June 11th, 2023
by Joey Hufstedler
by Joey Hufstedler
Good morning,
The 2023 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting is finally here. The actual business of the convention will begin Tuesday morning. The last several annual meetings have had their fair share of notable moments that were filled with tension. There will, no doubt, be some of those moments this year. We have a few "big" issues that seem to be rising to the top.
The Southern Baptist Convention has always been complementarian. This means, simply put, that the office of pastor is to be held by qualified men. It needs to be noted that the SBC is not a denomination like the United Methodists or Presbyterians. We are a convention of autonomous churches that cooperate for specific purposes. What this means is that the SBC cannot force a local church to do anything. Each church has the authority to make their own decisions on theology. However, the SBC does have the right, because the SBC is its own autonomous entity, to "disfellowship" a church that operates in a manner contrary to our beliefs.
The issue is that there are some that want the SBC to allow women to hold the office of pastor. There have been some churches recently "disfellowshipped" from the SBC because of female pastors in those churches. A couple of these churches will be challenging the ruling at this annual meeting.
The real question is, what does Scripture say?
12But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression 15But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Ti 2:12–15.
This seems to be a pretty clear statement. However, there are some that would say that the context Paul was speaking to was very specific. They would say that Paul was speaking to a specific church in a specific time.
Context is always important. However, the context argument fails the test. It fails the test for a few reasons. I will mention one that is pretty obvious. Paul makes his statement and then uses the creation account to defend his statement. If Paul was speaking only to a specific church in a specific time, why would he use the creation account to defend his statement? The answer is that he wouldn't have.
1It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Ti 3:1–7.
I underlined a couple of phrases from 1 Timothy 3. The first is "husband of one wife". I don't think I need to explain that one. The second is "He must be one who manages his own household well." This one is pretty important. Notice what Paul says in Ephesians:
22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Eph 5:22–24.
Husbands have been given the responsibility, by God, to lead the family. It is, therefore, impossible for a woman to be biblically qualified to be a pastor since one of the qualifications to be a pastor is to lead the family.
I believe that the messengers will vote to uphold the decision of the credentials committee. I'm not sure how overwhelming the vote will be. My guess would be 80% or better. Anything lower than that would a discouraging sign.
This issue might be one of the more intense issues. One reason is because each SBC entity is autonomous, just like the local church is. The individual entities might not want to be as transparent as many messengers would like. The issue of transparency becomes more tense when you stop to think that the entities each receive money from the Cooperative Program. The CP is funded by local churches. Can you see the tension building? We have had issues, very recently, that have many pastors, and lay people, frustrated at how money is being used at some of our entities. Anytime money comes up, it becomes a difficult conversation. I believe it is time for our SBC entities to "open the books". I believe that if the entity can defend what they are doing/spending then they shouldn't be all that worried about us seeing it. If they are embarrassed/can't defend what they are doing then we have some very serious problems.
I can see the transparency issue taking up a great deal of time or it will take up no time.
This issue has become one of the more political issues in the SBC. For the record, I don't know anyone that is okay with sexual abuse. I don't know anyone that doesn't want an SBC where there no sexual abuse ever again. The problem is that there are two very different ideas on how the SBC deals with sexual abuse. There are many, on both sides, that have attacked those on the "other side" as not truly caring about this issue. It is truly disappointing to hear the way people have talked about each other.
The reality is that there is only so much we can do at the national level to deal with sexual abuse. The SBC, as I have already stated, is not a denomination like the Methodists or Presbyterians. We are independent, autonomous churches. This means that the SBC can't make a local church do anything. We can "disfellowship" a church that mishandles or overlooks sexual abuse, but we have no authority to force them to "do the right thing". This truth makes it very difficult for us to act in a way that will satisfy some.
Trust will obviously not be voted on at this annual meeting, but the votes taken/discussion had will be about trust. It is obvious that trust is not very high these days in the SBC. We all know it. We can see it in the way people are conducting themselves in public discourse. It appears that many people are having a hard time distinguishing between issues and people. In other words, many in our convention are attacking people instead of issues. Now, there are times when we must call people out. I have no problem doing that when it is warranted. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about an alarming trend that I am seeing in the SBC. Our default mode these days is to discredit a person we disagree with instead of debating the issue at hand.
Do I believe that there are some "bad actors" in the SBC? Yes! Do I believe that there are those in the SBC that are more worried about creating a "name" for themselves than glorifying Jesus Christ? Yes! Do I believe those things are true of most in the SBC? Absolutely not! Not everyone that disagrees with you has bad motives. Not everyone that disagrees with you is out to destroy you.
We are continuing to see decline in the SBC. We are seeing decline in attendance. There are numerous factors that have played a part in that number. I won't go into them all, but we are seeing decline. We are seeing decline in average worship attendance. We claim to have over 13.5 million members but the numbers I am seeing say that we have less than 4 million people in worship attendance on an average Sunday. That number is very discouraging. Only around 25% of SBC church members will gather for Sunday morning worship services on average.
We are continuing to see a drop in CP giving. In 2020-2021 the CP money given was $457,928,996. In 2021-2022 the CP money given was $457,417,314. The 2021-2022 CP was only about $500,000 less than 2020-2021. Statistically we would call that staying level. However, just 20 years ago CP giving was over $500,000,000. CP was that high for 5 straight years. Our "high water" mark was in 2007. CP money given was just over $548,000,000 that year. We have been in steep decline ever since. Now, in 2021-2022 the money from CP that the SBC received from state conventions was up year over year from $187,775,822 to $195,900,993. That is an increase of almost $8,000,000. The reason that number is higher is because many state conventions began giving more money to SBCCP over the last several years. In other words the SBC is getting a bigger slice of the SBCCP pie but the pie is getting smaller.
Our baptism number is up from last year. In 2021 we saw 154,701 baptisms. In 2022 that number increased to 180,177. That is an increase of almost 17%! I am thankful for that increase. However, we have to all the way back to 1936 to see baptisms below 200,000 before a couple of years ago.
It is my belief that we are seeing decline in all of these areas for a number of different reasons. Some of which, can't be adequately quantified. However, I do believe that one large reason for our decline is a lack of focus/apathy. We have lost focus and become apathetic because we are too busy fighting where we shouldn't be and we haven't fought where we should have. We can fix that issue. It won't be easy, but we can do it.
There are many more issues that will be dealt with at this year's annual meeting. I'm sure that something will come up that I am not currently aware of. Our convention is in need of prayer. We can do the "right thing". The question is, will we?
Serving Him,
Bro. Joey
The 2023 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting is finally here. The actual business of the convention will begin Tuesday morning. The last several annual meetings have had their fair share of notable moments that were filled with tension. There will, no doubt, be some of those moments this year. We have a few "big" issues that seem to be rising to the top.
- Who can be a pastor
The Southern Baptist Convention has always been complementarian. This means, simply put, that the office of pastor is to be held by qualified men. It needs to be noted that the SBC is not a denomination like the United Methodists or Presbyterians. We are a convention of autonomous churches that cooperate for specific purposes. What this means is that the SBC cannot force a local church to do anything. Each church has the authority to make their own decisions on theology. However, the SBC does have the right, because the SBC is its own autonomous entity, to "disfellowship" a church that operates in a manner contrary to our beliefs.
The issue is that there are some that want the SBC to allow women to hold the office of pastor. There have been some churches recently "disfellowshipped" from the SBC because of female pastors in those churches. A couple of these churches will be challenging the ruling at this annual meeting.
The real question is, what does Scripture say?
12But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression 15But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Ti 2:12–15.
This seems to be a pretty clear statement. However, there are some that would say that the context Paul was speaking to was very specific. They would say that Paul was speaking to a specific church in a specific time.
Context is always important. However, the context argument fails the test. It fails the test for a few reasons. I will mention one that is pretty obvious. Paul makes his statement and then uses the creation account to defend his statement. If Paul was speaking only to a specific church in a specific time, why would he use the creation account to defend his statement? The answer is that he wouldn't have.
1It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Ti 3:1–7.
I underlined a couple of phrases from 1 Timothy 3. The first is "husband of one wife". I don't think I need to explain that one. The second is "He must be one who manages his own household well." This one is pretty important. Notice what Paul says in Ephesians:
22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Eph 5:22–24.
Husbands have been given the responsibility, by God, to lead the family. It is, therefore, impossible for a woman to be biblically qualified to be a pastor since one of the qualifications to be a pastor is to lead the family.
I believe that the messengers will vote to uphold the decision of the credentials committee. I'm not sure how overwhelming the vote will be. My guess would be 80% or better. Anything lower than that would a discouraging sign.
- Transparency
This issue might be one of the more intense issues. One reason is because each SBC entity is autonomous, just like the local church is. The individual entities might not want to be as transparent as many messengers would like. The issue of transparency becomes more tense when you stop to think that the entities each receive money from the Cooperative Program. The CP is funded by local churches. Can you see the tension building? We have had issues, very recently, that have many pastors, and lay people, frustrated at how money is being used at some of our entities. Anytime money comes up, it becomes a difficult conversation. I believe it is time for our SBC entities to "open the books". I believe that if the entity can defend what they are doing/spending then they shouldn't be all that worried about us seeing it. If they are embarrassed/can't defend what they are doing then we have some very serious problems.
I can see the transparency issue taking up a great deal of time or it will take up no time.
- Sex Abuse
This issue has become one of the more political issues in the SBC. For the record, I don't know anyone that is okay with sexual abuse. I don't know anyone that doesn't want an SBC where there no sexual abuse ever again. The problem is that there are two very different ideas on how the SBC deals with sexual abuse. There are many, on both sides, that have attacked those on the "other side" as not truly caring about this issue. It is truly disappointing to hear the way people have talked about each other.
The reality is that there is only so much we can do at the national level to deal with sexual abuse. The SBC, as I have already stated, is not a denomination like the Methodists or Presbyterians. We are independent, autonomous churches. This means that the SBC can't make a local church do anything. We can "disfellowship" a church that mishandles or overlooks sexual abuse, but we have no authority to force them to "do the right thing". This truth makes it very difficult for us to act in a way that will satisfy some.
- Trust
Trust will obviously not be voted on at this annual meeting, but the votes taken/discussion had will be about trust. It is obvious that trust is not very high these days in the SBC. We all know it. We can see it in the way people are conducting themselves in public discourse. It appears that many people are having a hard time distinguishing between issues and people. In other words, many in our convention are attacking people instead of issues. Now, there are times when we must call people out. I have no problem doing that when it is warranted. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about an alarming trend that I am seeing in the SBC. Our default mode these days is to discredit a person we disagree with instead of debating the issue at hand.
Do I believe that there are some "bad actors" in the SBC? Yes! Do I believe that there are those in the SBC that are more worried about creating a "name" for themselves than glorifying Jesus Christ? Yes! Do I believe those things are true of most in the SBC? Absolutely not! Not everyone that disagrees with you has bad motives. Not everyone that disagrees with you is out to destroy you.
- Decline in the SBC
We are continuing to see decline in the SBC. We are seeing decline in attendance. There are numerous factors that have played a part in that number. I won't go into them all, but we are seeing decline. We are seeing decline in average worship attendance. We claim to have over 13.5 million members but the numbers I am seeing say that we have less than 4 million people in worship attendance on an average Sunday. That number is very discouraging. Only around 25% of SBC church members will gather for Sunday morning worship services on average.
We are continuing to see a drop in CP giving. In 2020-2021 the CP money given was $457,928,996. In 2021-2022 the CP money given was $457,417,314. The 2021-2022 CP was only about $500,000 less than 2020-2021. Statistically we would call that staying level. However, just 20 years ago CP giving was over $500,000,000. CP was that high for 5 straight years. Our "high water" mark was in 2007. CP money given was just over $548,000,000 that year. We have been in steep decline ever since. Now, in 2021-2022 the money from CP that the SBC received from state conventions was up year over year from $187,775,822 to $195,900,993. That is an increase of almost $8,000,000. The reason that number is higher is because many state conventions began giving more money to SBCCP over the last several years. In other words the SBC is getting a bigger slice of the SBCCP pie but the pie is getting smaller.
Our baptism number is up from last year. In 2021 we saw 154,701 baptisms. In 2022 that number increased to 180,177. That is an increase of almost 17%! I am thankful for that increase. However, we have to all the way back to 1936 to see baptisms below 200,000 before a couple of years ago.
It is my belief that we are seeing decline in all of these areas for a number of different reasons. Some of which, can't be adequately quantified. However, I do believe that one large reason for our decline is a lack of focus/apathy. We have lost focus and become apathetic because we are too busy fighting where we shouldn't be and we haven't fought where we should have. We can fix that issue. It won't be easy, but we can do it.
- Unknown
There are many more issues that will be dealt with at this year's annual meeting. I'm sure that something will come up that I am not currently aware of. Our convention is in need of prayer. We can do the "right thing". The question is, will we?
Serving Him,
Bro. Joey
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