A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: It’s The Kingdom, Stupid!
By David R. Currie,
Coordinator

*Editors note: This is a long article. will be a controversial article. I urge readers to stop a moment and pray before going further. Ask God to confirm whether these thoughts are on target and are of God as you read them. I would appreciate your feedback.

Shortly after the 1996 BGCT annual meeting I put posters on the walls in our offices that read IT’S THE KINGDOM, STUPID! This is, of course, a take-off on political campaign where they kept a poster in the office which said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” The purpose of the posters was to keep the effort focused. (No endorsement of any politician or party is implied by the use of this illustration.)

I put up the posters to keep us focused on the main thing—the Kingdom of God.

TBC is not primarily about fighting fundamentalism. TBC is about building the Kingdom of God. Let me explain from a Biblical perspective.

My interpretation is simple. If Jesus thought the Kingdom could be built through law, legalism and fundamentalism, He would have worked with the Pharisees rather than call disciples, i.e., willing learners, students. The Kingdom could only be built by the “poor in spirit,” the brokenhearted who were aware of their sinfulness and understood their need of grace.

This is still true today. Fundamentalism will never build the Kingdom. Fundamentalism does not even understand the Kingdom. The Kingdom is about love, grace, freedom, questioning, seeking and learning. Fundamentalism is about having all the answers, control and indoctrination.

Fundamentalism encourages not asking questions, not growing, not questioning, not struggling. Jesus answered most questions with a question, encouraging questioners to think for themselves. Fundamentalism answers questions with a black and white final answer. The Kingdom cannot be built that way.

This presents a question to all Texas Baptists. How can we as Texas Baptists— as a convention, as associations, as local churches and as individuals—most effectively be a part of building the Kingdom in the 21st century? Allow me to offer a few suggestions. These suggestions are not meant to be final, authoritative answers.

1. Texas Baptists are going to have to build strong churches for the 21st century. To be a major part of building the Kingdom in the 21st century, Texas Baptists are going to have to build very strong, biblical, New Testament churches.

From a Baptist perspective, the key to building the Kingdom is strong churches. Strong local churches make missions possible. Baptist polity is bottom up. We are only as strong collectively as our local churches are strong individually.

This means the institutions and programs of the BGCT must be focused on the local church. How do we collectively prepare ministers for the local church? How do we prepare missionaries to be supported by the local church? What kind of programs do we offer to strengthen the local church? The state convention exists primarily to assist local churches in doing the work of building the Kingdom.

This also means we must build local churches with a strong sense of community and family. We must focus local church and state convention ministries on families, and include all families in our modern society, i.e., nuclear families, blended families, single parent families, singles, widows, divorced, etc.

2. Strong local Texas Baptist Churches must be distinctively Baptist. In my opinion, this is very important. The world needs authentic Baptist churches in order to build the Kingdom. Fundamentalist churches are not authentic Baptist churches.

The pastor is ruler in a fundamentalist church. Fundamentalism operates with creeds. The priesthood of the believer is subject is to pastoral authority. Local church autonomy is sacrificed for a top-down polity. And religious liberty goes out the window when the fundamentalist pastor enters the door of the church.

The Kingdom cannot grow under such a system. The world needs authentic Baptist churches and Texas Baptists must provide a huge number of these churches. This means the members of local Baptist churches must understand what it means to be a Baptist church. Members must understand Baptist polity. Members must understand that Jesus and the Scriptures are our final authority. They must see the connection—between the priesthood of all believers, local church autonomy, religious liberty and soul freedom— with evangelism and missions.

How do we accomplish this as Texas Baptists?

One possibility is for every local church to teach historic Baptist principles for six weeks in Sunday School each year in all youth and adult classes. The best curriculum for this should be identified. The course should be repeated yearly. Most importantly, how the SBC has abandoned historic Baptist principles MUST be a part of the course.

Sunday nights could be devoted to teaching, even if a preaching service is held. Baptist work today is still suffering from the loss of Training Union. We must take seriously the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. The divisions between clergy and laity must diminish in the 21st century. We must return to the idea that every Christian is a minister and focus on the identification of the gifts God has given each person for ministry.

Fundamentalism, by nature, will not be a part of this. Again, in fundamentalism, the pastor is ruler. There is a clear division between clergy and laity. That will never work in building the Kingdom.

Also, authentic Baptist churches must cooperate out of their autonomy. To be a Baptist is to have vision, a worldwide vision. Baptists are evangelistic and are thus mission- minded. We believe the world needs Jesus.

No local church is strong without a worldwide vision. Notice, I am not, in my support of building strong local churches, praising those who have avoided being involved in the controversy in order to focus on building a strong local church. No local church is strong that sat out the most significant battle in Baptist history, and no pastor is strong who has not informed his congregation regarding the events of the last 17 years in Baptist life!

Fundamentalism by nature limits cooperation. It is self-centered. It demands conformity. Cooperation arises out of freedom, not coercion. Fundamentalism will not provide a worldwide vision or financially support a worldwide mission.

While cooperation must be local church driven, local churches should support worldwide ministries that are an extension of their local visions. Local churches must help Texas Baptists dream visions and define partnerships to carry out their worldwide vision. In turn, the BGCT and other Baptist organizations must present partnership mission opportunities that are truly Baptist oriented, Kingdom building and responsive to the visions of local churches.

3. We must clearly reject fundamentalism and the structures it controls. Texas Baptists cannot build the Kingdom of God in the 21st century tied to fundamentalism. This means Texas Baptists must move away from affiliation with fundamentalists, including much of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Again, in my opinion, the logic is simple. The doctrine of inerrancy was advanced in the late l9th century. No one had ever used the term until then. The leaders of the SBC hold to an unprovable l9th century theory. How can the SBC be effective in building the Kingdom in the 21st century when it is run by a group of men with a 19th century mindset? It cannot be done.

Texas Baptists are going to have to have the courage, the commitment to build the Kingdom, to leave the old wineskins behind including our relationship with the SBC when necessary. We cannot build the future holding onto the past.

Perhaps there is a reason we were unsuccessful in stopping the fundamentalist takeover in the late 1980s, when we finally decided to do something about it. I am not a fundamentalist so I will not attempt to speak for God, but maybe God was not in it.

The church growth experts tell us the age of denominationalism has come to a close. I do not think the takeover of the SBC was God’s will, but after it happened, maybe God decided that He had rather start something new among traditional Baptists. Perhaps He did not see the SBC as effective enough in building His kingdom any longer. Maybe that kind of large, bureaucratic structure is no longer an effective model. God is doing a new thing.

Writing the above is not pleasant for me. I am from the “old school.” Baptist principles, Southern Baptist historical principles— are very important to me. Cut me and I bleed Baptist. I could never change denominations. I will die a Baptist. It’s the Kingdom! I honestly do not believe the Southern Baptist Convention, its institutions and ministries, are going to be a major factor in building the Kingdom in the 21st century.

For now, I hope you will “ponder these things in your heart” and I urge all of you to keep the proper focus. The question we face as Texas Baptists, and the struggle we are engaged in with fundamentalism (not the same thing as those who believe the fundamentals of the faith), is how can we, as Texas Baptists, be of greatest use in building the Kingdom in the 21st century?

Let us pray and dream about these crucial, history changing and history making decisions.

February 1997