Forget good old days and get on with it
By Toby Druin
Editor, Baptist Standard

Reprinted from Oct. 14, 1998 Baptist Standard

Over the credenza in my office, above my computer, is a print of a G. Harvey painting, “A Family Christmas.” In what appears to be an early 20th century scene, a small group of men, women and children are gathered at the entrance of a small church building. A saddle horse is to one side and a horse-drawn carriage on the other. The glow of light spills from the church’s interior, from a single bare street light and from the window of a nearby house. It bathes the people and horses and spreads across the snow that covers the church yard. The barrenness of the December landscape reminds me of small West Texas towns in the winter.

The good ol’ days

I get nostalgic every time I look at the painting. In spite of the obvious cold, the scene “feels” warm and makes me long for the good old days, even though when I really think about them the good old days weren’t so “good,” they were just “old.” And deep down I know they are gone for good.

I get nostalgic when I think of the “good old days” in Southern Baptist life, the days before 1979, when in spite of our differences we worked together for the common goal of spreading the gospel at home and around the world and doing ministry along the way. I am convinced those days also are gone for good, and I wish we could get on with doing what the Lord commands us to do and quit spending so much time fussing about it.

Every grouping of Baptists is autonomous— local church, association, state convention or national convention. My church chooses to support Dallas Baptist Association, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention or other causes because members of the church want to do it—not because we are “connected” through a chain of command or ownership as in other denominations.

Heretofore, the BGCT and SBC have cooperated—been “affiliated” with each other—but it has always been voluntary. There is no mention of the Southern Baptist Convention or any other convention or association or church in the BGCT constitution, nor should there be; all are autonomous. Over the years, Baptists have cooperated in missions, evangelism, education and benevolence endeavors because we held to some pretty basic beliefs and commitments, and we did it because we trusted each other. Twenty years of wrangling have destroyed that trust.

Last year best—God still works!

Strangely enough, however, the work of sharing the gospel and ministering to human need and educating people for ministry continues. Last year was the best in years in people won to Christ and baptized; mission giving hit an all-time high despite our arguing over what a Cooperative Program gift is or through which channel to give it; enrollment in Baptist universities and seminaries was up, including the number of students preparing for the ministry; hunger giving increased in spite of differences over how or to whom to give it;church starting progressed at a record clip.

Wonder of wonders, people are lined up under various Baptist banners, and the Lord is blessing. Maybe there’s something to that old saying about Baptists knowing how to multiply by dividing. Maybe we need to stop throwing rocks in the form of words at each other and do some rejoicing.

Honor differences—time to go on

I am for reconciliation among Baptists, but I don’t think we ever again will be gathered in one “family” circle around the Baptist entrance the way the “family” is gathered in my G. Harvey painting. The Southern Baptist Convention has changed, I believe irrevocably. Some people are happy with it, and some are not. Some are happy with the way the majority of Texas Baptists have responded to the changes; others are not. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship sprang up because of the changes in the SBC. Southern Baptists of Texas is a new convention that has been begun in reaction to the fact that the BGCT has failed to fall in line with the SBC changes.

Some people obviously believe “reconciliation” will have been achieved when the BGCT/SBC relationship has been restored. I no longer think that is possible. Nor do I believe our future lies with the Fellowship. I believe reconciliation will have been achieved when we recognize we are all Baptists, but that we have honest differences and varying approaches, as most family members are wont to do, and decide to honor those differences and approaches and get on with the work.

I think we already have reconciliation, if people simply will acknowledge it. With our current Cooperative Program giving arrangement and options, people and churches can support the BGCT and/or the SBC and the Fellowship and a variety of other Baptist entities, or not support them, as they see fit.

We don’t have to be in the same circle. The circles can overlap at points of agreement and diverge where we cannot agree. We are all in the business of planting and watering. We can be together in praying that God will use all of us to bring the harvest. If we can do that, the good old days may be ahead of us.

December 1998/January 1999