Voices: Can we become trustworthy to each other?

Pastor Ryan Gilbert wrote a thoughtful explanation of why conservatives are feeling less at home in the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and I am grateful for his words. This is the kind of discussion that can help us find a better way forward as Baptists who are always trying to put dollars and servants together to reach the world for Christ.

I believe Gilbert is truly interested in tearing down the wall that has existed in Baptist life for some time now, and I’m here for it.

Pastor Gilbert, along with others like Pastor Kody Alvarez, have been quite vocal recently, advocating for their convictions to be represented in the BGCT. I take it they grasp how crucial the BGCT’s work is, from campus ministry to the strengthening of churches and ministers; educational, medical, and care initiatives; and more.

Gilbert and Alvarez sense this work is too important to be abandoned, and they are concerned some in the BGCT don’t draw the boundaries exactly where they do on certain issues.

They have been vocal in attempts to reconcile their convictions with a convention they see differing from them. The encouraging thing is, Texas Baptists are willing to hear them. Gilbert notes in his op-ed he has been able to have discussions with BGCT Executive Director Dr. Julio Guarneri. This is good. Let’s keep talking.

Gratitude

I am grateful for these pastors and their churches who minister to their communities and the world in obedience to Jesus. Pastor Gilbert’s church has long been instrumental through both their Enduring Love Foundation and the Cooperative Program, not only in financial gifts, but also direct outward missional engagement.

Pastor Alvarez’s church has historically been invested in the Cooperative Program as well, with several members engaged in disaster relief work. My ancestors are buried behind his church, and it holds a special place in my heart.

So, in the words I offer next, please hear gratitude first. We who partner with the BGCT truly desire to be co-laborers with these men and their churches, and we also consider ourselves co-laborers with other Baptist organizations, including the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Affirmation of 2000 Baptist Faith & Message

Why has the BGCT not affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, parted ways with Baylor University, or adopted a mandate that affiliated churches only have male clergy? It’s typically more about a resistance to institutional control than about theology.

I know of no Texas Baptist church that has a low view of Scripture. I can affirm with Pastor Gilbert a Chicago Statement view on biblical inerrancy, while maintaining that does not require me to agree with his interpretation or he with mine.

And yet, the BGCT has not affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message because the 1963 statement says “truth without any mixture of error.” We still stand by that statement’s sufficiency.

Further, the BGCT observed the 2000 statement being utilized as an institutional standard in principal and practice that left a bad taste in our mouths.

Women in ministry

On women in ministry, the claim is often repeated that the Bible is clear on women in the pastorate. But it’s not that clear.

Junia, Priscilla, Phoebe, Deborah, Mary Magdalene, the daughters who prophesy—all present enough of a wrinkle to 1 Timothy that a person can believe the Bible contains truth without any mixture of error and follow their conscience and the Holy Spirit to a different conclusion than Pastor Gilbert might have.

Those who differ are neither less Christian for differing with Pastor Gilbert nor less committed to Scripture. Our money and theirs has not become less able to mix together to support a Baptist Student Ministry campus minister bringing college students to Christ.

Some conservatives argue affirming women in the pastorate tends to lead to wildly liberal denominations. Though a correlation can be made in some instances, this is absolutely untrue among the Nazarenes and Assemblies of God churches, for instance.

Since there are legitimate and honest ways to come to different conclusions about women in ministry, this issue has fallen under the group of things Texas Baptists refused to dictate interpretations on from on high.

That’s why even Texas Baptists who agree with the complementarian interpretation of Scripture tend to reject the imposition of a mandate that everyone else fall in line or leave the BGCT.

Separate and parallel Baptist worlds

Texas Baptists split over issues like this and have been living in separate but parallel worlds ever since. As a result of these separate but parallel Baptist worlds, pastors like Gilbert had one set of professors and mentors during their formational years, and I had a different set.

He was told, “We’re the Bible-believers,” implying those others aren’t. I was told, “They’re more concerned about control than Christ.” And we both believed what we were told and developed a distrust for the other.

My experience

My distrust was not helped by my lived experiences. I remember as a young child, the 1991 BGCT annual meeting when my grandfather, Billy Ray Parmer, was a second vice president of the convention and Phil Lineberger was president.

They were asked to wear bulletproof vests on stage and have bodyguards due to serious threats as they considered Baylor University’s move to safeguard academic independence in the face of recent events in the Southern Baptist Convention.

I remember the primary engine of the so-called conservative resurgence was not exegesis on Sunday morning but was strategically engineering elections and boards to achieve control of the SBC.

I remember the International Mission Board promising that signing affirmation to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message would never be a requirement for a missionary to continue their work abroad, and then I remember that turning out to be untrue. I remember the faithful missionaries being sent home due to their conscience, and the BGCT rallied to provide for their needs.

I have observed a repeated pattern where an SBTC interim pastor connects with a church with historic ties to the BGCT, and just a couple years later, the church will hold a vote to move their funding to the SBTC.

I know sharing these experiences will seem like, “He’s just digging up things to trash the other side.” I promise I am not. I also understand these experiences are all just one individual, one group, one event, one experience, but they have added up to distrust.

I’m also guessing people on the “other side” could tell a similar story about a wildly liberal professor at Southwestern before 1994 or point to an anecdote about some truly concerning theological error in a committee meeting.

Impasse or opportunity

I share my experiences so Pastor Gilbert can know the resistance he feels is not to orthodox theology; it is to institutional control. To some extent, the BGCT hasn’t done what he’s asking because others previously told us we had to or else.

A majority of the Christians attending BGCT churches would answer a survey of beliefs identically to those attending SBTC churches. It isn’t different theology that keeps us from saying “yes” to conservative measures; it’s that we have a distrust of how these narrowing measures have been used before.

Pastors like Gilbert earnestly believe they are defending Baptist life from those who are untrustworthy. So do I. We are at an impasse. Or, if we play our cards right, we could call it an opportunity.

Our inherited mess has led us each to pastor in an era where we circle the same pot of Baptists in Texas from opposite sides, conditioned to be resentful because our nearness seems to amplify our differences. But Pastor Gilbert has said he desires to feel more at home in the BGCT. That softens a hard spot a lot of us have held onto far too long.

Mutual assurances

Pastor Gilbert says his concern is the “theological boundaries around the institutions and ministries we financially support, platform, and partner with.” The members of BGCT churches need to think humbly and in new ways about how we can assure conservative churches we will not take their prayerful efforts and resources and use them in ways contrary to Scripture.

In turn, I would ask pastors like Gilbert to consider if we do that, can we trust them not to keep narrowing the boundaries until many who built these ministries are no longer welcome?

Will Bible-believing Christians who come to different exegetical conclusions be increasingly told in the next few decades they are not welcome if they have a female children’s pastor at their church?

If the BGCT affirms the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message someday, will we be told then that every professor at Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, and the other BGCT-affiliated universities must sign or we will sever our relationship? Will all our BSM campus ministers and BGCT staff be required to sign their name to the 2000 statement or face termination?

Can we become trustworthy to each other

Can we become trustworthy to you and you trustworthy to us, so we may better serve the Lord together?

Many appropriate boundary lines have already been drawn where Scripture is clear. For instance, in 2016 and later, the BGCT parted ways with some Texas Baptist churches that affirm sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. The BGCT has endured a great deal of criticism from the public for doing so.

To churches like Gilbert’s, churches like mine will continue to do the work of welcoming you and ask that you see the things the Lord has done through the BGCT as worthy of your support and partnership.

I will put away my distrust and take you at your word that you want increased cooperation and trust, and I pray you will take me at my word that Texas Baptists are unapologetically tied to the risen Jesus, live under the authority of the inerrant word of God, and we want to work together to make Jesus known near and far.

Joseph Barrett is pastor of Central Baptist Church in Italy and a member of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.