Having observed the ebb and flow of debate in our convention on many issues over the last 40 years in ministry – 38 of them in South Carolina – I find myself in the precarious position of writing this letter to fellow South Carolina Baptists.
Despite the debate over the Great Commission Resurgence and other issues of the day, I find something even more serious. When did we lose the ability to speak to each other and begin to talk at each other? We have focused not on reasoning with our brethren, but trying to force them to be reasonable and trying to convince them to agree with us about the conclusions we have already drawn.
In reading the letters to the editor in the last issue, I think some, including our state convention president, must have read pastor Brad Whitt’s article from a different version than I did. They took issue with him on several points. I hope they talked to him personally to hear his heart for the work of God, as I chose to do. Until then, I didn’t know him except at a distance. I found him to be a wonderful, young, energetic, caring pastor, strong in his convictions and concerned about so many pretending to speak for young pastors. He just wanted the privilege to speak for himself and the willingness to be heard. That is not unreasonable.
I am reminded of the fellows who went to see an elephant. Having never seen an elephant, they were blindfolded and placed at different places around the elephant and were asked to use their fingers to get a description of the animal. One felt his hooves and described the elephant as resembling a rock. The one at the leg said that an elephant must look like a tree because of the size of the leg. The one at the trunk said an elephant looked like a snake. None of these had any idea what an elephant looked like, even though they argued the point. The Cooperative Program is comparably the size of an elephant, with many aspects of its body put together to make up the whole picture. Standing at any one point prejudices the description of the whole picture.
I have growing concerns that this GCR direction will take us downhill to a real decrease in giving to missions and a return to a societal approach. To be unwilling to accept some change is unreasonable, because it is a large and complex organism and needs some adaptation. To throw the baby out with the bathwater is also unreasonable. When I gave my concerns to the South Carolina GCR task force, it was suggested that maybe if I understood it better, I would agree with it. At my stage in life, I may have some difficulties, but understanding something is not one of them.
I would pray that each person standing at different places around the elephant step back a moment and look at the whole picture. My history with the Cooperative Program, Great Commission, and personal missions is a matter of record, and I have never wanted to keep everything the way it is. However, a bull-in-the-china-shop mentality will do irreparable harm to missions giving around the world. What will happen when that which is discussed now in tight preacher circles is examined by reasonable lay people? What effect will inflamed rhetoric have on a lost world? Where will we end up while wrapping ourselves in the Great Commission flag but ignoring its mandate and teaching as explained in Acts 1:8 – to begin at Jerusalem and reach to the uttermost? Picking and choosing our targets at the exclusion of other needs is not the Great Commission way and has not been the Baptist way heretofore.
I am not a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist. Evidence of my understanding that change is often necessary is seen in the church I have pastored for nine years, which operates on an elder system, something I’ve grown to love. Our worship is blended, with a seamless flow of praise and worship, hymns, and proclamation of the gospel. Our largest demographic is children, youth, and college/career students who desire mentoring. So much for the age and change gap.
We all may well listen to Isaiah in 1:18: “Come, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool.” Maybe that’s where we need to start.
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