Southwestern Seminary and Dwight McKissic

Cornerstone Baptist Church and specifically Pastor McKissic have been friends to our convention. I thank God for the stand Dwight McKissic took for the traditional family during the 2005 referendum. He is a good preacher and has an innovative ministry there in Arlington. In many ways, I wish there were more pastors like him.

Southwestern Seminary is my alma mater. How rare a blessing it is to say that the school is better now than it was when I graduated back in the early 1980s. Southwestern is also an institution very close to the heart of Texas Southern Baptists.

We pray for and work for the best at Southwestern. The seminary has also been a great friend to the SBTC and we find ourselves in harmony with them in so many important ways. Again, I wish there were more schools out there like Southwestern.

I pray for reconciliation in this situation. I’d love to see Pastor McKissic continue as a trustee. I’d also love to see him work in harmony with the board in a way that apparently does not characterize his current relationship with them.

From a human standpoint this relationship has spun out of orbit. No one that I’m talking with expects peace between Dwight McKissic and his fellow board members. That’s why I’m praying God will do something none of us can currently imagine.

Maybe it’s partly selfish on my part. Texas does not get to host the Southern Baptist Convention very often. It won’t happen again for the foreseeable future. I’d hate to have the run up to the annual meeting in San Antonio focused on a recommendation, for the first time in our history, to remove a board member. Many other things will happen but this one item has potential to get all the attention, and it’s negative.

I’d not favor anyone brushing aside substantive disagreements, and this one seems substantive. I’m asking for a miracle. I’m trusting God to decide what that means because I don’t have the imagination for it.