Tennessee Baptist Convention - Clearly Divided

The votes at this year's Tennessee Baptist Convention meeting appear to speak for themselves. One vote, to soften the stance on using the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 as a measure of a committee nominee's doctrinal accountability, failed by a 7 vote margin 497 to 490 (50.4% to 49.6%).

One proposal from the Concerned Tennessee Baptist party would have given the elected TBC President additional power to nominate two, hand-picked candidates. East Tennessee's timesnew.net reported,

"However, the amendment failed when the convention voted 338-331, which was a just shy of a 50.53 percent to roughly 49.47 percent vote — far short of the required two-thirds majority... Expressing his support of increasing the powers of the TBC president, Ron Stewart said, “What’s best for the Tennessee Baptist Convention is for a balance of power."

I'm not quite sure what Ron Stewart considers a balance of power noting that his Concerned Tennessee Baptist candidates have clearly dominated the TBC's elections in recent history.

George Miller offers thoughtful reflection on some of the proceedings at this year's convention. You can read the full context here. I believe he is on target with the following,

"It is no wonder we are divided as a Convention. First of all, even at an annual convention, the worship of our Lord should have priority over our business sessions. If we spent more time in worship together, we'd probably need less time for the business sessions. Secondly, if we can't worship together, how can we possibly work together for the glory of God. We're divided in our work because we are divided in our worship. Worship must always come before work. God is always more concerned about who we are than what we do. When we again make worshiping together a priority in our Convention, we'll see our divisions being dissolved and God working through our Convention to reach the lost and unchurched people of our state. And what is true in our convention is true in our individual churches as well. A house divided against itself cannot stand."

There are other ways our convention can take care of business using technology throughout the year...perhaps getting some of the nitty-gritty business out of the way electronically might allow for better time together for fellowship and worship.

And not a peep from Will in Guatemala. I am trying not to be a worrywart.