Repairing the Ship

I almost titled this blog “Righting the Ship,” then I typed out “Turning the Ship.” But it occurred to me that the ship has not been right for some time. We are taking on water. It is slow - very slow - but we are sinking. It will take decades to sink our ship at its current going rate; but at its current going rate, the ship will sink. The slowness of the sinking is a testament to the grace of God that has built the Southern Baptist Convention into what it became. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest collection of evangelical Christians in the world. It is the largest denominational body in the world. It is, believe it or not, the largest annual gathering of any constitutional convention in the nation. The SBC has been described as the nation’s strongest defense against moral insanity. God has used the SBC in tremendous ways - particularly since the days of the Conservative Resurgence in the 80’s - to seek and save the lost. And today, the ship is sinking.

When I say that it is sinking, I don’t mean to say that nothing good is coming from it right now. God is still using the SBC to spread His gospel around the world. He is using her as a vessel to train and send missionaries into the darkest corners of the globe. He is using her to teach and equip pastors via the six Southern Baptist seminaries. He is using her to evangelize the lost, and is doing so in great numbers! But those things are in danger if we don’t begin to repair our ship.

In early June, the Southern Baptist Convention will once again convene for its annual meeting. I am praying that I don’t leave disappointed for the eighth (yes, EIGHTH) consecutive year. Over the past eight years, and possibly more behind the scenes, we have undergone a noticeable drift to the left. We elected a president that mishandled a blown-out-of-proportion abuse scandal and used it for his own personal gain and led us to adopt disastrous policies that set us back for years. We then elected the most liberal president we have had since the 1970’s who was up to his eyeballs in worldly ideologies such as Critical Race Theory and intersectionality. That president also ushered in the next big issue in Southern Baptist life - the reservation of the office of pastor to biblically qualified men, as described in Scripture.

In the past three conventions, efforts have been made to rectify that drift via a constitutional amendment that would have stated that a cooperating church with the SBC employs only biblically qualified MEN as pastors. That amendment has failed to pass, thanks in large part to convention employees campaigning against it from the platform at the annual meeting. At last year’s meeting, we were told that passing the amendment could lead to lawsuits that we don’t want to face. It is a shame that we decided to fear the courts rather than the Lord.

Those efforts will be renewed in June, and I will be among those who are fighting for it. This belief of ours as complementarians (the belief that men and women are equal in value but differ in roles) comes directly from the teachings of Scripture: a pastor is to be the husband of one wife, and no matter what kind of new age spin you put on the word, a husband is a man. Why did God design it that way? I don’t know, but He did, and that’s enough for me. What God says goes, and we must never differ from that. The efforts might take on a new look this go around, with our strategy changing just a bit on how to make this happen. But we as a convention absolutely have to get this right and start repairing our ship.

I am thrilled to have a man in Dr. Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, running for the presidency of the SBC. Dr. Rice has long stood for these conservative values, though by his own admission is only recently realizing the severity of the situation. In fact, he was initially a candidate for the presidency in 2021, before dropping out of the race due to a personal reason within his own church that he needed to tend to. In 2021, Dr. Rice was positioned as the continuation of the current SBC platform - he was a cheerleader for where we are now and did not seek to rock the boat. In the years since, he has recognized that things are far more serious than he first thought. It was Rice last year that led the charge for the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission to be abolished due to its ongoing liberal stances and failing to represent Southern Baptist values in government circles. (That motion narrowly failed, but the support it garnered led to the removal of the ERLC’s president and ushered in significant changes.) Dr. Rice is now leading the charge for clarifying our belief in biblical complementarianism, as well as one other change that I believe is vital to the long-term health of the convention. Willy Rice is the right man to lead the effort of repairing our ship.

He is advocating for less frequent trips out west. That seems so insignificant and unimportant, but I assure you that it is not. Ninety percent of SBC churches are located in the south, somewhere between Texas and Florida. The VAST majority of those churches are like the one I grew up in - small, poor, and humble. They can’t afford to send a pastor to Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, or any of the other distant places we have scheduled annual meetings recently. No one is saying we should cut those locations out altogether, but surely most of our meetings should be held in areas where the rank and file of our convention actually lives. If we want our churches to be accurately and adequately represented at the convention level, we have to do better in terms of location. It is important to note that Southern Baptists cannot vote via proxy and there is no online voting - the only way to vote at the annual meeting is to be present in the building. We need to make it as easily accessible as possible for ALL of our members. Without them involved in the process, the ship cannot be repaired.

I will have more to say in the coming weeks as we build toward the annual meeting in Orlando. (Hey, we got this one right!) As more news drops, Pastor Sebastion and myself will surely discuss it on Between Sundays. I will likely write follow-ups to this blog before and after the annual meeting. In the interest of transparency, I wanted to go ahead and inform you all of where I stand today. This allows you to do your own research and ask me any questions you may have over the next month.

My aim at the SBC every year is two-fold. First, I aim to honor God with how I vote and how I stand. Second, I aim to represent Southern Heights well and accurately. And I continue to contend that if every SBC church in the south would - just one time - decide to send its pastor to the annual meeting so that he can do the same two things, we could begin to repair this ship overnight.

We are sinking slowly. But the ship can be repaired! By God’s grace and through our appeals to Him in prayer, the great ship of the Southern Baptist Convention can be repaired.