Voices: Focused on first-order issues

Last week, I explained how I see the relationships among our local churches in Abilene as a model for how churches throughout the Baptist General Convention of Texas can continue to work together despite real differences. This week, I will speak directly to those real differences.

How much agreement is necessary?

Paul reminded the Corinthians of matters “of first importance,” namely the death of Jesus for our sins and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Paul was not necessarily creating the modern categories of first-, second-, and third-order doctrines, but his language clearly demonstrates that not every theological question carries the same weight as the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This brings up two key questions for Baptists to consider:

1. How much do we need to agree on to remain in fellowship?
2. Of the second-order issues, what issues rise to the importance of unanimous agreement? What Scriptures support that claim?

Paul did not demand uniformity on every question. Believers reached different conclusions about food and sacred days, yet Paul instructed them in Romans 14 to welcome rather than judge one another.

Christians approached meat sacrificed to idols differently, and Paul called them in 1 Corinthians 8-10, to govern their freedom by love.

These were not meaningless questions, but neither were they reasons to abandon fellowship.

How about us?

Before making a second-order issue a boundary of cooperation, we should ask whether the clear and consistent witness of Scripture requires it, whether the issue compromises the gospel, whether it prevents churches from pursuing their shared mission, and whether Baptists have historically required agreement on it.

We simply do not have time to make every disagreement a division. With at least 16 million Texans still in need of the gospel and millions more moving into our state, the harvest is growing faster than our capacity to reach it. These realities call us to focus less on our disagreements and more on the shared challenge of reaching Texas with the gospel.

My deep conviction is a convention focused on first-order issues can be an unstoppable force for the kingdom in the 21st century.

In a world where much is divisive and controversial, a movement of churches that lays aside personal preferences and can agree to disagree over second- and third-order issues can be a conduit of the Holy Spirit’s Pentecost-like revival and renewal.

Living in tension

The question is not whether boundaries exist, but where they should be drawn, and how we respond when we disagree about them. Some issues within relationships are not problems to be solved but are tensions to be managed. We won’t all see eye to eye, but can we walk hand in hand?

As complex as a local church is, imagine the additional complexity in a convention composed of thousands of churches and numerous institutions. One temptation is to keep drawing the circle smaller until everyone who disagreeswith us is excluded. Another temptation is to draw the circle so widely that meaningful boundaries disappear.

Our task is to remain centered on Christ, grounded in Scripture, and committed to the mission he has given us.

That means our convention, churches, and institutions must stay together, relying on established processes to navigate an ever-changing world while remaining faithful to Scripture.

Certainly, there are beliefs and practices that would place a church or institution outside the boundaries of Baptist cooperation. Unity has not, does not, and cannot mean everything and anything goes. But neither should conviction mean every disagreement requires separation. Christian maturity requires the difficult work of discerning the difference.

Drift is a real concern for churches, conventions, and institutions, especially for a convention that aims to be a bigger tent. The BGCT already has implemented clear boundaries around its tent. Our processes are not always efficient or easy, but they have helped us hold together through tumultuous times.

Focused on the mission

Our churches, universities, institutions, and global Baptist partners each bring strengths to our shared mission. We can address concerns without making severing relationships our response.

We are better together than apart.

Healthy Baptist cooperation has always required us to hold two things together: conviction and liberty. We need enough theological clarity to know what binds us together and enough Baptist humility to recognize faithful churches will not interpret every issue identically.

The question is not whether we have boundaries, but whether the issue of the day requires us to redraw them.

Readying for what future?

I see two possible futures ahead of us.

One is a future where distrust and division reign, relationships fracture, mission giving fades, and our institutions are left to remember days gone by.

Or a future where unity and mission reign.

In our divided world, Baptists have an opportunity to model the unity Jesus prayed for (John 17:20-23). We can focus on our many points of agreement, believe the best about each other in disagreement, and work together to plant churches, share the gospel, send missionaries, feed the hungry, care for the sick, welcome the immigrant, and train ministers of the gospel.

The world needs that kind of unified witness.

Baptist unity will not be preserved by resolutions alone. It will be cultivated through relationships, honest conversations, established processes, and the shared work of the Great Commission.

Build relationships. Take one another’s concerns seriously. Stay engaged through established processes, make the case for our convictions, listen seriously to the convictions of others, and then live together within the fruit of those relational decisions.

The mission is only getting more challenging. We must resist division, reason together, and rally around the Great Commission.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he said it is to love God and love our neighbor.

Let’s not forget to love our Baptist neighbor, too.

John Whitten is the senior pastor of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.