Head of LifeWay Addresses Young SBC Pastors' Concerns
by Allie Martin
February 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - An official with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) says the denomination is not looking to relax its standards when it comes to issues like the role of women in churches or the biblical response to homosexuality, but it does want its young ministers to know inclusiveness matters to the SBC.
Last summer Dr. Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the SBC, invited younger pastors in the denomination to voice their top concerns through a special Internet site. Results of that five-month effort were recently made public, and one of the top categories of concerns with younger leaders turned out to be issues of diversity and inclusiveness.
However, Draper asserts, these findings do not mean the Southern Baptists are is looking to start ordaining female pastors or relaxing the denomination's views on homosexuality. "We're not talking about compromise of theology or compromising biblical truth," he says, "but trying to fully embrace the diversity and the inclusiveness that does exist in scripture among age groups and peoples."
During last summer's annual SBC meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, the head of LifeWay voiced concern over what he identified as a deficiency of young pastors in leadership positions in the denomination. He afterward launched his Internet inquiry in order to gauge these young ministers' ideas.
According to the online forum, many young SBC pastors feel the church needs a more defined vision. "As with any large bureaucracy -- and that's what any large organization is -- the vision tends to get lost in the details," Draper notes. Based on the information he has gathered, the LifeWay spokesman continues, "I think what [young SBC pastors] are saying is 'We don't want to just have all this big organization and institutionalism -- we want to keep the vision of reaching people with the gospel and seeing that the nations of the world receive the gospel.'"
In an effort to inspire and involve emerging Southern Baptist leadership, Draper has held the first in what will be an ongoing series of meetings with young SBC pastors around the nation. Although he plans to retire from his position at the helm of the Christian resource provider a year from now, he has urged LifeWay to pursue several strategic challenges as its ministry advances deeper into the 21st century. Among those, he includes attracting and retaining the best and brightest people to the ministry, and continuing to champion SBC doctrines and values while acting as a unifying force that pulls Southern Baptists forward and together as a denomination.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
