Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Baptist Press Reveals More Shoddy Journalism

Baptist Press, have furthered the riff between the SBC and Acts 29. Rather than focusing on reaching people for Christ the SBC continues to cause discord with one of the fastest growing, theologically sound Church planting groups, Acts 29 which was co-founded by Mark Driscoll. Driscoll, his church in Seattle, and Acts 29 have often been the target of insults from different branches of Southern Baptist, but this article is just plain shoddy journalism. BP does not offer any quotes from Driscoll himself, nor does it mention the Acts 29 bootcamp in Raleigh, NC this last week where Driscoll partnered with the likes of Wayne Grudem and Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary. The article quotes MBC Executive Director, David Tolliver, who previously acted to defund all Acts 29 affiliated church plants in Missouri, as a shot to kill them in their infancy. That decision was largely caused by rash decision making influenced mostly by ignorance of the group, confusing Acts 29 with the emerging church movement, and the direction of Roger Moran.
Acts 29 has responded, and have shown maturity and humility by trying to move past the article. Pastor Scott Thomas, Director of Acts 29 Network, responded on the Acts 29 blog with this comment.

"But, I am calling for all of us to ignore the innocuous criticisms and get back on the front lines of presenting the gospel faithfully to those who are desperately in need of redemption. The sniping of one publication has hindered our focus on the real enemy: Sin, Satan and the effects of a fallen humanity.

A movement does not stop to address every critic. It moves on in spite of critics and in expectation of critics. I'm bored with it all and my neighbor needs Jesus."


Timmy Brister also responds to the article and offers this viewpoint.
"There are two competing visions for the SBC going on right now: the Great Commission Resurgence under the direction of Danny Akin and David Dockery headquartered at SEBTS, and the Baptist Identity Movement under the direction of Paige Patterson and Malcolm Yarnell headquartered at Southwestern Seminary. Prior to the Annual Meeting in Indy last year, the Baptist Identity boys were blazing the Internet with series of blogposts talking about Baptist distinctives and in particular “ecumenical compromise.” From the Annual Meeting forward, however, the Great Commission Resurgence has won the day, leaving the Baptist Identity crowd in the wake full of a separatistic, landmarkist agenda. Having Driscoll (and Mahaney) who do not share the same ecclesiology and distinctives lead Patterson and his camp to consider the actions of Akin and SEBTS as Baptist compromisers. The BP article on Driscoll is an indication, in my mind, of an attempt to discredit the leadership of Akin and undermine the Great Commission Resurgence movement in the SBC. Fortunately, most Southern Baptists are not buying it."


A response from SEBTS can be found here.

2 comments:

Tom 1st said...

Ahh, yes....why am I not suprised that the SBC burns bridges with another group who doesn't think exactly like them? That's why I don't think I'll ever be Southern Baptist again.

Tim Faulted said...

You and me both. The SBC has been hijacked and the Conservative Resurgence has shown its failure. Unfortunately most Southern Baptists leaders are so busy tooting their own horns and going on witch hunts for anyone who believes slightly different than they do, they fail to realize their own problem. I hope they heed the warning of SBC guys like Setzer.