It IS about the Money...and it is about the Students

As the Tennessee Baptist Convention gathers for what may be a doozy of a Baptist gathering, the meeting will likely involve contentious discussion about Carson-Newman and Belmont University. For the messengers in attendance, I hope we will not overlook a large contingent of people who will not be there: the students. Frankly, Carson-Newman doesn't have enough of them and for whatever reason, the declines in enrollment have not been highlighted in the Tennessee Baptist Convention state paper. Belmont may have twice as many students as Carson-Newman, but the vast majority of those belong to denominations other than Baptist, but they are still our students, even if the institutions are not owned by our convention.

This year's convention will have an impact on every student at Carson-Newman and Belmont, yet the students from these two institutions are not likely to personally represented at the microphones in the aisles of Bellevue Baptist Church. Most will be on their respective campuses, just looking forward to a Thanksgiving break. They will, however, be watching how the people at this convention act, speak, and deliberate on their respective institutions.

As we deliberate, let's think of how we define "the church" as the body of believers and not a brick-and-mortar institution. Carry that thought through to how we speak of these two schools. Much will be said of the physical assets that Tennessee Baptists call Belmont and Carson-Newman. From a student's perspective, however, college is about the body of students, faculty, and staff much more that the physical plant or the names on the buildings. So, the next time someone stands on the floor of a convention meeting and cries out, "Liar", "Thief"...it is naive to believe that the students will not take that personally. Please take the rhetoric down a notch, ok?