There is nothing like a week long intense discussion about alcohol, church-plant funding, and gospel-contextualization to get me in the mood for Christmas.
David Krueger has a Brister-esque summary of the Acts 29/MBC situation…detailed, historical, and some gutsy solution-making at the end.
Let me state right here, and this is only my opinion, but I believe the Board will not back off one inch on its action regarding future work. I think the Executive Board’s decision not to allow MBC Cooperative Program funding to any future church plants with ties to Acts 29 will stand. Of course MBC churches may choose to support such church plants and certainly have the right to do so. There is, to my knowledge, no consideration given to kicking churches or church plants out of the convention because they cooperate in some way with Acts 29. The Board action only prohibits church plants — by the convention — from receiving Cooperative Program dollars because Acts 29 has become a source of division among MBC churches.
If a number of Calvinist seminarians head out to be church planters, then they are going to find models, authors, conferences, workshops, support groups, etc. that show them how to be all three - Calvinistic, Evangelistic, and Baptistic. Hence, they are going to look to men like Southern Baptists J.D. Greear and Mark Dever and Tom Ascol, and Baptistic pastors like John Piper and John MacArthur - all examined for ministerial inspiration. And yes, some of these Calvinist Southern Baptist young church planters are going to look to Calvinistic, Evangelistic, and Baptistic pastors like Darrin Patrick and Mark Driscoll for inspiration and modeling for how to plant and pastor a church.
Tim Townsend of the Post-Dispatch has a story in the Sunday edition regarding the Missouri Baptist Convention defunding of Acts 29 church plants. In my opinion, especially coming at these stories as an “outsider”, Tim does a good job of trying to understand and explain what the story is all about.
My friend Allen Palmeri has written up the MBC news for Baptist Press HERE.
Acts 29 Director Scott Thomas has responded to the MBC Executive Board action forbidding MBC Church Planting Cooperative Program dollars to go to works affiliated with Acts 29. Here is an excerpt. I (Scott Lamb) agree with his (Scott Thomas) assessment.
On Monday the board spoke to an issue that has become a matter of concern among many Missouri Southern Baptists. What is the issue? Some churches within the Acts 29 Network and their practices. I’ll not spend time here delineating those practices that led the board to take the action it took against Acts 29 on Monday. However, I will say this, the evidence in the minds of those who supported the action was overwhelming. Anyone who wants to debate its merit may do so, but they had better be prepared to defend issues which Southern Baptists have spoken plainly and repeatedly against for decades.
Bad news on the homefront today. Members of the Executive Board presented and passed a motion during the miscellaneous business session that sets down a “no-partnership with Acts 29″ rule for MBC church plants. I don’t know what the exact wording of the motion was, but it is a confirmed piece of news.
A story will be out tomorrow in The Post-Dispatch relating to the 2008 Presidential election, particularly the religion of Mike Huckabee vs. Mitt Romney and what Evangelicals think about voting for a Mormon.
The other day I answered some questions for PD religion writer Tim Townsend about the subject. He really seems like a thorough reporter.
