In an interesting news story after the BGCT annual meeting, Rev. Lyle Schaller, who has researched and written many books relating to church and denominational life, had the following observation:
“These developments among Southern Baptists… offer an extraordinarily significant lesson for all church leaders. Denominationalism may have peaked in the 1950s, but it was really a product of l9th-century America. What we are seeing is the end of an age… National structures of all kinds are in decline. People will have to accept that.”
The article also stated: “Times have changed. The Southern Baptist moderates will never be able to reclaim the past and the conservatives will never be able to lock up the future.”
It seems to us that we need to focus on mutual respect and reach a peaceful coexistence.
We do not advocate what any Texas Baptist churches should support. We do suggest that all churches take control of their own budgets. We urge you to consider option 3 in the Cooperative Missions Giving Study Committee recommendations. This allows you to support Texas and what you choose to support beyond Texas. It reads:
Gifts to the adopted budget of the BGCT and other worldwide Baptist missions and ministries.
We do have an opinion on some matters. We believe that only churches who support the Fundamentalist takeover of the SBC should send undesignated money to the SBC Executive Committee. It seems like spiritual schizophrenia to vote against fundamentalism in Texas and then blindly support it on the SBC level.