Editor’s note: The Baptist Courier asked Sonny Holmes and D.J. Horton, the two announced nominees for president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, to share with our readers their thoughts about the issues affecting the future of our state convention. We hope this information will provide South Carolina Baptists with as much information as possible as they pray and make decisions about the future work of our convention in these most interesting and important times.
Horton’s statement is below. Holmes’ statement can be found here.
D.J. HortonD.J. Horton has served as pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church, Moore, since 2004. He is a graduate of Auburn University and New Orleans Seminary and is pursing a doctorate from Southeastern Seminary. He will be nominated for SCBC president by Jim Goodroe, director of missions for Spartanburg County Baptist Network.
That’s right – 2020. You did not read the title wrong. I know we are approaching 2011, but 2020 is what is on my mind. Why? Because this is the only way we navigate through these interesting times. As Baptists of South Carolina, we have to start asking an important question: “What do we want our convention to look like in the year 2020?”
If we don’t ask this question, then our convention will surely not die, it will be even worse – we will become irrelevant. Interestingly, I have never met a pastor or any other leader who wants this. The facts, however, are clear and undeniable. Our state is becoming more lost by the month, and we are seeing a steady decline in giving to the Cooperative Program and other offerings. We have, therefore, fewer funds to meet more needs. The scenario is not good, but it is also not hopeless.
So what are we to do? I have three convictions that will flow in the following order: convention, local churches, and every Baptist.
– First, we must simplify and focus on a handful of tasks that we will accomplish together as a convention of churches. We must do them at the cost of everything else, and we must not settle until we carry them out with great faithfulness and effectiveness. This will require us to ask hard questions and search for more difficult answers, questions such as: Should we continue to service churches that refuse to reach their community? Is it even fair to ask our Baptist building to support programming in every Baptist church when every church’s programs are different and changing by the minute? Which of our institutions need more financial support? Are there any institutions that have run their course and accomplished their task? If people without access to the gospel face the same hell as those who reject the gospel, then how can we get more money and support to missionaries taking the gospel to those who have never heard?
The answers to these questions will not come overnight, and they should not be answered by a select few. But we have to be willing to have an open and honest dialogue now, or the answers will never come. We have to rid ourselves of territorialism, politically charged agendas, and nostalgic allegiances. When these hindrances creep into our decision-making, we naturally focus on winning the scuffle inside our own barracks today, and completely forget about winning the war against lostness tomorrow. I, for one, don’t want to scuffle with my brothers and sisters. I want to fight lostness with a sense of unity and solidarity that can only come through a few clearly outlined objectives.
– Second, we have to remember that a state convention has never brought revival to struggling churches. Churches, however, can – and do – strengthen conventions all the time. So the pastors and lay leaders of our state must be willing to ask the same types of questions outlined above of their own churches. This is much more uncomfortable than simply criticizing a convention from a distance. Leading each congregation to look at itself in the mirror is not easy, but it is necessary if the local churches of our state are going to ever make a real impact on lostness. There are churches in our state that brag about giving 15 percent to the Cooperative Program and yet never actually send a missions team made up of their own members to go anywhere. Other churches spend millions on more buildings and staff and never consider increasing their percentage of giving to missions. To be transparent, I know the church I pastor still has great strides to make in becoming more committed to missions, but I am thankful we are at least on the journey. Is yours?
– Third, every committed South Carolina Baptist has to start making time in his or her life for three simple and irreplaceable acts of worshipful obedience. For starters, we have to rediscover the spiritual disciplines and begin to grow in our own relationships with the Lord. I believe we were once a people of prayer, but we are no more. We were once known as people of the Book, but now our people don’t bring theirs to church. We were once a people who fasted, meditated, studied, and knew how to disagree yet still burn with unity. We don’t anymore. I have become convinced that the greatest thing you or I could ever do for our state convention is to renew our zeal and passion for knowing, loving, and obeying the Lord God. Walking in His Spirit, drenched in His Word, and devoted to His will. Beyond personal devotion, we each have to start carving out time in our week to literally do discipleship. This means investing in another new or immature Christian with the goal in mind to make a disciple who then makes disciples. Can you imagine a state where, every morning of the week, in every fast-food restaurant and diner, there was a South Carolina Baptist encouraging, teaching, and praying with a younger Christian over a cup of coffee? Finally, we each have got to start telling people about Jesus. I don’t mean just handing out a tract or dropping off an outreach packet – I mean intentionally building relationships with lost people with one Spirit-led intention: to see that person come to faith in Christ.
Optometrists say that ideal vision is 20/20. I want our state to have this, and 2020 vision means choosing to look far enough down the road that we ask and answer the right questions now of our convention, our churches, and, most importantly, ourselves. May God help us to do this, or may He move us out of the way if we do not.