Is the Cooperative Program Worthy of Sacrifice?
by Nathan Finn and Micah Fries
We are concerned. As we look across our beloved Southern Baptist Convention, we see a problem that is significant, and is growing. Sadly, statistics inform us that this is an issue across the entire spectrum of SBC life, regardless of location or age and type of congregation. This issue is no respecter of persons. Our shared commitment to the Cooperative Program (CP) is on … [Read More]
Is the Cooperative Program Worthy of Sacrifice?
On the Future of the Southern Baptist Convention: A Graduation Meditation
This morning, we’ll celebrate our December graduation at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is our smaller of two annual commencements, but we’ll still graduate around 130 students today. The vast majority of them are Southern Baptists who are currently serving in paid vocational ministry, are presently looking for paid church staff positions, or are preparing to be domestic church planters or foreign missionaries. I hope you’ll pray for those who are transitioning to their next … [Read More]
Is Baptism a Secondary Doctrine?
Several years ago, Southern Seminary president Albert Mohler wrote an influential essay titled “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.” In that essay, Mohler argues that a key to spiritual maturity is being able to distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrines. According to Mohler, primary or first-order doctrines are those that are essential to the faith—you cannot reject these beliefs and still be Christian in the biblical sense of the term. Mohler’s examples … [Read More]
The State(s) of our Convention
Between the Times contributor Nathan Finn has teamed up with Oklahoma Baptist Messenger editor Doug Baker in a new editorial titled The State(s) of our Convention. They appreciate state conventions, are troubled by what they think is an “adversarial posture” on the part of some Southern Baptists toward state conventions, and argue for a “core set of ministry priorities” that should guide state conventions in the future. You should read the editorial.
Alvin Reid on Camps, Calvinism and Coalitions
Between the Times contributor Alvin Reid has written an excellent article for his personal blog titled “Of Campus, Calvinism, and Coalitions.” You should check it out. We hope that more Southern Baptists, on all sides of the Calvinism debate (and other debates), will commit to labor together for the sake of the nations.
Toward a Unified SBC
The SBC annual meeting is rapidly approaching and, as it does, the back and forth across the Internet seems to have accelerated pace. Pastors and denominational leaders have rushed to publish their views, sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently, but publish they have. If the secular press decides to take a gander at blogs, news sites and Twitter feeds, they will likely have no shortage of evidence to substantiate their long held belief that … [Read More]
GCRTF Report Challenges to all Southern Baptists (4): Challenges for Local Associations and State Conventions
GCRTF Report Challenges to all Southern Baptists (4): Challenges for Local Associations and State Conventions
By Danny Akin and Nathan A. Finn
From almost the very beginning of our movement, likeminded autonomous Baptist churches voluntarily cooperated through local associations in evangelism, church planting, mercy ministries, and doctrinal accountability. In part because of their aversion to the societal method of cooperation, by the 1820s the Baptists of the South were further cooperating through state conventions. In 1845, they … [Read More]
