Ed Stetzer has a great article over at Between The Times where he discusses the differences in today’s society and how we have moved away from a “tribal” culture which has largely been the glue that has held the SBC together. Stetzer believes, “we must look for something else to be the gravitational pull of our cooperation since methodology no longer has that ability.”
Unfortunately, he got the answer wrong — saying,
The Baptist Faith and Message is our confessional consensus. Formulated and approved by the convention, it should fix the boundary for churches and entities that call themselves Southern Baptist. . . . If indeed we have a consensus, and we do, let that be the center point of our working together.
That’s right, our gravitational pull – the thing that keeps us all united and connected – is the BFM.
I would have thought it was Jesus. Then again, Stetzer is not really talking about being a follower of Christ, he is talking about being a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. So maybe he is not wrong after-all.
guess we should be unifying with catholics, mennonites, and mormons…
Jason,
If we are united by the blood of Christ, then yes – we should.
Lew
Lew,
There are two types of unity. The first type, prescribed by Stetzer, is based on man-made requirements. These requirements can be many different things. In this case, it’s a man-made confession. This type of unity can be controlled and monitored and limited. We are comfortable because we can decide with whom we unite. We become uncomfortable when the object of unity changes. (i.e. In Stetzer’s article he admits that many in the SBC are not comfortable because the SBC is no longer united around certain practices.)
However, this is not scriptural unity, regardless of how much we wrap our man-made object of unity in scriptural and “God” terms.
I think Scripture shows us that Christians are to be united around Jesus Christ and him alone. That is the second type of unity. It cannot be controlled or monitored or limited by us. It is uncomfortable because we’re forced to unite with those who are different from us. The key is, if God accepts someone, we MUST accept them. That is the type of unity that Scripture describes and that Jesus requires. Anything less is sin.
-Alan