of female students but the But before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could wel- institutions largely remain bastions of male domi- Another routine item that sparked debate was come messengers to his state, the meeting was nance. One seminary, for example, lists 73 faculty the report of the Committee on Nominations. The embroiled in the rst of many debates. Some mes- members, two of whom are women. The website chairman of the ERLC trustees accused the com- sengers challenged the proposed agenda. They of that same school lists 14 persons who carry a mittee of failing to re-nominate an eligible mem- objected to having Vice President Mike Pence on vice president title. All are male. ber for a second term because that member was the convention program, calling his presence “in- One president was asked about reports of male not critical enough of ERLC leadership. sensitive” to African-Americans and other minor- students walking out of preaching labs and other After several back-and-forths, messengers ity brothers and sisters. classes when it is the turn of a female student to amended the committee report and approved the It did not help when messengers learned the preach. That question went unanswered. ERLC trustee for the customary second term. White House had asked for Pence to speak. It will be interesting to see if SBC-related semi- While the debates demonstrated the unpredict- After nearly a half-hour of debate, the invitation naries become more open to women in teaching ability of a democratically run organization and was af rmed. But the issue did not die. and administrative roles. made a mess of both day’s agendas, the debates Despite the changes taking place in SBC life, ‘Political stump speech’ also demonstrated the accountability of de- one thing remains constant — Southern Baptists’ Pence was allotted 15 minutes but spoke for 40. nominational structures to Southern Baptists as a commitment to share the gospel with all people In his rst ve minutes, he shared his Christian whole. everywhere. For this writer, two experiences dem- testimony. In his last ve minutes, he commended A motion was offered to remove Southwestern onstrated that commitment most clearly. One was Southern Baptists for their worldwide missions Seminary trustees who serve on the trustee execu- gathering around a newly appointed international and ministry efforts. tive committee (the group that severed ties with missionary couple who will serve in Eastern Eu- The rest of the time was devoted to a political Patterson). With only 10 to 15 percent support rope, laying hands on them and praying God’s stump speech including a call for support in the from the voting messengers present, the motion blessings on their ministry. upcoming fall elections. His performance resulted failed overwhelmingly but the debate illustrated in motions asking that politicians and of ce hold- that entity trustees are accountable to the messen- ‘Best service of convention week’ gers. The other was the closing session of the na- Messengers continued their march away from tional Woman’s Missionary Union annual meet- racism in a resolution that stated, in part, “our ing. For me that may have been the best service public renunciation of racism in all its forms, of convention week. Testimonies from missionar- including our disavowal of the ‘curse of Ham’ ies serving in security-sensitive areas around the doctrine and any other attempt to distort or misap- world and in North America, words from the lead- propriate the Bible to justify this evil.” ers of both the International Mission Board and On immigration, messengers said, “We desire the North American Mission Board, an emphasis to see immigration reform including an emphasis on work in local churches and state conventions on securing our borders and providing a pathway — the session seemed to illustrate the wholeness to legal status with appropriate restitutionary mea- that is supposed to be the SBC.