NASHVILLE (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee elected its first African American chair in a special called meeting June 16.

Rolland Slade, pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif., was unopposed as chair and was unanimously elected by ballot vote. Outgoing chair Mike Stone called for a ballot vote, he said, to mark the historic moment.

“I think we all realize by what is going on in this country as well as in our convention, this timing is in many ways the providence of our Lord,” said Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga. He served the last two years as Executive Committee vice chair.

Jared Wellman, pastor of Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, nominated Slade, who attributed his election to God.

“I don’t think there was ever a plan for me to be in this position,” Slade told Baptist Press. “I think it’s what God has done. … I believe God loves diversity. He created us, and we are all diverse. I think for us to not embrace it is saying that, ‘We’ve got a better idea than you.’”

The called meeting was conducted on Zoom and livestreamed, as the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the Executive Committee from meeting at its Nashville headquarters. The Executive Committee conducted business delayed by the cancellation in March of the 2020 SBC annual meeting, originally slated June 9-10 in Orlando, Fla.

‘The mighty hand of God at work’

After the vote, Slade thanked Executive Committee members, his family and his church for their support.

“We praise God together, and let’s pray together, and let’s stay together,” he said, “because I’ve learned that a family that prays together, stays together.”

Marshal Ausberry, SBC first vice president, said Slade’s election shows how far the SBC has come, and also shows the “mighty hand of God at work.”

“His election shows the positive transformation that is occurring in the convention,” said Ausberry, president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Va.

“When you think of the founding of the SBC in 1845, largely over the issue concerning the ownership of enslaved persons by missionaries, to the election of Rolland Slade in the 175th year, this is a seminal moment for the convention and all Southern Baptists.”

‘Moving in the right direction’

SBC President J.D. Greear, who has made diversity a major emphasis of his term, has lamented that SBC leadership does not reflect current SBC diversity. He called Slade’s election an “exciting day for our convention.”

“Rolland Slade’s election demonstrates we are moving in the right direction,” said Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C. “During my two years as SBC president, I have worked alongside Rolland and seen his leadership and character to lead this body at this time.

Fred Luter, the only African American elected as SBC president, praised God for Slade’s election, especially in the midst of nationwide racial tension.

“Rolland is certainly deserving of this historical honor not just because of the color of his skin, but because of his knowledge, skills and leadership as a member of the Executive Committee through the years,” said Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who was SBC president from 2012 to 2014.

“I am proud of Rolland and proud of the men and women of this committee for making this such a historic moment in the Southern Baptist Convention. To God be the glory for the things he has done!”

In other business:

Tom Tucker, a vocational evangelist from Rock Hill, S.C., was elected as Executive Committee vice chair. Joe Knott, an attorney from Raleigh, N.C., was re-elected secretary.

The Executive Committee also elected four committee chairs. Robyn Hari, a financial advisor from Brentwood, Tenn., was elected chairman of the Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development. Rob Showers, an attorney from Leesburg, Va., was elected chairman of the Committee on Convention Missions and Ministry. Jim Gregory, senior pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home, Idaho, was elected to chair the Committee on Southern Baptist Relations. Rod Martin, CEO of The Martin Organization in Destin, Fla., was elected to chair the Committee on Convention Events and Strategic Planning.

The Executive Committee voted to recommend that messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting move the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting from Salt Lake City to Dallas. The proposed date of the Dallas meeting would be June 10-11, 2025.

The group also voted to recommend to messengers that the 2027 SBC Annual Meeting be held June 8-9 in Salt Lake City. Both recommendations are contingent upon satisfactory contract negotiations.

The Executive Committee also granted permission to apply, if necessary, for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of up to $750,000 through the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

Bill Townes, SBC Executive Committee chief financial officer, noted a loan could be used to offset an anticipated decrease in Cooperative Program giving during the economic downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the close of the meeting, the Credentials Committee notified the Executive Committee of the election of a new chairman, Mike Lawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman. Stacy Bramlett, the outgoing chairman, remains a Credentials Committee member.

Messengers to the 2019 SBC Annual Meeting established the committee to receive reports of a church’s suspected departure from Southern Baptist polity, doctrine or practice and to make recommendations to the SBC Executive Committee regarding the possible disfellowship of churches from the SBC.

The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled Sept. 21-22 in Nashville.

Laine Scales at Baylor University believes the history of a school that ceased to exist 23 years ago is worth telling because of what it reveals about changing Southern Baptist attitudes toward gender roles and social ministries.

Scales, a professor in Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, and co-author Melody Maxwell, associate professor of church history at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, Canada, wrote Doing the Word: Southern Baptists’ Carver School of Social Work and Its Predecessors, 1907-1997.

Scales and Maxwell trace the history of the school through its various iterations—the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School for Christian Workers, the Carver School of Missions and Social Work and finally the Carver School of Church Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In spite of “twists and turns” along the way, Scales sees one constant: “It’s never a predictable or boring story.”

The early part of the story expands on research Scales already had completed for an earlier book, All That Fits a Woman: Training Southern Baptist Women for Charity and Mission, 1907-1926.

Progressive or conservative?

From its beginning, the WMU Training School in Louisville, Ky., lived with the tension of two impulses that often seemed at odds.

On the one hand, the WMU Training School bore the imprint of some WMU leaders who were influenced by the social gospel movement and took progressive positions. They prioritized Christian social ministry among the poor and vulnerable, and they made sure students at the WMU Training School could attend classes taught by professors from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

On the other hand, the WMU Training School included a “curriculum for ladies” that emphasized domestic training, nursing, music, art and other courses deemed gender-appropriate for home, church and mission field—but certainly not to prepare students to stand behind a pulpit.

“Were they progressive or where they maintaining the status quo and working within the system they had? … I can make the argument for either,” Scales said.

The WMU “program for personal service” with its emphasis on evangelistic social ministry laid the groundwork for an emerging social work emphasis at the school. The school exposed students to the developing field of professional social work both through classes and hands-on experience at the Good Will Center in Louisville.

Changing times in the 1950s

The 1952 WMU annual meeting in Miami approved a recommendation from the training school’s trustees to change the name to the Carver School of Missions and Social Work, revise the curriculum to focus as much on social work as on missions, and open the school’s doors to male students.

“Race became a front and center issue,” Scales noted. So, participants at the WMU annual meeting also approved the school trustees’ proposal to “enroll students without regard to race or nationality.”

In 1955, Freddie Mae Bason and Verlene Farmer became the first black students at Carver. Farmer roomed with Alice Carver, granddaughter of W.O. Carver, the Southern Seminary professor and supporter of the WMU Training School for whom the new school was named.

However, the Carver School of Missions and Social Work suffered a steady decline in enrollment. The Southern Baptist Executive Committee rejected a request for increased financial support from the Cooperative Program—which WMU had promoted since its inception—unless the SBC assumed control.

So, in 1957, WMU reluctantly agreed to turn over the assets of the Carver School to the SBC, which merged it with Southern Seminary’s School of Religious Education in 1963. In their book, Scales and Maxwell gave the chapter chronicling the period from 1958 to 1983 the title “A Guest in Another’s House.”

Students could earn a Master of Religious Education degree with a major in social work at the seminary. However, if they wanted an accredited social work master’s degree, they needed to complete those degree requirements at the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville.

After 50 years as a woman-led entity, the remnant of the Carver School was run by men and operated by a male-dominated denominational structure, Scales noted.

Recapturing the vision, facing new controversy

But in 1970, Southern Seminary hired Anne Davis, a Carver School alumna with Home Mission Board experience and a graduate degree in social work from the University of Louisville. Within a few years, she became director of the social work department in the School of Religious Education and was committed to recapture the vision of the Carver School.

Under her leadership—together with a professor she hired, Diana Garland, and others—the Carver School of Church Social Work was established at Southern Seminary in 1984, and Davis became its founding dean.

Nine years later, when Davis stepped down as dean, Garland succeeded her.

By that time, the so-called “conservative resurgence” had changed the Southern Baptist Convention. Al Mohler was elected seminary president with a mandate to make sure Southern Seminary reflected that shift in perspective.

“When I interviewed Al Mohler, he wanted to make clear he did not come to Southern with a plan to shut down the Carver School,” Scales said. “But he essentially challenged Diana Garland: ‘Show me. Justify the school. Where does social ministry fit with evangelism?’”

“That has always been an area of tension” between Christians who see evangelism strictly as “preaching the word” of God and social ministry advocates who emphasize “doing the word,” she noted.

In 1995, Mohler rejected David Sherwood, director of the social work program at Gordon College, as Garland’s choice to fill a vacancy on the Carver School faculty because of his position that “women may be called to any role in the church.” Without a qualified candidate to fill the faculty vacancy, the school’s accreditation was jeopardized.

Carver School ends

That action triggered a breach between the dean and president that became irreparable when Garland spoke about it publicly and Mohler asked for her resignation as dean.

Mohler made it clear that the “culture of social work” and the theology of Southern Seminary were “not absolutely congruent,” and a trustee committee concluded in September 1995 it would be difficult to continue to offer an accredited social work program at the seminary.

So, Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., approached Southern Seminary about moving the Carver School to the university. However, the deal fell through when the seminary refused to release the endowment WMU had established decades earlier. Eventually, after mediation, WMU secured the release of the endowment funds

Twenty years after the demise of the Carver School at Southern Seminary, Samford University established a Master of Social Work degree program that benefited from the WMU endowment.

Southern Seminary sold the legal name Carver School to Campbellsville College in Kentucky, along with some library materials. Campbellsville College established a Master of Social Work program in 2012.

Legacy lives on at Baylor

But Scales believes “a big part of the legacy” of the Carver School at Southern Seminary lives on most significantly at Baylor University, where Garland—who died in 2015—became dean of the School of Social Work that now bears her name.

“The key difference is that one was at a seminary, and one is at a university. At the Carver School, every person felt a call to ministry in the church or in a denominational ministry. It’s a broadening of the vision, because not all who enroll in the Garland School of Social Work identify as ministers in the sense of vocational calling,” Scales explained.

However, for those who feel that calling, Baylor offers a dual degree program—the Master of Social Work coupled with the Master of Divinity degree from Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary. As of 2017, about one-third of Baylor’s Master of Social Work degree students were enrolled in the dual-degree program, she noted.

Admittedly, the social work profession—which had its roots in Christian benevolence organizations—distanced itself from religion nearly 100 years ago. But due largely to Garland’s work at the national level, the profession in recent decades grew to acknowledge Christian social workers can integrate their faith into their work in noncoercive and ethical ways.

“There is a reclaiming of social work’s early history, its early stories,” Scales said.

The Garland School of Social Work at Baylor has been able to build bridges between ministry and professional social work in ways the Carver School never could, she noted.

In the process, it has been able to “bring back together” the commitment to missions and social ministry that motivated the women who founded the Carver School’s predecessors but move beyond the prescribed gender roles that restricted them, she concluded.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Given the current upheaval in race relations in the United States, Vance Pitman, senior pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, said the Southern Baptist Convention must seize the tumultuous moment to change.

“We have to move past as a denomination being ‘not racist,’ to being anti-racist,” said Pitman during a panel discussion June 9. “That’s got to become who we are.”

The online event was hosted by Baptist21, a pastor-led network of Southern Baptists that communicates through resources, content and gatherings. The two-hour event originally wa scheduled to be held at the 2020 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, which was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It featured conversations among separate panels of executives from SBC entities and state conventions, as well as pastors from across the SBC.

Though several topics were discussed, much conversation focused on how Southern Baptists could and should respond to current events.

“This is a time to embrace the reality of what’s going on,” said Dhati Lewis, vice president of Send Network with the North American Mission Board. “If we’re going to make disciples in North America, we have to address the issue of race.”

Calling racism and injustice a gospel issue, Lewis and others spoke of specific ways they have been learning to listen to each other and move forward in taking action that shows Christ’s love.

Pitman said while many declarations about being “not racist” have been made by Southern Baptists through the years, it’s time to take action steps that demonstrate an attitude of anti-racism in every area of our lives: from the places we live to the people we elect and place in leadership.

Juan Sanchez, senior pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, added, “This has been a long-term problem that has been developing, and it is going to require long-term solutions.”

No perfect choices

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was asked about his recently announced decision to vote for President Donald Trump in November, a shift from his public opposition to Trump’s candidacy in 2016. Mohler described reluctant support, even as he continues to wrestle with some of the things the president says and does.

“My evaluation of Donald Trump’s character has not changed. My understanding of the political equation has,” Mohler said.

But Mohler said Christians will have their own convictions regarding their vote, and said there must be room for civil disagreement over the proper course.

“I will extend grace and respect to Southern Baptist brothers and sisters who make a different decision than I,” Mohler said. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask the same in return. Let’s pray for each other and with each other as we make these decisions.”

Kevin Smith, executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, said because there are no perfect political choices, we must recognize that politics is a secondary issue.

“It is fine to say the most important (political issue) for me is the life of an unborn baby, but it’s also biblically fine for me to say the most important for me is politicians who don’t call me the n-word and don’t think I’m the n-word,” said Smith, who is African American. “You can’t say, ‘Well, one is more image of God than the other.’ So, we need a little bit of liberty in how we come into these discussions of politics because they don’t have exegetical definites, and we need to act like that’s the case.”

More wed to politics than soul-winning

SBC President J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham area, said the decline in baptisms, as reported in the recently released 2020 Annual Church Profile, should concern Southern Baptists. While noting numbers aren’t primary, he called for “soul-searching,” saying churches should self-examine a lack of fruit.

“We ought to take ownership of that and do some real soul searching and say: ‘Why aren’t we baptizing? Why are we not having that fruit?’” Greear said.

Calling for awakening is vital, Greear said. But he also cautioned against using it as an excuse, and to consider changing things that might be hindering the effectiveness of a church’s ministry.

“It’s non-gospel centered preaching, it’s not calling intentional response, not equipping our people through things like ‘Who’s Your One’ to be evangelists,” Greear said. “It’s the fact that some of our churches are more wed to their politics, their preferences and their traditions than they are reaching their neighbors and communities. We’ve got to be sober about that. I hope people will do some soul-searching.”

All the way back to the early church, growth has come through individual discipleship, Greear said. It’s within those individual relationships that Southern Baptists will see a resurgence of an evangelistic mindset, he said.

The full panel discussions can be found on the Baptist21 network YouTube page.

Along with Mohler, Lewis and Smith, participants in the panel of SBC entity leaders included: Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Jason K. Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee. Nate Akin, associate director of Pillar Network, hosted the panel.

Along with Greear and Pitman, participants on the pastors’ panel included: SBC First Vice President Marshal Ausberry, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Va., and president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC; James Merritt, senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga.; and Jimmy Scroggins, lead pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Fla. Jed Coppenger, lead pastor of Redemption City Church in Franklin, Tenn., hosted the discussion.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—In a speech offered in lieu of his address at the denomination’s canceled annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear called for Southern Baptists to declare that “black lives matter.”

“We realize that, especially in a moment like this one, we need our brothers and sisters of color,” Greear said June 9 about how the leadership of the denomination lacks diversity. “We know that many in our country, particularly our brothers and sisters of color right now, are hurting.

“Southern Baptists, we need to say it clearly: As a gospel issue, black lives matter. Of course, black lives matter. Our black brothers and sisters are made in the image of God.”

While he used the phrase “black lives matter,” which has become a widespread motto of civil rights since the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida eight years ago, Greear noted in his speech that he is not aligned with Black Lives Matter, the organization founded in 2013.

Greear, who is pastor of The Summit Church, a megachurch in Durham, N.C., was also careful to point out that he disagrees with some of that organization’s agenda.

“I think saying bold things like ‘defund the police’ is unhelpful, and deeply disrespectful to many public servants who bravely put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect us,” he said.

“But I know that we need to take a deep look at our police systems and structures and ask what we’re missing. Where are we missing the mark? And I’ll say that we do that because black lives matter.”

‘Promote a culture of accountability’

Greear, appearing via Facebook Live, added addressing sexual abuse and diversity to the ways to focus on the “gospel above all” and to not hinder people from joining the denomination that has seen a decline in membership for years.

Greear called for steps to “promote a culture of accountability and awareness” about sex abuse. He urged churches to make training about abuse “a part of the ordination process.” And he said he will ask the SBC Executive Committee to finalize a plan to conduct comprehensive background checks on trustees of the denomination’s boards and agencies.

“We pray that our culture continues to change and we know it starts with the leaders,” he said. “We’ve got to stay vigilant in this area and I pledge to, also, in my last year of the presidency.”

Greear has served two one-year terms, normally the maximum for an SBC president, but he remains in office because the coronavirus pandemic prevented this year’s annual meeting, where elections for denominational offices are held.

In his half-hour talk, Greear also addressed the upcoming U.S. presidential election, saying the gospel message and church unity matter more than political divisions over President Donald Trump.

“We must agree and proclaim the sanctity of life, the importance of religious liberty, the danger of things like the erosion of that and identity politics,” Greear said.

“And we also, by the way, agree to repudiate our president’s lamentable statements, the tone that he sets, lament his lack of leadership in what we feel are important areas.

“But what that compels us to do at the ballot box is not a first-order issue and our unity in the body should not be dependent on uniformity in that choice.”

‘Sowing division’ not ‘pointing people to Jesus’

He spoke as their denomination faces its lowest membership since 1985. New statistical data released Thursday show 14.5 million members in 2019, a decline of nearly 1.8 million from its peak in 2006.

In his address, Greear bemoaned the latest findings but suggested they may be the fault of members of the church who are concerned about other matters than saving souls.

“Honestly, I think too many of us care more about whether our side is winning in the news cycle than we do the souls of our neighbors,” he said. “We care more about sowing division on secondary issues than we do on pointing people to Jesus.”

Greear estimated that as much as 90 percent of the denomination’s members are unified around Southern Baptist doctrine but 10 percent are driving the division.

“If you can’t be happy about that—if you can’t just rejoice and be amazed about people coming to Jesus,” he said, “about a convention of nearly 48,000 churches that stand unwaveringly on the inerrancy of the Bible and the exclusivity of Christ, and the clarity of God’s word about gender and sexuality and the need to get the gospel to the nations—well, brother, I would say if you don’t see the grace of God at work in that, you may not have eyes to see it.”

CLINTON, Miss. (BP)—Tiki Broome, interim student pastor at First Baptist Church of Yazoo City, Miss., woke up on June 2 to find a racial slur keyed into the side of his car.

Broome, who said he had been outspoken about racial injustice, recently received some backlash via social media. But the defacement of his car, he told Jackson, Miss., television station WLBT, was another level.

The 25-year-old pastor told WLBT when he saw his car vandalized, with the n-word keyed into the side, he initially was angry.

But Broome determined that sharing the experience would help expose some of the hatred and sin in society and perhaps lead to further unification.

The incident, shared by Broome and his mother on Facebook, garnered a significant amount of attention and has even led to offers from individuals and local business to help repair the vehicle, according to WLBT.

‘When people’s voices are heard … people heal’

Many from the surrounding area have shared the post, expressing their support for Broome and their thankfulness that he has used the event as an avenue to share the gospel.

“You should see Christ, you should see love, and you should see, ‘How do I, to the best of my abilities, love others?’” Broome told the television station. “For people who say this is beneath them, this isn’t happening, and this is just something people are riling up, no. This plain out and simple is sin.

“I’ll say it again, this is 400 years of the bubble that is now popping in a different way. Never will people know what it’s like from the other side to be black or to be a person of color, but the best thing you can do is to sit and listen, to put your bias aside, to put politics aside, to put your agenda or what you want to accomplish aside and just listen. When people’s voices are heard, it’s amazing how well that helps people heal.”

John Pace, interim pastor of First Baptist in Yazoo City, told Baptist Press the time following the incident has been very difficult for Broome.

“We were all so saddened and disgusted when we heard of this incident of racial prejudice,” Pace said. “And the church family has been working to support, assist, encourage, and pray for Tiki during this difficult time.

“We are also thankful and praying for the law enforcement officials who are investigating this incident, and we pray that whoever did this horrendous act will be brought to justice, but most importantly, they will be brought to repentance, salvation, and spiritual transformation by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and salvation in Jesus Christ.”

Broome reported the incident to the Clinton Police Department, and an investigation is ongoing.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Southern Baptist Convention will not hold its annual meeting as it regularly does each June. But issues its members have long grappled with—including race and the roles of women—continue to be points of controversy.

In December, Founders Ministries, a neo-Calvinist evangelical group made up primarily of Southern Baptists, premiered a documentary called “By What Standard?: God’s Word, God’s Rule.”

The film includes selective footage of discussions around last year’s meeting about whether women should preach, juxtaposed with Founders Ministries head Tom Ascol speaking of motherhood as “the highest calling.”

Much of the almost two-hour film that has had some 60,000 views online chronicles the passage of resolutions at the 2019 meeting, from one on “the evil of sexual abuse” to another on “critical race theory and intersectionality.”

Conservative Baptist Network formed

Two months after the film’s release, the Conservative Baptist Network was founded, calling itself an alternative for dissatisfied Southern Baptists who might otherwise leave the denomination or stay and remain silent.

“A significant number of Southern Baptists are concerned about the apparent emphasis on social justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and the redefining of biblical gender roles,” the network declared in its first news release.

The new network was launched at a time when the SBC continues to face decline. The SBC peaked in 2003 with 16,315,050 members. New statistical data released June 4 shows 14,525,579 members in 2019, a decline of nearly 1.8 million members in 16 years. Membership is at its lowest level since 1985.

Some of the recent debate in the denomination has focused on the role of women in the church, including whether or not women can preach in Sunday morning worship services.

Much of the debate has focused on how the denomination speaks about race.

SBC debates critical race theory

Before the recent events triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis under the knee of a police officer, Southern Baptists had been debating the meaning of critical race theory in particular.

Ascol said his primary regret about the cancellation of this year’s meeting—originally scheduled for June 9-10 in Orlando, Fla., but scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic—is that he can’t walk to a microphone on the convention floor and ask for a reconsideration of what has come to be known as “Resolution 9.”

The resolution, passed at the SBC’s annual meeting in 2019, states that “critical race theory and intersectionality should only be employed as analytical tools subordinate to Scripture—not as transcendent ideological frameworks.” It also notes that “while we denounce the misuse of critical race theory and intersectionality, we do not deny that ethnic, gender, and cultural distinctions exist and are a gift from God.”

Still, the resolution remains controversial.

“The Southern Baptist Convention needs to go on record saying that we rescind that resolution because we are opposed to racism and, because we are opposed to identity politics, we need to rescind Resolution 9,” Ascol said. “And I was looking forward to that opportunity.”

According to Southern Baptist polity, each meeting’s resolutions represent the thinking of the messengers, or delegates, attending that particular gathering. A new resolution could be adopted. Historically, old ones aren’t removed.

“That resolution that was passed will always be in the record books,” said Jon Wilke, media relations director for the SBC Executive Committee.

Conversations about structural racism

Glenn Bracey, an assistant professor in Villanova University’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, said critical race theory centers on a critique of conversations about race.

It calls for focus on structural racism in institutions and “white collective activities around maintaining domination.” He said intersectionality focuses on ways social structures or laws leave some people without protection or subject to additional exploitation because their identities, such as being both black and female, intersect.

Pastor Stephen Feinstein, the California pastor and U.S. Army Reserve chaplain who originally proposed the contested resolution, said he hopes it “could be used to hold accountable anyone who actually does push CRT in SBC institutions.”

Feinstein said he believes critical race theory is “a true threat to biblical Christianity.” He said reactions to his original version and the final adopted one have fascinated him.

“Those who hoped to use my original proposal as proof that the SBC has been taken over by Marxists quickly turned against me as if I was a sell-out,” he said. “Yet, those who are committed to social justice (as defined by progressivism) also vilified me. Honesty makes enemies on both sides.”

Bracey is an investigator with the Race, Religion, and Justice Project, which is studying Christianity and race in contemporary America.

The project’s researchers found in 2019 that 38 percent of white practicing Christians surveyed say the country “definitely” has a race problem, compared with 78 percent of black practicing Christians and 51 percent of the general population. Thirty-five percent of evangelicals—not broken down by race—gave the same response.

Reflection of SBC’s ‘long and troubled’ racial history

Bracey said the reaction to the resolution, including the stances of the two subgroups of Southern Baptists, reflects a white-male-dominated denomination with a “long and troubled” racial history, one that dates to a defense of slavery.

“It just speaks to the severe threat that people feel when the knowledge and perspective of women and people of color are treated as equal to the knowledge produced by white folks, white men in particular,” he said.

Bracey added that many who question critical race theory are not aware of its history. It is not only based on the work of law professors and students of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but also scholars who draw on biblical language from the prophet Jeremiah and spiritual concepts such as respect for all people.

“What people don’t usually know is that it’s actually built largely by black Christians, frankly, using a lot of black Christian principles and references to Scripture,” he said. “There’s kind of a straw-man version of critical race theory that they’re arguing against that is totally divorced from the real critical race theory.”

Pastor Dwight McKissic of Arlington, an African American leader whose church is affiliated with the SBC, said the latest disputes pale in comparison to the “worthwhile fight” about biblical inerrancy—the belief that the Bible is without error in all areas—that led to a so-called conservative resurgence in the denomination starting in the late 1970s.

The pushback over critical race theory and intersectionality—terms he said many are unfamiliar with or do not completely understand—is a different matter.

“It’s a smokescreen,” said McKissic, who worked to get Southern Baptists to accept a resolution condemning white supremacy in 2017 that was rejected and then adopted in the same meeting after a fierce backlash.

“It’s really white supremacy trying to control the narrative, that’s what it is.”

Some SBC leaders speak out on race

As the nation has faced recent protests from city to city about racial justice and police brutality, some Southern Baptists have spoken out about those issues.

“Southern Baptists must not only be known to stand for the sanctity of human life, but we must also be known to stand for the dignity of all human life regardless of the color of skin,” said Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC’s Executive Committee as he opened an online prerecorded SBC Advance event on June 2.

“We may say things through tweets or posts, but real change will only be seen through our conduct toward one another. And none of this will go away with violence, but only by developing relationships with each other, working together and resolving to press forward together in the spirit of Christ, who is the Prince of Peace.”

Asked about the continuing differences among Southern Baptists on race and women’s roles, SBC President J.D. Greear said he and the leaders of the denomination’s organizations, state conventions and local associations all affirm their statement of faith, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

“This is something to celebrate and there is no drift away from that,” he said. “While the Bible teaches the complementary roles of men and women in creation, it also overturns any ideas of inequality of the sexes or male dominance.”

But if the convention had met in Orlando, Greear said, he would have made a change in a tradition that reflects the denomination’s racial history. Instead of using a gavel named for John A. Broadus, a slaveholder and a founding faculty member of the SBC’s flagship seminary, to open and close the gathering, Greear planned to use a different one, maybe even one named for a woman.

“I was planning on using the Judson gavel or the Annie Armstrong gavel this year in Orlando,” he said. “Adoniram Judson was a missionary that inspired me and I named my son after him. Annie Armstrong demonstrated the missionary spirit that I believe Southern Baptists should be about.”

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Launching an innovative ministry center in metro Detroit has been quite a rollercoaster ride for Sue Hodnett and her volunteer ministry team.

Initially opened in January in a small, tidy storefront in Shelby Township, the center is designed “to make a difference in the lives of women,” explained Hodnett, executive director of Michigan Woman’s Missionary Union.

Ministry priorities include group Bible studies, one-on-one counseling and mentoring sessions, a “Mission Friends with Mom” pilot project and a food bank partnership.

When the coronavirus crisis struck, the ministry center closed its doors just six weeks after starting up. While the ministry efforts coordinated by Michigan WMU continue, much of the center’s work shifted to online video conferences.

Hodnett, who also leads Michigan Baptists’ women’s ministry emphasis, said she anticipates reopening the ministry center sometime this summer as sheltering restrictions gradually are lifted.

“I don’t know what God’s plan is for the ministry,” she said, but insisted her primary goal is “to follow through on the doors that he’s opened so far.”

“Our passion is to come alongside women and help them, meet them where they’re at, help them find Christ if they don’t already know him, just be there to encourage them,” Hodnett emphasized. “We know that if we touch the life of a woman, most of the time we’re touching the life of a whole family.”

‘Hopes and dreams’

The idea for the ministry center unfolded last year as the Baptist State Convention of Michigan relocated to smaller facilities. With the option of working remotely, Hodnett proposed the ministry center as an alternative to working from a home office. Her vision was to operate a site that would meet community needs in the area while also serving as a ministry model for local churches and missions groups.

“My hopes and dreams are so much smaller than God’s hopes and dreams,” Hodnett said. “Last year, when I started this, I’m thinking: ‘Why am I doing this? Why don’t I just do a small office at home?’ But I felt God saying: ‘I want you to do this. There’s a reason for it.’

“Then when it got closed down and we had to shut the doors, it’s like, ‘OK, maybe this isn’t what we were supposed to do.’ But as we go through the social distancing, it’s become so much clearer why we need that center, why we need to be there one-on-one to be able to hug our sister when she’s hurting, to just have our door open so that they can come in whenever they need that help.”

Mobilizing a team of 50 trained volunteers throughout the state, “we have regional leaders and then we have specialty leaders like our encouragement team leader or our Christian Women’s Job Corps leader,” Hodnett said.

Working in close partnership, Michigan WMU and women’s ministry team members offer counseling and coaching in such strategic areas as addiction care, abortion alternatives, adoption and foster care, marriage enrichment, veteran ministry care and divorce care.

As she began praying about launching the ministry center, “I didn’t know what it would look like,” Hodnett recounted. “I just knew that I had a passion to want to help women.”

She said pressing questions that immediately surfaced included: “How do we get to the soul? How do we help these ladies?”

Lessons learned

Amid the pandemic-induced shutdown, Hodnett pointed to several lessons learned.

“One thing is women have a real love and craving for the word (of God). When we started offering Bible studies at times that they could attend from their homes, we have seen a large increase in the number of women that wanted to be in life groups in studying the Bible,” she said. “That was enlightening and encouraging.”

By incorporating something as practical as scheduling evening video calls after younger children’s typical bedtimes, they quickly found that “we were able to get more people involved in the call,” she noted.

“When they have time to study their Bible, it changes them spiritually. You start to hear their passion. You start to hear their heart. It’s given them time with the Lord that they didn’t normally have because their lives were so busy.

She candidly added, “Another thing that we found is our women’s ministry leaders get depressed, too.

“Many have gotten tired. Many have gotten anxious. But as we talk through that, we’re able to help each other. We are learning that we need to encourage the encouragers, to fill the ones who are filling others.”

Mission Friends with Mom

Among the ministries temporarily sidelined is the Mission Friends with Mom program, designed to give parents hands-on resources to teach their preschoolers about missions and ministry both in a group setting and at home.

A trial run last fall at Memorial Baptist Child Care Center in nearby Sterling Heights proved educational, entertaining and engaging for the kids involved, but COVID-19 has put those plans on hold until at least September.

Additionally, depending on when schools reopen in metro Detroit, the center’s afterschool homework program may transition to an education support program staffed by retired teachers and other volunteers. The focus could shift to assisting students with school assignments while helping equip parents to teach at home.

Even with the recent challenges and setbacks, Herb Harbaugh, longtime pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, said he is excited about the opportunity to partner with Michigan WMU through the ministry center.

“It’s exciting to have this ministry presence here so close to our church and our community,” he said.

As the ministry center reopens and expands its ministry impact, he added, “We’ll be able to not only partner together, praying for them, working with them, but out of this, lives are going to be touched and changed.”

Seeking to move beyond the upheaval of recent months, “one of my favorite ministries is the prayer ministry,” Hodnett said. “When you go out and you’re praying, you start to see people the way that Jesus sees them and you start to see what the needs are. God begins to tell you what you can do to meet those needs.”

And there’s no question that Hodnett is anxious to meet those needs in person once again.

“I can’t wait,” she declared. “That passion doesn’t go away. I need to be about what God has placed on my heart.”

Leaders of the North American Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance, as well as leaders of Texas Baptist Women in Ministry, issued statements lamenting and decrying racial injustice in the United States.

“We affirm that all deserve a chance for justice in the courts, not a lynching in the streets,” the joint statement from the presidents and general secretaries of the NABF and BWA reads.

The Texas BWIM statement acknowledges “the deep pain and anger within the Black community.”

“Those of us who are not Black cannot possibly know the depths of your sorrow and rage at these continued acts of injustice; we can only stand with you and listen as you pour out your hearts,” reads the statement from the Texas BWIM board of directors and coordinator.

Both the NABF/BWA statement and the Texas BWIM statement point to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd as examples of racial injustice.

“We lament and decry that unarmed Blacks are three times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed whites. We affirm that Black lives matter to God and should also matter to us,” reads the statement jointly issued by NABF and BWA leaders.

The NABF, a fellowship of 19 million Baptists in 55,000 churches and 22 conventions and unions in the United States and Canada, is the one of six regional groups in the BWA, a network of Baptist groups in 125 countries and territories representing 47 million Baptists.

Unequal justice

“We lament and decry a society where Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be pulled over by police and four times more likely than whites to be searched once pulled over. We affirm that justice must be fair for all or it is not justice at all,” the NABF/BWA statement continues.

“We lament and decry a justice system where Blacks are more likely to receive a harsher sentence for the same crime, where a capital punishment verdict is most likely in cases with a Black defendant and a white victim. We affirm the call for just mercy given by our Lord, who was executed by a corrupt system.

“We lament and decry the militarization of police, which are particularly deployed to treat minority communities as an enemy. We affirm the teaching of the Prince of Peace that ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’”

On June 1, law enforcement in Washington, D.C., broke up a protest at Lafayette Square north of the White House shortly before President Trump crossed the street and posed with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church without the permission of church officials.

While the White House objected to news accounts that referred to police using “tear gas,” the U.S. Park Service said law enforcement used smoke cannisters and pepper balls as control agents—chemicals that cause irritation to the eyes and make breathing difficult.

While the NABF/BWA statement does not make specific reference to the incident in Washington, D.C., it reads: “We lament and decry the use of tear gas and pepper spray—both of which are banned for use in warfare, on demonstrators. We affirm the constitutional right to peaceably assemble should be respected. …

“We lament and decry the exploitation of Christian texts and sacred spaces to lend support to abuses of power. We affirm the witness of our Lord, who was born amid government persecution that stomped the breath out of the innocent.”

Both the NABF/BWA statement and the Texas BWIM statement also refer to the riots and vandalism that has occurred in some cities across the United States.

“We lament and decry violence, including deliberate destruction or defacing of businesses, homes and houses of worship. We affirm the biblical call to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’ and we give thanks for public servants dedicated to protecting others,” the NABF/BWA statement reads.

The Texas BWIM statement urges its readers “to stay focused not on the violence of a few protesters, but on the reason for the pain—embedded institutional and structural racism that threatens Black Americans every day of their lives, no matter where they live or work.”

Calls for self-examination

Both statements include calls for self-examination and calls to action.

“As Christians we are called in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray to seek for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Surely this means that we must speak out against every sort of prejudice and discrimination that would dare to suggest that a person’s skin color defines them as less than someone else and thus subject to inhumane treatment,” the Texas BWIM statement reads.

“This horrible situation, which Black Americans have been pointing us to over and over again for decades, is not a problem for them to solve. It is a problem that we must all take responsibility for ending. We must vote at every level for leadership who understand the depth of this problem and demonstrate a commitment to solving it.

“We must listen to the experience of Black Americans and do them the justice of believing them when they tell us about the treatment they receive. We must investigate more closely to understand how racism is at work in subtle and blatant ways. We must be willing to speak out when we encounter racism. We must examine ourselves and ask forgiveness when we are complicit with racism.”

The NABF/BWA statement points to the “continuing consequences of slavery, Jim Crow, urban planning, redlining and discrimination by financial institutions,” as well as “the racial gaps in wealth, as well as education, healthcare, internet, etc., that have become even more obvious during the coronavirus pandemic as Black Americans die at a rate of three times that of white Americans.”

“We affirm that our nation must address structural inequalities, including the need to begin serious negotiations that will lead to addressing the ills of the past through acts of repentance and prayer,” the NABF/BWA statement continues.

“We lament and decry the times when our own Baptist communities have failed to act as the light of the world, instead joining the flames of hatred—and we humbly seek forgiveness from God and our neighbors when we have failed. We affirm our commitment through word and deed to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly.”

The statement is signed by Samuel Tolbert, president of the NABF and president of the National Baptist Convention of America; Jeremy Bell, general secretary of the NABF; Paul Msiza, president of the BWA; and Elijah Brown, general secretary and CEO of the BWA.

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS)—Since early 2019, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has been among the most high-profile advocates for preventing sex abuse and protecting victims of abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Greear, pastor of The Summit Church, a megachurch in Durham, N.C., called for Southern Baptist leaders to investigate and oust churches that cover up abuse.

He set up an advisory group of experts to aid the SBC in dealing with the issue of abuse, helping create a “Care Well” initiative to prevent abuse and minister to survivors.

Greear also led a litany of lament during the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting

“The failures of the way of man brought us to the place we are as a denomination on this issue of abuse,” said Greear at the meeting. “It is only the movement of God, we know, that can rescue us from it. It’s not just policy. It’s not just statements and changes. It’s the spirit of God working in us.”

Now advocates for abuse survivors are criticizing Greear after his church decided to hire a teaching pastor who has been accused of mishandling an abuse claim in the past and for a Summit Church policy that would allow registered sex abusers to attend worship services.

Accused of mishandling abuse claim at another church

Greear, who is expected to continue to serve as SBC president for another year due to the coronavirus pandemic, said he stands by his church’s decision to have Bryan Loritts begin serving as a teaching pastor on June 1.

Ten years ago, accusations arose that Rick Trotter, Loritts’ brother-in-law, was involved in sexual misconduct at Fellowship Memphis, a church Loritts helped found in 2003, and where Trotter was worship director.

The issue was that “a single incident of Trotter recording people in a bathroom was reported” in 2010 at Fellowship Memphis, according to a joint statement issued in 2016 by the church and Downtown Church, another Memphis congregation.

Trotter was terminated from Fellowship Memphis in 2010. The following year, he became a subcontractor at Downtown Church. Leaders of both churches “openly discussed Trotter’s prior sexual misconduct and the counseling he attended for sexual addiction,” the joint statement said.

After Trotter became a full-time staffer with Downtown Church, he was terminated when another instance of sexual misconduct was reported.

In 2018 he received a 60-day sentence after confessing to using a phone camera to videotape under the skirts of female congregants and pleading guilty to four counts of video voyeurism, according to The Commercial Appeal.

“I was devastated to learn a few years later that the perpetrator had repeated these crimes at another church, Downtown Church,” Loritts said in a statement distributed by The Summit Church.

The church, in turn, shared Loritts’ comments with those inquiring of Greear about the hiring. Loritts noted that the 2010 incident involved both a perpetrator and one victim (of several) who were family members.

He said in the statement that “church elders removed me from dealing with the case early in the process” to avoid concerns about nepotism.

Greear’s letter said Loritts said he spoke to two victims of the 2010 incident before being removed from the case.

“Prior to that removal, I never discouraged any victims from choosing to prosecute the individual,” Loritts said in a statement. “In fact, I encouraged two victims I spoke to directly (both my family member and one other) to prosecute.”

Greear’s letter said that the church’s inquiry confirmed Loritts’ claim.

Summit conducted background check, character interviews

Loritts, who went on to become pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California, was not available for comment. Leaders of the Memphis churches could not be reached immediately for comment.

Greear’s letter details a “comprehensive background check of Bryan,” including “extensive character interviews” over four months.

The SBC president’s account notes that a 2010 Fellowship Memphis staffer confirmed the church contacted authorities based on Loritts’ instructions.

Summit’s legal counsel, according to the account, said the police department said no documentation of the matter currently exists, based in part on how long ago it occurred.

“We would not—and I believe you know this—bring any pastor here whom we were not convinced was fully supportive of the direction we believe churches need to go on the prevention of and reporting of abuse and care for survivors,” Greear concluded in the statement.

Loritts said in his statement that he was ready to start his new role.

“I look forward to learning more and seeing what J.D. has done at Summit in his initiative to provide better care for and protection from sexual abuse in our churches,” Loritts said in the statement. “Each survivor is a precious soul who matters deeply to God. I believe we must better extend grace as a people, but we also recognize that those who use their sacred position of shepherd to prey on the sheep should not be given opportunities to do so again.”

Cheryl Summers, who has organized annual “For Such a Time as This” rallies seeking more SBC action to address abuse, said she and other advocates were “disheartened and alarmed” when they learned of Loritts’ new role.

She described him as “someone who is alleged to have covered up sex crimes committed by a family member while both men were employed by a Memphis area church.”

Summit Church says there was no cover-up.

After an inquiry, Greear said, “it was clear to us that, for his part, Bryan did not attempt to protect the abuser or discourage victims from pursuing justice.”

Supervised registered sex offenders allowed to attend

Summers and Ashley Easter, a spokeswoman for the group of abuse survivor advocates, also criticized a policy within the SBC’s Caring Well resources. That document, they say, is based on a document from Greear’s church.

The document outlines how registered sex offenders can be incorporated into worship services if they are monitored by “shepherding individuals” and kept away from children and any person or family member of a person they have harmed.

“Abusers should NOT be allowed on church property during services and certainly not in serving/leadership positions,” Easter said.

Brad Hambrick, Summit Church’s pastor of counseling, confirmed Summit has a policy for registered sex offenders.

“Yes, our policy is still to require perpetual supervision and full awareness by the campus security team, elders, and children/student ministry leaders for an individual under RSO status to attend a weekend service,” he said. “All involvement or attendance in children or student ministry is prohibited, even if the RSO’s children are involved. Any involvement in an adult discipleship setting (i.e., a small group) requires the full awareness of their offense and consent of the adults in that setting.”

Abuse advocates held a virtual rally June 2. That same day, denominational leaders held an online “SBC Advance” to update members of the denomination. The denomination’s annual meeting was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rally organizers say they are continuing their call for an official Southern Baptist database of clergy who are convicted or credibly accused sex offenders, as well as more training, a request they say has been “partially fulfilled by the Caring Well curriculum.”

According to a report of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, “hundreds of churches and thousands of Southern Baptists” have taken the “Caring Well Challenge” or used abuse prevention resources.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Amid unprecedented challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as racial unrest and tumult after the recent death of an African American man in police custody, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee offered what it hoped was a healing balm June 2 with SBC Advance.

The two-hour online event was not intended to replace the 2020 SBC annual meeting, originally scheduled June 9-10 in Orlando but canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, organizers wanted to provide Southern Baptists the opportunity to hear how God has continued to work through the SBC.

SBC Advance highlighted Southern Baptist achievements in the Great Commission, the Cooperative Program, religious liberty, seminary education, diversity, disaster relief and missions at home and abroad. Entity leaders, pastors, state convention and Woman’s Missionary Union executives joined to spotlight Southern Baptist work.

“Our goal with SBC Advance is to inform you of all that is happening in the SBC, and inspire you to continue to join us in this work,” said Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee.

“When COVID-19 began to impact large gatherings across our country, the Executive Committee began the constitutional process to cancel the 2020 annual meeting with the SBC officers and with the executive heads of the convention boards and institutions.”

In introductory remarks, Floyd addressed racism and the current unrest roiling the nation since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He called it “another horrendous act of racial injustice.”

“To our African American pastors and churches across America: We stand with you, and we mourn with you,” Floyd said. “This is a moment when church after church and pastor after pastor must stand for righteousness and holiness. One church at a time, one town at a time, one city at a time, must look into the mirror and see in complete reality where we are individually and collectively.

“We, the churches in America, are the ones that must be faithful to call upon God to come and to give us his guidance and provide his pathway to healing in our nation,” Floyd said. “We are the ones that must answer this moment.”

Persevere through turbulent times

SBC President J.D. Greear encouraged Southern Baptists to persevere during the national turbulence. He referenced God’s growth of the early Christian church, as recorded in the book of Acts, as evidence of God’s faithfulness.

“What our enemy means for evil, God turns to good,” Greear said. “God is sovereignly using this moment for the advance of the mission.”

Greear said distress historically has provided fertile ground for the gospel, as great uncertainty has led to unbelievable expansion in the life of the church.

“Anybody can be merciful and anybody can be generous when times are abundant, but it’s when mercy costs you something that we’re able to best put the gospel on display,” Greear said. “And that’s what kind of moment we are in.”

The South Carolina Baptist Convention showcased local and national missions fueled by the Cooperative Program as an example of gospel outreach conducted by 41 Southern Baptist state conventions.

South Carolina Baptists helped various churches survive the economic downturn of COVID-19 and worked to rebuild communities damaged by tornadoes. Through financial gifts, South Carolina Baptists helped state conventions in New York and New England reach communities impacted by the coronavirus.

“Our ability to respond is proof that our way of doing ministry through the Cooperative Program really works,” said Gary Hollingsworth, South Carolina Baptist Convention executive director-treasurer. “There are other state conventions working together to reach their state, our nation and the world with the gospel.

“Our cooperation is driven by the 7 billion lost people around the world, with 2 billion of those having never heard the name of Jesus one time. More than 300 million Americans and 3.6 million South Carolinians are spiritually lost.”

The SBC Advance included reports from International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood, North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell, GuideStone Financial Resources President O.S. Hawkins, LifeWay Christian Resources President Ben Mandrell and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell D. Moore. Woman’s Missionary Union Executive Director/Treasurer Sandy Wisdom-Martin and President Linda Cooper also gave a report.

Presidents of the six Southern Baptist seminaries updated Southern Baptists on their work as well. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced alterations, the consensus was that the ongoing work of theological education has not been disrupted.

“Even in this moment of unprecedented challenges, God is still doing an extraordinary work at your Cooperative Program-funded seminary in Fort Worth, Texas,” said Adam W. Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, expressing a sentiment that was echoed by his five peers.

A diverse people seeking to fulfill the Great Commission

In his first year as president of the SBC Executive Committee, Floyd tapped as leaders Willie McLaurin, vice president for Great Commission relations and mobilization; Julio Arriola, executive director of Hispanic relations and mobilization; and Peter Yanes, executive director for Asian American relations and mobilization.

The three spoke of their passion to mobilize a diversity of Southern Baptists in fulfilling the Great Commission.

“The Southern Baptist Convention is the most racially and ethnically diverse convention of Great Commission people who have gathered together,” McLaurin said. Of about 47,500 Southern Baptist churches, he noted, about 23 percent are racially and ethnically diverse.

Serving a growing Hispanic population in the U.S., about 3,500 Southern Baptists churches have majority Hispanic congregations. Arriola encouraged Hispanic Southern Baptists in missions, church planting and gospel preaching.

“Our focus is to do this from the Hispanic community where we have the opportunity to present the need,” Arriola said, “and present the different options for them to get ready to reach every single person in America.”

Yanes has the opportunity to mobilize an Asian American population comprising 20 languages and currently served by eight Southern Baptist fellowships. Southern Baptist Asian American congregations number about 2,000 and comprise about 170,000 members.

“We may be sharing similar cultures with diverse backgrounds, but it’s very challenging because coming together … we need to speak in a common language, if you may, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Yanes said.

“We share the same purpose, we share our common goals and we share what we intend to do together and collectively, and that is being faithful to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.”

Prayer for people touched by pandemic

Floyd interviewed New York pastor Frank Williams, who shared the heartbreak of his wife, children and many congregational members contracting COVID-19. Williams is pastor of Bronx Baptist Church and Wake Eden Community Baptist Church in the Bronx, which has suffered as a COVID-19 hotspot. Williams recounted the experience of leading his flocks as longtime deacon Jeremiah Simpson died from the illness.

“It has been very challenging, especially for Deacon Simpson’s homegoing service,” Williams said. “The emotions that I experienced were unlike any that I’ve experienced before. The same day that I conducted Deacon Simpson’s funeral was the same afternoon I had to take my wife to the emergency room. She was in so much pain, my wife, she was literally sitting in the car during the service in pain, because I had to get her to the emergency room right after the funeral service was done.”

Williams also told of a church member who lost her husband and a brother, and of another who lost 11 relatives.

Floyd led Southern Baptists in praying for Williams and many other pastors across the nation impacted by the pandemic.

RICHMOND, Ind.—It wasn’t quite the celebration Dan and Chris Conrades had in mind as Crosspoint Church marked its fourth anniversary as a vibrant, growing church replant in Richmond, Ind.

But they still were determined to make the best of a challenging situation as church members sheltered at home and gathered online to mark the congregation’s ministry milestone.

“I cannot believe that today is Crosspoint Church’s 4th birthday!” Chris, the church’s praise team leader, posted on her Facebook page May 1. “Four years ago today we officially opened our doors and began our ministry here in Richmond.

“Today, I wish we were gathering at the church for a big party or cookout,” she wrote. “I miss my church family. But I am celebrating all that I am seeing God doing even during this quarantine to grow our church’s faith and to give them a deeper love for each other.”

Declaring that “I can only imagine what God is going to do in this upcoming year,” she added, “I will warn you now that there WILL be a party as soon as this is all over.”

Pandemic creates ministry challenges, opportunities

In the meantime, the Conrades posted a video on Facebook highlighting church activities and achievements over the past year.

They also secretly installed yard signs on church members’ front lawns with the message, “We are praying for you!—Crosspoint Church.”

Several families responded on social media with notes such as: “I absolutely love my church! I mean, what other pastoral families would sneak into my yard late at night to leave an encouraging little gift for my family to wake up to?”

As church replanters, being flexible isn’t anything new for Dan and Chris Conrades. They quickly discovered, however, that the coronavirus crisis created a slew of new ministry challenges and opportunities.

“March 15 was the last day we were all together,” explained Dan, who serves as Crosspoint’s lead pastor. “That same week was when Indiana started shutting everything down. We’ve had to figure out creative ways to keep our people engaged.”

Since mid-March, they have turned to Facebook, Zoom and YouTube to stay connected with church members and the community. A typical week for the Conrades includes live streaming a Sunday morning sermon on YouTube, a women’s video conference call and 16-year-old daughter Ellie leading a Monday Zoom call for Crosspoint’s children and youth.

Chris, who also teaches preschool Sunday School, even hosted a Zoom call with her 3- and 4-year-old “little people,” an entertaining online experience she described as “a little bit crazy.”

Intergenerational missions focus

The Conrades also are coordinating a churchwide family missions night via Zoom each Wednesday evening. It has become the online version of an innovative missions program they launched last year to merge Crosspoint’s missions discipleship efforts into one intergenerational gathering.

Before social distancing kicked in, the basic premise was that “everyone is together in one room and we are using our Woman’s Missionary Union curriculum to pray together, do crafts and Bible studies,” Chris noted. She said a key attraction of the study is the congregation learning about missionaries and missions discipleship as an interactive group ranging from preschoolers to adults.

“One of the greatest impacts that I’ve seen is that people are just assuming that we are going to be doing missions,” she pointed out. “It’s not a question in their mind. It’s a given that that’s just a part of who we are.”

As sheltering restrictions gradually are lifted, the Conrades are committed to continuing some version of Crosspoint’s family missions emphasis, including Zoom gatherings and a Parking Lot Prayer Night.

Their family missions focus “is a resource that helps our people learn how valuable missions is,” Dan said. “One of my heartbeats as a pastor is to get our people on mission.”

Missions journey led to replanting

The Conrades’ mission journey to Crosspoint started several years ago when they began sensing God’s call to serve as church planters. As natives of Baltimore who were serving at a church in southern Indiana, they anticipated that God might call them to the Northeast with the bonus of moving back near extended family.

Instead, God led them just a few hours across the state to a small, struggling congregation in east central Indiana. It had dwindled over the years from 200-plus members to a remnant of only 12 active members and was on the verge of closing its doors.

When they met with the small group of core members, “we just fell in love with them and the fact that they were ready for God to do something in this building because they believed God was not done with this place,” Dan said.

The Conrades became church replanters in partnership with the North American Mission Board and moved with their four children to Richmond, a county seat town with a population of 35,000. They helped Central Baptist Church officially conclude its ministry and then reconstituted in the same facility as Crosspoint Church.

Linda Leas, one of the few remaining members at Central Baptist, said, “We were coming to the point where we were putting our church on the altar and offering it to God, and he has returned it to us with more than we could have asked for.”

“Our vision was to really build a healthy church that was focused on getting the gospel out to people but also was very focused on discipleship,” Dan said. He and Chris also share a strong heart for missions, nurtured in part by Chris’ strong background in WMU organizations from Mission Friends, Girls in Action and Acteens to WMU involvement on the associational, state and national levels.

“Even though I grew up in Baltimore where there’s not a lot of Southern Baptist churches, I always was a part of a church that had a very strong WMU presence,” Chris explained. As an Acteen, she attended the National Acteens Convention in Birmingham, Ala,, in 1994 “and that is where God called me to vocational ministry.”

“WMU has always just been exciting for me,” she shared. “I know if it were not for WMU, I would not be who I am today.”

Even as a young church replant, Crosspoint has established an international missions partnership with a small congregation in Colina, Chile. “Our church has just seen the value of missions and they’re seeing what God is doing in a context that’s outside of Richmond, Indiana,” Dan said. “They’re seeing that God is the God of the nations.”

‘God designed us for fellowship’

After two months of worshipping together online, Crosspoint is preparing to move back to in-person church services and activities as social distancing guidelines allow. But there still are lots of questions about what gatherings will look like in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

As churches navigate life and ministry amid the pandemic’s ongoing impact, “I think one of the things a lot of pastors are worried about through this whole thing is people will get comfortable in their homes,” Dan acknowledged. “It’s easy to wake up on Sunday, stay in your pajamas, watch the livestream.”

By contrast, he said he hopes people will view sheltering in place and social distancing as “a reminder that God designed us for fellowship, for unity. We see that in the Trinity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that perfect unity.

“Zoom calls are fun but they don’t take the place of being together in person, they just don’t,” he emphasized. “We need one another. We need to speak into one another’s lives.”

“This humungous unknown that has just been thrown at us has caused so many people to stop and think, ‘Do I really trust God? Do I believe what I’ve said I believed about him?’” Chris reflected. “My prayer is that our people will come to the right conclusion that God is trustworthy, that he is exactly who he has always said he is, and we don’t have to be afraid. We can walk in confidence.

“God is just whispering to our hearts that ‘you can trust me no matter what the outcome is,’” she concluded. “No matter what the story gets written like, you can trust him.”

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MINNEAPOLIS (BP)—Southern Baptist leaders lamented the death of George Floyd, an African American who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer used a knee to pin his neck to the pavement for several minutes.

“I am disturbed, brokenhearted and deeply grieved when I see and read that another black man’s sacred life has been unjustly snuffed out,” said Marshal Ausberry, SBC first vice president and president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention. “The life of George Floyd was ended by those charged to protect and serve. They became judge, jury and executioner.”

In a video taken by a bystander May 25, an officer later identified as Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck as Floyd lay face down on the pavement. “I cannot breathe,” Floyd is heard saying several times as the pressure continues. After seven minutes in the hold, Floyd is limp and unresponsive. He is placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance.

Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC Executive Committee, tweeted that he was “astounded by what happened in Minneapolis relating to the death of George Floyd. … This is ungodly and inhumane.”

The video begins with Floyd pinned by the officer. The Minneapolis Police Department said officers were responding to a report of forgery and that Floyd “physically resisted officers.” Four police officers involved in the arrest were fired after the incident. Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

As Floyd’s death has sparked national outrage, it inflamed tensions locally. Thousands of protestors marched May 26 from the scene of the incident to a Minneapolis police precinct station. Some chanted “I can’t breathe.”

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the march was peaceful, but tension grew when the protestors arrived at the precinct station, where windows and a police car were damaged. Police wearing riot gear fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Protestors threw rocks and water bottles.

‘A striking racial problem in America’

Chris Reinertson, director of missions for the Twin Cities Baptist Association in Bloomington, Minn., said local pastors are leading their congregations in prayer and discussing ways to respond. Reinertson pastors Southtown Baptist Church.

“It’s so fresh, and of course, we want to help people connect with Christ, and that deals with all of the situation at hand,” Reinertson said. “Don’t ever think I’m saying this is a fresh racial issue. I’m saying this African American man, George Floyd, being arrested and then the white police officer putting his knee right on his neck — that specific incident. I’m not talking, ‘Oh, this is the first incidence of racism.’“

Ausberry, who is pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax, Va., pointed out the sanctity of human life.

“Ultimately, the lack of respect for the dignity and sacredness of all human life is sin,” he said. “If we hold that all human life is sacred, then why is it that black and brown lives are ended way before their time? The facts speak for themselves. There is a striking racial problem in America.”

SBC President J.D. Greear noted several black Americans who have died tragically in 2020, including Ahmaud Arbery, who was pursued and killed by two armed civilians as he jogged on a neighborhood street, and Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her own bed by police who had entered her home in the middle of the night while searching for someone else.

“#ahmaudarbery, #breonnataylor, #georgefloyd – Hashtags that represent people made in God’s image — souls tragically lost,” Greear tweeted. “These tragedies move us to lament ongoing racial tension and the severe and lasting damage racism has caused in our country.”

In a subsequent tweet, Greear added: “If we want to join in the gospel movement against racism and toward equality, our struggle must continue well after these hashtags fade. Lord, help us search our own hearts and commit to bear one another’s burden.”

Greear went on to co-author a public statement with Jamie Dew, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, that was signed by all SBC officers, entity heads and state convention executive directors.

“We grieve to see examples of the misuse of force and call for these issues to be addressed with speed and justice,” the statement read. “While we thank God for our law enforcement officers that bravely risk their lives for the sake of others and uphold justice with dignity and integrity, we also lament when some law enforcement officers misuse their authority and bring unnecessary harm on the people they are called to protect. We further grieve with our minority brothers and sisters in the wake of George Floyd’s death, pray for his family and friends and greatly desire to see the misuse of force and any inequitable distributions of justice come to an end.”

Read the entire statement here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: On June 4, three former police officers were charged with aiding and abetting murder in the death of George Floyd, and the charge against Derek Chauvin, who pinned his knee to Floyd’s neck,  was upgraded to second-degree murder.