Rick Warren has been one of the most influential pastors in Baptist life for the past forty years. Under his leadership Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, became a flagship for many evangelicals including a number pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention, the tribe with which Saddleback chose to align itself. I would say that he was a major influence on a generation of pastoral leaders.
There is much to admire about Warren and his leadership. Although he identifies as a conservative theologically, in recent years he has been criticized as not being conservative enough, especially on the role of women in church leadership.
Warren chose to take a major role in the recent Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans, seeking to overturn the decision to expel Saddleback from the SBC because its ordination of women leaders showed that it was not in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC. He was also a vocal proponent for women leaders in that meeting.
My initial response to Warren’s campaign was, “Where were you thirty years ago when many of us were seeking to take a stand against fundamentalism in the convention? Where were you when we were pushing the convention to accept diversity in leadership?” Now it is too little, too late.
Even so, I do find agreement with Warren on what it means to be a Baptist. In a Word and Way article by Brian Kaylor, Warren is quoted as saying to the convention:
“If you think every Baptist thinks like you, you’re mistaken. I’m not asking you to agree with my church. I am asking you to act like a Southern Baptist, who have historically agreed to disagree on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission.”
He is right on target in this statement. Baptist denominations have usually started to do Kingdom work, such as missions. Even with the SBC being formed in 1845 to assure the appointment of slaveholders as missionaries, the convention grew into a strong force for evangelism, world missions, and Christian service. Wise leaders worked to avoid, but did not always succeed, in the push toward doctrinal uniformity.
I have worked for several Baptist churches, three Baptist denominational entities, and a Baptist college, but I have never been asked to affirm or sign a creed or statement of beliefs. Like Warren, I have always realized that Baptists “agree to disagree” on a number of points but have found productive ways to work together to fulfill God’s mission in the world. That calling is no longer possible among Southern Baptists. In the move to uniformity, the SBC has destroyed that bond of trust.
Although I am no longer a Southern Baptist, I am a Baptist, and I am sad.
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