Conservative Pastor Awakens to the New Reality

A Story of Personal Reflections Regarding Lost Potential for Denominational Movements

Conservative Pastor Awakens to the New Reality

“Daniel, is that you in there?”

I said this as I lightly tapped on Daniel Wagner’s head when we connected in 1988 in Richmond, VA. We attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the woman’s missionary organization in Southern Baptist life.

A decade earlier I joined the staff of the Baptist association in Charlotte, NC. This was a missionary appointment by the Southern Baptist missions agency. In that role I was often asked to speak at churches regarding missions work.

My first year I was asked to speak on North American missions at a Charlotte church. It was Southern Baptist, but not a member of the local association. It was expelled a decade earlier, along with three other churches, over a church membership criteria dispute.

Daniel Wagner’s Reaction

A few weeks later I was in the church where Daniel Wagner was pastor. He called me into his office and confronted me about speaking in what he labeled a liberal church. He wanted to know where I stood. Would I cause trouble for the conservatives in the association?

I replied in a strong manner.

Daniel was unaware of my relationship with the church. The pastor’s father and my father had been ministry colleagues. My sister was previously a member of the church. While there she went through a life crisis, and the pastor--who was still the pastor--was very significant to her during that time.

I told Daniel anything the pastor asked me to do, I would do it unless it was illegal or immoral.

Daniel backed down and acknowledged the legitimacy of my speaking there. From then forward we were congenial colleagues in the ministry.

It is important to know that Daniel was one of the officers of a conservative group organized two decades earlier within the SBC. It was known as the Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship. This group wanted to be sure that conservative doctrine was always preserved within SBC life.

I understood this group and Daniel to be classic conservatives. They faithfully supported the denomination, and always wanted it to have doctrinal positions they could support.

That did not mean I agreed with Daniel. I saw him as part of the loyal opposition. He held strong convictions but was reasonable in the way he advocated for them. If he did not like what was going on in the association, he would talk directly with us and not around us.

A Korean Congregation

A year later we needed a church to sponsor a new Korean congregation. Daniel’s church was very missions minded.

We approached them about serving as the host and sponsor. Daniel was excited about it. He worked to get the necessary approvals. 

It required a church vote which took a negative turn. The church voted it down. They did not want those “foreigners” worshiping in their building.

Daniel was devastated. “I taught them to be missionary ‘over there’ but I forgot to tell them to be missionary at home.”

He was broken.

Daniel was pastor of the church for more than 20 years. Now he felt like a failure. Within two months he left the church and moved to a much smaller church in his hometown.

A Change of Heart?

Eight years later I ran into Daniel at the celebration in Richmond. By that time the controversy and impending split in the Southern Baptist Convention was rising to a loud crescendo. 

Daniel said, “George, what are we going to do about these people trying to take over the Southern Baptist Convention? They do not love the denomination like you and me.”

That is when I lightly tapped on his head and asked if he was in there.

Daniel was a true believer in the SBC. He saw the people seeking to control the SBC as fringe people who really did not believe in the comprehensive missions mandate of Southern Baptists. Nor support it with fervent prayer and sacrificial finances.

My thought about Daniel was right. He was part of the loyal opposition in the 1960s and 1970s, while remaining a true believer in the SBC movement.

He saw the 1980s opposition as not true believers. But it was already too late. The movement he helped launch became radicalized and there was no stopping it.

Reflections from George:

I knew by 1980 that the conflict to control the Southern Baptist Convention—that had gone public in the SBC annual meeting in 1979—would last my entire life. And, yes, it has. And, yes, the prospect and reality has frustrated me for the past 44 years.

Simultaneously, what has sustained me is my spiritual call to ministry, and my belief in the potential of the Baptist movement within the global constellation of Christian movements.

In 1980 I made a proactive commitment to myself that I would not to allow the SBC controversy to determine who and how I would serve. I would work with churches, pastors, and denominational structures regardless of their position in the conflict.

That allowed me to work with and befriend the Daniel Wagners (not his real name) in SBC life. With pastors and churches who were deep into the SBC controversy—on one side or the other— but needed help in focusing the Kingdom ministry of their church.

For more than two decades it allowed me to “fly under the radar” and for very few people to know where I stood on the SBC controversy.

Just after the turn into the 21st century, I was asked by a denominational leader to help him keep his regional denomination in the middle. I told him it was not possible, but I would help him try. He knew where I was regarding the controversy. But he asked around among people with various perspectives on the controversy who also knew me.

He specifically asked where I was regarding the conflict. He could not find anyone who knew where I was.

“Good,” I said, “it is working. I just want to serve churches and denominations.”

However, the next two decades produced another situation. It became one where if you did not take sides you were rejected by both sides.

As the song says, “I’m stuck in the middle with you.” (Oops! The line before that in the song says, “Clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right.”)

Neither side fully embraced me, which also allowed me to continue speaking into the ministry of a broad spectrum of people. And, I will continue to do so as long as I can.

I still believe—in the Great Commission, in the Christian movement, and in the potential Southern Baptists once had but may never have again.

Your Reactions:

How have your handled the controversies that derailed the best efforts of your denominational movement? What is or was the potential of your denominational movement that has been lost? What consideration are you giving to connecting nondenominationally since that is the fastest growing collection of churches in North America?