Bobby Welch is the first person elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention since Jimmy Allen (1978-79) who came to the office with a specific agenda beyond the controversy of the last 25 years.
Bobby Welch is the first person elected president of
the Southern Baptist Convention since Jimmy Allen (1978-79) who came to
the office with a specific agenda beyond the controversy of the last 25
years.
Jimmy Allen actually campaigned for the office
because he believed Southern Baptists should engage in missions at a
different level. His vision was to establish official means by which
vast numbers of short-term, primarily self supporting volunteers would
join workforces with the vocational missionaries on foreign fields and
in the United States.
His campaign was successful, although his ideas were
initially resisted by leaders of the then Foreign Mission Board and
Home Mission Board. Yet, his agenda gave strong impetus the
recommendations of the Executive Committee’s 1976 Missions Challenge
that had as its goal 5,000 volunteers on the field by 1982. These
pushes birthed the Mission Service Corps. Tens of thousands – if not
hundreds of thousands – of people personally have worked on mission
fields since Jimmy Allen’s presidency. All of the objections to his
plan and the Executive Committee’s Mission Challenge have evaporated
and now both mission boards welcome the strengthening of their work by
what his idea accomplished.
Bobby Welch came to the office of Southern Baptist
Convention president with the agenda of leading Southern Baptists to
recapture their evangelistic zeal. We sincerely hope Bobby Welch’s
agenda will have such a strong impact on convention life.
Say “Bobby Welch” and countless Southern Baptists
say, F.A.I.T.H., the program of door-to-door evangelism he developed
and implemented. Thousands of people have come to faith in Christ by
the witnesses through this program.
Now, say Bobby Welch and even more Southern Baptists
say, “Evangelism.” “ Winning a million more this year.” “Everyone can.”
His sole focus of his presidency, which he plunged into wholeheartedly,
was to inspire and encourage witnessing.
Certainly Bobby Welch came to the office of
convention president at a strategic time. Southern Baptists’ focus
needs to be on their task of evangelism and missions. All Southern
Baptist leaders agree, but Bobby Welch is using the “bully pulpit” of
his office to be the catalyst to bring it about.
This year’s convention began making the turn to
follow Welch. The doctrinal purity of our message is not the end;
sharing that message with those without Christ still remains His
command.
Convention messengers voted to instruct New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to move to what is called “sole membership.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive
Committee had asked all convention boards and agencies to adopt what
was termed sole membership as a means of keeping any agency from
leaving convention ownership. The seminary’s leadership said it desired
to achieve the same purpose, but in another way which Seminary
president Chuck Kelley said was necessary because of the peculiarities
of Louisiana law.
The seminary’s plan seemed rather complicated and
difficult for the average messenger to comprehend. The seminary
distributed a two-page explanation of their position to messengers, but
cries of, “Remember Baylor” (Baylor left the ownership of the Texas
Baptist General Covnention of Texas several years ago) quickly won the
day for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee that
insisted on sole membership as the best option.
Messengers also officially ended the boycott of
Disney. The resolution messengers passed simply declared the boycott of
Disney a victory – the point had been made and it was time to move on.
No facts or figures were given to substantiate the effectiveness of the
boycott. Only statements were offered such as, “We know from certain
individuals inside Disney . . . that the boycott affected Disney.”
One wonders how effective a boycott of such a
far-flung business empire can have. Most Baptists did not stop watching
ABC or ESPN, whom Disney owns. And, as far as this editor knows, Gay
Day is still celebrated on the grounds of Disney World.
The next time Southern Baptists decide to send a
message to a business about its morality, as well the convention
should, perhaps a better way than a boycott will be enacted.
This editor was particularly pleased that a
resolution asking Baptist parents to withdraw their children from
public schools carte blanche was not presented by the Resolutions
Committee of this year’s convention. The resolution that was presented
simply asked parents to examine the public schools of their children
and decide if the children would be better off in a church school.
Certainly most Baptist parents already
do that.
Attendance was up at this year’s convention. Maybe
Southern Baptists see Nashville as their de facto home base and many
folks liked the added attraction of touring the Lifeway operation and
the home of their Executive Committee and other agencies. Plus, what
Southern Baptist would not want to see the Ryman Auditorium, birthplace
of the Grand Ole Opry, which is just across the street from the
convention center? And, it just might be possible that some messengers
left home early to catch an actual performance of the Opry.
Personally, this editor would like to have seen
greater utilization of some of country music’s stars who are active
Southern Baptists. Ricky Skaggs did a great job on the program and
others could have. After all, the country music scene is near and dear
to the hearts of millions of Southern Baptists. And, the appearance of
such stars would certainly have increased attendance.
All in all, the convention was peaceful with few moments of serious debate.
With the convention over, will Southern Baptists
heed the convention’s call to more fire for evangelism? We will know
next year.