1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Florida Baptist Witness on Floyd

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Jimmy C, May 11, 2006.

  1. Jimmy C

    Jimmy C New Member

    Joined:
    May 13, 2003
    Messages:
    1,250
    Likes Received:
    0
    http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/5915.article

    I dont know if the Florida Baptist Witness is viewed as a conservative or moderate newspaper, but if it is viewed as a conservative paper the author of the above article has probably dug his own grave within conservative circles - of course there is always Associated Baptist Press!

    One other note of interest, Floyd had promised to answer a list of quesitons raised by one of the bloggers - that offer was later rescinded. The Link to Tad Thompson's blog follows

    http://pastortad.blogspot.com/2006/05/interview-update-dr-floyd-declines-to.html

    Burleson as president may be picking up steam!
     
  2. RandR

    RandR New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2003
    Messages:
    348
    Likes Received:
    0
    I think the op-ed piece is by a Florida pastor and is not technically a Florida Baptist Witness editorial.

    That being said, it is unlikely that the op-ed would have been allowed to run if the editor and/or other Florida convention leadership didn't agree.

    This could get really interesting, which is why I REAALLLLYYY hope that Floyd's opponent does NOT end up being Wade B.
     
  3. J.R.Maddox

    J.R.Maddox New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2006
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    0
    WHy is that RandR? Do you see another nominee being in a better position?

    J
     
  4. Joseph_Botwinick

    Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2000
    Messages:
    17,527
    Likes Received:
    0
    Al Mohler would do quite nicely for me.

    Joseph Botwinick
     
  5. RandR

    RandR New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2003
    Messages:
    348
    Likes Received:
    0
    JR,

    I say that because Wade has too much baggage. Don't get me wrong. I'd prefer him to Floyd, I just don't think he can win.
     
  6. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    15,549
    Likes Received:
    15
    http://www.abpnews.com/www/1021.article

    Ronnie Floyd nomination sparks talk of weak SBC support, fire-truck baptistry

    By Greg Warner

    Published: May 11, 2006

    SPRINGDALE, Ark. (ABP) -- News of the nomination of Arkansas megachurch pastor Ronnie Floyd to be the next Southern Baptist Convention president has brought new attention to his church's high-tech evangelism methods and lackluster financial support of the denomination he wants to lead.

    Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., is the choice of the convention's inerrantist leaders, who have controlled the presidency for almost three decades, usually without opposition. The presidency has been the key to gaining and retaining control of the 16 million-member denomination and its agencies.

    But Floyd's nomination, announced May 7, brought a lukewarm reception from many conservative Southern Baptists anxious to see a more open election process and more exemplary support of the Cooperative Program, the SBC's central ministry budget.

    A blue-ribbon SBC panel recently urged the election of officers who come from churches that contribute at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program -- a standard few recent presidents have met.

    "First Baptist Springdale had nearly $12 million in undesignated receipts in 2005 and yet gave only $32,000 -- a mere 0.27 percent -- through the Cooperative Program," Florida pastor Michael Petty wrote May 11 in a guest editorial in the Florida Baptist Witness. "I do not see that as faithfulness and cooperation."

    The Springdale church and its satellite congregation, the Church at Pinnacle Hills, contributed a total of $32,000 to the CP last year, according to the SBC and the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. That's about one-fourth of 1 percent of its undesignated receipts of $11,952,137 -- or one-40th of the goal set by the SBC's leaders.

    Another $189,000 was designated for Southern Baptist causes through the SBC allocation budget, said Springdale administrative assistant Sharon Damron. But that bypassed the Cooperative Program budgets at the state and national levels.

    The church reports total missions expenditures of $1,637,503, Damron said, which includes $63,777 for the SBC's special mission offerings. That total also includes funding for the church's extensive television ministry, she said.

    Floyd, one of Southern Baptists' most visible leaders in recent years, has served as president of the SBC Pastors' Conference, chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and a member of the special committee that restructured the denominational agencies supported by the Cooperative Program.

    "… I do not believe we need to go to Greensboro and elect a president who does not demonstrate faithfulness to the convention he is being nominated to lead," wrote Petty, pastor of First Baptist Church of Marianna.

    Petty predicted a better nominee will emerge before the June 13-14 SBC meeting in Greensboro, N.C.

    "That's the point, there will be another candidate," added Benjamin Cole, a Texas pastor and leader of a loose network of young conservatives who recently issued a declaration of repentance calling for more openness from the SBC's leaders.

    "There is an unbelievable unrest about Ronnie Floyd's nomination," Cole told Associated Baptist Press.

    Cole and others said many conservatives are also upset about Springdale's evangelism techniques, such as the fire-truck baptistry that is part of its children's ministry.

    The unique baptistry, created by Disney designer Bruce Barry, is part of a $270,000 high-tech project for the church's children's worship area that includes video games, a light show, music videos and a bubble machine, according to Christianity Today. When a child is baptized in the fire-truck-shaped baptistry, sirens blare and confetti is fired out of cannons.

    "Putting a talking head in front of kids for an hour doesn't work," the children's minister told the magazine. "This is a visual generation. We need to use technology to the max."

    "This is blasphemous!" said SBC conservative leader Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, when told of the practice.

    In a May 9 interview with the Arkansas Baptist News, Floyd defended creative evangelism and urged Southern Baptists to become innovative in their strategies.

    “Our great gospel needs to be packaged in ways the culture can understand and receive,” he said, noting that baptisms in Southern Baptist churches continue to decline -- down 4 percent in 2005.

    “Relevance is more important than institutional loyalty,” he said, because taking the gospel to the whole world is more important than anything else Baptists do. He noted the denomination exists to serve the churches, not the other way around, and Southern Baptists must remain local-church centered.

    Floyd told the newspaper that, as president, he would emphasize spiritual renewal, which he identified as the SBC’s greatest need.

    “If elected president, I desperately want to lead us to spiritual renewal -- personally, one-on-one with Jesus and corporately within churches," he said. "We’ve got to come back to a mighty, fresh touch of God. Pastors need to proclaim it as never before. If we don’t see it happen, we will find ourselves in a desperate situation. We must love God first and take the Good News around the world.”

    In addition to spiritual renewal, Floyd said the other objectives he would bring to the office would be reinforcing the centrality of the local church within the SBC and reorienting the denomination toward the future.

    In explaining the vision he said persuaded him to be nominated, Floyd said, “I believe at this time I have no choice but to do this.” He said God put some things on his heart “to expand the life that I have left to advance the gospel across the world."

    “We need to clarify the mission -- taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to ends of the earth,” he said. “Everything else is secondary to that. … Missions is the only thing that can keep us together.”


    -- Charlie Warren of the Arkansas Baptist News contributed to this article.
     
  7. Jimmy C

    Jimmy C New Member

    Joined:
    May 13, 2003
    Messages:
    1,250
    Likes Received:
    0
    The autor of the Florida Baptist Witness posted a comment on Tad Thompson's Blog explaining his motives for writing the editorial

    You can find it at http://www.pastortad.blogspot.com/

    Hey Brother Tad,
    I wrote the Florida Baptist Witness article. My intention was not to smear Dr Ronnie Floyd. In fact, the issue is not the man, the issue is Southern Baptsits as a cooperative body of believers.

    There was a day when we, as Baptists, were fighting for a cause. The fight is over, for the most part. Indeed we must remain vigilent and never allow our convention to return to the former, less-than-glory days. During those long and sad years the fight was for mere survival. Men were advanced for the position of SBC President who also had dismal records of CP cooperation. However, that was winked at for a "higher good."

    Now that the fight is behind us, I feel we must take up a new fight. This fight might be our greatest challenge yet. The CP is indeed the golden egg of the SBC. However, our younger generation is not as committed to the CP as the older generation. This is a very dangerous trend. Just as we labor to disciple our younger people to be bold witnesses and to go into the dark places around the world with the Gospel, we must also disciple them to support the CP, our funding vehicle through which the going is financed.

    To me it is senseless to select a leader who is not a model of the matters we, as a convention, hold dear. The CP is dear to me. I believe it is dear to many others too.

    The point of electing a president is not about completing a resume for anyone. It is not about bestowing a title that will remain with a man for all the days his name is remembered. It is not about honoring someone. It is about the men, women, boys and girls who make up the Southern Baptist Convention and about the millions worldwide who do not yet know Jesus Christ. We, as a convention, have chosen the CP as the primary funding vehicle through which we will reach those millions who do not yet know.

    I do not intend to make troube, I simply intend to make sense.

    Many Blessings
    Michael Petty
     
  8. J.D.

    J.D. Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2006
    Messages:
    3,553
    Likes Received:
    11
    This thread is like dejavu, only all over again.
     
Loading...