Afterthoughts

Did anything of significance really happen at the Amarillo Convention of 2007? I expect that question will not be answered until the announcement of the new executive director of the BGCT. Today, I have little hope for a change of course. A good topic of discussion is what is the course of the BGCT?

The BGCT is set on a course to become a national convention. Herbert Reynolds, Paul Powell, and Winfred Moore were instrumental in setting this course years ago. They actually reserved a corporate name for this convention that could be chartered in Texas. There was an outcry over their actions and assurances were made that such a move was not in the works. Since that time much has changed. The BGCT is now made up of churches from multiple states. What churches from out of state cooperate with the BGCT is a hidden secret supposedly at the request of those churches. There is nothing like transparency. The BGCT was instrumental in changing the guidelines of the BWA and is now a recognized partner. Each year the BGCT moves closer to having its own mission sending agencies. The BGCT has three seminaries of its own.
Why all this slow movement and why did the leadership play down the idea of a named convention? Its all about money. If the BGCT leadership were to announce her intentions, many rank and file Southern Baptist Churches in Texas would immediately redirect their cooperative program funds. What makes me believe such a thing? The changes made in 2000 in supporting the SBC seminaries cost the BGCT millions in CP money and hundreds of churches left the BGCT to support the SBTC. This move to a national convention is what makes the CBF and the New Covenant so important to Charles Wade and David Currie. The die is cast under the noses of many Texas Baptist who have little clue.

The course is set to continue. The leaders who are quietly working to see this happen remain in place.

Live From Amarillo

Today I brought my laptop with me to the convention and found an open access wireless connection. I caught up on email where I needed to and this is an early observation of the convention on its final day.

The crowd is even smaller than for the election of 1st VP yesterday afternoon. I found Montoya's comments about some of the computers on the stage yesterday having Rick Davis' blog open to be intriguing. The evangelistic thrust for the week seems to have netted over 100 folks receiving Christ, PTL.

The mood of the convention has struck me as somber and quiet. As always the music has been great and Warren certainly gave the bell a good ringing in his sermon last night. I was especially disappointed to find out it is not on the list of available audio recordings available for purchase. The sober atmosphere is likely due as much to the size crowd. To full a coliseum so sparsely just prevents an feeling of excitement. Of course, the crowd is older and the music has definitely been hanging out with the traditional crowd. I for one would love to see a representation from our western heritage churches especially considering they are one few evangelistic brights spots in the BGCT. Time to go, the annual sermon is quickly coming.

A Visionary

In his editorial last week, Baptist Standard editor Marv Knox said that BGCT meetings are often “sober’ and “humdrum”. Those descriptions pretty well tell the story of the 2007 annual meeting so far, that is, with the exception of Rick Warren’s address as the keynote speaker Monday evening. Rick broke several rules of Texas Baptist tradition while delivering a blistering challenge to the messengers. The rules:

1. Rick sat in a chair rather than standing to preach.

2. Rick used up 70 minutes of his allotted 30 to 45 minute time slot.

As Rick delivered his address, the gathering, which was larger than for the business session, was captivated by his passion for his subject matter. This was my first time to hear Rick preach in person although I have listened to sermons and watched him on video. Clearly he has two attributes that are badly needed in the BGCT, he has a deep passion for souls and he has visionary leadership. Rick is clearly driven by his vision to reach souls and meet humanitarian need around the globe.

Rick’s address made coming to the convention worthwhile. Most everything else at the convention this year seems to be an attempt to tell us how great the BGCT really is while she is undergoing a substantial amount of testing and redirection. Rick came to preach how great God is and how He desires to use us in what He is doing. It would be well worth your time and money to contact the BGCT asking for a copy of Rick’s message to the convention this year.

Texas House Divided

The BGCT has once again made history by electing a first. The first female to serve as president of the BGCT won on the first ballot by a 60 vote margin with 1740 votes cast. While everyone is publicly giving support to the president elect, Joy Fenner, messengers sent a clear message of support for new directions and disdain for the status quo.

Messengers also brought motions regarding no confidence for the executive board and team, a rejection of no confidence, a motion to evaluate the necessity of the COO position, and raised several questions concerning cuts in the evangelism missions budget with increases in the area of communications. The budget was readily adopted in spite of the voiced opposition.

Nominations have now been made for 1st VP with just a fraction of messengers present for that session as the session electing a president.

All in all, attendance seems to be minimal considering this is to be a time to celebrate the tenure of EC Charles Wade. Further updates to be posted later.

Homecoming

I have made it to Amarillo and found the registration booth at the Amarillo Civic Center. It has been 13 years since attended an event and my how the place has grown. The parking lot we used in 94 is now another building. I dropped by the Amarillo Livestock Auction where I used to buy and sell cattle and found it had changed as well. Gone are the Monday crowds and a parking lot full of trucks to haul cattle back to the ranches. Where once upon a time they would sell 10 to 15000 head per week, I understand they now sell only 3 to 4 thousand now. The registration total at 12:15 was 1756 and it looks to be far short of the numbers from 1994.

My first impressions have been interesting. At the registration desk we were given a goody bag two times the size of last year's bag. As I walked through the exhibit hall I realize why. The marketing team from the BGCT has done a remarkable job of supporting the East Texas timber industry where I now reside. The ballots we are to use in the business meeting are a full 8 1/2 x 14 so we will be easily spotted while voting yes or no.

Missions is the theme for this convention and disaster relief is well represented. Texas Baptist Men have an incredible ministry in this state and DR trailers are all over the parking lot and in the exhibit hall. This ministry has carried the Gospel around the world through humanitarian aid in times of crisis.

I saw a couple of interesting booths in the exhibit hall. LifeWay has been granted a place yet I failed once again to find that Southwestern had been given the privilege. Of course the Smith Helwys booth and Baptist Way press booth were both much larger than the LifeWay booth. I saw the evangelism booth and looked for my friend Jon Randles who is now the team leader for the BGCT in evangelism. I will pray that Jon and staff will find success in returning an emphasis on evangelism to the BGCT.

Our first meeting is just a few moments away and nominations for officers are likely to be presented during this session.

Committed

As regular as clock work I received the annual propaganda piece printed by Texas Baptist Committed delivered just prior to the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. David Currie, the chief general for TBC and editor of the publication, pulled out the big Texas guns once again to influence elections. I must add that I have not subscribed to the paper or asked for the paper. They send it of their own free will. The closest I have been to endorsing or participating in anything TBC or CBF was when our fine accounting folks at the BGCT sent some funds from our church to the CBF by mistake.

Of particular interest in this years campaign publication, is an article by Ken Hall. Some suspect he is in the running for the EC and I would venture a guess that if it comes to pass, there are leaner days for the BGCT. The part that really caught my attention was his not so subtle comparison of the valley scandal to giving to Lottie and Annie. Ken's call is for a Texas Mission Fund that allowing BGCT folks to give to Texas Missions rather than SBC missions. Why leaner days? While the article speaks of a wider tent in Texas and cooperating with more people, should his vision come to pass, I would expect more churches to defect from the BGCT to the SBTC. Essentially, the BGCT would be by expectation excluding the churches that David Lowrie says we again need to include in BGCT life.

I have said before and I will say it again, it is not the SBTC who is luring churches away, it is the moderate leadership of the BGCT who is driving them away. This is why I continue to believe we must elect David Lowrie as president of the BGCT. Truthfully, the BGCT president can do little to change the tide. However, electing another president who serves on the TBC board endorsing the views of Ken Hall, is a sure fire way to continue the drift toward making Herbert Reynold's dream for a national convention become reality.

Return to the Scene

It is rather ironic that the SBC met in San Antonio this year and so many looked back to the last time the SBC met there and in the same year the BGCT is again meeting in Amarillo the same place where a major division in BGCT life was cemented for years to come. I went to that convention sympathetic to the moderate camp and left very sympathetic to the conservative camp, or as moderates would rather say, the fundamentalist camp. I watched the moderate camp perform every stunt I had seen the conservatives criticized for by that reliable state paper called the Baptist Standard. I could write the things that most disappointed me during that meeting, but why bring up sour grapes. The irony is this year’s presidential election.

In 1994 the battles within the BGCT were raging. TBC was working hard to protect against a substantial opponent. Even in the midst of division, much was being accomplished in Texas. The evangelism conference was the greatest testimony to unity around evangelism and fellowship of pastors. The year was one of great victory for the moderate camp that has controlled the BGCT since even before that historic convention. We return to Amarillo this year a weaker convention in terms of cooperation and evangelism suffering from an exodus of churches and a lower budget than last year. We must be reminded that there was victory in Amarillo in 1994. No, in reality, both sides lost in Amarillo.

It is ironic that charges were regularly being made about that small band of conservatives who were controlling the election process in the SBC. Today, even TBC admits to doing the same thing in Texas. It seems as though it was wrong in SBC life but accepted in the BGCT. What is unethical in one circumstance, we might conclude, is ethical if you are on the winning side. That same small band made sure of a rise in theological education in Texas with seminaries surfacing in Abilene and Waco. I seem to find myself all alone in thinking if they were really BGCT seminaries, wouldn’t they have been at least sanctioned by an official meeting of the messengers? Perhaps I am missing this, but as my memory goes, these seminaries were started by Baptist colleges who in turn came to the BGCT to ask for funding. Many BGCT leaders turned a blind eye to this move and are only now beginning to question the methods of leadership that led to such events. At the same time some cry foul over the SBC seminaries establishing undergraduate schools. I love consistency.

The presidential election in Amarillo this year presents an opportunity for change. Perhaps the BGCT could lay down her denominational war banner and again pick up her evangelistic war banner. Some have called for the lapse of an organized group such as the TBC to cease in the election of candidates. Such pleas misunderstand leadership in organizations such as the BGCT. These organizations cry out for uniting leadership. The TBC has been effective because it united a group around a vision even though it is a negative vision. If the BGCT is to move forward from its quagmire, it will require a leadership group who can garner a sizable portion of the pastors in the BGCT to support its vision. Yes, vision is the key. Not a vision of being anti SBC but a vision of being up with Kingdom progress. As long as the vision is one of defense from an enemy that left the battle in 1998, ten years ago, the quagmire will continue. This vision will only emerge from men and women with great convictions. It will not come from the so called fundamentalists who remain in the BGCT. If their convictions would have motivated them to action, they would have either left for the SBTC or have been a constant source of irritation. It won’t come from the moderates or the TBC could have led us out of the quagmire years ago. It will come from some folks who will sit down and come up with a plan, take it to the churches and not just the executive board or annual convention, preach it, teach it, live it, and give their lives to it. Where are the statesmen who will rise up? Some have suggested David Lowrie to be one who could begin this type movement. He will not be able to do it alone. It will take several Baptist statesmen who can reach out to the silent majority of the BGCT and motivate them to action. It will take several who can reach out to the moderate camp that supports the TBC and those in the conservative camp who continue to support the SBC. That would be an anointed group and that would be a miracle. Do you still believe in miracles?

I am afraid it is not the current blogging world. This world is not captivated by vision, it is captivated by what it does not like about certain people. As long as we are battling people, we will not move forward. We must advance a vision made up of dreams and ideas. As long as we focus on fighting people, there will always be plenty of enemies to go around. Isn’t that what we have been warned about in fundamentalism? Is it also happening in the moderate world? The whole idea of circling the wagons to guard against the fundamentalists was due to fear. I think it was Avery Willis who said “fear is faith in the enemy.” If we are to move forward as the people of God, we must walk by faith, not by fear. Walking by faith, now I think that is a biblical concept.