Editorial: Before we get together, we need to prepare ourselves

We, Texas Baptists, will gather for our annual meeting in just a few days. With what attitude and posture will we gather? In whose name will we gather? Before we get together, we need to prepare ourselves.

Unless we gather in Jesus’ name, unless we do so in an attitude and posture of Christlikeness, our business will be little more than a parliamentary session dressed in religious garb.

I’ve sought to follow Jesus most of my life, and I still don’t know how to engage in tense business in an attitude and posture of Christlikeness without Christ’s help. And I don’t know any other way to receive Christ’s help than to ask him for it.

This is why I have said in two of the last three editorials that we should collectively get on our faces before God, asking what God wants for the future of our convention, and waiting on God’s answer before we move forward—really, before we even get together.

Perhaps the part of that last paragraph we have the hardest time with is “waiting on God’s answer before we move forward.” “Amen” to prayer. “Get real” to waiting.

Because of the real work we need to do while we are together, because of the disagreements among us over a number of issues, and because we identify ourselves and our shared work with Jesus, we need to ask him for help—because we take him and what we do in his name seriously.

What we bring with us

In a few days, many of us will bring into the room our own tension and anxiety about our convention and what will happen with it, or we will enter a room already holding that tension and anxiety. These feelings will accompany strong opinions and convictions on a number of issues we will discuss and decide.

We need the Spirit’s help to know when the strength of our opinions and convictions and our feelings about them are leading us to speak and/or act contrary to Christ. We need that help because we tend to justify our un-Christlike words and actions by the strength of our convictions.

Some of the issues we will encounter are known. From experience, we also know unknown issues can arise. What tension and anxiety we feel is connected to both the known and the unknown. We need to remember none of them is a surprise to Jesus and seek to respond as the unsurprised Jesus responded to the issues he encountered.

We need to ask Jesus for discernment for the issues we will encounter in a few days. These issues include a reduced budget and the reasons for it, organizational restructuring, governance, institutional relationships, and a proposed process to create our own statement of faith.

Some issues will matter more to us than others. Part of the tension is we aren’t equally concerned about the same things. We need discernment to determine if we are concerned about the right things.

What we take with us

And we need to understand the discussions and decisions of our annual meeting are only the surface. They are not the end of anything. The tension and anxiety don’t stay in the room with the closing prayer. We will continue to have work to do well beyond the end of our meeting, and we will need Jesus’ discernment and help being Christlike through it all.

So, at the risk of plagiarizing myself, I will repeat what I have written in two of the last three editorials and already in this one.

Messengers to the upcoming Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting will have much to consider. We should prepare ourselves ahead of the Nov. 16 and 17 business sessions by praying, reading what the Baptist Standard and Texas Baptists Communications have published on those matters, and praying again.

Before we even gather for business, we need to get on our faces before God, asking what God wants for the future of the BGCT, asking for Christ’s discernment and his help being Christlike, and waiting on God’s answer before we move forward.

We should do this in all times, not just when tension and anxiety are high, but also when all is well and the way forward seems wide open and free.

Now, to do as I have written.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher, and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.