Well, despite heavy rains, there was a considerable crowd at the second day of the convention. It was an interesting morning, with a speech by Secretary of State Condelesa Rice, a report from Dr. Mohler on Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and debate and votes on a number of resolutions. Pastor Rod and I are on the bus now, headed for lunch with our wives.
Dr. Mohler’s address will probably proove be the high point of today. He spoke to the health of the seminaries in the SBC, and the role of truth as a reflection of God, and subsequently, the character of God. Dr. Mohler stated that SBTS existed for three things:
1. for the truth
2. for the church
3. for the world
Again, what I love to hear from a minister of the gospel, Dr. Mohler spoke on these subjects in light of “how to deliver the maximum glory to God alone.
Dr. Tom Ascol spoke from the floor, requesting that his resolution, which did not make it out of committee, be voted on to be considered anyway. This required a two-thirds majority, which it did not get. Dr. Ascol’s resolution was one basically calling for honesty in reporting church membership numbers, which by implication is a call for churches to take the responsibility of church discipline seriously. A representative from the committee on resolutions responded by saying that the reason why the resolution didn’t make it out of committee was because we don’t want to get rid of those records of people who no longer attend, because we need them for contact and prayer purposes. It seems like a lame excuse to me. No body said anything about throwing three-by-five cards in the trash bin. Good grief, you can remove someone who never attends from a church roll, and still keep the “card” for information purposes. I grew up with this: “Oh, you can’t take someone off the rolls, that might send them to Hell.”, or something like that.
A resolution which did make it out of committee, and indeed was passed by the convention, was one regarding the SBC making a strong statement discouraging the use of alcohol. Brave arguments were brought against this resolution by Ben Cole, Jeff Young, Marty Duren, and Dr. Ascol, but to no avail. We can pass a resolution to discourage something that Scriptures does not, but we cannot pass a resolution which promotes something that Scripture speaks plainly on. I haven’t met any of these young men (Well, Dr. Ascol is older than myself.), but if this is a picture of the future of the SBC, I think we are going in the right direction. Judging from their deportment, articulation, and emphasis on the glory of God, the best years of the SBC are ahead.
Go check these guys blogs out. Their reports are all interesting, much more detailed than mine.