Ministry News

SBC: Barack's Great, But About That Mark Driscoll Guy …

As usual, this week's annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) produced plenty of notables and quotables. Among the highlights:

SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was re-elected to a second one-year term, received the green light to commission a 19-member "Great Commission Task Force" that will evaluate the denomination for the next year to see how effective it is in its renewed emphasis at evangelism and discipleship.

The 8,700-plus SBC delegates present passed a resolution that celebrates the historical significance of Barack Obama being elected as the first African-American president, but also heavily criticizes his policies—including his recent actions regarding issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Those delegates also heard eight motions that directly or indirectly related to Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, even though he has no affiliation with the denomination. Although five of the eight motions were ruled out of order (among those dismissed was a proposal to have all SBC organizations "refrain from inviting speakers who are known to be unregenerate and curse, speak vulgarly and support alcohol"), the three remaining included a request for SBC entities to monitor and potentially cease any financial involvement with Driscoll or his Acts 29 Network for church planting.

In an offsite panel discussion that merged younger, Calvinist-leaning pastors with a loose network of Baptist leaders, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler told pastors and students, “Don’t look for too much out of the Southern Baptist Convention. Don’t find your identity here.” After admonishing those present to find their identity in Christ, Mohler said that despite the good done by the SBC in the past, growing up in SBC churches, attending SBC schools and seminaries and moving on to lead SBC churches and entities “produced a tribal identity rather than a gospel-centered identity.”

Hunt, who also serves as pastor of the Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock, warned SBC delegates—many of whom are ministers—against becoming complacent from past denominational success and developing a "we're rich, we have increase, we have need of nothing" mindset. "You can walk to the pulpit, you can lead music, you can teach a Sunday school class and the attitude is, 'I have been there and done that,'" he said. "There's no tear in your eye, no fire in your soul, no anticipation after delivery. We don't preach intentionally. We challenge the people, and [we] go home and forget what we preached just as quickly as they do. I'm of a deep conviction that one of the greatest needs in the pulpits of America is more emulation of the truth of Almighty God to match the exhortation and proclamation of the Almighty God's Word. One of the greatest statements that can be made about someone who is in a place of leadership is that they are the same out of the pulpit as they are in the pulpit." [Baptist Press, 6/23-25/09; Baptist Standard, 6/24/09]