Here is a link (click the title of this post above) to an article from Christianity Today on The Reformer -- Albert Mohler. It is a lengthy piece and I would encourage you to read the article in its entirety.
The article has been very controversial in regards to how it depicts Dr. Mohler. I would encourage you to do a GOOGLE search of "Christianity Today Al Mohler" and you can read each bloggers displeasure with how Molly Worthen portrays The Reformer at times.
I was especially interested in the end of the article and how Mohler is influencing Reformed theology in the SBC, how he shaped the GCR, and his views on Church Planting. Here are some key paragraphs starting at page 6:
"Conservatives have conquered every major SBC body (with a few important exceptions, including Baylor University, whose moderate trustees broke from the SBC, and the Texas and Virginia state conventions, which remain in moderate control, forcing conservatives in those states to found their own conventions). Yet all is not well. Southern Baptist baptisms have fallen for the second year in a row, and everyone admits that the official membership tally—some 16 million—is a gross exaggeration of how many people show up in church on a given Sunday (perhaps by as much as half). Young people are leaving. Church-planting has stalled. The conservatives who led the revolution of the 1980s were unprepared for this. 'They thought they'd get rid of 200,000 moderates, then would have a great majority who were inerrantists, and their theology would keep them as the largest and most thriving denomination,' says Leonard. 'The thing that's worrying them is the newer generation of pastors, bloggers, and laity, the postmodern evangelical types who do not toe the line on the things they agree on'" (p. 6,7)
Interesting......after 30 years of control....after 30 years of leadership by the conservative resurgence, baptisms are down, young people are absent, and church planting has stalled. So if leadership was unprepared, what is the answer to get the denomination on track? Enter the GCR.
"Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a longtime friend of Mohler, sees the problem as structural rather than ideological. 'We exchanged a moderate, neo-orthodox, liberal bureaucracy for a more conservative, even fundamentalist bureaucracy. But I think some of the folks who are part of the bureaucracy would have been part of it regardless of who won. They are bureaucrats at heart, atheological …. That's something we didn't see, and now we have to deal with it'" (p. 7).
The problem then is not just theological but structural. Who are the bureaucrats? Where is the structure problematic? State Conventions? Local Associations? How churches give? The article goes on to give some clarity......
"After the 2009 convention, SBC president Johnny Hunt appointed a 'Great Commission Resurgence Task Force' to study how conservatives could follow their theological victory with an overhaul of convention structure. The Task Force Report, drafted primarily by Mohler, proposed reforming the funding mechanism that has channeled money from SBC churches to state conventions and national mission boards, schools, and agencies since 1925: the Cooperative Program (CP). Such changes would allow congregations to count as 'Great Commission Giving' the money they send directly to organizations such as the International Mission Board—encouraging them to bypass the CP, which would normally give some of the money to state conventions. Furthermore, the report recommended dissolving the 'cooperative agreements' between state conventions and the CP in order to reduce the funds remaining in the hands of state conventions and—in theory, at least—to free up financial support for church-planting in northern and western regions where the SBC is weak'" (p. 9).
And what about church planting? The article goes on quoting Daniel Akin and Mohler,
"Akin stresses that in an enormous organization like the SBC, no change happens quickly. But when asked which models of church-planting and evangelism the Task Force admired, his answer was telling. 'We have looked at—we have no intention of emulating them at every point—Acts 29 and Redeemer Presbyterian [Church in Manhattan],' he says, naming two of the most prominent Reformed evangelical church-planting bodies in the country. 'We are this big, monstrous aircraft carrier, and they're both speedboats, but we've been watching them.' Although the main personality associated with Acts 29, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, sticks in the craw of many Southern Baptists for his harsh language and rejection of teetotalism, his philosophy of church-planting—based on theological rigor, tight organization, and cutting-edge cultural engagement—may be the best way to inspire young Southern Baptists and produce the baptismal numbers that convince SBC skeptics. 'When you're looking for theologically vibrant, healthy models that lead to growing churches, where else are you going to look?' asks Mohler.
Overall, some very telling qoutes on the future.
What do you think?
Grace. Peace. Power.
No comments:
Post a Comment