First Post on My Own Blog
I have been skulking around on several blogs and dropping comments here and there, but I have decided it is time to step up and activate my own. The name, Essentials, comes from issues that are currently being debated within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). A funny (odd not ha ha) thing happened recently. Wade Burleson, who I would characterize as a member of the SBC "establishment" found himself in disagreement with the majority position of the Board of Trustees of the International Mission Board. He began to blog about his disagreement. He fastidiously avoided personal attacks and focused solely on the issues and his carefully reasoned and biblically based opposition to two new policies. He was rewarded for his care and concern by a motion to dismiss him from the board for "resistance to accountability and loss of trust". This was all shared in his blog and it ignited a group in whom concerns over the direction of the SBC for some time.
The new policies are just the latest example of a trend that troubles many of us. The SBC has been progressively adding more specific doctrinal criteria that can exlude persons for service as SBC employees. Similarly, cooperation with other great commission churches is being progressively limited by narrower and narrower criteria for cooperation. Narrowing the parameters for SBC employees and for cooperation with other groups (like the Baptist World Alliance, which the SBC withdrew from recently) will hurt the SBC, and I would like to add my voice to those who oppose this narrowing of the parameters for cooperation.
I will post about essentials of the faith and about cooperating and allowing freedom on non-essentials. I believe this is the only way in the long term to both effecitively serve God and to avoid fruitless arguments about non-essentials. In addition, I believe that by focusing on essentials as well as a few Baptist distinctives that may not be essentials but are regarded by Baptists to be uniquely important, we can actually more carefully and successfully maintain doctrinal integrity.
In addition, I am interested in the relationships between science and the Bible and the church (in my day job, I work as a biomedical research scientist). I am also interested in the apologetics and the relationship between philosophy and Christian
I have been skulking around on several blogs and dropping comments here and there, but I have decided it is time to step up and activate my own. The name, Essentials, comes from issues that are currently being debated within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). A funny (odd not ha ha) thing happened recently. Wade Burleson, who I would characterize as a member of the SBC "establishment" found himself in disagreement with the majority position of the Board of Trustees of the International Mission Board. He began to blog about his disagreement. He fastidiously avoided personal attacks and focused solely on the issues and his carefully reasoned and biblically based opposition to two new policies. He was rewarded for his care and concern by a motion to dismiss him from the board for "resistance to accountability and loss of trust". This was all shared in his blog and it ignited a group in whom concerns over the direction of the SBC for some time.
The new policies are just the latest example of a trend that troubles many of us. The SBC has been progressively adding more specific doctrinal criteria that can exlude persons for service as SBC employees. Similarly, cooperation with other great commission churches is being progressively limited by narrower and narrower criteria for cooperation. Narrowing the parameters for SBC employees and for cooperation with other groups (like the Baptist World Alliance, which the SBC withdrew from recently) will hurt the SBC, and I would like to add my voice to those who oppose this narrowing of the parameters for cooperation.
I will post about essentials of the faith and about cooperating and allowing freedom on non-essentials. I believe this is the only way in the long term to both effecitively serve God and to avoid fruitless arguments about non-essentials. In addition, I believe that by focusing on essentials as well as a few Baptist distinctives that may not be essentials but are regarded by Baptists to be uniquely important, we can actually more carefully and successfully maintain doctrinal integrity.
In addition, I am interested in the relationships between science and the Bible and the church (in my day job, I work as a biomedical research scientist). I am also interested in the apologetics and the relationship between philosophy and Christian
posted by Stephen Pruett at 5:31 PM
1 Comments:
Stephen, as I couldn't find an email address for you I thought I'd post here and hope you found it. You commented on the actions of the IMB with regard to their employees as being a basis in the secular world for landing in court. I was an employment attorney prior to God's call to the ministry and would love to tell you my thoughts on that if you are interested. In short, you are "right" in practice but may be wrong in theory.
I love your comments. They are well thought out and provide astute analysis of the issues, something that many fail to do.
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