SBCOutpost

Among the extracurriculars that keep Defendant Paige Patterson occupied beyond the campus of Southwestern Seminary is his service on the Board of Trustees for Cedarville University of Ohio.

Cedarville, of course, is in the news quite a bit lately on account of the recent firings of two tenured professors. The national media is covering the blowup, and SBCOutpost is interested to note the connection of Defendant Patterson to yet another series of faculty dismissals. Secret recordings have now been produced to raise questions about the Cedarville administration’s integrity and transparency in this matter. What’s good for the goose and all . . .

I wonder, however, if the administration of Cedarville has kept university trustees apprised of this situation. I wonder if lawsuits will be filed. I wonder if Cedarville University is also a church for purposes of legal classification. I wonder if Defendant Patterson’s recent legal troubles will become a factor in this case. I wonder if Defendant Patterson has been keeping his “ear to the ground” about the trouble at Cedarville.

I wonder….

Tomorrow we will resume our posting of Defendant Patterson’s sworn deposition testimony and links to documentation that serves to impeach that testimony.

SWBTS President Paige Patterson has inaugurated a new tradition at the Fort Worth seminary. On the morning of January 17, 2008, all seminary faculty will boot-scoot into Truett Auditorium in their formal academic regalia, sans cap and mortarboard, to launch the centennial year of Southwestern’s existence.

Instead of formal academic headwear, Patterson has mandated the wearing of black felt cowboy hats.  Read an excerpt from the press release below:

Historic Photo Opportunity and Convocation at Southwestern Seminary
By Keith Collier

FORT WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) — In a merging of symbolic attire, the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will wear the traditional educational regalia as well as felt, black cowboy hats at the upcoming Centennial Convocation, Jan. 17.

Southwestern’s 2008 spring convocation will kick off its historic 100th year, and the chapel service will begin at 10:50 a.m. in the Truett Auditorium. A celebratory birthday cake will be served following the ceremony, and faculty will gather on the front steps of the seminary’s B.H. Carroll Memorial Building to tip their hats in unison for photographs.

(There is little doubt many will be weighing in on the “official announcement” Al Mohler would be nominated to be the next President of the SBC. A careful read of the Outpost would reveal conjectures of this news coming some months back. It seems what has been talked about in private meetings finally found public support in the form of an “announcement.” Read this insightful piece.)

Open Letter to Southern Baptists

Friends,

Like many Southern Baptists I discovered yesterday that Dr. Al Mohler would be nominated to be president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here is my response to that news.

As Southern Baptists, we are truly a blessed people. We are blessed with the heritage of sound Biblical doctrine that has been passed down to us and is expressed well in our current “Baptist Faith and Message.” We are blessed with mission agencies that allow us to fulfill both the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) given to us by our Lord. We are blessed with great leadership among our pastors, presidents, and boards.

I have the privilege to serve on such a board. As a trustee of NAMB, I see how God is at work in our mission agencies. It is because of such work that our church gives 10% to the Cooperative Program each year. We have been recognized for the past three years as the leading C.P. giving church in

Kentucky—we rejoice to be able to give and consider it an honor to give to this “one sacred effort.”As Southern Baptists, we leverage these blessings best when this convention and its faith statement provide an umbrella where those who agree on the Baptist Faith and Message can cooperate—even when they have differing opinions on other issues. By never compromising our standards as spelled out in the “Baptist Faith and Message” we retain our banner of truth. By giving grace and consideration in secondary and tertiary concerns we retain our unity and partnership in ministry. In an environment where Biblical truth is defended and shared in humility and love we represent our Lord well and effectively fulfill our divine mandate.

There are leaders within this convention who bless us with their strengths and abilities. However, strengths have weaknesses and those with abilities have deficiencies, but what makes this convention strong is that leaders are allowed to lead where they are strong and able to trust others to be strong where they are weak.

At Southern Seminary, we have a president that effectively articulates cultural and theological issues and provides a strong voice for evangelicals. As one who holds a more reformed theology, I appreciate Dr. Mohler’s insights and the foundation he has provided with the outstanding conservative professors at the seminary here in

Kentucky.I appreciate and applaud his academic and theological strengths but his weakness as a unifying leader concerns me—particularly at this pivotal time in our convention. When I learned that Dr. Mohler was seeking to lead this great convention, I was troubled. Although I affirm Dr. Mohler’s theology and passion, I do not believe what he can offer is what this convention needs in a president.

I have no interest in being S.B.C. president, but I am convinced of the qualities that this leader must possess. This convention needs a unifier. This convention needs someone who can build bridges not segregate camps. This convention needs a man with a pastor’s heart and a pastor’s attitude that can gather pastors and challenge them to lead their churches to cooperate together for the cause of Christ. This convention needs someone known for their commitment to global missions. I believe this convention needs a pastor who is leading a church that gives an exemplary percentage to the Cooperative Program, that is reaching the lost, and that is on mission locally and around the world. Finally, in this time of convention confusion, I do not think we need an agency head to be involved in the process that leads to the appointment of his own trustees.

Dr. Mohler is a good man, even a great man, but he is not the man for S.B.C. president. He has the heart of an academician and the attitude of one who contends for the truth. Right now we need a president that is a shepherd; one who can compassionately bring the different camps that call themselves Southern Baptists together to cooperate. This is a time to come together. We need a bridge builder.

We need men like Dr. Mohler in the academy, to stand watch at the wall and keep doctrinal error from staining the fabric of our faith that so many have worked so hard to clean. We need him to lead professors to train sound theology at Southern Seminary. We need him to continue to consider theories and concepts of faith. That is where he serves us well. For that we are grateful.

Southern Baptists need Dr. Mohler as a seminary president, but not as the president of our convention. I want Dr. Mohler at Southern Seminary and on CNN, but we need an S.B.C. president who has led a local church, regularly participates in international mission trips, does not polarize the conversation, and is known as a “unifier.” The man we need is a proven pastor who is reaching the lost, giving sacrificially to the Cooperative Program, and leading his people to be on mission for God.

Pastor Dwight McKissic was welcomed this past Wednesday to the program “Praise the Lord” on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. His appearance, archived here, has caused some consternation among the blogging brethren.

Therefore, Dwight McKissic has released a clarification and amplification of his remarks on TBN. We at SBCOutpost are pleased to reproduce those remarks here:

I’m disappointed that some bloggers have misrepresented what I said on TBN. Thank God that the video recording vindicates me and documents the fact that I in no wise advocated moving the SBC to “a open charismatic position”, unless you consider the positions of the late SWBTS professor Dr. Jack Gray, Dr. Jack McGorman, Dr. Ken Hemphill, Evangelist Billy Graham “to be an open charismatic position.” The position that I stated on tongues is the position I’ve always stated at SWBTS Chapel, KCBI Radio interviews and debate at the SBC in San Antonio, on my blog and elsewhere. Please don’t hold me accountable for what any other guest on TBN might have stated or how they prayed. I stand by what I said 100%. I said nothing that I have not already stated in numerous SBC venues. Unless one considers the results of the Lifeway poll which indicated that 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors who believe that a private prayer language is a legitimate gift of the Holy Spirit is inaccurate, then I was advocating a Baptist and biblical position, not an “open charismatic position.”

My “ just do it “ comment was in reference to praying in the Spirit, which I clearly expressed that I’m not convinced that all believers must pray in tongues in order to pray in the Spirit. Whether one defines praying in the Spirit as praying with words understood under the influence and control of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20), or praying with words not understood under the influence and control of the Spirit (I Cor. 14:2) or even without words under the influence and control of the Spirit which would include silence, meditation, groans, moans or sighs(Romans 8:26,27; John 11:33,38)—my answer to the host question regarding the necessity of all believers to pray in the Spirit was—“Just Do It”, meaning, praying in the Spirit based on any one of the three ways I defined it above. I believe when persons pray in English or their native tongue under the influence of the Holy Spirit they are praying in the Spirit. I do not believe that it is necessary to pray in tongues in order to pray in the Spirit and I made that clear. Unfortunately, some have chosen to misrepresent my viewpoint.

There was no attack by me or anyone else on the panel from my vantage point on Dr. Paige Patterson. Here again, I’ve been falsely accused. There was simply a restating of the facts—no attack. Certainly if you don’t consider Dr. Patterson’s press release stating that my chapel message was “harmful” to the churches was an attack on me, then I don’t understand why my referencing his public press release would be an attack on Dr. Patterson.
The only desire that myself and the panelist on TBN have for the SBC is that we experience a revival in America likened unto the 1^st and 2^nd great awakenings. I hope that bloggers would correct their posts or take them down—because they simply are not true. Finally, one of the problems with this subject matter is the fact that the SBC has no official position on praying in tongues in private. I believe it is high time that the SBC adopts an official position and that would settle the controversy in the SBC surrounding these issues.

I close with quotes from two men in the SBC that I value and respect dearly who addressed the issue of tongues long before the current IMB tongues controversy. However, I find their comments relevant today. Dr Billy Graham stated:
“Although there is honest disagreement among Christians about the validity of tongues today. I personally cannot find any biblical justification for saying the gift of tongues was meant exclusively for New Testament times … Indeed, tongues is a gift of the Spirit …

Today there are Presbyterians, Baptists, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists, as well as Pentecostals, who speak or have spoken in tongues.” ( Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit (Dallas: Word, 1988), pp 226,234.
Dr. Jimmy Draper stated in The Church Christ Approves regarding tongues:
“Primarily a private gift.—The restrictions on the public use of this gift are such that the primary use has to be private. Paul said, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (I Cor. 14:18-19). He apparently spoke in tongues in private, but in public he preferred to speak his natural language.” (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1974) p. 57

Dr. Draper also stated in The Church Christ Approves:

“Only the sovereign Holy Spirit has a right to forbid or command in personal devotions!” (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1974) p. 55

As it relates to the issue of tongues in SBC life today, many who serve on our trustee boards and post or comment on blogs have taken on the role of in Draper’s words “a sovereign Holy Spirit.” How unfortunate for the SBC.

The trustees of SWBTS have issued a statement of full support for Drs. Dorothy and Paige Patterson. We reproduce that statement here for blogger parsing.

SBCOutpost would like to issue our compliments to the President and First Lady on a well worded statement. We just love how criticism of the First Couple is a threat to the Kingdom of God and jeopardizes the eternal souls of men. SBCOutpost will have a statement of our own, very soon. Until then, we hope no more lost people go to Hell because Paige and Dorothy Patterson have had a rough year.

Jesus calls Southern Baptists, and indeed, all Christians, to reach a lost world with His Gospel. Additionally, we are to model Christ in the way we live our lives and in the way we treat one another. As Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, we believe that the incessant public attacks on Dr. and Mrs. Paige Patterson and other Baptist leaders of late are harmful to our mission of reaching the world with the Gospel. What the world, both Christians and non-Christians, sees is not Christ-like. Indeed, some of the actions are contrary to what the Bible teaches. Therefore, the Trustees at SWBTS would like to make the following statement of support for Dr. and Mrs. Patterson.

The Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) take seriously the responsibility given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and the Southern Baptist Convention to provide oversight and guidance to SWBTS. Therefore, we want Southern Baptists to know the following:

1. The financial records of the seminary are examined (audited) annually by an independent auditor. To date, no audit has indicated any financial mismanagement or impropriety. Indeed, the administration of the seminary works diligently to assure that financial integrity is always maintained, and that is what the audits reveal. Southern Baptists can have assurance that contributions given to the seminary are spent wisely according to the leadership of the Lord and according to the donors’ requests. A contribution given to SWBTS is a wise investment in God’s kingdom work!
2. The work of the administration, faculty, and staff is evaluated at least annually according to policies that are designed and/or approved by the trustees. The president is included in the evaluation process, and all trustees have the opportunity to contribute to the evaluation process of the president. The president has welcomed these opportunities of evaluation, and he hears and respects the counsel of the trustees.
3. The president has always been open with the trustees and answers their questions fully. We cannot conceive how anyone can be any more open and honest than is Dr. Patterson! Dr. Patterson understands the trustee process and recognizes that he provides leadership to the seminary under the Lordship of Christ by the authority granted to the trustees by the convention. The trustees likewise recognize that they serve the Southern Baptist Convention under the Lordship of Christ. Just as Dr. Patterson is accountable to the Lord and to the trustees, so the trustees are accountable to the Lord and the Southern Baptist Convention.
4. Our Baptist forbearers were wise to set up the trustee system that Southern Baptists have in place. It works extremely well! The relentless attacks on Dr. Patterson are also a subtle attack on the trustee system of oversight that the convention employs.
5. We join with other Southern Baptists in urging that public attacks against Dr. Patterson and other leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention that hurt the spread of the gospel to an unbelieving world cease for the sake of those who are headed to utter destruction. There is a place for constructive criticism of the leadership of our agencies, and Southern Baptists have set up a trustee system to primarily allow for that need. Scripture does tell us to speak the truth, but it also says it is to be done in love and gentleness, with the goal of redeeming a brother in Christ. Above all, there is a watching world that needs to see Christ’s love in all of our words and deeds.
6. The trustees of SWBTS have found no reason to question the integrity of Dr. Patterson. Indeed, we find him to be a man of exemplary integrity. We are thankful for the leadership of Dr. Patterson and heartily commend him for the work that he has done as president of SWBTS. We also look forward to many years of his continued leadership.

David Meacham, Senior Strategist for Church Planting, coming from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ken Weathersby, Senior Strategist for Evangelism, coming from NAMB’s Church Planting Department

Stetzer beat us to it - here. 

See BP Tomorrow

Baptist General Convention of Texas to lay off 29 workers

Dallas-based group faces growing costs, flat contributions

09:06 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 2, 2007

By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
samhodges@dallasnews.com

Budget woes have caused the Dallas-based Baptist General Convention of Texas to lay off 29 of its more than 300 employees.

The workers were told this week that their jobs are being eliminated,effective Oct. 31.

“This is a day I wish we could have avoided,” said Ron Gunter, the convention’s chief operating officer, “but we have a responsibility to do the most effective ministry possible with the available financial
resources.”

The moderate BGCT is the largest Texas Baptist group, with more than 5,600 affiliate congregations, representing 2.3 million members.

Along with channeling funds to Texas Baptist colleges, hospitals and charities, the group is involved in relief work, church starting, foreign language ministries and lobbying on public policy.

But growing expenses, combined with flat or slightly higher contributions from member churches in recent years, have had the BGCT relying on investment interest and other earnings.

The group’s leaders chose to move away from “off budget income sources,” and layoffs were a result.

Ten of the lost jobs are in the BGCT’s Missions, Evangelism and Ministry Team. Several others are support and clerical positions.

The BGCT’s board voted last week to recommend a $50.1 million budget for 2008. That’s $473,000 less than the current budget and includes no salary increases.

Marv Knox, editor of The Baptist Standard newspaper – which closely covers the BGCT – recently wrote that more layoffs and budget cuts are inevitable if the group doesn’t support churches better.

Many churches, he wrote, “have voted negatively by reducing the amount of their money they are willing to invest in the state convention.”

A BGCT reorganization has placed more staffers in the field, directly working with churches, said Executive Director Charles Wade.

“Denominational giving all over is faced with challenges,” he said.

“We’re not alone in that. But certainly we had to face the reality that we can’t spend what the churches don’t give.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2007

LifeWay’s Jay Wells to direct expanded African-American ministry
By Rob Phillips

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — LifeWay Christian Resources has tapped Jay Wells, a pastoral ministries veteran of more than 7 years, to direct its newly expanded African-American ministry, the Southern Baptist entity announced today.

Wells, 61, will lead LifeWay in better serving African-American churches, in part by strengthening long-standing relationships with pastors and church staff members and by developing ties to new church leadership. Currently, there are 3,700 African American churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, and that number is growing.

“Our ultimate goal is to see African-American churches reach people for Christ,” said Wells, who joined LifeWay in 1989 and served most recently as pastoral ministry specialist.

“We are seeing more African-American churches turn to LifeWay for resources in Christian education,” said Wells. “I think there is a growing recognition of the quality of LifeWay training and resources that is prompting this to happen.”

The new African-American ministry team of three, headed by Wells, will be part of LifeWay’s church relations and consulting ministry under director Ralph Hodge. Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 2007

Founders Ministries, Southeastern to sponsor conference on Calvinism
By Chris Turner

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Calvinism, a frequent topic within the Southern Baptist Convention and beyond, will be the theme of a Nov. 26-28 conference sponsored by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Founders Ministries.

The conference, titled: “Building Bridges: Southern Baptists and Calvinism,” will be held at Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina.

“The Word of God calls us to love the Lord with all of our heart,” said Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary. “It also calls us to love Him with all of our mind. Thinking biblically and theologically, therefore, is essential to a balanced and healthy Christian life.

“Calvinism has generated a lot of interest in recent years in Southern Baptist life,” Akin noted. “Unfortunately we have often talked at and not with one another. Unhealthy rhetoric and misrepresentations from all directions have led to confusion and even ill will among brothers and sisters in Christ. We hope this conference will demonstrate how important theological issues can be discussed with grace, integrity and love.” Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2007

Kentucky pastor Dan Garland to lead
LifeWay’s pastoral ministry and church consulting

By Russ Rankin

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — LifeWay Christian Resources today announced that Dan Garland, a Kentucky pastor and veteran state denominational leader, will join the church relations and consulting team as director of pastoral ministry and church consulting. His first day at LifeWay is Aug. 16.

For seven years Garland led the church development and evangelism growth team for the Kentucky Baptist Convention before becoming senior pastor of Crestwood Church in Crestwood, Ky., in 2006.

As director of pastoral ministry and church consulting, Garland’s responsibilities will include developing strategies for ministry areas such as small churches, church conflict mediation, new church starts, church leadership training and development, and church consulting. He also will serve as a primary national training leader for pastoral ministry, collaborating with other LifeWay leaders to work toward the success of the churches.

“Dr. Garland brings with him rich experience as a pastor and as a denominational leader who has worked with pastors, ministers of education and other church leaders,” said Ralph Hodge, director of church relations and consulting at LifeWay. “He will lead our effort to be trusted advisors, teachers and partners to learn from and serve church leadership in America.”

Garland brings more than 20 years of pastoral experience to LifeWay, having served in churches of various styles and sizes. “I have a real heart for pastors,” he said, adding that his role will be to help pastors become more effective in ministry.

“I bring a practitioner’s approach to LifeWay,” he said. “In that, I understand the need for relevant services and training that will lift up the pastor.”

Garland earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky. Following a call to enter the ministry, Garland earned Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees, both from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Garland and his wife, Charlene, have one grown daughter, Christy.