Remember last year's SBC Annual Meeting in Louisville? There was quite a commotion over Mark Driscoll, whom some fondly call "Big Papa D".
Five motions were made related to Driscoll and his Acts 29 church planting network, either directly or indirectly. Only one of the motions (there were 31 in all) was brought before the messengers for a vote (GCR).
Here are those five motions regarding Mark Driscoll.
— that "all SBC entities should monitor" funds spent in "activities related to or cooperative efforts with Mark Driscoll and/or the Acts 29 organization" and entity heads should submit a report of expenditures to appear in the 2010 Book of Reports, submitted by Kent Cochran, a messenger from Calvary Baptist Church in Republic, Mo.
— that SBC entities avoid "inviting event speakers" who "are known for publicly exhibiting unregenerate behavior … such as cursing and sexual vulgarity, immorality, or who publicly state their support for the consumption or production of alcohol," submitted by Ida South, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Mathiston, Miss.
— that author Mark Driscoll's books be removed from LifeWay Christian Bookstores because of his "reputation for abusive and ungodly language and … promotions of sex toys on his church web site," submitted by Jim Wilson, pastor, First Baptist Church in Seneca, Mo.
— that messengers encourage all SBC entities "to refrain from inviting event speakers" who engage in "cursing and sexual vulgarity, or who publicly state their support for the consumption or production of alcohol," submitted by Larry Reagan, pastor, Adams Chapel Baptist Church in Dresden, Tenn.
— A motion by Brian LeStourgeon, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Camp Verde, Ariz., sought to have Mark Driscoll "address the concerns of his accusers" at the 2010 annual meeting.
To see how Dr. Danny Akin reacted to the criticism of Mark Driscoll, check out his blog post entitled "My Reflections on the 2009 SBC Annual Meeting" at this link:
In the comments section, Dr. Akin makes the following remark: "That was, by the way, in 2007 before I had even met Mark for the first time." It is surprising to us at TWW that this rather new friendship has made such a big impact, both positive and negative, on the Southern Baptist Convention.
Although I have not yet read through all the motions that were made at this year's SBC annual meeting, it appears that little criticism was leveled at Driscoll. After Dr. Akin delivered his report on Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, one messenger posed a question to him regarding Mark Driscoll.
In case you haven't heard, something unprecedented took place in Orlando. The first ever RAP motion was made. Take a look…
Pastor / Rapper Josh received the following accolade from J.D. Greear, a member of the GCR Task Force and pastor of The Summit in Durham, North Carolina.
"OK, here it is… on Tuesday, immediately following the vote on the Great Commission Resurgence, our Summit Church planter Josh Shank, who planted “Youngstown Metro Church” a few years ago in Youngstown, OH, made this motion on the floor of the SBC in front of 11,000 messengers. Clearly, God ordained it to be the follow-up to the GCR resolutions.
This takes guts to a new level, and the 1st official “rap” on the floor of the SBC in 150 years. And a timely call to quit majoring on minors."
There's no question that the Southern Baptist Convention is at a crossroads. When it comes ot Mark Driscoll, it seems that Southern Baptists are often at extreme odds with one another. One the one hand, some have formed alliances with him and his Acts 29 network through church planting. Matt Chandler serves on the Board of Trustees for Acts 29 and has planted churches through this network, as has J.D. Greear.
Church planting is now the focus in the SBC (for obvious reasons), and it has been fascinating to see how much (or little) members of the GCR Task Force give to the Cooperative Program. Check out these statistics that we found at the following link:
Leader Johnny Hunt, SBC president and pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga. Church’s Cooperative Program (CP) giving for 2008: $432,977, or 2.48 percent of undesignated gifts/offerings of $17,450,278.
Chair Ronnie W. Floyd, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Springdale, Ark., and The Church at Pinnacle Hills, Rogers, Ark. Churches’ combined CP giving for 2008: $324,500, or 2.2 percent of undesignated gifts/offerings of $14,719,954.
Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and member of Wake Cross Roads Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C. Church’s CP giving for 2008: $55,000, or 4.7 percent of undesignated gifts/offerings of $1,170,469.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and member of Highview Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky. Church’s CP giving for 2008: $226,467, or 3.47 percent of undesignated gifts/offerings of $6,529,724.
J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church, Durham, N.C. Church’s CP giving for 2008: $55,500, or 1.77 percent of undesignated gifts/offerings of $3,139,456.
" The Summit Church has undertaken the goal of planting 1000 churches in the next 40 years. Currently, they have 12 plants around the world."
We would imagine that those churches are being planted with the help of the Acts 29 Network, not the SBC Cooperative Program, which received little funding from Greear's church. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the years to come…
Finally, how much longer will Big Papa D be seen as a "DUDE" in the eyes of his followers?
Breaking News: Caner Removed as Head of Liberty University Seminary
http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/caner_removed_as_head_of_liberty_university_seminary/28135/
I see the SBC as running into a problem. And it’s the same problem that the society of the US experienced in the 60s. In the 60s the emperors, (political and social leaders), were exposed as having no clothes. TV was the main thing that caused this. The main line news organizations, print then TV which was birthed from print, gradually had to cover the indiscretions of our “leaders”. And many of these leaders were hypocritical. This led to the counter culture of the 60s for society in general.
Then there was the SBC and similar religious groups. They forbade drinking, but many got drunk every Friday night. They forbade movies but watched them when out of town. And so on for dancing, card playing, and dozens of other sins. The SBC pretended these mortal sins weren’t happening for most of the last 50 years while the rest of society moved on.
Now the pretense is over. But the SBC hardliners still don’t accept that these kinds of things aren’t sins. So they rail against folks who might have wine with dinner. Or whatever.
And they wonder where their youth is going?
And they expect to evangelize the north and west? While railing against these sins? And lets not forget the YEC tenets and other “you must accept to be a Christian” rules.
I think they are on a slow demographic path to irrelevance.
In my opinion. 🙂
Lynn:
You forgot to add that the speakers at this year’s SBC bemoaned the fact that SBC churches are leading less teenagers to Christ than they did in the 1970s. Then other speakers, including the GCR report, encouraged people to educate their children in Christian schools or home school.
Those can both be great educational choices, but there is a dissonance here that is simply not recognized.
Our youth pastor recently asked some home school kids in the youth group, “Tell me about some of your non-Christian friends and whether you think they would be interested in coming to church.” Their response, “We don’t have any non-Christian friends.”
It is very hard to be “in the world, but not of it.” But that is our challenge.
The SBC churches are not in danger, in my opinion, of becoming too much like the culture. But many of them are in danger of withdrawing from (or have already) from the culture.
This is true of many Christian churches, however, not just SBC churches.
Again, this is a tough calling. Different people and churches will do things differently. That’s why we need to give each other a little latitude on things like this.
“Matt Chandler serves on the Board of Trustees for Acts 29 and has planted churches through this network, as has J.D. Greear.”
Which is another reason I do not trust either of them. Been following Driscoll for years. He orchestrated a huge coup in his church and got rid of elders who dared disagree with them. He also had the bylaws changed. Then preached a “going OT on them” sermon. He is a hot head and dangerous. Not to mention his bizare sermons about all women being gossips. And his bizarre stance on filtering all his wife’s emails so she cannot communicate with women in the church because they are all “gossips”.
He has serious control issues. His vulgarity is only ONE of his problems.
I think he has some serious anger problems and a Napolean complex. He also has a history of being rebuked by certain bloggers, then repenting, then getting worse, then rebuked, then repenting (in word only) then getting worse.
Did anyone read his screed on pastors wives after the Ted Haggard scandal? It was bizarre and made no sense in light of Haggard being with a man. He actually blamed pastors wives! He said they let themselves go and that tempted the pastor to stray. He was rebuked and took it down off his site. (But keep in mind, it was his FIRST reaction). (I could only feel sorry for his wife. What if she becomes disfigured in an accident? Or has to take steroids for a disease or has a masectomy? Would you want to be married to someone that shallow?)
Quite frankly, Piper and guys like Akin have actually provided cover for Driscoll. It is one thing about McArthur I like. He is not fooled by Driscoll and has been outspoken about the very serious problems with Driscoll.
“Matt Chandler serves on the Board of Trustees for Acts 29 and has planted churches through this network, as has J.D. Greear.”
Which is another reason I do not trust either of them. Been following Driscoll for years. He orchestrated a huge coup in his church and got rid of elders who dared disagree with them. He also had the bylaws changed. Then preached a “going OT on them” sermon. He is a hot head and dangerous. Not to mention his bizare sermons about all women being gossips. And his bizarre stance on filtering all his wife’s emails so she cannot communicate with women in the church because they are all “gossips”.
He has serious control issues. His vulgarity is only ONE of his problems.
I think he has some serious anger problems and a Napolean complex. He also has a history of being rebuked by certain bloggers, then repenting, then getting worse, then rebuked, then repenting (in word only) then getting worse.
Did anyone read his screed on pastors wives after the Ted Haggard scandal? It was bizarre and made no sense in light of Haggard being with a man. He actually blamed pastors wives! He said they let themselves go and that tempted the pastor to stray. He was rebuked and took it down off his site. (But keep in mind, it was his FIRST reaction). (I could only feel sorry for his wife. What if she becomes disfigured in an accident? Or has to take steroids for a disease or has a masectomy? Would you want to be married to someone that shallow?)
Quite frankly, Piper and guys like Akin have actually provided cover for Driscoll. It is one thing about McArthur I like. He is not fooled by Driscoll and has been outspoken about the very serious problems with Driscoll.