Month: September 2021

New NAMB, SBTC partnership to provide momentum for statewide church planting efforts

GRAPEVINE—A new partnership between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the North American Mission Board will provide additional resources to start churches in high need areas throughout Texas.

Approved at August’s meeting of the SBTC executive board, the new Send Texas collaboration will begin in 2022.

“We are excited to see God move in a powerful way through Send Texas,” said Nathan Lorick, SBTC executive director. “God is bringing the world to Texas, and we want to be ready to maximize all our efforts and as many dollars as possible to see more churches planted than ever before. In the future, we want to accelerate the gospel advance across Texas at an unparalleled rate. We believe one of the most strategic ways to do this is through church planting.”

"God is bringing the world to Texas, and we want to be ready to maximize all our efforts and as many dollars as possible to see more churches planted than ever before."

Nathan Lorick, SBTC Executive Director Tweet

This new partnership means that beginning in 2022, NAMB will take on a bigger role in assessing, training, caring for and supporting SBTC church planters. The SBTC will continue to care for church planters and provide retreat opportunities for planters and their spouses.

Tony Mathews, SBTC senior strategist for Missional Ministries, says the new resources will allow the convention to grow church planting efforts throughout the state—including in some of the most unreached parts.

“With millions of lost people in the state of Texas along with thousands of people moving [weekly]to major cities across Texas, we are expecting to plant churches in as many places as we can,” Mathews said. “Of course, from a strategic standpoint, we will be looking at unreached areas and unreached people groups as the world has come to Texas. NAMB’s expertise in identifying, training and mobilizing church planters along with our current expertise in this area, should increase the number of sending churches and pastors in the pipeline.”

Before this partnership, SBC churches worked through NAMB to plant churches in areas of high need mostly outside of the South. To plant churches within Texas, SBTC churches worked through the state convention. Now, NAMB President Kevin Ezell said, SBTC churches get the best of both organizations.

“So instead of just having the SBTC looking at Texas and how to plant churches, now you have two of us. You’ve got NAMB and the SBTC, so it’s like you added a whole other cylinder to the engine,” Ezell said. “Instead of either/or, it’s both/and. That’s what I’d want every pastor to understand. The only thing that’s changed is now NAMB is going to add its momentum and its church planting expertise to what the SBTC already has.”

SBTC churches can now access NAMB support for church planting efforts in the state as well as beyond it.

Noting that Southern Baptists are better together, Lorick looks forward to God moving throughout Texas in a powerful way through this partnership.

“When you can cooperate with an organization that does planting as well as NAMB does, you are able to gain a synergistic momentum,” Lorick said.

NAMB launched Send North America in 2011 with a focus on urban areas that were underrepresented by Southern Baptists. In recent years, NAMB has expanded the Send Network to include entire state conventions, like the SBTC.

Ezell says these new networks have worked “incredibly well.” He added that these state Send Network agreements have streamlined how NAMB partners with states to do church planting. It has created even greater synergy and cooperation. For church planter candidates, it has been an encouragement because the process is simpler, and they have the benefit of knowing that both the state convention and NAMB are unified in their partnership and support for them.

Texas represents a critical state for NAMB’s effort to mobilize Southern Baptists to push back lostness. Ezell compares it to high school football, where the athletic talent in the state draws the attention of recruiters around the country. The same is true for church planting.

“There’s a tremendous amount of talent in that state,” Ezell said. “Our biggest need right now is high-capacity planters, and for Texas to partner with us so that we can engage their churches in intentionally mobilizing their people to be potential church planters, then that’s huge for us.”

The new resources and systems NAMB is providing through this partnership have the potential to draw new leaders into the SBTC, says Doug Hixson, who served as the SBTC’s church planting director until moving to Colorado to plant a new church this summer.

“Although I don’t know the exact statistics, I would say close to half of the people that would come to SBTC to plant with us were looking for a network,” Hixson said. “Maybe they weren’t from the SBC or were only marginally involved. Having a national network that we’re a part of has been helpful from an SBTC standpoint, but now for the convention to be formally connected directly with NAMB brings a lot more to the table. The Send Network and the North American Mission Board have high-level thinkers and leaders, along with their training, their assessments, and their planter support and care. In my opinion, it is the best—or one of the best—church planting networks in our nation.”

Lorick urges SBTC congregations and pastors to pray for church planting efforts within the state.

“We know there is power in prayer. I would ask that you pray that God would raise up new planters who see the desperate need in Texas for new churches,” Lorick said. “We need to plant as many new churches as we can, as God continues to bring so many people here. The need is great, and the time is now.”

‘Sovereign grace of God’ undergirds Calvary Beaumont

BEAUMONT—Churches commonly believe in the unseen hand of God on their congregations, but not all cite it as the chief reason for the effectiveness of their ministry. At Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont, pastor Nathan Cothen said “the sovereign grace of God” sets this group of believers apart.

“[God] decided to do a work here,” Cothen told the TEXAN. “Secondly, there is a huge commitment to the Word here. This church does not veer to the left or to the right. It sticks with the Word.”

Calvary Beaumont began in 1904 and has started two other churches in the area with the goal of reaching Southeast Texas for Christ. In 2007, it started a new campus in Lumberton, a rapidly-growing bedroom community about 15 miles north.

“That market is exploding for us,” said Cothen, who has been Calvary’s pastor for 22 years. “The population shift and things like that are making it a really good place for us to be right now.”

"The population shift and things like that are making it a really good place for us to be right now."

Nathan Cothen, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont Tweet

Beaumont is not an Anglo-majority city, and Calvary is “one of the most diverse congregations that you’ll find,” Cothen said. They have a thriving international ministry, which includes Filipinos, Chinese, Guatemalans, Ecuadorians and people from several countries in Africa. They also have Casa Calvario, an Hispanic ministry, “which is rocking and rolling.”

About 15 years ago, some researchers studied Calvary using a list of about 100 socio-ethnic groups. “They said the average number of groups off that chart represented in the average church was four, and Calvary had 24 at the time,” Cothen said.

The church’s greatest asset, the pastor said, is something he describes as “sweet reasonableness.”

“Sweet reasonableness, in my opinion, is what makes it fun to come to church here—the absence of fussing and fuming and fighting. Two-thirds of our ministerial staff has been here over 10 years, and over half of our support staff has been here over 10 years,” Cothen said. “I think that’s kind of a big deal.”

As the community changes and people are moving from Beaumont to Lumberton, Calvary has tried to get involved in the local schools through mentoring projects and by supplying chaplains for the football team at one of the large high schools. They’ve also partnered with First Baptist Church Hamshire to host a Beast Feast to reach men who love to hunt and fish but don’t have much exposure to church.

“In the last 23 years, we started a television ministry that’s on every week and a radio ministry that’s on in Houston five days a week. We were paying for 30 minutes a day, and they showed favor to us—I believe it was divinely inspired—and gave us an extra 30 minutes free,” Cothen said. “They play our broadcast twice a day on the biggest Jesus station in Houston.”

Disaster relief is a significant ministry at Calvary Beaumont, particularly hurricane relief. “We are more than willing to lose our expertise from lack of use,” Cothen said, acknowledging the challenges of living with dangerous weather patterns. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the church had 400 evacuees come and go, seeking shelter during the first month. “Two of our buildings were devoted just to housing Katrina refugees,” the pastor said.

When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, both campuses of Calvary remained dry and became ground zero for disaster relief teams.

“We housed 600 Team Rubicon people. We had a group of relief workers from Israel that came and stayed with us. We had a group of New York firefighters that came and stayed with us,” Cothen said.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief workers from at least seven states were housed at Calvary Beaumont in the Harvey aftermath, and Rick Warren rallied local pastors there. More recently, Calvary sent its chainsaw crew as the tip of the spear heading into New Orleans after Hurricane Ida.

Cothen believes the two most important functions of the Southern Baptist Convention are to provide seminaries to educate new pastors and missionaries and to reach the nations through the International Mission Board. “Those are the two biggest reasons that we’re hard core in on the Cooperative Program,” the pastor said.

Through the years, Calvary has prayed to have 100 “sell your house” missionaries come out of the church, and so far about eight families have been sent through the IMB, he said. One of the highlights of CP, the church’s missions pastor Clay Jones said, is that those families don’t have to raise money when they come home. They can recharge and go out again.

“Beaumont is a good place. Some parts of it are pretty tough, but we believe that the Lord called us here for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others to cleave only to the calling he put on us ‘til death do us part or he burns a bush,” Cothen said. “So that’s what we’re going to do.”

Cooperation, not allegiance

In 2002, the SBTC met in Houston for its fifth annual meeting. During Jim Richards’ executive director’s report, the ministry staff of the convention signed a brief affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

The BF&M had become the convention’s statement of faith shortly after it was adopted by SBC messengers in 2000 and the staff indicated their commitment to conduct their ministries within the parameters of the confession. We did not sign the document itself; many of us would have more specific interpretations of the atonement or eschatology or church polity, for example. But we each considered the BF&M sufficient to describe our understanding of biblical doctrine and Baptist distinctives.

One observer, the editor of another state paper, sneered in print that the SBTC had “pledged allegiance” to the Southern Baptist Convention. It wasn’t a fair representation of what we’d done—it wasn’t intended to be—and it expressed a common misconception of that day regarding cooperation.

A little context

Two brief matters of context for that moment: First, since 2000, SBTC churches have affirmed their own broad agreement with the confession when they affiliate with the convention. Convention ministry staff already knew that the BF&M was the outline that defined our ministries. More particular interpretations were certainly our right, so long as they were not mistaken for an official SBTC addition to our standards for affiliation. We were affirming doctrinal agreement with our churches.

The second matter of context to that moment in 2002 was that my colleague’s state convention had, two years earlier, initiated a significant break with the SBC over the Conservative Resurgence and its values expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message. His convention had defunded most SBC entities in favor of its own seminaries, a publishing house, an ethics agency and a mission-sending venture. Hundreds of churches left that state convention for the SBTC as result of this defunding of the SBC. Without fanfare, the defunding was rescinded a few years later, by the way. My editor colleague arrived at our convention already certain who was a bad guy in this disagreement.

"The new fellowship of churches judged the Southern Baptist Convention a strong and reliable ministry partner."

Gary Ledbetter, Editor Tweet

From its beginning four years prior at the inaugural SBTC annual meeting, also in Houston, the new fellowship of churches judged the Southern Baptist Convention a strong and reliable ministry partner. In his 1998 sermon to that first meeting that elected him executive director, Jim Richards lined out core values that included the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program as the method that fueled our work to reach Texas and to impact the world beyond Texas. This latter priority was a point of contention between the new convention in Texas and the old one. The new convention, the SBTC, began in 1998 apportioning 50 percent of Cooperative Program receipts for SBC missions beyond Texas. With the adoption of the 2002 budget, messengers raised that percentage to 52 percent. The convention that most of our churches had left behind was sending about 29 percent beyond Texas in 2002.

Why the difference?

From 1995, the completion of the Conservative Resurgence goal of electing inerrantist presidents at all SBC entities, Southern Baptists in Texas had a high degree of trust in our national SBC partners. This was not and is not lockstep, but it was like-mindedness on the essentials or denominational goals. We agreed that abortion was the taking of a human life, that Jesus was the only way to heaven, and that the Bible is the inspired Word of God—without error in anything on any subject that it asserts.

There were advantages to our young fellowship of churches. We could call on resources already available to SBC churches that owned the institutions that provided them. The SBTC, an autonomous fellowship of churches, could also multiply its effectiveness in national and international outreach by working with tens of thousands of SBC churches beyond our borders. We didn’t have to reinvent the denominational wheel or do everything with our own hands because we could trust resources already in place.

Everyone wins

There were also advantages to the SBC. Texas Southern Baptist churches are among the strongest in the world. Some of our churches innovate ministries that bless thousands of sister churches. Cooperation and partnership with the SBC mean that we give according to how we’ve been blessed so that sister churches will flourish, and the lost will hear the gospel. This desire for cooperation was a significant reason for the SBTC’s formation.

That November afternoon in 2002 was a recognition that we agreed on essential doctrines with Southern Baptists around the world. It was the same commitment our churches had already expressed. Today, I say with gratitude that the accord with our partners at every denominational level in the SBC is at least as strong as it was in 2002.

—This is the second of four 2021 editorials describing “denominational virtues” of the SBTC.

Plainview Baptist, Krum, to begin 100 nights of preaching

Calling the effort “Come Home,” Pastor Tim Robinson of Plainview Baptist Church in Krum launched 100 nights of preaching Sept. 22. Based on the story of the prodigal son, Robinson’s series will shift themes every seven days as the pastor moves from “Come to the Bible” to “Come Home to Church” and so on.

Robinson says the theme for the sermon series came to him during an increased emphasis on prayer this summer, following what he called “a year of uneasiness” in our communities.

“We prayed for our leaders and for the country to return to the Lord. These prayer services gave a vision of what the 100 days should be for us,” he told the TEXAN.

Robinson says that an increase in attendance and first-time visitors has followed the prayer efforts of the church. They recently had to add a second service to accommodate members who were returning and new attenders joining the services.

He encouraged other pastors to “keep the lost in the forefront of their prayers and be bold, be brave, be big in prayer and plans; do all that is necessary in outreach to win the lost to Christ.”

—Plainview Baptist Church

TRUSTEES: EC responds to task force, authorizes funding at September meeting

NASHVILLE (BP) — In its first meeting since messengers to the June 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting called for an independent, third-party review of the SBC Executive Committee, the EC responded to several routine motions and moved to fund the independent review but declined to waive attorney-client privilege for the time being.

After a three-hour extra session Tuesday afternoon, the Executive Committee ultimately rejected a proposal from its officers and instead adopted a temporary measure to move the sexual abuse review forward leaving the details to be hashed out between the officers and the Sex Abuse Task Force within seven days. One of the most significant undecided details was whether or not the EC will agree to waive attorney-client privilege as Guidepost Solutions, the independent firm chosen by the task force to conduct the review, has requested. In the motion passed SBC messengers in june, the EC was instructed to abide by the recommendations of the third-party firm, up to and including the waiver of attorney-client privilege. (See related story)

The EC also has hired Locke Lord, a Dallas-based firm, as additional legal counsel to help navigate the forthcoming independent review. In approving a recommendation from the EC’s Committee on Convention Finance and Stewardship, members voted to fund, from its operating reserves, the EC’s legal fees related to the Guidepost review up to $500,000.

A matter of trust

Both Bruce Frank, chair of the Sexual Abuse Task Force named by SBC President Ed Litton, and Litton himself stressed the importance of maintaining trust within the Convention.

“A non-profit that doesn’t have the trust of either the messengers or the mission or the mission field is going to be impacted far more by not dealing transparently with any mess than if they deal honestly with it,” Frank said in a Monday afternoon (Sept. 20) session before members voted to go into executive (closed) session to discuss the Guidepost proposal.

Later that evening in his address to EC, Litton said the SBC is struggling.

“And it’s a crisis of trust,” he said. “However you label it, there’s a solution and that solution is with us. Our churches want to see our entities working together in harmony, and they want to see the EC leading the way.”

Entity reports

EC members heard from the head of each SBC entity over the two-day meeting, including an encouraging report from North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell that the cumulative total receipts from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions has surpassed $2 billion.

International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood reported that missionary numbers have begun to tick back up after years of decline, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Jamie Dew gave an update on the school’s recovery from Hurricane Ida.

GuideStone Financial Resources President-elect Hance Dilbeck made his first visit to the EC since his election in a joint appearance with outgoing president O.S. Hawkins.

After each report, various EC members prayed for the entity and the leader who gave the report.

Other business

Though discussion related to the independent review took up the vast majority of members’ time, the EC also accomplished other business at the meeting, including:

Approved the SBC EC and SBC operating budget.Approved retaining the law firm Friday, Eldredge & Clark to study potential conflicts of interest in relation to the SBC’s legal counselDeclined to act on a motion from the SBC Annual Meeting to make Nashville the permanent annual meeting location.Declined to recommend the opportunity for remote participation in the Annual Meeting.Declined to add a Fellowship Meal Sunday or a Sunday of Repentance to the SBC calendar.Declined to amend SBC Bylaw 10C in an effort to require the inclusion of Cooperative Program giving information in speeches to nominate SBC officers.

Pro-lifers hopeful as high court sets date for abortion ban arguments

WASHINGTON (BP) – Southern Baptists and other pro-life advocates greeted with hopefulness the news that a date has been set for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the most significant abortion case in nearly three decades.

The high court announced Monday (Sept. 20) that oral arguments are scheduled for Dec. 1 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which involves Mississippi’s 2018 Gestational Age Act. The law, which has been invalidated by lower courts, prohibits abortions of unborn children whose gestational age is more than 15 weeks.

The justices have said they will limit their ruling to whether, as the state told the court, “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” Viability for an unborn child, or the ability to survive outside the womb, is typically considered to be several weeks after the limit set by Mississippi’s law.

The high court’s major opinions that have controlled abortion law – Roe v. Wade in 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 – prohibit states from banning abortions before an unborn child is viable. The Roe decision legalized abortion nationwide, while Casey affirmed Roe but permitted some state regulation of the procedure.

An opinion in support of the Mississippi 15-week ban could potentially overturn both Roe and Casey explicitly or severely undermine those decisions. The ruling is expected to be issued before the high court adjourns next summer.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Commission (ERLC) and other pro-life organizations have joined Mississippi in urging the high court not only to uphold the state ban but reverse Roe and Casey.

“We are approaching a critical moment in our nation’s history [in a case that] could potentially end the legal precedents in Roe and Casey,” said Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s director of public policy.

“Scripture is clear that all lives have innate dignity and worth and ought to be fully protected by law,” she said in written comments. “The Dobbs case provides an opportunity for the highest court in our nation to come to that same conclusion and affirm the fundamental right to life for all human beings, beginning at conception.”

Kenny Digby, executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Christian Action Commission (CAC), said the state ban is a “well-, well-written law, and basically we are tinkled pink” the high court has scheduled oral arguments.

“We are thrilled with any legislation that means [fewer] abortions than more abortions, but man, to have this actually before the court in oral arguments, that’s a huge step in and of itself,” he said in a phone interview.

“I think there’s been a tightrope act for a long time. … It’s like [the justices and federal appeals courts] agree legally that restrictions at the state level are viable for any number of reasons, but they haven’t been willing to actually look at the root cause of all of this, and that’s a poorly made decision [in Roe].”

The Mississippi CAC is an agency of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.

Denise Harle, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in an email interview, “It is difficult to speculate what the court will do, but we do know this: The framework under Roe and Casey is not working – that’s one of the reasons we see so many laws and subsequent lawsuits.

“The court’s decisions in those cases created decades of confusion and legal chaos. The court absolutely should recognize that life is a human right and protect the unborn, as Mississippi has aimed to do here.”

In a July brief for the state, Lynn Fitch, Mississippi’s first female attorney general, told the justices they should overturn the Roe and Casey decisions because they are “egregiously wrong,” “hopelessly unworkable” and “have inflicted significant damage.”

Roe “shackles states to a view of facts that is decades old, such that while science, medicine, technology, and culture have all rapidly progressed since 1973, duly enacted laws on abortion are unable to keep up,” Fitch said in a written statement Monday. “With Dobbs, the Supreme Court can return decision-making about abortion policy to the elected leaders and allow the people to empower women and promote life.”

Abortion-rights advocates filed more than 50 friend-of-the-court briefs Monday urging the justices to strike down the Mississippi ban. Among those submitting briefs were the American Medical Association, American Bar Association, more than 6,600 women who have had abortions and 500-plus current or former professional, college and high school athletes and coaches, as well as organizations.

On behalf of the Biden administration, Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher said in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Monday the long-standing precedents of Roe and Casey require the high court to maintain the Roe decision’s “central holding,” which he said “remains clear and workable.”

In the case, the Supreme Court has the chance to rein in a legal regime inaugurated nearly 50 years ago that has made the United States one of the most permissive countries in the world regarding abortion rights. A study released in July by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute showed 47 of 50 European nations do not permit elective abortions or restrict them to 15 weeks or earlier.

In July, the ERLC and five other religious organizations joined a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that told the Supreme Court its rule in the Roe and Casey opinions that prohibited states from banning abortions before an unborn child is viable “is deeply flawed. These decisions, insofar as they impede the ability of states to prohibit abortion before viability, should be overruled.”

The brief said the U.S. Constitution “does not create a right to an abortion of an unborn child before viability or at any other stage of pregnancy. An asserted right to abortion has no basis in constitutional text or in American history and tradition.”

Mississippi’s ban permits an exception for threats to the life or “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the mother. It also allows an exception for a “severe fetal abnormality” that “is incompatible with life outside the womb.”

The high court also announced Carson v. Makin, an important religious freedom case, will be argued Dec. 8. In the case, the ERLC joined in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Sept. 10 that asked the high court to invalidate a Maine tuition-assistance program that forbids the participation of schools that provide faith-based instruction.

‘Now is the time to get more involved’

TEXAN: Why are you interested in serving as SBTC president?

Todd Kaunitz: I love the SBTC. It’s been a strong gospel representation for our denomination, and our affiliation has allowed New Beginnings to be a part of what God is doing in the state of Texas and around the world. I’ve known Dr. Lorick for 20 years, and a lot of my interest is in coming alongside of him during this pivotal season of transition, to offer any support that he might need. I also think that we are at a critical time in our convention nationally.

Being able to step in and be a unifying voice of influence and help us stay focused on the Great Commission—these are key ways I feel like I could be a help in a pivotal season with this opportunity. I also have some experience with helping create a vision and culture within an organization, and with the revisioning Dr. Lorick is working through, I believe some of my experience could be a help to him.

Why is your church affiliated with the SBTC, and what are some of the benefits you’ve experienced?

We believe in the Cooperative Program, and we believe that the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole has a platform for advancing the gospel both here in North America and around the world like no other entity in the world. For us, the reason we’re SBTC is because we believe in doctrinal unity. We align with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, and that doctrinal alignment is important for us. And second would be the missional focus.

I love how intentional the SBTC is on the Great Commission. You can see that in the way that we distribute our funds and in how we respond to needs both in the state and around the world. We’re better together. New Beginnings benefits because we get to be a part of a bigger gospel movement than we could if we were just doing missions on our own. Personally, I’ve been able to build strong relationships, and some of the guys I dialogue with daily all over the state are SBTC pastors with whom I’ve built relationships. The moment we got in with the SBTC and aligned ourselves with that partnership, I developed friendships and a brotherhood with other pastors that has really breathed life into my ministry.

I see myself as bridging the gap between generations. We’ve got a lot of great godly leaders who have done great things in our past, and some great leaders rising up right now. I’m excited about that.

Todd Kaunitz, pastor of New Beginnings Church in Longview Tweet

What will your platform be as president?

I feel like God has led me to build on some of the great things Kie Bowman has already started in regard to prayer. Kie has put our focus on prayer in a very strategic way, keeping it in front of us in the way he has led the state convention and at the annual meetings. Honestly, I feel like God has called me to be an extension of what Dr. Bowman has started, and my platform will be centered on challenging churches to pray. We want to become houses of prayer and offer experiences, gatherings and training to equip pastors to lead prayer movements in their churches.

What Dr. Bowman has started at the state level and what Dr. Ronnie Floyd is doing at the national level regarding prayer are exactly what we need at this moment in history. I am committed to spend my time in this role helping continue that emphasis by creating some additional strategy to go along with it. I think what we’re discovering in our churches coming out of this pandemic is that we’ve been working far too long in our own power. If there’s anything that 2020 and now 2021 have revealed to us, it’s that when times get hard, when pandemics come and when there’s social unrest, it reveals the true condition of the church. We are seeing that we have operated way too long in our own effort, and God is giving us an amazing opportunity to see a spiritual awakening that will not happen outside of God’s people praying.

As one of the younger pastors to be nominated as SBTC president, how would you represent the SBTC both to younger pastors and to more experienced pastors?

I believe the SBTC is the greatest state convention in the SBC, from the work that’s done and the leadership that we have at the SBTC, not to mention that fact that we have some of the strongest pastors and churches in the nation. The work Dr. Richards has done these past 20 plus years to build this convention is remarkable. He has done this with the partnership of a lot of seasoned pastors, men who have paved the way for younger guys like me and Dr. Lorick. We are in a season as a convention where there is a baton passing between generations. As a guy in his 40s, my desire is to honor and represent the strong foundation laid by those seasoned pastors who have gone before, and also to extend a hand toward those younger pastors who may not be as denominationally focused, or maybe they’re on the fence about what it means to be a part of this cooperative effort. It’s exciting to be able to stand on this strong foundation that’s been laid, but also to build upon it with this next generation of pastors who are going to bring innovative thoughts, new ideas and fresh ways to reach the culture.

One of the things we say quite often is that our mission never changes—it’s to reach people for Christ. That’s the heartbeat of the SBTC, to fulfill the Great Commission. But our methodology does shift. I see myself as bridging the gap between generations. We’ve got a lot of great godly leaders who have done great things in our past, and some great leaders rising up right now. I’m excited about that.

What would you say to pastors who are on the fence about denominational affiliation?

As a pastor who is in the trenches with SBTC life, I have never been more excited about our future, and I would encourage any pastor who is on the fence to recognize what God is doing in the SBTC. While there is a lot of noise right now at the national level, I don’t think those issues are as loud as social media makes them out to be. We have a lot of great leaders at the national level doing great work, and a lot of the things that people see on social media that get so much attention are a result of a very few people speaking to some of these issues with a volume that overplays what’s really going on.

At a state level, with Dr. Lorick and the vision that he’s bringing in, there has never been better a time to come together with a more unified strategic focus around the Great Commission. There is no organization, no network of churches, that is more primed and ready to meet the challenges of this coming generation than the SBTC. I would encourage those pastors by saying that we cannot let the enemy distract us. We need to come together and unify—and prayer is a large part of that—so we can keep our focus on what’s most important, which is the Great Commission. Now is the time to get more involved, and if you hear the focus of Dr. Lorick and what he wants this convention to become, I think it will bring a lot of excitement and unify us like never before.

Litton urges Executive Committee to regain trust of Southern Baptists

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton reported Monday night (Sept. 20) on the Gospel work he has witnessed during the first months of his presidency while urging Executive Committee members and guests to model and speak Christ’s message for those inside as well as outside the church.

“My heart is heavy about this gathering,” he said. “I think all of us feel the weight of it, and we need to find a way forward for the glory of God together.”

Litton’s address came just a few hours after EC members entered a closed session to debate whether waiving attorney-client privilege as requested by the Sexual Abuse Task Force could affect the committee’s fiduciary responsibilities to the Convention. SBC messengers voted in June for Litton to appoint a task force to oversee a third-party investigation of the EC’s handling of sexual abuse claims and treatment of victims. Earlier this month, the task force named Guidepost Solutions to handle the review.

The motion called for the Executive Committee to “agree to the accepted best-standards and practices as recommended by the commissioned third-party, including but not limited to the Executive Committee staff and members waiving attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the review.”

Guidepost has since asked the EC to waive attorney-client privilege.

“Our convention is struggling right now,” Litton said, “and it’s a crisis of trust. However you label it, there’s a solution and that solution is with us. Our churches want to see our entities working together in harmony, and they want to see the EC leading the way.”

The Southern Baptist family has “genuine concerns” for how abuse cases will be handled, he said. “The people are watching, and what they’re looking for is openness and transparency.”

Litton pointed to Executive Committee responsibilities originating from the floor of the annual meeting each year.

“We could talk all day about what your assignment is … but folks, we cannot disconnect ourselves from Southern Baptists,” he said. “On that floor from the world’s largest deliberation that lasts two days, they do direct us in the way we should go, and they are concerned.”

Litton, who is pastor of Redemption Church near Mobile, Ala., also addressed an overall lack of civility and perceived losses of influence and certainty. Southern Baptists are a family of churches, he said. They should be marked by love as Jesus said in John 13:35 and should outdo one another in showing love (Romans 12:10).

“In the toxicity of the conversation and lack of civility, we do the opposite,” he said. “We should honor one another [and] those who are struggling. The mood of our times is to attack, demonize, make allegations and threaten. We are seldom slow to speak and slow to anger. Why not come and reason together instead of promoting tribal hostility, ungraciousness and suspicion of one another?”

Litton called for Southern Baptists to buck that trend and instead treat each other with kindness, advocating a civil discourse that runs in opposition to a world accustomed to interactions that are crude, coarse and soul-destroying.

Litton said he has witnessed Southern Baptist making a difference for Hurricane Ida victims, for immigrants gathering along the southern border and for church planters like a former gang member who has established a congregation in Los Angeles. From those discussions, he said, he has witnessed an SBC wanting to address sexual abuse and racial reconciliation, but also yearning for unity.

“The cross of Jesus Christ unites us like no other people can be united,” Litton said. “The only way the Gospel remains above all else is if Jesus remains at the center of it all.”

However, he said there is much work to be done within the Convention and within the Executive Committee itself.

A loss of influence and certainty in the culture has led many to succumb to a fear of man, he said. Citing Proverbs 1:7 and 29:25, Litton encouraged those gathered to instead fear God and thereby trust the Lord for leading and deliverance. Turning in the other direction, he said, leads to a brand of fundamentalism that stokes fear.

“I have always believed that the word ‘fundamentalist’ was a good word,” he said. “Those are people who believe in the fundamentals. But there’s a danger for fundamentalists. [Evangelist] Del Fehsenfeld Jr. said, ‘Fundamentalism thrives on fear, force and intimidation.’”

That can show itself in preaching about security in Christ, while being fearful that a movement will lose its leader or fail because of a lack of trust. Pastors can become concerned about using the wrong keyword or phrase, lest their loyalty to a particular movement, rather than Christ Himself, be questioned.

Earlier in his message Litton placed a full-throated confidence in Southern Baptists living up to the challenges in Vision 2025 – seeing more missionaries for Christ, more churches in a cooperative family, more workers in the field, more children coming to know the Gospel, more resources for the Great Commission and zero tolerance for incidents of sexual abuse and racial discrimination. The Executive Committee can play a key part in all of those, he said.

“Our actions will either trouble Southern Baptists and their mission to take this Gospel to the ends of the earth or we’ll do what is right … and we’ll do whatever is possible to lift high the trust … that has been given to us,” he said.

“The Southern Baptist Convention is not a child, that we hold their hand. We hold the trust of the Southern Baptist Convention in our hands.”

Task Force chair addresses Executive Committee, discusses client-attorney privilege

NASHVILLE (BP) – Debate over the long-term effects of waiving attorney-client privilege and remaining in step with the entity’s fiduciary responsibility led the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to call for an executive (or closed) session Monday afternoon (Sept. 20).

Discussion centered around an introductory report brought by Bruce Frank, chairman of the Sexual Abuse Task Force, and Julie Wood, chief executive officer of Guidepost Solutions. The creation of the task force was approved by messengers at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in June to commission and oversee and independent, third-party investigation into allegations of the mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the Executive Committee. Earlier this month, the task force announced it had selected Guidepost Solutions to conduct the investigation.

Prior to Frank and Wood addressing members, EC President and CEO Ronnie Floyd presented a statement on behalf of the Executive Committee.

“The SBC Executive Committee is committed to doing the right thing in the right way in order to elevate the mission of the Convention – eliciting, combining and directing our energies for the global propagation of the Gospel,” he said. “The SBC Executive Committee stands against all forms of sex abuse, mishandling of abuse, mistreatment of victims and any intimidation of abuse survivors in every Southern Baptist church, association, state convention, entity and affiliated organization.

“As president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, I encourage the members of the SBC Executive Committee to work with the Sex Abuse Task Force and the Independent Review Firm in every way possible, but within our fiduciary responsibilities as assigned by the messengers. We have added two sessions to our meetings with the hope we can help bring clarity to these issues for you as you seek to find a path forward.”

A 2 p.m. Concert of Prayer just for Executive Committee members preceded the first of the additional sessions referenced in the statement. The second extra session will take place Tuesday (Sept. 21) following committee meetings and the second plenary.

Early on, Frank addressed concerns over potential litigation concerning sexual abuse and its financial impact on the SBC versus the potential impact of a damaged witness.

“There is a huge cloud over our convention right now,” said Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, N.C. “We can run away from it; we can pretend it’s not there, but there is a huge cloud that alleges that some of our leaders have not cared for, not shepherded, not responded to efforts to improve how we care for survivors and best prevent sexual abuse in our convention.”

The 86 Executive Committee representatives come from all qualified regions and states to provide a broad representation of Southern Baptists. The group meets three times a year – each February and September in Nashville and each June, in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting – to promote the general work of Southern Baptists but also to act on behalf of the Convention to review financial statements and recommend the Convention’s annual operating budget.

Wood spoke to questions of attorney-client privilege. The motion put forward by messengers spoke to the Executive Committee’s corporate privilege, she said.

“Even though it’s made up of individual people, the EC as an institution actually holds the privilege for EC-related activity,” she said. “It is the EC, as an entity, that will make the determination about which items are privileged and whether the privilege can be waived at all. It is not up to the individual employees, staff members or even the EC members themselves.”

Wood provided examples of communications that would not be considered privileged, including a third party reaching out to an EC attorney, meetings between the EC and sexual abuse survivors and a human resources consultant providing guidance on how to deal with sexual abuse.

“It’s important to understand that regardless of whether the EC waives privilege, there are many relative documents that … are simply not covered under attorney-client privilege,” she said.

The motion approved by messengers at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville called on the task force to agree “to the accepted best-standards and practices as recommended by the commissioned third-party, including but not limited to the Executive Committee staff and members waiving attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the review.”

A 20-minute question-and-answer session with Frank and Wood by EC members probed various aspects such as the time frame of the investigation (2000-2021) and how many such investigations Guidepost has conducted for corporations. (“A lot,” Wood said, declining to give a specific number).

Later in the session, Executive Committee member James Freeman made a motion to go into executive session to discuss the information brought forward regarding the task force investigation. Discussion lasted longer than 10 minutes, with 54 EC members ultimately voting to enter executive session and 23 voting against.

Prior to the vote, EC members advocating a closed session cited the need to speak freely among peers. Those speaking against the motion called for transparency. All, however, seemed to echo EC Chairman Rolland Slade’s opening remarks at the beginning of the session.

“These next two days will be significant,” Slade said. “We have started with prayer. We must continue seeking the Lord’s guidance.

“I want to make one thing clear. It’s the intention of our staff, officers and committee to cooperate fully [with the investigation]. We are not attempting to do anything but that.”

Slade also recognized sexual abuse survivors in attendance, who received an ovation.

‘Pero Dios’ será el tema de la reunión anual y la sesión en español de la SBTC

La Sesión en Español de la Reunión Anual se celebrará el 7 de noviembre en la Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana en Pittsburg, Texas. El evento comenzará con un café y compañerismo a las 5 p.m., servicio de adoración a las 6 p.m. y una cena ligera a las 8:30 p.m. Los oradores enfatizarán Efesios 2:4-7 que el amor de Dios supera el pecado del hombre, nos ha sentado en lugares celestiales y la gloria de Dios es nuestro objetivo.

Por primera vez, el departamento de SBTC en Español ofrecerá un panel de discusión durante el almuerzo, antes de la Reunión Anual el lunes 8 de noviembre a las 12 p.m. en la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Flint. La discusión será “La persecución de la iglesia en los Estados Unidos”. Los oradores de ambos eventos serán Joshua Del Risco, fundador, Of The Rock Ministries; George Levant, pastor, IB Nueva Vida en Jesús, Laredo; y Rafael Rondón, pastor asociado de Fielder Church, Arlington.

Para más información y registro, visite sbtexas.com/event/spanish-session-of-annual-meeting.