13 Things I Like About the Southern Baptist Convention

7 comments | Aug 25, 08:26 PM | best-of-earl | by Earl Creps

Today I spoke at some workshops for the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention. Located at North Phoenix Baptist Church, the ACE conference is attended by about 1500 leaders from local churches who come together for a day of training.

But in this case, even though I did some teaching, I also did a lot of learning. The conference was my first exposure to the inside of SBC culture. So I asked a lot of questions, made some observations, and generally tried to find out everything I could about these new friends.

In light of all the critical things that appear in blogs these days, I want to concentrate this one on the things I like about the Southern Baptists. This is not to imply that I also have a long list of complaints that I will either keep to myself of publish later. I’ll save that treatment for my own tribe.

Based on my conference experience, a lot of which I spent hanging out with Daryl and Kenneth (two other presenters) and Jay (one of the organizers) here’s what I liked:

1. Southern Baptists are likable: we spent a lot of time just talking and laughing, especially at ourselves. Meeting people who do what I do, but not from an identical perspective made me feel affirmed, not threatened.

2. Southern Baptists like coffee: Jay took us to Starbucks several times just to make sure that our workshops did not devolve into the funk of after-lunch-carbohydrate-overdose that can put everyone to sleep, starting with the presenter.

3. Southern Baptists all want to be consultants: I overheard or participated in many conversations with Baptists who had been, were, or wanted to be church consultants. I regard this as extremely positive because it evinces concern for congregations as organizations, rather than just as groups of people who sing songs together on Sunday morning.

4. Southern Baptists like big stuff: the North Phoenix campus is a sprawling mult-building complex housing a large conference. So while I was lost I had the time to think about how these folks actually expect major things to happen in their midst.

5. Southern Baptists have Ed Stetzer: he keynoted the conference this morning with a killer message on the “Four Commissions of Jesus.” I wanted to stand up and cheer except that I was laughing my head off too much. He hit it out of the park.

6. Southern Baptists really like Dockers and polo shirts: I saw thousands of yards of khaki tailored into pleats and cuffs and held up by braided belts, topped by 600 golf shirts. Hey, you may not like Dockers and polo shirts, but they do, and I think that’s a positive. (Under-thirtysomethings were in jeans and untucked shirts—the new Dockers/polo combo.)

7. Southern Baptists have some first rate young writers: one example of this would be Sarah Cunningham, author of Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation. I met Sarah in the conference bookstore. Check out her book on Amazon.

8. Southern Baptists believe in personal witness: I heard so many stories about personal evangelism from people who were reaching out to their friends and neighbors with the gospel. This was profoundly encouraging and very impressive.

9. Southern Baptists believe in the Bible: they just never let up about this Bible thing. They teach it, preach it, put people in small groups to learn about it together, and put a huge effort into making the scriptures the center of life transformation.

10. Southern Baptists have a sense of urgency: I had several conversations about the difficulty of transitioning older churches, the “walk away” rate of young people (around 70% after high school graduation), and heard of a study reporting that 89% of SBC churches are not growing by evangelism. Baptists are worried about the future.

11. Southern Baptists love details: Daryl, Kenneth, and I actually had a facilitator for our elective track (Jay) as well as a handler assigned to make sure we received our favorite beverages and snack foods (that was after I found a nice bag of carbs in my room). But that’s not all. My bag of peanuts even had a label on it identifying it as mine and wishing me great enjoyment. Needless to say, I felt welcome, especially when I received the conference logo shirt (all the presenters wore powder blue.)

12. Southern Baptists are accepting: being a denominational outsider (and I think I was the only one) seemed to make no difference to anyone. From the organizers to the workshop audiences, I was greeted, encouraged, and generally made to feel good about being there.

13. Southern Baptists are as confused as we are: comparing notes on our annual meetings, districts, and autonomous churches, I discovered that the AoG and the SBC have some things in common. We are both trying to sort out how to amplify the efforts of thousands of independent churches through concerted action. It’s a jungle out there.

I’m writing this blog because those of us within denominations easily fall prey to the idea that our organization is just the worst thing out there. We have so many problems and so many critics that some days negative thinking can become an obsession. Talking honestly with anyone from another group is a wonderful antidote to organizational anxiety. We really do share the same challenges.

Another antidote is to talk some what the positives are. We all have negatives, but fixating on them is not a path forward. So every now and then we need to do the unthinkable in the blogoshpere, where audiences are built by critique and controversy, and reflect on some things we like.