New Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch pledged to go to great lengths - literally - to encourage the denomination to baptize a million people each year. New Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch pledged to go to great lengths - literally - to encourage the denomination to baptize a million people each year. Late this summer, Welch will embark on a 25-day bus tour to all 50 states, he announced. From the bus, he will urge grassroots Southern Baptists and their leaders to do more to lead people to faith in Christ and to bring about a transformation in the nations largest Protestant convention. The bus-a-thon will be part of a multi-faceted effort to reverse the conventions decline, Welch said following his election as president at last weeks annual convention. That reversal is vital for the future of both the convention and the nation, stressed Welch, pastor at First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla. "As the Southern Baptist Convention celebrates the 25th anniversary of the conservative resurgence, I believe it has also crossed the threshold toward its next great transition," he said. "In all likelihood, this coming transition will … [Read more...]
SBC votes to withdraw from Baptist World Alliance
Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly last week to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, ending a 99-year relationship. Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly last week to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, ending a 99-year relationship. Southern Baptists helped found the alliance, a fellowship organization that includes 211 member Baptist conventions. "(But) We have noted, with sorrow in our hearts, a continual leftward drift in the BWA," Paige Patterson said last week. Patterson is president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of nine leaders named to a committee formed in 1997 to evaluate the relationship between the convention and the alliance. In performing its task, the study committee has voiced concerns about the alliances perceived anti-American stances and its tolerance of liberal theology. Then, in 2003, the alliance accepted the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member - in what convention leaders called a violation of established procedure. Convention messengers responded to the acceptance of the fellowship as an alliance member at last years … [Read more...]
Southern Baptists decline to study possible name change
Southern Baptists will remain Southern Baptists - indeed, after a lively debate, Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted last week against forming a study committee to consider changing the conventions name. Southern Baptists will remain Southern Baptists - indeed, after a lively debate, Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted last week against forming a study committee to consider changing the conventions name. The proposal to create a study committee was the only motion to make it to the floor for debate out of a record 29 offered. It was defeated on a vote of 1,731 (55.4 percent) to 1,391 (44.6 percent). "I brought the motion to this body ... because we have gone beyond our southern regional characteristics, ..." Claude Thomas of Texas said. "It is wise to appoint a committee to study our present name. Does it communicate who we are and serve us well, or would there be a better alternative?" Southern Baptist messengers lined up on both sides of the issue and were still lined up at microphones to debate the matter when time for the session expired. Those opposing formation of a study committee questioned the cost, both to study the name … [Read more...]