Recently, I was invited by our South Carolina Baptist Convention staff to a meeting in Columbia. This meeting was held to attempt needed dialogue between the more traditional churches as well as some of the more contemporary churches.
Frank PageI want to publicly thank Dr. James Austin and Brother Marshall Fagg for their heart of reconciliation and Christian fellowship. This meeting comes from a motivation of trying to build unity in the body of Christ in our state. It was an honest, even frank, dialogue between leaders from both groups. Many issues were discussed and pondered. Relationships were built, which I believe will be extremely helpful in the days ahead.
One of the issues we discussed was the issue of the Cooperative Program. In fact, one person called it “the elephant in the room.” Everyone who knows me knows that I am a strong proponent of the Cooperative Program. I believe in its value and its worth. However, I have also publicly stated many times that we need to be careful to show its value and worth instead of just screaming that it is the right thing to do. To say the same thing over and over is not going to convince people of the rightness of an action, unless we can show them that it is a way to truly do the work of God beyond our own local abilities. Many people in contemporary churches do not wholeheartedly support the Cooperative Program. Instead of criticizing our brothers, I think it is time to involve them in meaningful dialogue so that they can better learn the wonderful ministries that are being supported by the Cooperative Program.
I believe the recent meeting in Columbia is a great start in building bridges, developing relationships, and showing our contemporary brothers that there is great value in cooperating together – yes, even through the Cooperative Program. I believe also it is valuable for our more traditional brothers to know that they can learn from our contemporary brothers about how to reach people that many of our churches have been unable to touch.
Again, I want to commend our convention leadership for their attempt during that recent meeting to pull together differing groups. It is time in our South Carolina convention, as well as in our Southern Baptist Convention, to make deliberate efforts to pull together varying groups. We do not always agree. That is something that will continue until Jesus comes. However, as brothers in Christ, we desperately need to learn to talk to each other and not just talk about each other. We must follow the example of our Lord Jesus, as well as the admonition of the word of God to “speak the truth in love.”