THE EMERGENT CHURCH AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

The Church emerged on the day of Pentecost and it doesn't need to emerge again. The emergence of the Church took place when the Disciples were all in one accord. It was accompanied by a sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Cloven tongues of fire set upon each of them. They were filled with Holy Spirit and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. There was a miracle of translation. There were people in Jerusalem out of every Nation under Heaven. What was happening was immediately noised abroad. It was a perfect time to birth the Church and it would go out to every Nation under Heaven. The multitude was amazed and they marveled because they knew that these people were Galileans and yet they said: "Are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born?" The Disciples were speaking in the native tongues of the people gathered there "the wonderful works of God". It was not gibberish. There were, however, some who mocked and said, "these men are full of new wine". When Peter rose to preach, it was not a soothing message. He reminded the people there that they had "by wicked hands" crucified the Lord of Glory and that He had been raised from the dead. Those Disciples there that day were witnesses of the Resurrection. The same Jesus they had crucified had been made both Lord and Christ. The question on the lips of the people was, "What shall we do?" Peter's answer to them was that they should repent and then be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. About 3,000 were saved that day. The church was powerful because they "continued steadfastly in the Apostle's Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers."

SOLOMON'S PORCH

A few days later, Peter preached on Solomon's Porch after he and John had affected the healing of a lame man by calling on the name of Jesus. As the crowd gathered around them Peter reminded them that it was not by their own power or holiness that the man was made to walk. He also reminded them that they had denied the Holy One and accepted a murderer in His place while they killed the Prince of Life who had now been raised from the dead. He made it clear that it was by "HIS NAME; THROUGH FAITH IN HIS NAME" that the man now standing before them was strong and whole. He charged that it was by ignorance that they did it and his message to them was the same. They should repent and be converted so that their sins could be blotted out. It wasn't exactly a soothing message but about 5,000 were saved on Solomon's Porch. In just a period of afew days, 8,000 people were saved, not because of some new evangelism strategy that Peter had developed but through obedience to the command of Jesus and it all happened in Jesus' name. No wonder Peter said, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12). When they saw the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, they didn't take up a collection because they realized that silver and gold would not help him out of his condition. They didn't form a "Support Group" nor did they find a counselor to help him "cope" with his condition. They called on the name of Jesus. The man needed to be delivered from his condition and Jesus was the only one who could do it. He never leaves anyone in the same condition. He is the only one who can take away the devastating effects of sin in our lives.

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS

Jesus came to "seek and to save". That is what evangelism is all about. That is the main purpose of the Church. Southern Baptists are struggling at this point right now but our failures in evangelism will not be corrected by Pastors who think that shaving their head and growing a goatee is going to help. There is nothing wrong with that but it will not promote evangelism nor will donning blue jeans and a T-shirt behind a plexiglass pulpit with a stool get the job done. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what you want to do but it will not necessarily accomplish evangelism. Borrowing the term "missional" from the CBF won't accomplish the task either. It certainly hasn't done much for them. Southern Baptists are spending too much time trying to develop "new strategies" for evangelism when the real need is to get back to the New Testament on evangelism. When Bob Reccord was President of NAMB he led in the development of the Acts 1:8 challenge. It was a good program because if was Biblical. It still works.

MAINLINE

The most difficult thing under the sun is to keep Southern Baptists on the mainline because there are always some who want to lead us off onto side tracks. In the early 60's , glossolalia burst on the scene. It is an old heresy. Since the day of Pentecost, some Christians have been trying to duplicate it. It happened in the Corinthian Church. Paul's question was, "Will not the world think you are mad?" Some churches decided to get off on the side track of the charismatics. Many Associations had to deal with that. Now we have the issue of "prayer language" which is simply just another form of glossolalia. Our two Mission Boards have decided not to appoint missionaries who delve into any kind of glossolalia. It was a perfectly good and sound decision because that sort of thing has never been a characteristic of Southern Baptists. We should have no problem with those who want to practice it but let them join a Denomination where that sort of thing is acceptable. All these efforts to reproduce Pentecost are futile. Dr. Criswell was right. There will never be another Pentecost just as there will never be another Calvary. The Church was founded on that day and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. It has continued to march through history for more than 2,000 years and it will continue until Jesus comes again.

MUSIC

Again, Southern Baptists have been on the side track of music. At the recent Southern Baptist Convention the older people were asked if they were willing to accept contemporary music in order to win young people to Christ. It is a non-issue. It has not been a problem. There are some Southern Baptists who are a bit skeptical of taking acid rock music and putting religious words to it. They don't really see the need of having Worship Leaders who gyrate like Brittany Spears but contemporary music that is well done and in good taste is perfectly acceptable. They will applaud involving young people with out of the ordinary instruments but when their ear drums ache from 75 or 80 decibel sound levels, it becomes a problem. They have no problem with singing choruses and special arrangements. In fact, they applaud it. I recently heard one of Dr. Jerry Falwell's last messages. The service opened with an arousing arrangement of "Leaning On the Everlasting Arms". The place was packed with multiplied thousands of young people and adults alike. The music leader led them in some contemporary choruses. There was a quartet number and Dr. Falwell brought a solidly Biblical message on "The Indestructibility of the Servant of God". The same thing happens week by week at places like First Baptist, Jacksonville, Bellevue, Memphis, Cornerstone, San Antonio and other churches across the Nation. Many older people love traditional hymns because they carry a message. Songs like "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" have a great message. Hymns like "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood" or "Wonderful Words of Life" have great messages. These hymns are precious to us and speak to our hearts so let's not forget that there are some older people in the church also. In fact, a Preacher in Eastern North Carolina called me recently and said that if his church lost the giving of the older people he couldn't open the doors of the church because they still believe in tithing. This is to say that there need not be a cleavage between the young and the old in a Southern Baptist Church. Older people rejoice when young people come and the imagined cleavage there is in the minds of a few Pastors but it is not actual.

EMERGENT CHURCH

The latest side track that Southern Baptists are dealing with is the so-called "Emergent Church". It is very much like quicksilver. It's hard to get a grip on and it will go in a thousand different directions. Many such churches are characterized by a steady diet of loud, hard rock music with religious words and many have taken a hard turn toward liberalism. Drinking is no problem to them. Some Denominational leaders feel constrained to endorse them. Some have been invited to speak at some of our Seminaries. It looks like it may be a wild and woolly ride before we get off this side track.

According to the New York Times, which never misses an opportunity to discredit Conservatives, a Minnesota Pastor became "fed up" with Church Members who wanted to do things like place an American Flag in the Sanctuary and who were vocally opposed to things like abortion and gay lifestyles. He also disdained the idea of referring to America as a Christian Nation. He is the son of a Father who was referred to as a "leftist Union Organizer and a life long Agnostic" who eventually embraced Christianity. One of his members, who is a UPS Driver, claims to have been "torn between the Republican expectations of Faith and Family and the Democrat expectations of his Union" found a series of the Pastor's Sermons on "The Cross and the Sword" to be "liberating". In that series of messages the Pastor said that the church should "steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a 'Christian Nation' and stop glorifying American military campaigns". It seems that he was just sure that most of those folks who held to beliefs that irritated him just had to be Republican. The result was that 1,000 of the strongest supporters of the 5,000 member evangelical church promptly left. A 7 million dollar fund raising campaign was almost cut in half. Staff had to be laid off. The Pastor, "who preaches in blue jeans and rumpled plaid shirts" said that he never "intended his sermons to be taken as merely a critique of the Republican Party or the Religious Right". He moved to a predominantly Black section of the city and is now engaged in attracting minorities to his church.

MINORITIES

There is nothing wrong and everything right about having minorities in his church but why was it necessary to drive away 1,000 church members who, according to the article, tended to be "white, middle class suburbanites". I have been a lifelong Republican, having voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower the first time I ever went to the Polls but I have never made any mention of it in the Pulpit. Frankly, I have never heard such comments as were attributed to those who left the Minnesota Church. Makes one wonder. There may be those who could figure out that I was a Republican but it was never a test of faith. I pastored a church that, apparently, was largely Republican because the Precinct in which the church was located always went very heavily Republican. I was never conflicted about placing the American Flag in the Church Auditorium or using it in Vacation Bible School. I never found it offensive to pray for our Troops whether they were in Vietnam or elsewhere because I have lived long enough to understand that we enjoy religious freedom in America and have the opportunity to preach the Gospel unfettered and without being beheaded because American Troops have fought despotic regimes who sought to take them away such as Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, or Imperial Japan. When I was in Seminary, I worked at an aircraft factory where we built American bombers and I was in no way conflicted about it. The moral issues that the Minnesota Pastor said he was offended by were, "buttons that Jesus never pushed". Really? One can only wonder if the good Pastor remembers the Sermon On The Mount where Jesus called upon his followers to be salt and light. He had a great deal to say about adultery and divorce. In fact, he raised the level of adultery and warned that looking to lust is tantamount to adultery. One can also wonder if the Book of Romans somehow got torn from the Pastor's Bible. He graduated from Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary and taught in a College for a time but one can wonder whether he was educated or mis-educated. We can rejoice that he is interested in reaching minorities (Wonder how they vote?) but there is no cleavage between reaching minorities and reaching middle-class white people. Church after church has demonstrated that they can all be in the same evangelical mix without conflict. It is not a matter of either or but both and. After reading the New York Times article, this reader could hardly escape the conclusion that the Pastor had decided to take a hard turn to the Left and he blames Republican Christians for the problems he had in taking that turn. Do conservative Christians have no responsibility to vote and participate in the election process?? Does Proverbs 29: 2 not apply anymore?? Is it not true anymore that righteousness exals a Nation (Proverbs 14: 34)??

UNIONS

Most Southern Baptists are not anti-union. Many belong to a Union but they would be shocked by the statement of the UPS Driver. I once belonged to the Machinist's Union myself but I never allowed Union propaganda to turn my head away from free enterprise and the American way of life. I didn't feel that I had to hate the Company I was working for because I belonged to the Union. Many of us have lived long enough to realize that while some Unions are clean and do a good job, the Union Movement has been fraught with unbelievable corruption and worker's dues have often been taken to support political candidates whom the workers did not support. Many of us remember when Henry Wallace, former Vice-President of the United States, ran for the Presidency of the United States on a Third Party Platform that was basically Communist and was supported by a paper called "The Daily Worker" a Communist organ which supported Wallace in his campaign. Of course, the Minnesota Pastor declared that he was "no liberal" but some of us have dealt with the "I'm conservative but ..." brand of theology for many years. That kind of claim always raises a few red flags for us. This is what we are dealing with in the so-called "Emergent Church" movement. In many cases they are nothing more than liberals in sheep's clothing.

EXPECT MORE

We are discussing this issue now because we may expect a lot more of this sort of thing in the coming months. The New York Times article quoted a psychotherapist in the Minnesota Church as saying, "Most of my friends are believers and they think that if you are a believer you will vote for Bush. And it is scary to go against that." It is doubtful that there is any truth to that statement. The article gave favorable mention to Randall Balmer and his book called "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America - An Evangelicals' Lament". She also quotes Bryan D. McLaren who is billed as a leader in the "Emerging Church Movement" who said, "There is a lot of discontent brewing." It is the belief of this Southern Baptist that this is a part of a grand scheme by the Clinton Machine to garner evangelical votes for Hilary in her bid for the White House. It goes hand in glove with the Jimmy Carter/Bill Clinton Convocation scheduled for next January in Atlanta in which they are going to present the so-called "New Baptist Covenant For A New Century". Strangely enough Southern Baptist Leaders were not invited to participate in that Convocation even though the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest evangelical denomination in America. It is being sponsored by a hodge-podge of left leaning Baptist groups who have little to do with the mainstream of Baptist thought in America. Speaking of "Mainstream" we may be sure that the "Mainstream Media" will be in Atlanta with bells on. They will be looking for "personal interest" stories just as we have discussed here and we may expect glowing reports out of Atlanta concerning the "great achievements" of that gathering. Now, I did vote for President Bush both times he ran as did many other evangelical Christians. That doesn't mean that we have agreed with him about everything. In fact, evangelical Christians are probably as upset with the President over his immigration policy as anyone in the Country but we do rejoice that he openly confesses that he is a committed Christian. At least, he has not carried on sexual encounters with interns in the White House as did his predecessor (and he was a Southern Baptist). Many Christians voted for Bush simply because they felt that he was the best candidate for the office. Unlike what the leftys would have you believe, conservative Christians do not walk in lock step on all issues but there are some very defining issues that we agree upon. It is true that many Evangelicl Christians have become Republicans because the Democrat Party became so hostile to things they care about, but they have a perfect right to do so!!

WHITHER SOUTHERN BAPTISTS?

Where do Southern Baptists go from here? We don't need to stand by wringing our hands over the Emerging Church and whatever heresy that movement may espouse although we should not be silent about heresy. We simply need to stay on the main track and that means getting back to the basic command. The command is not: "As ye go, sing". The command is: "As ye go preach" (Matthew 10: 7). The question was not: "How shall they hear without a Worship Leader?" or "How shall they hear without an interpretative dancer?", or "How shall they hear without a dramatist?", or "How shall they hear without a rock band?". The question is "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). Let's keep things in perspective. The person who loses perspective loses everything. These things are helpful. I love music and used it generously in our Worship Services. It helps prepare the hearts of the people for the message. I love Christian drama but the main thing is the preaching of the Gospel.

Among the final words of Jesus recorded in Mark 16:15 was "Preach the Gospel to every creature". In Jesus' appearance at the synagogue in Nazareth he quoted from Isaiah 61, a Messianic passage, which said, "He hath annointed me to preach the Gospel ... " (Luke 4: 18). Under the persecution of Saul the pronouncement of the church was, "They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8: 4).

REVIVAL LEADERS

When we think of the great revivals of history, we think of men like Jerome Savonarola, Belthasar Hubmaier, Jonathan Edwards, Charles G. Finney, D.L. Moody, George Whitfield, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. When William Randolph Hearst heard something in the message of Billy Graham he thought was good for the country, he sent a note to the Hearst Newspapers that was very simple and brief. He didn't say, "Puff Cliff Barrows". He didn't say, "Puff George Beverly Shea". He said, " Puff Billy". We all loved Cliff Barrows. We love to hear George Beverly Shea. A man by the name of Homer Rodheaver helped a number of evangelists. There were men like Mordecai Ham and Gypsy Smith who were so prevalent in the Southeast but not many people will remember Mr. Rodeheaver, although he had a great impact on the ministry of many evangelists. The main thing is to remember that Jesus came "to seek and to save that which was lost" and the tides of history have always been turned by the passionate Biblical preaching of God's called out servants.

For instance, slavery was not ended by Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War was half over before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the main purpose of that was to keep France out of the War on the side of the South. Slavery was ended by brave men in the pulpit like Henry Ward Beecher whose sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin when she lived in Maysville, Kentucky. The pulpit is the most powerful instrument in the world to turn this Nation back to God and if it happens again that is the way it will happen. The World may not love you for it but God will and that's what counts.

Robert M. Tenery