peter lumpkins

The West Georgia Redneck Declaration: Why I Signed It by Peter Lumpkins

 I am not inclined to sign manifestos or petitions. But I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration. Indeed I am among the original signatories to that statement, which will be released to the public at the National Press Club tonight. Why?

I explain below...

Destruction Therapy, the Cooperative Program and the Southern Baptist Convention by Peter Lumpkins

About a year or so ago, Fox News ran a story on a therapeutic phenomenon known as Destruction Therapy (//link). The therapeutic idea is both primitive and simple:  "fix" yourself by freely destroying something else (//link). 

Of interest to me is the possible parallel between the proposed method Destruction Therapy therapists advocate for securing psychological health and some Southern Baptist leaders who advocate similar measures to "fix" the Southern Baptist Convention.

Below is a flick which captures perfectly what some seem to want for the Southern Baptist Convention.

With that, I am...

Peter

Baptist Calvinism is Exclusively Five Point Calvinism: Or is it? by Peter Lumpkins

     A fundamental truism concerning Calvinism among Founders Ministries advocates is, real Calvinism is definitively five-point Calvinism.  Indeed their view many times reduces to "One may be Calvinistic in his or her theology and not hold to five-point Calvinism, but one is not a genuine Calvinist who does not specifically hold to five-point Calvinism."

Word Just In: Say Nightynight to NAMB by Peter Lumpkins

   Since June of this year, some have raised the question since NAMB is a failed/failing institution of the Southern Baptist Convention, it's time for us to prepare its bed, say nightynight, and tuck it snugly and securely away.

Even farther back, the shot fired from Wake Forest heard round the world awakened all sleeping Baptists with this single bullet: 

"Do we need all the boards and agencies we currently have or could there be some healthy and wise mergers?" (//link).

We now have the official word...

NAMB...

Down ya go! 

And, who utters these definitive conclusions? 

Not the GCRTF.  Well, at least not this time anyway.

The mystery supporter for saying nightynight to NAMB is...

Danny Akin, Ed Stetzer and Muffling Mean-spirited Myth-makers: Part 2 by Peter Lumpkins

    One popular cliche says 'two things in life are inevitable--'paying taxes and dying.' One could also say two things about Southern Baptists are inevitable--declaring the gospel and discussing an issue. Both characterize Southern Baptists historically and presently.

As for the latter, Baptist dissent* was purchased at a very high price. Alas, but Southern Baptists are tarred--sometimes justifiably so (unfortunately), sometimes not--as being an ornery bunch of believers. 

Recently, Drs. Danny Akin and Ed Stetzer (president and visiting professor at SEBTS respectively) thought it necessary to squelch the chatter Southern Baptists are about, chatter involving the future of our Southern Baptist Convention (//link; //link).

Admittedly, Akin (and perhaps Stetzer) sees the chatter as unjustifiable, and therefore should cease immediately. 

He wrote in his first post dealing with the "myths" concerning the GCRTF,

Ted Traylor to Chair the NAMB Presidential Search* Committee: by Peter Lumpkins

A tiny little blue bird went whizzing by me this morning, chirping the name of Ted Traylor as the nominee to Chair the presidential search committee for NAMB (//link). Dr. Traylor is a worthy guy. 

He's done a great job at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida (//link). He nominated Johnny Hunt to be president of the SBC in 2008.  Some think he's a favorite nominee for the 2010 SBC in Orlando.

Frank Page to NAMB: Perfect Medicine or Planned Maneuver? by Peter Lumpkins

   Tonight, NAMB trustees are apparently scheduled to vote on Dr. Frank Page as Vice-President for Evangelism at the North American Mission Board, sources indicate.  If correct, this vote surely takes many Southern Baptists by surprise. 

Unauthorized Consent: Self-perpetuating Trustee Boards Violate Historic Baptist Principles: A Position Essay by Malcolm Yarnell, III

A recent crisis arose at Baylor University between the Administration and the Baylor Alumni Association.  Apparently Baylor University Administration is seeking to shut down all dissent by swallowing the independent Baylor Alumni Association whole. 

This unprecedented maneuver to squelch free and open discussion offers few warm fuzzies to Baylor students/alumni (//link). 

Rightly so. 

Moderate Baptist faith communities proudly pave their streets with enriched diversity and seal them with open dissent.

As a counter-measure, a Baylor dissenter posted on a forum thread an older essay by Dr. Malcolm Yarnell entitled "Unauthorized Consent: Self-perpetuating Trustee Boards Violate Historic Baptist Principles" (2002), originally appearing in the Missouri Baptist state paper, The Pathway (//link; //link).   

At the time, Dr. Yarnell was dean of faculty and associate professor of historical theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Presently, he serves as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  In addition, he also is Director of the Oxford Study Program, Director of the Center for Theological Research, and Editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology (//link).

Below is the essay in full.* 

Even though the contextual matters Dr. Yarnell addressed in 2002 concerned self-perpetuating trustee boards and their deviance from Baptist principle, the overall thrust of the essay speaks superbly to possible illicit power-moves  at times unfortunately  indicative of appointed boards or committees of the SBC (thankfully not often).

For example, only recently, we heard counsel issued from the GCRTF to the presidential search committees to look to the GCRTF for guidance as the presidential committees look for God's agent to head our entities, even though the GCRTF clearly possesses no authoritative commission to guide the SBC, much less guide the presidential search (//link).

The GCRTF is a study committee not a structural committee. It may report; it cannot revise.  The GCRTF may inform; it cannot implement.

Given that, Dr. Yarnell's essay stands as a much needed corrective to any SBC board or committee to carefully avoid the appearance of assuming authority never given.

With that, I am...

Peter

*Dr. Yarnell's important essay, "Unauthorized Consent: Self-perpetuating Trustee Boards Violate Historic Baptist Principles" is published below by written permission

Great Commission Resurgence: Rewinding the Tape by Peter Lumpkins

  Robert Reeves has served since 1998 as the communications director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention following previous service with the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (now Sunrise Children’s Services) and Connie Maxwell Children’s Home (the children's ministry of South Carolina Baptists). Reeves background is in professional journalism (//link).

The GCR Task Force: Flexing Muscle They Ain't Got by Peter Lumpkins

When Dr. Al Mohler made the motion in Louisville, KY last June for the Southern Baptist Convention to instruct President Johnny Hunt to appoint a special task force to study how South Baptists could be better at doing missions, he insisted the purpose of the committee was to "ask questions" of ourselves to see if we can do better.