Analysis
Jun 14th, 2006 | By art rogers | Category: Greensboro '06, Live Blogging, SBCI know some folks who will kill me for this, but I slept in. I had about 8 hours of sleep over three and a half days and just couldn’t get up. Frankly, I am still a little groggy. To top it off, the maids changed out my wife’s high thread count pillowcase that matches our sheets at home. It was an accident and they had set it aside – I got it back, honey – but I went looking for it last night.
Some people have said that what happened yesterday was a result of bloggers and we had turned the corner. This is giddy excitement, but I would add some perspective.
Bloggers have played an important role, no question, but the Convention leaders are the ones who have led the way behind the scenes, and they are the ones making the real strides.
The election of Frank Page was a sentiment that had been brewing in the SBC for years. Remember that a floor nomination to the office of President two years ago, fielded 30+% of the vote. We aligned with the convention, not the convention with us.
The election of Wiley Drake is in the same category.
The By-Laws changes were, perhaps, one area where our voices yielded some fruit. However, we must all understand that we did not accomplish the by-law changes. The Executive Committee bore the weight of leadership and did the work. These are our leaders and they deserve the credit. We could never have gotten this done from the floor. They did it for the sake of the SBC. We came alongside them.
Bobby Welch instructed the Committees on Committees and Nominations to bring back reports that were free from the charges of nepotism, cronyism and connectionalism. With only three names from all of those reports having served prior, they did a great work. We have come alongside those leaders, not them to us.
Anyone who thinks that it is all over, should now take note of this.
Ben Cole was told that he and Tom Ascol, both having submitted resolutions, would be happy with the report brought by the Committee on Resolutions. This morning, both of their resolutions were absent from the report. Dr. Ascol desired to ask the resolution be brought to the floor with a 2/3 vote. He was told he had to wait.
In the meantime, a resolution on consumption of alcohol, advocating abstinence, was brought to the floor. It was debated, with several speaking for and against. That would never have happened 10 years ago – no one would have spoken against this resolution. It was also amended to ban any Trustee of any institution from consuming alcohol. It was a resolution so it is not binding, but any observer with the smallest amount of sense would realize it was pointed directly at Wade Burleson. Burleson has said that the Bible does not forbid the consumption of alcohol. Rather, the Bible forbids drunkenness.
I want to clarify my personal position, here. I agree with Wade. I myself have a personal conviction that I do not drink, and I believe that is a Holy Spirit led conviction. However, you will not find a prohibition on alcohol in Scripture. Moving on…
After debate and amendment, the resolution passes and it comes back to Dr. Ascol, who is waiting at the mic.
Dr. Ascol gets to read his entire resolution to the convention – which is a good thing – and a member from the committee speaks to it. Although there were people at the mics, they took the vote on Tom’s motion without discussion.
I wise SBC leader said yesterday that change is incremental. He also said that when there is a push, there is a push back. Some within the convention were pushed hard yesterday, and today they pushed back.
What happens over the next ten years will determine whether or not we are the beginning of a movement for cooperation and “missional” thinking or we are a footnote in Southern Baptist History.
Here are some predictions:
The Inner Circle now has a much clearer view of its influence, or lack thereof. They really believed that they had much more sway than they did, and they were shocked.
As a result, the splits and fractures will be quickly mended and old partnerships will resume in order to push back into the positions of influence they once held.
The next year will be one of positioning, although, the positions of nepotism, cronyism and connectionalism have been hindered considerably. The IMB will have a year of scrutiny and the future there is up in the air.
Frank Page will appoint conservatives with similar instructions as Bobby Welch and this will further weaken those positions.
Next year’s convention is in San Antonio. The BGCT, although they are able to send messengers will not likely do so. They have been ignored and closed out for years and, frankly, they have given up on us. The SBT, however, will come in droves and it will be a bigger convention than this by far. We can expect a large “push back” then.
I would go so far as to say that Dr. Page might even receive a challenge to his second term as President, which has become traditionally accepted as a given. Even the challenge will hurt those who promote it, but if they win, it will be the same situation, escalated further, in Louisville the next year.
There is great joy and hope here today. However, there is much work to be done and we must pray diligently. We should not pray that we will “win,” but that God’s will is paramount to all of us and that it will be done in the SBC.
Bobby Welch led us again today. During a time when they were trying to work something out, Dr Welch began to speak to the convention. He said that we are not each other’s enemies, but that Satan is our enemy. We need to act accordingly. I come alongside him here.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
glad you got some sleep!
a big THANK YOU for all the up-to-date info!
we need it over here!
Question?
Will you have time to do a primer for the responsibilities of the SBC pres like you did on the SBC convention?
Thanks again!
If you do the primer for the M would you please include detailed explanation of the expense account available to the pres? Welch’es must have been enormous. I remember when Ed Young was president his 100 or more people serving on “task forces” cost the CP perhaps more than a million. Could this be true and what is the correct policy? Better get it straight now to avoid attacks later. Every pres seems to want to “leave his mark” and it is costing Baptists a bunch.
Did the convention already vote on the big batch of entity nominations? If not, do you know when it is scheduled? I heard a vote after the committee on nominations talk about being nepotism free, but didn’t catch the whole thing. Thanks for your thorough recap!
You sloth! :)
Seriously, Art, I’m with you on the alcohol stuff. I don’t drink either. I think the winner of the convention is the SBC! Thanks for your work and I want your Treo!
Might I suggest an alternate title for your excellent blog: “The Empire Strikes Back”
Don’t be so sure that SBTC church messengers in Texas will be “pushing back” next year. We have plenty of young church plants as well as reform-minded individuals all over. If this was between theological “moderates” and theological “conservatives,” sure, many Texans would push back against a “moderate movement.” But we’re not all lock-step with Paige, I promise. You might be really surprised at our annoyance with the “establishment” situation. But, as with any non-establishment types, it could be a challenge to get “modern” SBTCers to care enough about the Convention to come…
Excellent analysis, Art, as usual. It is one that I agree with almost completely at this point. I do think that the bloggers were influential, perhaps mostly in bringing things to light that were already in the works. But, at the same time, it is obvious that we tapped in to the attitude of the convention rather than changing the attitude. We were just part of the greater whole.
I am optimistic about the future, as long as everyone who has been mobilized keeps their heart full of the gospel and their eyes focused on Jesus. If we focus too much on the inner workings of the SBC to the detriment of giving praise to God and engaging in Kingdom work through our blogs, our churches, and our lives, we have just become another annoying voice.
The next year will truly be interesting!
Brother Art,
I am at loss here. As I posted a comment on Marty’s I also post the same one here. How can you and anyone else pull this toward Wade? I understand the resolution, as you have pointed out is not binding, to be a statement forbidding Trustees from drinking alcohol. It says nothing about a trustee saying the scripture does not say abstain from alcohol. If we take the resolution the way you are saying it was presented, as against Wade, then we will also lose our President at SBTS because he advocates the same thing that Wade does when it comes to alcohol and scripture.
Tim
Art -
I am so disappointed. You scolded us and scolded us about how we weren’t to be at Starbucks during key votes. You said you would have some words to say if any of us weren’t in the convention for key business. What if Tom and Ben’s resolutions had been allowed? What if we had had the grand discussion on Baptist Dissent from the convention floor? That is part of the main discussion on these blogs. And you would have missed it.
You slacker. :)
(did I make you feel guilty enough?)
Way to go Dorcas! Get him!
Brother Art,
To imitate you, imitating Elvis let me say to you: Thank you, Thank you very much.
Villa Rica
Dorcas, Kevin and all,
I had to sleep because I had to drive home today and hadn’t slept much at all.
Bonnie was trying to get the house ready to go on the market by herself and was behind. Knowing that the significant business was done and that you all had things well in hand, I came home to help my wife.
Talk to you soon.
Art,
You offer many good insights in this post. As a missionary supported with cooperative program dollars, I am excited about the election of Frank Page and his commitment to the Bible, missions and the cooperative program. I think bloggers had a large part in his election. A lot of factors came together to make this the year someone outside of the power structure could be elected.
I do not think Wiley Drake’s election is in the same category. I think it was a joke that could come back to haunt us. His election does not go along with the request to elect those whose churches give strong support to the cooperative program unless you consider 1% strong support. Some of you who were with him in Memphis can tell me if exhibited any of the repentance called for in the report.
Drake was quoted a year ago as saying, I for one Southern Baptist, since 1965, will not quit, give up, or back down, nor will I be lulled into believing that the liberals all left, Drake said. Our homeland security, Southern Baptist style, praying through and messenger led, will continue to expose these wolves in sheep’s clothing. The cost of being called a rebel, trouble maker and even damage to our ministry will not prevent our war on Southern Baptist-style terrorism. Art, did you see any of these wolves in sheeps clothing Drake is talking about at the convention? Is he going to use his position as 2VP to carry out a war on these Southern Baptist style terrorists as he calls them?
Even more disturbing to me is that he led the effort to pull the SBC out of the BWA but he has had no problem with working with a man like Sun Myung Moon and lending his name to Moon’s campaigns and materials in the past. Does this show good judgment? Has he repented of this? He has also joined Roger Moran and T.C. Pinckney in trying to get the SBC to tell parents to pull their children out of public schools and accused parents who put their children in public schools of endangering their children.
I fear we will regret having his name referred to as an SBC 2VP every time he makes a statement.
I am also not sure the Committee on Committee report was free of cronyism. There may be few new names but i suspect most are cronies of those who have been calling the shots for years. The two from my state of Arkansas were from churches that have been well represented in the past because of the conservative resurgence. The two from D.C. were from Hillcrest and Capital Hill. These same two churches have had these same positions many times. Is there anyone in Capital Hill Baptist that has not served as a trustee yet? You will have to look at your own states and say if the same is true there. Bobby may have asked for no cronyism but I don’t think they listened.
There will be plenty from the BGCT at the San Antonio convention, especially if they feel we are returning to the point where our actions show belief in the authority of the Bible and not just our words.
Ron West
Art,
I appreciate you and the time you invested in helping us to become more enlightened to the situations in our convention. You are a great guy. I am praying for you and Bonnie as you prepare for your move and new ministry. May God greatly bless you both as you continue to serve Him.
This is my first time posting on this or any other blog. I am a bit of a dinosaur, as a graduate of SBTS “back when” (1963) and a recently retired (well, semi-pseudo-retired) pastor. I came to this blog after reading the headlines just to see what it’s all about. I did want to respond to the comment about how only one or two churches in the District of Columbia Baptist Convention are sources for trustees of the agencies. This has been going on for a number of years, and is just ridiculous and unfair, in my opinion. And check the records to see how much Capitol Hill gives to DCBC causes … SBC, yes, but not DCBC. Seems grossly unfair.