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Southern Baptist Convention leaders dropping 'Southern' from name

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  • Southern Baptist Convention leaders dropping 'Southern' from name

    Southern Baptist Convention leaders dropping 'Southern' from name over slavery connection

    It's been an ongoing discussion since at least 2011, but is gaining momentum.

    Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention are steadily removing the “Southern” part of the group's name in an effort that Convention President J.D. Greear said is essential following a summer of Black Lives Matter protests and increased calls for racial justice reform.

    In an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday, Greear said there has been more support to adopt the new name “Great Commission Baptists,” both because of the changing climate in the U.S. and because many have long believed the “Southern Baptist” title no longer adequately encompasses the approximately 50,000 churches that now exist around the globe.

    “Our Lord Jesus was not a White Southerner but a brown-skinned Middle Eastern refugee,” Greear told the Post. “Every week we gather to worship a savior who died for the whole world, not one part of it. What we call ourselves should make that clear.”

    These statements come after the leader also announced in June that he would be retiring a historic gavel named for a slaveholder that Southern Baptists had continued to use to open their meetings.

    “While we do not want to, nor could we, erase our history, it is time for this gavel to go back into the display case at the Executive Committee offices,” Greear said in a statement at the time.

    The convention formed in 1845, splitting from Northern Baptists over Southern support for slavery. While the group had a historic drop in membership last year, it remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States with 14.5 million members.

    According to the Post, officials said that while the convention will continue to operate with the Southern Baptist name legally, its website now states, “We Are Great Commission Baptists,” an alternative moniker that refers to the verses in the New Testament when Jesus calls his disciples to baptize believers in all nations.


    I suspect some on Tweb will be pleased, some will rant "too little too late", or some such, but it is what it is.

    My brother, Rogue, asked what I thought about it, and my comments were pretty much....

    A) Most of us (Southern Baptists) rarely use the name at all, since we are LOCAL churches, and are completely autonomous
    2) It has become quite a distraction, and there's no need to "regionalize" a global entity
    C) The SBC is unique among denominations, as we are NOT a "top down" organization - we don't have "delegates", we have "messengers"
    D) The above means that we send representatives from the local churches to the Annual Meeting to tell THEM what we want, not the other way around
    5) Much of the "structure" of the national/state/area/association is outmoded because the internet has made a lot of what we used to do no longer necessary
    F) We USED to go to regional "associational offices" to pick up Sunday School material, order VBS material, and pickup up supplies and material - no longer necessary
    7) MANY SBC Churches do not even identify themselves on signage or communications because it's unnecessary - our identity is "local church"
    H) Our purpose as a global entity is to fulfill the Great Commission - which is why "Great Commission Baptists" is being considered as the new name

    Our local association is already voting tomorrow to look at disbanding our own "association" for the reasons listed in 5) and F) above
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2
    At this point in time, it may be an unnecessary stumbling block (and we know what Paul said about those), and the denomination is worldwide at this point in time, so the name doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. But what would it be changed to?
    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
      At this point in time, it may be an unnecessary stumbling block (and we know what Paul said about those),
      Yes, obviously, the current name IS a stumbling block, and, yes, not descriptive at all of who we are.

      and the denomination is worldwide at this point in time, so the name doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. But what would it be changed to?
      You didn't read the post.

      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
      H) Our purpose as a global entity is to fulfill the Great Commission - which is why "Great Commission Baptists" is being considered as the new name
      Last edited by Cow Poke; 09-16-2020, 09:41 AM.
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment


      • #4
        So are they going to just call themselves The Baptist Convention? Won't that tick off the ABC?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
          So are they going to just call themselves The Baptist Convention? Won't that tick off the ABC?


          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
          H) Our purpose as a global entity is to fulfill the Great Commission - which is why "Great Commission Baptists" is being considered as the new name
          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
            Southern Baptist Convention leaders dropping 'Southern' from name over slavery connection

            It's been an ongoing discussion since at least 2011, but is gaining momentum.

            Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention are steadily removing the “Southern” part of the group's name in an effort that Convention President J.D. Greear said is essential following a summer of Black Lives Matter protests and increased calls for racial justice reform.

            In an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday, Greear said there has been more support to adopt the new name “Great Commission Baptists,” both because of the changing climate in the U.S. and because many have long believed the “Southern Baptist” title no longer adequately encompasses the approximately 50,000 churches that now exist around the globe.

            “Our Lord Jesus was not a White Southerner but a brown-skinned Middle Eastern refugee,” Greear told the Post. “Every week we gather to worship a savior who died for the whole world, not one part of it. What we call ourselves should make that clear.”

            These statements come after the leader also announced in June that he would be retiring a historic gavel named for a slaveholder that Southern Baptists had continued to use to open their meetings.

            “While we do not want to, nor could we, erase our history, it is time for this gavel to go back into the display case at the Executive Committee offices,” Greear said in a statement at the time.

            The convention formed in 1845, splitting from Northern Baptists over Southern support for slavery. While the group had a historic drop in membership last year, it remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States with 14.5 million members.

            According to the Post, officials said that while the convention will continue to operate with the Southern Baptist name legally, its website now states, “We Are Great Commission Baptists,” an alternative moniker that refers to the verses in the New Testament when Jesus calls his disciples to baptize believers in all nations.


            I suspect some on Tweb will be pleased, some will rant "too little too late", or some such, but it is what it is.

            My brother, Rogue, asked what I thought about it, and my comments were pretty much....

            A) Most of us (Southern Baptists) rarely use the name at all, since we are LOCAL churches, and are completely autonomous
            2) It has become quite a distraction, and there's no need to "regionalize" a global entity
            C) The SBC is unique among denominations, as we are NOT a "top down" organization - we don't have "delegates", we have "messengers"
            D) The above means that we send representatives from the local churches to the Annual Meeting to tell THEM what we want, not the other way around
            5) Much of the "structure" of the national/state/area/association is outmoded because the internet has made a lot of what we used to do no longer necessary
            F) We USED to go to regional "associational offices" to pick up Sunday School material, order VBS material, and pickup up supplies and material - no longer necessary
            7) MANY SBC Churches do not even identify themselves on signage or communications because it's unnecessary - our identity is "local church"
            H) Our purpose as a global entity is to fulfill the Great Commission - which is why "Great Commission Baptists" is being considered as the new name

            Our local association is already voting tomorrow to look at disbanding our own "association" for the reasons listed in 5) and F) above
            A leopard cannot change it spots nor its history.
            Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
            Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
            But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

            go with the flow the river knows . . .

            Frank

            I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
              A leopard cannot change it spots nor its history.
              What an incredibly judgmental attitude.

              MANY of the SBC Churches in existence today -- particularly in other parts of the globe -- had NOTHING to do with the beginnings of the SBC.

              I actually expected this from you, in particular, Shuny.
              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                A leopard cannot change it spots nor its history.
                You hateful man...
                That's what
                - She

                Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
                - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

                I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
                - Stephen R. Donaldson

                Comment


                • #9
                  My church is a Dover Association church.
                  That's what
                  - She

                  Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
                  - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

                  I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
                  - Stephen R. Donaldson

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                    A leopard cannot change it spots nor its history.
                    That expression actually comes from the Bible -
                    Scripture Verse: Jeremiah 13:23

                    Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?...

                    © Copyright Original Source



                    Note that it's a QUESTION Jeremiah was asking, not a prophesy he was making.

                    People can - and do - change all the time, particularly in the power of Christ.

                    I doubt you will ever change.
                    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                      What an incredibly judgmental attitude.
                      Concepts like redemption and forgiveness are alien to shuny.

                      I'm always still in trouble again

                      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                        Concepts like redemption and forgiveness are alien to shuny.
                        I praise God that He has given me MULTIPLE 'second chances'!
                        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                          H) Our purpose as a global entity is to fulfill the Great Commission ...


                          Howzabout y'all call yourselves "Great Commission Baptists"?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            "Great Commission Baptists" sounds kinda goofy. Honestly given how well known the acronym is, it would probably be wise to try to find something that starts with S... maybe "Shared Baptist Convention"? Okay, not sure about that one, but trying to keep the same acronym seems like a good idea.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Immersers Below Latitude 39°43′15″ N.

                              (IBLTNDFTMFSN)
                              Last edited by Faber; 09-16-2020, 06:44 PM.
                              When I Survey....

                              Comment

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