My dad has an op-ed over at Associated Baptist Press on the challenges facing Baptists. Check it out. And also check out a few of the articles on similar topics written for Baptist History & Heritage Society.
(ABP) — The answer to the question, “What are the top challenges facing Baptists today?” depends on whom you ask, doesn’t it?
Comedians might remind us that the call to have more children to buttress evangelistic efforts guarantees Baptist survival. Some Southern Baptists suggest that the resurgence of Calvinism will be a death knell to future Baptist witness, while others see it as the key to biblical fidelity. Conservative Baptists contend that openness to women in pastoral ministry and other characteristics of “liberal” theology will lead to fatal stagnation, as in many mainline denominations.
Moderate and liberal Baptists, meanwhile, will continue to see fundamentalism and creedalism as quicksand to the survival of Baptist freedoms. Attacks of the Religious Right upon the separation of church and state will undoubtedly continue to muddy the Baptist waters regarding religious liberty for all persons.
I had already read Weaver the Elder’s piece. What I would be interested in hearing is what he thinks is the future of moderate Baptists.
My opinion: Moderate Baptists are at a crossroads, but the only Baptists with the potential to penetrate the world culture as we find it.
Southern Baptists can advance the Kingdom by winning people who are oblivious to the advances of 20th century science or will believe what their local pastor tells them are the errors with Big Bang cosmology and accepted geological history. (Southern Baptist seminaries seem destined to remain oblivious to scientific results, will rant more and more against what most people come to see as true, and as a result Southern Baptists will lose followers.)
It’s up to Moderate Baptists (from the Baptist side) to “adequately” debunk the world’s fascination with a cold and empty materialism.
Yet, if we become preoccupied with a narrow political agenda (liberal or otherwise), or if we fail to develop new ways of proclaiming the gospel message (going door to door won’t cut it anymore), then our future is bleak.
“Whatever the case, if Baptist identity is worth preserving, it must meet the challenges and not miss the opportunities.”
That is an intriguing way to end an article. Two more articles fairly leap out of the sentence. Sort of like a movie ending designed to set up the prequel and sequel.