Southern Baptist leaders took a determined step last week to help troubled
families.
Southern Baptist leaders took a determined step last week to help troubled
families.
“Acknowledging that todays family is under severe
attack, we have registered our determination to recover Gods design for
the family, strengthen families within our convention and minister to families
around the world,” a report approved by the SBC Executive Committee reads.
In unanimously adopting the report, committee members agreed
last week to establish a blue-ribbon council for marshalling denominational
resources related to the family. The council recommendation is the centerpiece
of the report, presented by the SBC Committee on Family Life, a study group
created last summer by SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman.
The goal is to develop and implement “a cohesive and concerted
strategy … that draws together both our resources and our people with the
goal of elevating our families and the meaning of the word family
to Gods standard as clearly stated in the Scripture,” the study group
report outlines.
The council will be responsible for making interim reports
and delivering recommendations to the Executive Committee and the Southern Baptist
Convention.
Chapman said the council would work to elevate the family life
issue among Southern Baptists. “Were not trying to establish programs,
but we are trying to say maybe God will help us establish a movement for family
life in the Southern Baptist Convention and in our world,” he explained.
In proposing the action, study group Chair Tom Elliff of Del
City, Okla., lamented the fact that Southern Baptists never have declared war
on the family issue.
Mormons should not be the only religious group in America known
for their concern for families, Elliff insisted. “Why shouldnt that
be Southern Baptists? … Weve got the right message for the family.”
The study report specifically cites the statement on the family
added to the Baptist Faith and Message in 1998. That statement drew considerable
attention for calling on wives to submit graciously to their husbands and on
husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church.
However, it also establishes “the biblical foundation
for our understanding of the family and the roles God has ordained for each
family member,” the report notes.
Southern Baptists already offer numerous programs for families,
the report notes.
But more must be done, it indicates.
“Divorce is at an all-time high,” it notes. “Cohabitation
is sky-rocketing. … Over 50 percent of Americas school children now
live in single parent homes. Infidelity and alternative life-styles are touted
by the media as the preferred norm.”
Southern Baptist families have not escaped unscathed, the report
continues.
“Southern Baptists must admit that many of our own families
are also in trouble, …” it notes. “We are often not perceived by
many of our own members as an important contributor to the strength of our families.”
The public at large also may be “uncertain as to just
where Southern Baptists actually stand on crucial family issues, …” the
study group report notes.
“Many times, Southern Baptist churches are not viewed
as lighthouses for the home.”
The SBC Council on Family Life is designed to change that by
working with convention entities to “support and multiply” existing
programs for the family.
The study group report cites the need for a strategy that will:
Address problems within Southern Baptist families
as well as preceptions of the convention on the part of others.
Assist in the development of strong Great commission-oriented
families.
Recognize that strong churches ultimately grow
out of strong families. Indeed, a strong focus on families “will be one
of the greatest tools for evangelism and church growth we could ever have,”
Elliff said.
Enable pastors and church leaders to identify
and affirm key biblical principles for marriage and family.
Present Southern Baptist churches as “great
for the community because they are great for the family.”
The study group report acknowledges the need to work with other
“like-minded and theologically-appropriate evangelical entities” in
promoting the family.
It also cites the critical need for “an authentic ministry
to those whose lives and families have been fractured and ravaged, … seeking
to provide the kind of compassionate restoration and encouragement so typified
by our savior and made available through the grace of God.”
(This article includes information from Associated Baptist
Press and Baptist Press reports)