Southern Baptist Calvinists & Non-Calvinists Make Peace… Maybe

This article was originally posted on BP News on November 29, 2007, edited by Mark Kelly.

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Stereotypes Hinder SBC Calvinism Dialogue

Stereotypes often hinder honest dialogue about the influence of Reformed theology in Southern Baptist life, participants were told at a November 26-28, 2007 conference on Calvinism and the SBC. The three-day gathering was co-sponsored by Founders Ministries and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and held at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina. Founders Ministries formed in 1982 to advance Reformed theology in SBC churches.

When organizers began planning for the “Building Bridges” event, they hoped that misunderstandings would be dispelled, said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. “We prayed that biblical and theological positions would be presented clearly, that truth and God’s Word would be so clearly presented that we would understand it,” he told the 550 conference participants. “We prayed that we would deal with misperceptions, stereotypes and caricatures.”

Charles Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., addressed four stereotypes about non-Calvinists that hinder understanding:

1. “Non-Calvinists are more concerned about numbers than theology.” In a denomination that uses numbers to evaluate progress and in which many churches are theologically weak, this claim could be made about most Southern Baptist churches, regardless of their position on Calvinism, Lawless said. While all Southern Baptists ought to be concerned when churches dilute the Gospel message in the name of contemporary outreach, they also are right to be concerned that some Southern Baptists never ask the numerical questions and seem to rest on their theology even as their churches reach nobody for God’s glory.
2. “Non-Calvinists promote pragmatic church growth.” If a person reads books written by church growth experts, it is easy to see why the pragmatism of that movement would be questioned. Critics of the church growth movement, however, sometimes use extreme examples to unfairly criticize the entire movement, Lawless said. Contextualizing a presentation of the Gospel to fit a listener’s culture is not the same thing as pragmatism, he said, and critics must be careful not to confuse them.
3. “Non-Calvinists used faulty approaches to evangelism and are unconcerned about regenerate church membership.” Southern Baptists should be concerned about poor approaches to evangelism, but not all uses of gospel tracts, invitations and calls to decision should be automatically dismissed. The founder of the church growth movement, Donald McGavran, clearly tied evangelism to discipleship and responsible church membership, Lawless said.
4. “Non-Calvinists do not like Calvinists.” It is not Calvinism or Calvinists that concern many non-Calvinists, but rather the accusation made by a few Calvinists that non-Calvinists are less than gospel preachers because they do not accept the five points of Calvinism, Lawless said.

Nathan Finn, instructor of church history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest N.C., spoke to four myths about Calvinists:

1. “Calvinism is a threat to evangelism.” While there is little doubt that Southern Baptist Calvinists are not as evangelistic as they should be, that only makes them similar to everyone else in the Southern Baptist Convention, Finn said. In fact, many prominent Southern Baptist Calvinists have been very active in promoting evangelism. One of the first actions taken by R. Albert Mohler Jr., a prominent Calvinist, when he became president of Southern Seminary, was to establish the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth.
2. “Southern Baptist Calvinists are opposed to invitations.” While some Calvinists are uncomfortable with the “easy believism” of some altar calls, they are not opposed to public invitations if it is made clear that walking the aisle and praying a prayer are not the same thing as regeneration and repentance, Finn said.
3. “Calvinism is more or less equivalent to hyper-Calvinism.” The latter is an aberrant view of Calvinism that embraces several doctrines that genuinely stifle evangelism, Finn said. Contemporary Southern Baptist Calvinists uniformly reject hyper-Calvinism as a perversion of the doctrines of grace and are regularly frustrated that so many non-Calvinists confuse the two movements.
4. “Authentic Baptists are not Calvinists.” Whether or not Calvinism is biblical is a point worthy of debate, but the influence of Calvinism among Baptists in general and Southern Baptists in particular is a matter of historical record that cannot be disputed, Finn said. Far from being semi-Presbyterians, Southern Baptist Calvinists have been defenders of Baptist distinctives.

Finn said bridges can be built between Calvinist and non-Calvinist Southern Baptists through common commitments to the Gospel, historical Baptist distinctives, laboring together in the Great Commission and an attitude of loving humility.

“The Calvinism issue is not going to go away, so Southern Baptists must be willing to openly discuss and debate the doctrines of grace in an effort to be biblically accurate and, just maybe, come to a greater theological consensus in the years to come,” Finn said. “If we are to move toward a more cooperative future, we must all be committed to defending and commending our particular convictions, but never at the expense of either our cooperation with each other or our personal sanctification.”

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My Observations On The 4 Non-Calvinist Myths

1. “Non-Calvinists are more concerned about numbers than theology.” Charles Lawless tries to counter this argument about anti-numbers/pro-theology with the concern of churches who do not evangelize at all. The problem is that Non-Calvinists have evangelism itself wrong. They think they’re doing evangelism by performing community services and never actually sharing the Gospel itself. And what is often shared as a Gospel message is in the context of surburbia: live festive music, bounce house for kids, BBQ hot dogs and warm sunny day. And what is the Gospel message shared in this context? “Yes, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, but, hey, we’re also all about fun and music and being relevant.” And what gets reported at the local association or state convention newsletter? Not that 100 people heard the Gospel message of a holy and righteous God calling sinners to repent or that they repented of their sins. But that 100 people enjoyed the live festive music, BBQ hot dogs, bounce house for their kids, and a bright sunshiny warm day, and that Fuzzy-Hearted, Gospel-Light Baptist Church shared the Gospel message in a fun, relevant way that caused the people to feel fuzzy-hearted to believe in Christ and get baptized. And then, yep, brag about the numbers.
2. “Non-Calvinists promote pragmatic church growth.” Charles Lawless brings to the topic table the contrasting “contextualization” vs. “pragmatism.” Unfortunately, he does not go into detail of how one is to know if they are being contextual in Gospel ministry or being pragmatic. This is where Calvinists and Non-Calvinists get into heated debates against each other. Southern Baptist Calvinists accuse Southern Baptist Non-Calvinists of being pragmatists, while Non-Calvinists see their actions not as pragmatic but as contextual. This is where reading church forefathers helps. For example, reading D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Preachers & Preaching clarifies what is contextual and what is pragmatic in the pulpit ministry.
3. “Non-Calvinists used faulty approaches to evangelism and are unconcerned about regenerate church membership.” If Charles Lawless is correct about his assessment of Donald McGavran, then why had so many pastors, missionaries and churches who advocate Donald McGavran witnessed great numbers of unregenerates in their church membership books, and why did it take Calvinists (e.g. Mark Dever and Jim Ellif) to point this problem out? Further, why was it a Calvinist (Tom Ascol) who wanted to forward a resolution on Regenerate Church Membership at the last SBC Annual Meeting?
4. “Non-Calvinists do not like Calvinists.” Not all, but some Non-Calvinist Southern Baptists have treated Calvinist Southern Baptists with contempt, including those within the ranks of seminary faculty, local association leadership and state convention leadership. But Charles Lawless doesn’t even address that.

My Response To The 4 Calvinist Myths

1. “Calvinism is a threat to evangelism.” Let’s see here. Was it not the Southern Baptist Non-Calvinists who wanted to buy the copyrights to Evangelism Explosion (owned by the Calvinistic Presbyterian Church Of America)? And when the PCA refused to sell the copyrights, LifeWay came up with F.A.I.T.H., an identical evangelism program to that of E.E.? So if Southern Baptists mimicked F.A.I.T.H from the Calvinist’s E.E. in concept and design, who again is being accused of threatening against evangelism?
2. “Southern Baptist Calvinists are opposed to invitations.” What Non-Calvinist churches do is offer the public invitation first, and then the follow-up counseling afterwards. What is typically seen is that, for example, out of 100 people who come forward during this type of invitation, maybe, at best, 5-10 of those are of any genuine converts or recommitments. Why not reverse the order? Those who have been convicted from the preaching of God’s word, first, set up an appointment to meet with the pastor/elders for counseling. Then, afterwards, based on the recomendation of the pastors/elders who have determined that genuine work of salvation has occurred, invite those individuals to publicly give a testimony of their faith before the congregation.
3. “Calvinism is more or less equivalent to hyper-Calvinism.” These Southern Baptists do not know their history.
4. “Authentic Baptists are not Calvinists.” Same as above, these Southern Baptists do not know their history (e.g. 1689 Baptist Confession Of Faith).

Final Assessment

The arguments (aka “myths”) above are not on the same platform. The arguments against (or myths about) Non-Calvinists are genuine. They REALLY exist. They are not myths at all.

The arguments (or myths about) against Calvinists are myths or mere ignorance. The latter two simply requiring Non-Calvinist Southern Baptists to read (or re-read) their Baptist History books.