Decline in SBC Trust Level Has Been aLong Time in the Making

    Last Tuesday morning I rose at five a.m. and began to pray and read scripture in anticipation of a difficult Executive Committee meeting later that morning. Just before I left for the office, I sent the following e-mail to my fellow executive committee members as a reflection of my thoughts:

     I’m in my 29th year of service as a Director of Missions, and the number one thing I have been asked to do by the pastors and churches I have served is to step in during a time of conflict. The vast majority of those times it was too late. A pastor and his family and a church were deeply wounded. Some pastors left the ministry and some left the church. Many of the churches never recovered—they “survived” but lost their spiritual vibrancy.
     We stand at a crossroads in SBC life at this morning’s meeting. At this moment in history, we are a deeply divided board, reflective of a deeply divided convention, and although we know intellectually that a house divided cannot stand, we are poised to move forward with the action approved by a slim majority.
     I cannot reflect upon where we are without hearing the words of Henry Blackaby saying “a majority vote is not God’s design—unity is.”
     We are unified in a desire to identify and root out evil in our own hearts, churches, and convention entities (Psalm 139:23-24), but divided on the legal minutia and appropriate process for how to get it done.
     The lack of trust has been mentioned a number of times as a reason: “Can two walk together unless they agree?” (Amos 3:3)
     I don’t know what it would look like, but I know it would require great brokenness and humility on everyone’s part if we were to “Trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding; in all of our ways acknowledge Him; and He will direct our path.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

     At the meeting, a majority vote won and unity lost. Because of that, I immediately submitted my resignation as the KNCSB Executive Board Trustee. In my opinion, the motion that passed at last Tuesday’s EC meeting was a clear violation of the fiduciary responsibilities of a trustee. We approved what five different lawyers told us we should not approve. If I hadn’t resigned, then I would be complicit in violating the duty of a trustee.
     As we debated, I was reminded of the comment I heard from a new Executive Committee staff member a little over a year ago. He was excited about his new position and the opportunity to step into a role that would have a Kingdom impact. However, a few days earlier he had been in a meeting with peers, and he said in all of his life he has never been in a room where there was less trust and so much suspicion about motives. How did we get in such a mess? Let me suggest that it didn’t happen overnight and that it wasn’t caused by a single event. In the next couple of articles, I will walk us down memory lane and expand on a few of the issues that have led us to where we are today. But before I do, let me simply mention some of the issues that have contributed to our current circumstances.

• Undergirding everything are the changes that have taken place in American Christianity and in SBC churches: the impact of the seeker-sensitive movement, the rise of mega-churches, consumer Christianity, and the ecclesiological changes in many Southern Baptist churches from what I would describe as hyper-congregationalism to the elders or staff-led model.
• Leaders not understanding the leadership shifts that have to take place when one steps out of the role of a pastor to serve as an entity president—at the association, state convention, or national entity level. Magnifying this is the fact that SBC entity presidents have all come out of mega-churches where historic Baptist congregational polity does not (and some would argue cannot) exist.
• The first two are more general in nature. But as someone who has lived or served in the new work area of SBC life for over fifty years, the irony of where Dr. Ronnie Floyd found himself yesterday was huge. At the 2010 SBC Convention the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report was approved by a strong majority, but with significant opposition. Dr. Floyd chaired that committee. Leaders in new work states have heard over and over in the last ten years that the changes were “the will of the messengers.” That vote generated huge unintended negative consequences in new work states. Unfortunately, I believe yesterday’s vote will generate unintended negative consequences that will impact the entire SBC—and again it was “the will of the messengers.”
• IMB challenges—we had to call home several hundred missionaries in 2015, and then we had a young passionate pastor step into leadership who found that being an entity president wasn’t a good fit for him, and he promptly resigned.
• ERLC challenges—two separate “investigations” were done to identify the potential negative impact of an outspoken leader. They were led by the Executive Committee, done under two different presidents, approved at the request of leaders outside the EC, and the final reports simply provided “advice” to ERLC trustees.
• Executive Committee challenges—the resignation of Dr. Frank Page due to unspecified moral indiscretion.
• LifeWay challenges—the closing of bookstores, the resignation of Thom Rainer, accusations of a golden parachute, subsequent lawsuit, etc.
• The Resolution 9 issue—it was a resolution submitted to the Resolution Committee at the 2019 SBC meeting, it was materially altered, then presented on behalf of the submitting author, and almost unanimously approved, even though at the time very few messengers had even heard the terms Critical Race Theory or Intersectionality.
• 2020 Pastor’s conference speaker debate—at the February 2020 Executive Committee meeting a decision had to be made regarding a mostly forgotten but at the time very contentious issue, of renting hall space for the Pastors’ Conference.
• The historic shift in the role of the Credentials Committee—most people are unaware that the SBC Credentials Committee previously dealt primarily with issues related to the seating of messengers while associations and state-conventions have dealt with credentialing of churches.
• COVID cancellation of the 2020 meeting—a difficult decision that put on hold the approval of Vision 2025 and two by-law amendments related to sexual abuse and racial discrimination.
• SWBTS challenges—the forced termination of Dr. Paige Patterson, questions related to who has authority to dismiss entity trustees, a lawsuit and judgment against trustees of the Harold E. Riley Foundation, etc.
• 2020 national issues—heightened racial tensions and a contentious US presidential election that were both fed by multiple events.
•  Russell Moore’s resignation and the release of letters and audio clips—I would suggest that the timing created “the straw that broke the camel’s back.
• "Messengers demanded transparency at the 2021 Convention—the corporate pain and lack of trust were evident for anyone who was there and had “an ear to hear.”

     Although as I indicated, multiple events have led to the trust deficit, at the 2021 convention the spotlight was focused on the Executive Committee. Unfortunately, the above events are only a shortlist of the many things that have occurred in recent years. There have been countless positive things as well, but as is always the case one negative can overwhelm a dozen positives. And we have definitely had more than one negative. My prayer is that God will help us as we heed Solomon’s conclusion: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Only then can we truly become “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mathew 10:16)

Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, AMS