Author: Baptist Press

Stacy Bramlett elected SBC Executive Committee vice chair

NASHVILLE (BP) – Stacy Bramlett, a banking executive in her second term on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, doesn’t take lightly her election Monday (Sept. 20) as EC vice chair. She sought God’s counsel even before accepting the nomination.

“In just praying through this when I was asked if I would be willing to be nominated and just seeking godly counsel and knowing that, God just led me to Esther 4 where He said ‘for such a time as this,’” Bramlett said today (Sept. 23). “I truly believe this is what God has called me to.

“God doesn’t always call us to the easy. But my desire is to be obedient and to be in the center of God’s will,” she said. “I’m very honored to be elected to serve as vice chair. I think it is a tremendous responsibility.”

Bramlett serves as the SBC is addressing various issues including race relations and sexual abuse. She served as the first chair of the Credentials Committee in 2019 when it was repurposed to receive complaints related to those very issues. She said her former leadership of the Credentials Committee gives her valuable insight.

“Listening to survivors’ stories has touched my life in a way that few experiences have. It has changed who I am as a follower of Christ,” she said. “I see those survivors now. It’s changed who I am as a parent. It’s changed who I am as a church member, just the heightened sensitivity to making sure that the church that I belong to, that we do everything we can to make sure that it is a safe place and that we care well.”

She serves alongside EC Chair Rolland Slade, who said he is excited by her election.

“I have worked with her during my time on the Executive Committee and have always found her to be focused on honoring the Lord. She is a committed follower of Christ and importantly a prayer warrior,” said Slade, senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif. “We have served together on the CP (Cooperative Program) Committee when I was chair, then as officers when she was elected secretary.”

Richard W. Spring, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Hesperia, Calif., nominated Bramlett for the post that became vacant June 16 when messengers to the SBC 2021 Annual Meeting declined to appoint South Carolina Pastor Tom Tucker to another term on the EC. He had been elected EC vice chair June 14, but with his EC term expiring, the election was moot.

Bramlett has worked in the banking industry 39 years, currently as senior vice president of Independent Bank in Collierville, Tenn., where she manages the mortgage division.

She has served on the EC since 2016, including a term as EC secretary from 2017-2019.

Bramlett is an active member of Collierville First Baptist Church, where she has taught Sunday School and served on the finance committee, personnel committee, building finance committee, worship team and choir.

She and her husband Andy live in Memphis and have two adult sons.

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.

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.

FIRST-PERSON: The Bible is God’s Word

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Words matter. Without them, we cannot make claims or delineate truths. Sometimes, the claim we want to make or the truth we want to delineate focuses on just a single word. Indeed, a recent article illustrates the importance of the very word, “word.”

On Sept. 16, Baptist News Global published an opinion piece in which columnist Terry Austin argued that “the Bible is not the Word of God;” only “Jesus is the Word of God.” He made some of the same arguments that were a central motivation for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence several decades ago. I responded to the article with a tweet, noting the article is a reminder of why a high view of Scripture is the first non-negotiable pillar of our big-tent vision for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Bible is the Word of God written down, and Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, I noted.

Mr. Austin later responded to my tweet and essentially said that our tent is not big enough. On that point, we agree. The Southwestern Seminary tent is not big enough for people who deny that the Bible is the Word of God, instead affirming it only as the words of men. The Bible is not merely a record of how ancient men believed they encountered God experientially that somehow God can use today in a neo-orthodox or mystical way. Contra Austin’s assertion, the Bible is a collection of God’s words to us, not just a collection of words about God.

Mark Wingfield, publisher of Baptist News Global, took note of my tweet, writing:

In case you’ve forgotten what the two-decade battle within the Southern Baptist Convention was about, our columnist, Terry Austin, stirred up the old debate with a piece he wrote this week about Jesus being the Word of God, not the Bible. … You’ll recall that it was this very issue—the 2000 version of the doctrinal statement removed a line about Jesus being the criterion by which the Scripture is interpreted—that caused many of us to finally break away from the SBC and its new devotion to Bible worship.

Obviously, affirming the Bible as the Word of God is not akin to worshiping the Bible. But Mr. Wingfield adds that in the Baptist News Global style guide: “We refer to the Bible as the ‘word’ of God, meaning it is the written word of God, but we refer to Jesus as the ‘Word’ of God, the incarnate spoken presence of God.”

Mr. Wingfield’s statements remind me of two things.

First, the important theological issues at stake in the year 2000, when I had the privilege of being in Orlando as a messenger to the historic SBC annual meeting where the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) was revised. It was there, of course, where the long-disputed wording about Jesus being the “criterion” by which the Bible is to be interpreted was clarified. I was a student at Southwestern Seminary then, and I remember vividly being in the meeting hall during the BFM debate when a Texas pastor declared that the Bible was “just a book.” It is worth remembering that the original BFM adopted in 1925 did not include the criterion sentence. Indeed, it was added in 1963 specifically to rebut claims about the Bible coming out of the Elliot Controversy—a harbinger of the Broadman Bible Commentary controversy just a few years later. Garth Pybas, a member of the 1963 BFM revision committee, later went on record that the criterion statement was included precisely to refute claims of the Bible being just an error-filled book written by men. Unfortunately, because the criterion language was often used by some leaders and professors in Convention life to drive a wedge between Jesus and the Bible, claiming that the former, but not the latter, is the Word of God, clarification was necessary again in 2000.

The desire behind a broader interpretive understanding in 1963 is made clear in a 2004 doctoral dissertation by A.J. Smith. Through extensive research, Smith discovered that the original draft language of the criterion sentence was more expansive: “the person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ.” After reviewing that language, Dale Moody, theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, replied that the phrase “teachings of Jesus” should be struck as it was “already being used by fundamentalists to prove that Moses wrote all five books of the Pentateuch … the unity of the book of Isaiah … and the Exile date for Daniel.” He knew the original draft language would undermine what many of his faculty colleagues were already teaching, and argued (successfully) that it should be reduced simply to “is Jesus Christ,” thereby allowing interpretive latitude for those whose trajectory was ultimately to separate Jesus from the Bible as “the Word of God.”

Second, I am reminded of the claims made after the 2000 SBC Annual Meeting by some dissenters to the updated confessional language removing the criterion sentence and replacing it with the affirmation, “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, former Woman’s Missionary Union executive secretary and early leader with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, was quoted at the 2000 CBF general assembly saying that “Southern Baptists have the Bible as their authority while the CBF has Jesus as theirs.” Such a sentiment is utter nonsense. What Jesus is she referencing? The Jesus of Scripture. There is no true knowledge of Jesus apart from that which we find in the pages of the Bible. It is a fool’s errand to pit Jesus and the Bible against each other. Her sentiment, however, demonstrated the deep divide between conservatives and moderates at the time.

The 2000 debate about the Bible was the crescendo of the Conservative Resurgence, which worked to clarify unambiguously where Southern Baptists stood on this critical issue. The Bible is the Word of God, and here we stand with clarity and conviction. Not a single person on the faculty of Southwestern Seminary today believes otherwise, and I am confident the same is true of our five sister SBC seminaries. All Southern Baptists can and should have confidence that the same convictions fought for in the Conservative Resurgence are maintained today. There is not and should never be any liberal drift related to the inspiration, authority and sufficiency of the Bible as the written Word of God. Because, after all, words do indeed matter.

Reach Texas sees record giving

Southern Baptists in Texas contributed to the annual Reach Texas state missions offering in record-setting fashion, SBTC Executive Director Dr. Nathan Lorick announced Monday via Twitter.

This year’s Reach Texas offering came in at $1,527,969 — exceeding the statewide challenge goal by nearly a quarter-million dollars. The figure also exceeded last year’s giving total by $239,000.

"The churches of the SBTC continue to be incredibly generous and have a strong desire to see the gospel advance across Texas.”

Nathan Lorick, SBTC Executive Director Tweet

“The churches of the SBTC continue to be incredibly generous and have a strong desire to see the gospel advance across Texas,” Lorick said. “We absolutely believe that God is going to use this offering to further His kingdom through the missional ministries of the SBTC. Great days are ahead.”

Reach Texas giving is collected year-round, but churches participate in a Week of Prayer and offering emphasis during the month of September. One hundred percent of Reach Texas giving is spent on missions and evangelism strategies, including disaster relief and church planting.

The next SBC missions offering is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which supports international missions efforts. The Week of Prayer for the offering will be November 28-December 5.

Widespread devastation stretching Southern Baptist Disaster Relief thin

HARRISBURG, Pa. (BP) – Kenton Hunt, disaster relief director of the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania/South Jersey, expresses a heartfelt burden to help the hundreds of homeowners in his region trying to recover from flooding and tornadoes wrought by Hurricane Ida.

“It’s hard to find enough help to work with, and most of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was concentrated on Louisiana, because that’s where Ida hit first and did the most damage,” Hunt said. “So now here we are way up on the upper edge of where Ida went off shore and finally petered out, but dropped a lot of rain, as much as 10 inches in some places. … That’s a lot of water to handle in one storm. … I’ve had to ask for help because it’s so much bigger than we can do ourselves.”

Seven state conventions are helping with flood cleanup including chainsaw work, feeding, chaplaincy and assessment in three Pennsylvania counties Hunt serves, but Hunt said the widespread need for help has stretched volunteers thin. And he’s not aware of another relief organization currently in the area to help homeowners clean up from the storm.

“We are not going to meet all the needs. … But everybody’s leaning on us, and we’re a small state convention. I’m feeling the weight of it,” Hunt said. “I feel responsible to do everything we can to meet the needs of the people … that truly need assistance to clean up, to remove the trees that they cannot do themselves or cannot pay someone else to do. Or to clean up their home, to get it where it’s safe and sanitary to live in again, and remove debris that’s just holding the water and getting rid of mold and other contaminants in the home that make the house unsafe.

“I feel responsible. We know how to do this stuff, but just having the manpower. I know my counterpart north of us in New York and North Jersey is facing the same thing.”

A mobile kitchen team from North Carolina get meals ready for distribution in Louisiana.

Mike Flannery, disaster relief director for the Baptist Convention of New York, is receiving help from and has commitments from six state conventions to mainly conduct mud-out and mold remediation, but he also voices concern.

“We didn’t get much (news) coverage up here in the New York area, maybe one or two days, then it’s off the front pages,” Flannery said. “Not to complain or anything. I’m not complaining about that. But I am concerned that a lot of times people don’t think anything’s going on in flood recovery areas. When I’d tell people from Buffalo I’m going to go over to New York City to do flood recovery they said, ‘What flood. What happened?’ They just don’t remember or they missed those two days of news reports that they had on mainline TV.

“But there’s hundreds of houses, thousands of houses. I think the five boroughs had 15,000 requests for assistance. But in New York City, the city has to go out and inspect it before they allow volunteers to come in.”

Both leaders express appreciation for the help they’re receiving from other states, local churches, donors and other volunteers. Work is expected to continue into October in Pennsylvania/South Jersey, and possibly into November in New York.

“We do have plenty of callouts, plenty of work to do,” Flannery said. “We want the Southern Baptists to know that we’re still working … and they can volunteer. We’d love to have them.”

Among conventions helping Flannery and Hunt, in addition to Pennsylvania/South Jersey and New York, are the Baptist conventions of Kentucky, Maryland/Delaware, Michigan, New England, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah/Idaho, and the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

The work in the northeast is in part of the larger Southern Baptist response to Ida including Louisiana. Meanwhile, work in Louisiana was hampered by rain from Hurricane Nicholas, which came ashore near Matagorda, Texas, Tuesday (Sept. 14) as a Category 1 storm with wind gusts of 95 mph. As much as 10 inches of rain was reported in parts of Louisiana, weather.com reported, with rain expected to linger for days.

Southern Baptists have together logged 9,700 volunteer days, prepared more than 530,000 meals and aided more than 500 homeowners with chainsaw work, debris removal and temporary roofing, the North American Mission Board reported yesterday (Sept. 16). More than 106 professions of faith have been reported through nearly 500 presentations of the Gospel, NAMB said.

“I never cease to be amazed by how God’s people come from across the United States to serve as the hands and feet of their Lord Jesus, filled with His compassion,” said Sam Porter, national director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief with Send Relief. “With catastrophic hurricanes, the recovery can go on for months as SBDR volunteers help individuals and families clear trees from their homes, place temporary roofing or gut out flooded homes so that they can rebuild.”

Coy Webb, crisis response director for Send Relief, said he expects work to continue for weeks as teams “continue to assist survivors with hundreds and hundreds of damaged homes across southern Louisiana and from Virginia to New York in the Northeast.”

ERLC unveils new technology, pro-life initiatives

NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission plans cutting-edge work the next 18 months on technology and pro-life issues, trustees of the Southern Baptist entity were told at their annual meeting.

Jason Thacker, chair of research in technology ethics, and Elizabeth Graham, vice president of operations and life initiatives, outlined the plans in their areas of responsibility during their reports to the ERLC board Sept. 15 in Nashville. Acting on the final day of their two-day meeting, trustees unanimously approved motions after both reports to affirm the work in both areas and to encourage the staff’s continued efforts.

Thacker unveiled to the trustees a new research project he is leading – the Digital Public Square. Launched after the trustees’ vote of affirmation, the project is designed to produce resources to assist churches and leaders to “navigate this digital age with wisdom and to think through some of the most complex and crucial ethics challenges to our faith with wisdom and insight,” he said in his report.

The project, Thacker said, will help answer such questions as:

What is the proper role of government in digital governance?
How do I disciple other people if they’re primarily being shaped by technology in their use and habits?
How do we champion free speech and religious freedom in an increasingly polarized society?

The resources to be provided during the next 18 months consist of four major elements, he said: (1) A “state of digital governance report” that will present a portrait of current and future technological issues; (2) an evangelical Christian statement of principles on “content moderation and digital governance;” (3) a church resource kit scheduled to be released in the summer of 2022; and (4) two books to be published next year – “Following Jesus in the Digital Age” and “The Digital Public Square: Ethics and Religion in a Technological Society.” Thacker is writing the former for Broadman & Holman Publishing and editing the latter for B&H Academic.

“Given the current state of debate over the proper role of free expression and religious freedom and digital governance,” the ERLC believes this is an important area in which to invest, Thacker told the trustees. It will produce “substantive resources” and “seek to equip the church in the digital age and allow us to advocate for these principles in this important arena,” he said.

Thacker’s work on technology ethics the last several years has resulted in ongoing opportunities to “give critical feedback, as well as counsel, to a lot of these large technology companies, as well as their policy teams, as they’re forming and crafting” policies, he said. When one of those companies learned about the Digital Public Square project, it offered to provide support.

The project is funded by the Cooperative Program, the SBC’s unified giving plan, but Facebook Technologies LLC also provided a research grant after the effort was under way. Thacker provided assurances to the trustees and on the project’s website – www.erlc.com/digital – regarding the ERLC’s independence in accepting the grant.

“This research grant was provided on an unrestricted basis, meaning the grant monies will be used at [the] sole discretion of the ERLC leadership team and board of trustees without any direct or indirect oversight by Facebook in research efforts nor any influence on project outcomes or resources produced,” according to the answer to one of the Frequently Asked Questions on the website. “All materials produced in this research project will be copyrighted to the ERLC and/or the individuals contributing.”

Facebook and other technology companies have approached the ERLC for resources because “there is a dearth of literature in this area,” Thacker said to the trustees. “There’s been very little if any research done into the nature of religious freedom and religious expression in the digital age.”

Brent Leatherwood, named acting president at the board meeting, told trustees Thacker “is quickly cementing his reputation as one of the leading voices, if not the leading voice, in evangelicalism as it relates to technology ethics, and we believe this project is a natural place to house all of this research, to produce resources that will equip the church and to again just allow him to have a platform to speak into these issues.”

Elizabeth Graham outlined the ERLC’s pro-life agenda leading up to the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Graham described the ERLC’s pro-life work, including its leading role in a campaign with other organizations as the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade nears. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in its Jan. 22, 1973, decision in Roe.

The Road to Roe50 “is our short-term strategy to engage the church,” Graham said of the alliance, which she said also has mid-term and long-term strategies. “With this moment, we see the chance of a lifetime to bring awareness to our work and action to the church.”

The effort “is a strategic window of opportunity” the ERLC and its partners believe can “unify and mobilize the church” leading to Roe’s 50th anniversary, she told the trustees. “The purpose of Roe50 is to inspire, educate and activate the church to support and defend the dignity of each human person.”

The church is “not deeply engaged with the abortion issue,” Graham said, citing a series of statistics in multiple surveys as evidence. More than 60 percent of women who have had an abortion say they are “religiously affiliated,” according to a survey by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute that is supported by other studies, she said. A Lifeway Research survey sponsored by the pregnancy resource center network Care Net in 2015 showed 36 percent of women were attending a Christian church at least once a month at the time of their first abortion, she told the trustees.

“We need to make abortion illegal, but we need to make it unnecessary and unthinkable,” Graham said. “We believe the church is the answer. This is why the role of the church is so important. This is why what we’re doing and hoping to accomplish at the ERLC is so important.”

The church-engagement strategy of Road to Roe50 includes, Graham told the board:

Curriculum for all ages that is designed as a three-year discipleship program. The separate material for children, teenagers and adults will have a prelaunch release in the fall of 2022, with a general release in January 2023.
A Roe50, multi-state tour to strategic cities in the fall of 2022.
A Roe50 event in Washington, D.C., in January 2023.
A broad digital campaign to affirm life, as well as to train and mobilize people to serve “vulnerable moms, preborn babies and families.”

The ERLC and its partners are asking people to “join us on the Road to Roe50,” Graham said. “We want Southern Baptists to be leading the way [in] serving women and children” who are in crisis.

The ERLC’s other pro-life efforts include the Psalm 139 Project, which helps provide ultrasound technology to pro-life pregnancy centers. The ERLC has placed ultrasound machines at 18 centers so far this year, Graham told trustees in a committee meeting Sept. 14.

After Graham’s report, David Prince, presiding in his final meeting as the board’s chair, told the other trustees, “There is not an evangelical organization in the world doing life work with the depth and breadth of the ERLC. And a lot of other organizations are bolstered by the fact that the ERLC is doing life work with such depth and breadth.”

FIRST-PERSON: Champion your pastor in October

NASHVILLE (BP) — The month of October is Pastor Appreciation Month. This is the time to champion your pastor.

Pastors are God-called servant-leaders who feed the people of God through the ministry of preaching the Bible and lead the people of God by providing spiritual oversight of the church. In his shepherding role, the pastor prays for the people regularly, and especially when they find themselves in a time of great need.

There is nothing like the pastor-church relationship

One of the most special relationships on this earth is the relationship between the pastor and the church he serves. Each week when he delivers the Word of God in an effective manner, the people receive the Word from their God-called pastor. No pastor is perfect. He knows it and his wife surely knows it; but through the ministry of preaching, the people learn to receive him as he is.

The pastor’s relationship with God’s people is taken to a more personal level when he celebrates in their successes and grieves with them in their losses. There is truly nothing like the relationship with a pastor and his church. Through these times, trust is built in his relationship with the people of God. Living life together with God’s people and worshiping the Lord with them weekly is, for the pastor, indescribable.

Four ways to honor your pastor this October

Regardless of the size of your church, the length of time the pastor has served, or whether the relationship is healthy or not, honoring your pastor is the right thing to do. He is not an idol. He is a man. He needs you. You need him. Here are a few ways to honor and encourage your pastor:

1. Recognize the pastor and his family one Sunday in October in a public manner.

Honoring your pastor and his family is more about honoring the calling of this gift to your church given to you by the Holy Spirit. Make them feel special. Verbally recognize them in an encouraging way. Whether by video or in person, have two to three church members bless them publicly.

2. Give the pastor and his family a special gift this October.

It is not about the amount of the gift you give; it is about making them feel special and appreciated. This has been a difficult season for every pastor and his family. Blessing them with a special gift says “thank you” in a respectable way. In whatever you do, do it in a generous way. Honor those to whom honor is due.

3. Pray for the pastor and his wife one Sunday morning in October.

Plan a focused prayer time in a worship service one Sunday morning. Have the pastor and his wife come before the church for an intentional time of prayer for each of them. Give five to 10 minutes for this prayer time. You could have the men come to pray for the pastor and women come to pray for the pastor’s wife. You could have two to four people publicly call out to God in prayer while those gathered around them, as well as the church, agree in prayer. Praying for the pastor and his wife demonstrates your faith in the Lord alone who will use them, anoint them, and empower them to serve with faithfulness.

4. Present the pastor with the special blessing of 31 members who will own one day a month in October, specifically praying for him and his ministry to the church.

In the assigned day of the month, whether it be Day 1 or Day 16, this is your day to focus your prayer upon him and his ministry to the church. Write him a note or send him a text asking him for three specific prayer requests for himself, his family and/or the church. Whatever his burdens are, you are there to pray him through.

One Sunday morning about 25 years ago, 31 men walked into a private prayer room during my regular prayer time with men from our church. A spokesman for them said, “Pastor, we are giving you a special gift today. Each of us will pray and fast for you one day each month. Here is a commitment we are making to you.” They presented me with a framed commemorative letter that had each of their names on it. This is one of the greatest gifts I ever received.

Friends, champion your pastor. Love him. Honor him. Respect him. Pray for him. Bless him. Do this daily throughout the year, not just in October.