How does this affect me, a lay person?
By Jaclanel McFarland

Laity across the state are asking: How do the changes in the SBC affect my church?

Some believe the problem with the Southern Baptist Convention is just a fuss between preachers. That is a serious mistake in judgment. Changes being made now will impact significantly on laity and the future of our churches.

Exclusion of Faithful Baptists

First, it is affecting numerous Texas Baptist churches by excluding them from any representation at the SBC level. Those in allegiance to Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler have filled the committee and trustee structure for 20 years.

ABP reported about SBC leaders meeting with Directors of Missions in Texas on September 21. When Patterson was asked about his appointments during his two terms as SBC president, he said his nominations were limited by a commitment that he “would not knowingly appoint anybody to anything who had any doubts about Scripture… In Texas, I was very, very careful, because I was trying to be sensitive to that concern.”

Do not be naive. That means when you do not agree with the fundamentalists’ interpretation of the Bible and are not committed to their agenda then you will not be asked to serve. The bottom line is they want your money. Your church will be excluded if it supports the BGCT, even if it supports the SBC.

Education of Future Leaders

Second, it affects the education of future pastors and staff for our churches. What they will be learning at seminaries will shape how they lead your church. The graduates of SBC seminaries in the future will be taught the concept of leading with an autocratic style instead of a style of shared leadership. Remember, in 1988 the SBC passed a resolution declaring the pastor as the ruler of the church while diminishing the Priesthood of the Believer.

How does that affect you? All Sunday School leaders of one church were required by the pastor to sign an agreement which included,

“Faithful support of and submission to the pastoral leadership of the church (the Pastor and pastoral staff). All church members are commanded by God’s Word to support and submit to the pastoral oversight… Submitting to God’s servants includes… cheerfully embracing and abiding by their decisions regarding corporate policy in God’s house…”

Does this represent the views of our future pastors coming from SBC seminaries?

In a response to TBC, one student at an SBC seminary said, “every professor that teaches theology is a Calvinist.” The student is being taught that Jesus died for just a few people and that there is no hope for others. Imagine the impact on our missions program when Baptists believe we only are reaching the few. Imagine the arrogance that will develop when some perceive others as those that God did not select as His chosen ones.

Not all who graduate from SBC seminaries will be fundamentalists, however, a church that calls a graduate that is not a fundamentalist may have to consider itself fortunate.

Some People are Expendable

Third, if you are like many other churches I have been hearing about, then you may need to prepare your church for a split. Many fundamentalist pastors practice “the end justifies the means.” According to members of the Theological Study Committee, when the discussion about faculty turnover arose, Patterson commented on the loss of seminary faculty as “casualties of war.”

That same attitude is exhibited by fundamentalist pastors who are willing to mislead pulpit committees when they tell them, they are “not involved in politics.” Then when they arrive, they change the agenda and demand to get their way even at significant loss of longtime church members and leaders or even a church split. You or some of your best leaders may be the next “casualties of war.” Are students learning at SBC seminaries that lay people are expendable if you practice that the end justifies the means?

May heaven help us.

October 2000