I spoke at a youth camp this week, preaching in services and teaching seminars.
Nothing about that is unusual. After all, I have spoken at dozens and dozens of these for many years, so many I have lost count. I have done every type you can imagine: single church camps for giants megas like FBC Jacksonville, and small camps for rural churches. I have ministered at state convention sponsored camps and those of parachurch ministries. I even did a camp for the Hmong people, a national camp held in the same state of my most recent camp, Missouri.
But this camp had a particularly (no pun intended) unique feature to it. For this camp ministry, called Saved by Faith Youth Camp, I was the first speaker like me in its 24 year history.
I am the first non-Calvinist to speak at a camp sponsored, led, and attended by churches all of whom are self-described as Calvinistic in their conviction.
I am not a Calvinist. I am also not a hater. Okay, I hate it when self-described Christ followers do not share the gospel or share our Lord’s compassion for the lost. But I know plenty of folks who are Calvinists and plenty who are not, and yet who never share Christ. The folks here were honestly like folks I meet at every other camp. They love Jesus. They are trying to find how to minister to students in an ever-changing culture. They sing contemporary worship songs and they take their students on mission trips. And, several of them with whom I talked are frustrated by Calvinists who believe like them but never seem to be convinced of the importance of fulfilling the Great Commission.
That’s okay, I told them, I am frustrated with plenty of non-Calvinists with the same lack of conviction for the gospel.
I write this to make a simple point: new coalitions are forming before our eyes. Fueled by a common conviction about the greatness of the gospel, the sovereignty of God (He is, Scripture is clear on that), and the need to take the gospel to our neighbors and the nations, this movement has been accelerated through the power of social media.
And, it has been helped by men of God who have the theological clarity and personal maturity to recognize that we can agree to differ on some issues and yet, to borrow a term, come together for the gospel. What we see today is both Calvinists and non-Calvinists who have a passion for church planting and making disciples coming together in a new coalition. Leaders including Danny Akin, Al Mohler, Johnny Hunt, Frank Page, and Tom Ascol, to name only a few. We are entering a day where more seem to want to talk to each other than at each other, and this is a good thing.
It seems to me that for a time we preferred putting up fences to an excess. We fenced ourselves off from one another based on various –isms: dispensationalism, Calvinism, Pentecostalism, etc-ism. I would submit that today we have not a new ecumenism as some seem to fear (I hardly see the World Council of Churches springing up in our midst), but the analogy has shifted from fences that divide as our chief posture to a table where many can sit together. I can sit at the same table with Tom Ascol and talk about the greatness of our God and the wonder of the cross, and pray with him for his sweet daughter serving that God in a hard place. I can sit there with Johnny Hunt and marvel at the work of God happening just now among the students at his church.
I can sit there with men and women of God who may differ and who in fact do on some issues, and some are quite important. But even as we saw God use Charles Spurgeon and D. L. Moody in the same era, and see the respect these men had for each other, we can come to the table and dream of a time when more and more believers hunger for a great and holy God, yearn to see the nations reached, and who affirm our core distinctives. We may not look exactly alike as we sit around that table; but we may look just a little more like Jesus if we do.
Good Message Dr. Reid. I find I fit great in many “camps,” due to the grace which was given to me.
Great post Doc. This coalition building is crucial, especially for us Calvinists, who too often neglect our calling to preach to our neighbors and the nations. Brandy and I are blessed to be in a reformed baptist church in Fort Worth (Redeemer Church) that has a passion for missions and the great commission.
Stand fast, John
Amen! I’d rather spend time with people who are passionate about the Great Commission, but differ with me on the Ordo Salutis any day!
What the first three guys said. In caps.
Dr. Reid … thanks for your article. Like you, I’m a non-Calvinist. I’m also passionate about the gospel and training younger men to share the good news. I enjoyed inviting you to preach in Illinois when I was the state evangelism director there. You have always inspired me.
Many of us older SBC guys remember the 70′s when we had some SBC Charismatics seeking to share the second blessing with everyone. The movement helped us in many ways, especially in the area of worship. Those that felt they couldn’t “change” all SBC’ers to Charismatics eventually moved on to start other groups and networks. Looking back, I can’t remember any formal group(s) that were started with the express purpose of turning the SBC to neo-Pentecostalism. However, one of the men mentioned in your article heads a SBC Reform Organization with the stated purpose of reforming the SBC. Help me understand how this kind of ongoing purpose builds unity as certain group(s)employ the purpose of reforming foundational beliefs and practises in our churches.
Thanks for the comments all. Ron, great to hear from you. You are right in that the Charismatic movement proved to be remarkably divisive. I well remember! And, certainly any -ism can prove to be divisive even as it seeks to be reformative.
I do remember some SBCers who formed somewhat formal groups in the Charismatic days, such as the Fullness folks. I do think, however, that the critical issue here is different. First, Southern Baptists have always had a strong Calvinistic stream in our history. The same cannot be said for the Holiness/Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition. Many of our early Baptist Fathers were Calvinists (Broadus, Manly, others). So, the Charismatic movement truly came from the outside, but Calvinism has been a part of us.
Second, your point is well taken about organizations that are Calvinistic in that I would agree that they have tended not to be as open toward others in the past. I honestly see a genuine change on the part of many influential leaders who are Calvinists. That is in fact a big part of why I wrote this. I did not mention it in the post, but the camp I did is the camp ministry started by the Founders. The name has been changed, but these churches at this camp are all, as best I could tell, linked to Founders. Bill Ascol leads this ministry. Further, I and others have been in conversations informally and formally with leaders including Tom Ascol, to name just one.
I do see a shift in the openness on both sides of the fence to take it down and sit together, to use my analogy again. John Piper inviting Rick Warren to speak at his event is another significant turn of events. Now, these prove to be costly for our Calvinist brothers who will lose some of their own ilk in the name of selling out. I applaud it. Jerry Falwell had the same thing happen from independent Baptists when he joined the SBC.
Finally, I see in the SBC that non-Calvinists who love the gospel and theology are respected by Calvinists for the most part. I have been welcomed, as have others who are not Calvinists, to speak at or write for a growing number of groups that are either strongly Reformed in their leanings or totally Calvinistic, from Acts29 to this recent camp. I can assure you things are changing, and the changes are good. I also see a growing number of non-Calvinists who see where Calvinists have helped in furthering the gospel. Let’s face it, if you want to learn how to reach the cities and plant churches in them, the first place pretty much everyone goes today is to Tim Keller, the Yoda of urban church planting and a Presbyterian. And across America, churches led by young Reformed pastors who preach verse by verse for an hour (Chandler, Patrick, Driscoll, etc) have become the role model for many as their churches are exploding with very little elaborate programming but a lot of focus on the gospel.
There is another more subtle change (okay I should have written a separate blog post on this). Larger conferences are changing. People, especially younger leaders, are weary of the straw man, rhetoric-driven “sermons” so common only a few years ago at our evangelism and pastors conferences. Today those who still attend these do so because speakers like David Platt hammer the obvious with the Scripture. That is a good thing.
What I have learned practically over the past few years is this: if we talk to each other about the gospel and the need of the world instead of at each other, we find we are far, far closer than we thought. I have not changed my theology, but I have changed my attitude. And, if I am going to quote Spurgeon and Edwards and William Carey, all Calvinists, I cannot ignore my brothers who now live. Yes, I know some Calvinists who are knuckleheads, but by no means are knuckleheads to be found in their orbit only. They span the -isms.
Dr. Reid,
Thanks so much for posting this. My wife and kids were at the camp and have not stopped talking about it since they got home. They really appreciated the ministry of word, so thanks for being available to preach at the conference. May we all be fueled with a passion for glory of God and be committed to share the good news wherever we find ourselves.
randy mclendon
Dr. Reid,
Thanks for your post.
I have not been seeing the changes that you have.
I am not seeing our Calvinists Brothers being open and honest (very clear) about their reformed doctrine during the Pastor Search process with committees.
On the other side, once a SBC Church is turned toward Calvinism, I’m not seeing those churches looking to non-Calvinists as potential pastors.
Randy thanks. I was blessed to be there!
Hey Dr. Reid,
Thanks for the post! We’ve got Calvinists and non-Calvinists in our church and it has not been a dividing issue. We’ve given the full picture of what Scripture says on these issues and have found that we are probably not as far apart as so many think. My Calvinist folks don’t deny all free will (free within our nature), they believe all who truly believe will be saved, and are some of my most active people when it comes to witnessing, and yes they do affirm soveriegn predestination.
My non-Calvinist folks (none of us would describe ourselves as Arminian) are not alarmed by moderate Calvinism because they have gotten past all the false stereotypes that are so often ignorantly associated with Calvinism. I’m not a Calvinist, but in the past have often heard people articulate Calvinism in ways that no Calvinist I’ve ever known would describe it. There really aren’t many hyper-Calvinists, at least that I’ve seen.
I hope you and the family are doing well.
Brad
Well said Brad. I think you just said what I hear consistently from your generation.
Dr. Reid,
“I am the first non-Calvinist to speak at a camp sponsored, led, and attended by churches all of whom are self-described as Calvinistic in their conviction.”
Well, nobody’s perfect!
Only teasing with you, brother! While I am a Calvinist, I deeply appreciate your ministry to us at SBFYC last week. You truly were a blessing not only to the young people but to “old folks” like me! Thank goodness there are some Calvinists and some non-Calvinists who can communicate rationally with one another and work together for the Gospel!
May Christ continue to bless your ministry at SEBTS and elsewhere. You are being used by the Lord these days in a mighty way!
Bruce D. Walker
St. Charles, MO
Thanks for your passionate words. As an SBC church planter, I would feel much more alone if it were not for my ‘reformed’ brother planters. For the most part, I do not find few them planting new works as the result of ‘church splits’…but rather strategic works for reaching unreached segments of the population.
We are about to launch our 2nd daughter congregation. The first was an SBC (non-Calvinist) in a very strategic location that is doing very well. Our second (this fall) is an Acts29 plant going into an area where (for the most part) the SBC churches have seemingly decided that it is not worth the effort. Interestingly enough, A29 did not reject us as a sponsor congregation…even listing us on their website.
What I really like about our planters is that they are both Calvinists in the sense that, like John Calvin, they love God’s Word and preach it faithfully to the people God has called them to reach. I agree that if we are going to write-off our ‘reformed’ brothers today as following some form of heresy, then we should stop quoting the Spurgeons and Pipers and Swindols to make our points.
What I really wish is that being a ‘Calvinist’ would instead represent the greater picture of who he was – a pastor, teacher, theologian who deeply loved God, his congregation, and the Bible enough to faithfully teach it in a way that God used it to change a culture.
And why should you be aggravated with so-called calvinists who are not soul-winners? And why should they be, when due to rejection by the leadership of the founding soteriology of Southern Baptists by the leadership of the past 100 years and even some of the new conservative leaders who know even less about the issues, they have not been taught that Sovereign Grace, including Predestination, Total Depravity/Inability, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement/Particular, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance/Preservation of the Saints, and, yes, even Reprobation are evangelistic doctrines and even invitations? What ever one seems to have forgotten is that these were the truths of the First and Second Great Awakenings and the launching of the Great Century of Missions as well as the foundations for all of our oldest schools. These teachings are evangelistic, and the are immeasurably and intensely invitational beyond anything of the Arminian teachings, but the powers that run the world were fearful of losing control so they sent in forces to put a damper on that theology which was likely to seize the whole world for Christ (You might see the theology opposed and the theology supported by the pluralist (their terms) in Carroll Quigley’s Tragedy and Hope. I wrote a paper on evangelism in the 18th century, while a student where you now teach. I approached one of the officials of SEBTS about the possibility of teaching Sovereign Grace Evangelism. He wa polite, nice, but I never heard another word from him. I don’t really think you folks are very serious about this matter though it is written into the Abstract of Principles. Did you know that the first convert on the mission field in India was won by a person considered by some to be a hyper-calvinist (Dr. John Thomas) who had served there for 7 yrs. before Carey arrived and who encouraged Mrs. Carey to come with her husband. Dr. Thomas went insane with elation and joy, popping out of his mind on the upside when he won Krisna Pal to Christ whom Carey baptized as Dr. Thomas was confined in a building raving in joy and Mrs. Carey was in another, raging due, very likely, to PTSD resulting from severe culture shock. O yes, even in the 20th century my ordaining pastor, Dr. Ernest R. Campbellm, who would tell you he was a supralapsarian and a hyper-calvinist and who pleaded with my step-father to call upon Christ fo salvation until tears ran down my step-father’s face, founded the American Race Track Chaplaincy (cf. Who’sWho in Religion, 2nd edn. 1977). Dr. R.G. Lee who held to all five points of the TULIP acrostic of Doctrine put it in his will for Dr. Campbell to. preach his funeral. Dr. Lee had five preachers, but as Dr. Campbell use to laugh and say, “Only one of them was legal.” Both men were noted soul-winners and if you will bother to do some research in your library you will probably find works by Phillip Doddridge, Thomas Boston, and others, Sovereign grace evangelistic works. Boston’s Human Nature in Its Fourfold State won J.L. Dagg, the first Baptist Minister in the South (that I know of) to write a book on theology. O yes, and you ought to go looking at Basil Manly, Sr.’s sermons on microfilm in the library there. He has two sermons on Rev. 3:20. Dr. J.P. Boyce had a sermon (so his biography indicates on Rev.3:20. Puritans David Clarkson had a sermon on that text of about 60-80 pages in print. John Flavel has a whole book of sermons (11)devoted to Rev.3:20 as an evangelistic messages. Now you signed the Abstract did you not? Did you put your tongue in your cheeck, when you signed Articel V? If we had some professors who would do the research, we would be able to teach that each one of the doctrines is an invitation, that the limited atonement people started the great missionary movement, that this theology produced the Great Awakenings and America and its freedoms, that it is far mnore intensely evangelistic and invitational than any of the other views being taught today. Imagine what we might see, if we got back to the originals.
Dr. Reid,
I was blessed by your article. I believe that Christ-followers who are united under the Biblical Gospel and who love Jesus deeply and want to love others like Jesus did, can accomplish a great deal more for the Kingdom, than a bunch of cookie-cutter theologians who just sit around in their self-exaltation because they are “right”. Without unveiling my theological tendencies, I would like to ask a question that perhaps you could address here or in a separate post at some point.
I serve at a church that is Elder led and committed to expository preaching; however, we have chosen not to define ourselves doctrinally on this point. Our Statement of Faith covers the essentials (as does the BFM), but it does not define a theological position on issues such as the rapture, limited atonement, unconditional election, etc. As teaching elder, when these issues come up in Scripture, I do not avoid them, nor do I neglect to give my perspective. I seek (by God’s grace), to teach the Word of God unapologetically but with humility.
My question to you is…is this a ticking time bomb? Is this possible? We have elders who fall on different sides of the fence on issues like unconditional election, and we have folks in the church who do as well. Our vision is to be united under the Gospel, and from that unity, to proclaim it faithfully to the nations. But are we self-deceived?
I would greatly appreciate your insights into this question.
Sincerely,
ken