The train toward to the future for Texas Baptists left the station on Tuesday morning, November 10, 1998, when Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds made a visionary speech challenging Texas Baptists to dream about a future free of fundamentalism and focused on carrying out the Great Commission. It was an historic experience.

We are proud to publish the speech in its entirety and urge readers to study it with an open mind and allow his words to challenge you to dream about the future of the BGCT.

Many have asked me my opinion of Dr. Reynolds thoughts and I am happy to share a few ideas on his remarks as well as some of my own thoughts about the future. In truth, I have written most of my ideas regarding the future in previous columns. Just as Dr. Reynolds made sure that he pointed out he was not speaking for Baylor, the BGCT, the SBC, the CBF, or TBC, I would make the same disclaimers, adding I am not speaking for Howard Payne University, where I graduated.

I am personally excited to hear Dr. Reynolds vision of a Baptist Convention of the Americas. Do I believe it will happen? Possibly -- in some shape or form, but the one thing that I am sure of is that Texas Baptists have started toward a new future. If persons want to help shape that future they do need to get involved quickly.

Persons who stand on the sidelines and question the need for change will be left behind and miss shaping that future. Persons who believe the BGCT and SBC will continue to partner as in the past hold an irrelevant view not even in the realm of possibility. The BGCT and the SBC are on two different tracks and have been for 20 years.

Some predictions:

Texas Baptists will keep their main focus on missions and the Great Commission. No where does Dr. Reynolds advocate in his speech the abandoning of the current Baptist missionaries on the field of service. Texas Baptists will do more mission projects on their own and a thorough study of the current missionary programs must be done. I was recently told that 80% of the missionaries currently serving under SBC appointment would rather be appointed by another agency if it was financially possible. This situation will be addressed sometime in the next 10 years.

Sometime in the early part of the 21st Century there will be a Baptist cooperative witness that is truly Baptist in principle and practice and in time, this witness will be far larger and more effective than the Southern Baptist Convention. Grace will overcome legalism once again.

The SBC will show a steady decline in the next century as Baptists nationwide reject top down authoritarian fundamentalist leadership and a narrow ideology that has little to do with Jesus or the Scriptures and much to do with power and control. The SBC will diminish itself as it more narrowly defines orthodoxy and excludes all but the most zealot devotees of the movement. The SBC list of heretics will grow far beyond the current list of persons who visit Disney world, women ministers and deacons, political moderates and liberals, Baptist moderates who do not hold to a 19th century definition of inerrancy and Jews who pray to a God who doesn't hear.

The facts are that the SBC has radically changed over the past 20 years. The facts are also that the majority of Texas Baptists do not share Richard Land's definition of religious liberty or the concept of theological education being practiced by Paige Patterson, Al Mohler and Mark Coppenger at the institutions where they serve as president. Texas Baptists will reexamine partnering with SBC agencies with a totally different vision of the Gospel and which reject historic Baptist principles and practices. Texas Baptists will increasingly ignore the SBC and its actions and programs and think of themselves less and less as Southern Baptists at all. The BGCT will continue to emphasize its autonomy in a proper application of Baptist principles and change much of its relationship with the SBC while allowing local churches freedom to partner with SBC, CBF and other Baptist entities.

Some vision will capture the imagination and passion of Texas Baptists which will create unity across the state. It will be a positive vision. The vision that I want Texas Baptists to embrace will be one focused on Jesus Christ and the Great Commission, true Baptist theological education and ministry, and one that honors the Scriptures, local church autonomy, the priesthood of each believer and religious liberty. It will be a vision that empowers local churches and Baptist lay persons and blurs divisions between clergy and laity, male and female, racial tensions and secular political positions.

I urge all our readers, all of you who have supported TBC and the BGCT, to pray for God's leadership and to seek His vision for Texas Baptists as well as authentic Baptists across our nation. I urge those of you who have not been involved previously to become active in shaping the Baptist future. We are going somewhere new and the train to the future has left the station. God is the conductor. Climb aboard and bring your faith, your prayers, your talents, your finances, your dreams and seek our Father's leadership.

December 1998/January 1999