12 Witnesses

David Dykes and Mac Brunson gave nomination speeches that were not room swaying speeches. Brunson was passionate, but Dykes was reserved. At one point, Mac said that Jim represented a list of varying viewpoints that his state convention had, among many other things, charismatic churches in it. Oops. I think he just got carried away. Also, he dusted off the Resurgence code phrase, “He’s one of us,” four times. He closed his speech with the fourth recitation, just in case anyone missed it. Also, if Dykes said that David Rogers was kin to Adrian, I didn’t hear it. Someone did start talking to me in the middle of the speech, though, so he may have.

The room was emptying of everyone but Texans, it seemed, who roundly applauded Dr. Patterson and the majority of whom bowed their heads toward their ballots when asked to punch chad number 5 for Jim Richards. If there were 6,000 messengers in the room, I’d be shocked.

Again, folks will try to paint this election as a referendum on the narrowing issues, but its just not. It may be in the minds of some, but it is not the primary reason they are voting. I sat next to some folks from Texas at lunch who had no idea David was Adrian’s son. Richards should win this election on name recognition alone. That and the absence of messengers during that election disproves that people think this is a referendum of any sort. They just think its a nothing vote, and they prefer supper to waiting in lines, which is what they will have to do if they stayed through the vote. The real referendum is on the BFM motion, which is specifically on topic here. That motion is to receive the report of the Executive Committee which has answered a question from last year - Is the BFM sufficient to guide our entities and institutions? They say it is. The debate is scheduled for tonight at 7:35 pm. It has the weight of a resolution authored by the Executive Committee.

Speaking of being in Texas and home court advantage, Bart Barber was overheard telling someone that he had some “politics” to attend to - lining some guys up at the mics for the SWBTS report. The only problem was that there weren’t any others who wanted to ask any questions, so it only served to allow Paige a few shots at others. Wes was first up, and he asked if it were true that SWBTS was offering a “homemaking” program for women. Dr. P. proudly affirmed that it would start in the fall. There were a few others - there were folks at every mic and Marty observed Bart directing traffic, or so it seemed to him. The final question was about signing the BFM only (without caveats). This allowed Paige to wax eloquent about bringing out the desk during chapel and having each professor attach only his (or her?) name. Obviously, this is a shot at Wade. My mind pictured Dr. Klouda at the desk in that picture I have seen on someone’s blog.

Dr. P had a few other shots in the report, but I’ll let you watch it for yourself.

I did ask a question in the Lifeway report, and some of you saw me on the net. A few months ago, at the Baptist Identity Conference, Thom Rainer asked me what Lifeway could do for my church. I mentioned Fuel, the video Bible study for Youth, and asked if we could get more things that relate to younger generations. My questioned followed up on that, asking what we could look for in the future. A few others had some questions. Watch it for yourselves.

Dr. Page is re-elected without opposition.

Wade’s and Les’ Motions are referred to the Executive Committee. This is expected and is in order.

Rick Garner’s motion regarding the BFM is scheduled to come to the floor at 7:35 pm tonight.

There were several other motions - most relevant among them are a motion to amend the by-laws by Tim Rogers; a motion by Lee Saunders to impanel a committee to research the PPL issue in the SBC; and Bart Barber’s motion to impanel a study committee to deal with Seminary professors’ salaries.

Frank has echoed Morris’ thoughts about intra-denominational fighting while the culture is out flanking us.

Give a watch at sbc.net.

Edited

You simply must watch Morris Chapman’s address to the SBC.

He has called us in the most powerful terms to adhere to the BFM alone and not allow these tertiary issues keep us from reaching the lost.

Thank God for leadership willing to do this.

By the way, dude can preach.

[addendum] In the speech he quoted Boyce who said that when the Convention can’t decide on something, the Seminaries should remain silent.

Wow. This reveals where the other leadership of the SBC is. This is not a blogger issue. [/addendum]

The first motion was to ratify the Executive Committee Report that affirms the BFM as the sole consensus of SBC theology. In other words, the referendum of this convention is this. This must come to the floor. My concern is that this vote may, in fact, be lost. It is this exact issue that has been dividing us over the last 18 months.

And you can forget the election of David Rogers over Jim Richards as a referendum. It’s not. This is his home state and if he doesn’t win, it would mean that the Inner Circle has lost all credibility. I don’t think they have.

Rather, they seem to be emboldened. Paige Patterson was interviewed by the Criswell College radio station. In that interview he said that every 25 years the SBC has to throw out Liberals and that it was time to do it again. When asked if these men might be Conservatives who disagree with methodology, he replied that they were Liberals who knew not enough Baptist History to fill a thimble.

I fear we may be greatly divided. I hope it is not beyond repair.

Wade made his motion for the EC to study the issue of a watch list for pedophiles among our ministers.

Les Puryear moved that the Boards of Trustees make available the information concerning votes public to the convention online and offline. I’m afraid that it is probably out of order, but it is much needed.

All of these will be referred to the Committee on Order of Business to be ruled out of order, referred to an entity or committee or brought to the floor for a vote.

I unwittingly sat in front of Emir Caner and what appears to be SWBTS students. During the meet and greet he warmly shook my hand and introduced himself. I was so surprised to see him, that I forgot to introduce myself.

I think that he might have recognized me after he saw me typing on my Treo. There was some furtive whispering a few minutes after we sat back down.

I grieve that this has taken on the mood of sharp division and political maneuvering.

Just got back from the Missional Leader Dinner hosted by NAMB. I met Geoffery Hammonds and sat with a crew of bloggers at the back table - also the table nearest the food. Troublemakers? Maybe. Here are a few observations, bullet point style:

• Great food and atmosphere. Picking an off campus site was a good decision and transportation was quick and effective.
• Tons of older folks at the Missional gathering. It was a reflection of the Convention in ratio, to my eye. I was a bit confused when standing amongst the crowd, waiting for the trolleys to show up and haul us off. Some thought that many had just found the meal and made the reservation. Others thought that the younger leaders are terrible about signing up for things early, and so were frozen out of the reservation list. 150 came, and another 200 were on the waiting list.
• Stetzer was his normal gregarious self. He was yucking it up with the miscreants troublemakers bloggers in the back, while making his rounds in the room.
• The questions for the panel were pretty good. “What is missional?” was first and it was pretty easy, but then I remembered the room was at least 80% older brothers and sisters and I realized it was a necessary question for them.
• Another question was what we should look out for in “emerging networks?” Did someone send a plant? Answered well - stick to the Bible and the Mission.
• Marty’s question was for Bob Roberts, “How do Missional and Glocalization integrate?” Answer: Engaging the culture gives us the opportunity to share Christ more than just walking up to someone with a gospel presentation. (or something like that - Micah and Marty were talking to each other and I was between them. Those guys can gab. )
• My question for Bob Roberts, “How does the building of infrastructure rate as a priority in the strategy of evangelization and why?” The best answer yet: It is not enough to simply preach the Gospel and gain converts. Conversion is not the goal, changed societies are the goal. The early church radically shaped the society they were in with the Gospel lived out in every aspect. We have made it about a prayer and we’re done. It’s not enough. Moreover, when we invest in these societies, we have many, many doors opened to the Gospel and evangelization is better. - I knew the answer to that, having read Glocalization, but I knew quite a few in the room wouldn’t. It was the last question asked - though we didn’t know it would be at the time, and when he answered it, our table stood and applauded. The others in the room seemed confused. They didn’t know what to make of it, I think, and were a bit confused. At least some of them, anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch… Dwight McKissic and Russell Moore had a debate in the Exhibition Hall over the PPL issue. I caught a pastor (former Criswell College student and employee) who told me his impression. He said it was like a fight between a smaller faster boxer who was gaining points with many soft blows versus a crusher who was not as fast on his feet, but hit like a freight train when the blow landed. Guess who was who?

Russ waxed Dwight with rhetoric, but Dwight kept saying, “but the Bible says…” In a denomination that has gone through all that we have gone through so that we can call ourselves “people of the Book,” answering with “what the Bible says” is never a wrong move.

I just realized that I can only post so much with my Treo. This picks up where the last finished.

Calvin Whitman moved the disbanding of the Finance Committee, an ad hoc committee commissioned to study the CP funding formulas.

Morris Chapman encouraged the EC not to pass the motion and it did fail as did an amendment to disband it in one year. As it stands, there are no restrictions on the committee.

This committee continues to discuss the responsibilities of funding the SBC’s agencies and institutions - including Seminaries and Colleges.

Roger mentioned before was Roger Moran, who has now met as an EC member for the last time.

Looking over the printed report, there are a few things that catch my attention.

First, there is a plethora of routine business that must be done.

Despite the impassioned plea of a New Orleans pastor last year to switch the convention to his town THIS YEAR (which was just pragmatically impossible), the suggestion is made that we will return to New Orleans in 2012.

The Funding Committee Report recommends that we restructure the funding formula for Golden Gate Seminary to address that school’s specific “Main Campus” challenges. The end result will be that the GGBTS will receive an additional 44 FTEs to help them deal further with their unique situation.

The CP allocation budget contains no real surprises. The IMB is allocated half of the CP monies received - $100,300,768. This is why it is so important for the state conventions to pass on more dollars. It really does go to missions.

Just under a quarter goes to NAMB, and the rest is divided among everyone else.

I note that, although SWBTS is now the third largest Seminary. They receive about $10,000 dollars less than Southern and a whopping $100,000 MORE than NOBTS.

SWBTS - $9,628,590
STBS - $9,638,805
NOBTS - $8,730,948

An additional note on this concern, Guidestone did very well - kudos to them - and they are returning there allocation from the CP which is $1,524,572. The EC recommends that the three smaller seminaries receive a portion - $160,480, each - and that the ERLC receive $320,962 of the Guidestone money for two years and the EC receive $160,480 for stewardship work.

Most people will ignore this recommendation, though some may be interested in dividing this up other ways. There is an EC member (Roger is his first name, but I don’t know what his last name is) asking that this kind of plan be advanced to the EC sooner so that they can think through these things.

Interesting perspective this morning. I was eating breakfast and listening to as well as engaging in conversations around me. One older gentleman was raving about taking a limo to John Hagee’s church yesterday. I kept silent.

I noticed that there were quite a few not in attendance at the Pastor’s Conference. Neither was I. I got up and was working out at 7:00 am and then by 9:00 am I was eating a late breakfast. Two people said that they weren’t bothering to go to the Pastor’s Conference. They wondered aloud why they sent the same folks with the same things to say up every year. The thing that caught my attention was that these people were not of “my” generation, but were older. One would have been from the Resurgence generation, for sure.

Marty Duren got here. We are heading for the Executive Committee meeting in a couple of minutes. I’ll let you know what’s up, if anything, from there.