southern baptist young leader initiative - part 2
I've heard back from many of you regarding my
posting yesterday on the current leadership of the sbc's attempt to reconnect with younger leaders. I think yesterday was my "positive" posting... today is a bit more "realistic" (cynical?).
1) First of all,
some of you have emailed me or asked if there is a place for young sbc leaders to dialogue. Apparently, there is
a young leaders discussion board located at LifeWay's website. I've never posted, partially b/c I didn't know it existed until recently. My gut tells me that perhaps blogging is the better place for this to happen... which brings me to the second point...
2) Secondly,
my buddy (fellow black sheep?) Reggie pointed out that during the meeting some of the LifeWay guys kept saying that LifeWay already has the answers to the questions that we were asking. For instance, one "young leader" asked: "Is there a way we can reach all this information you're talking about via a ONE-STOP web site?" Makes sense: save time and energy, consolidate information. The response was a bit tongue-and-cheek: "There's already a search engine that searches all sbc-related sites. As long as YOU have linked to US, your information will be available. The search engine works like Google. I'm sure most of you know what Google is. [He actually said that!]" It just REEKED of arrogance.
3) Aaaannndd, along those lines,
there was also a sense that we weren't really being listened to by some of the folks there. Could've been my predisposition to distrust the situation, but I am primarily referring to one gentleman (the dude mentioned above) who had a response to everything we said. At one point, he even stated: "If you want to make change happen, you need to contact this certain committee of six people who meets before September of every year and determines the next National Convention's agenda."
WHA--!?! If that's the case, then why the heck did you invite all of us out here!? In reflection, though, it was really only a handful of guys (2-3) that really sent off that institutionalized-vibe. I was encouraged by Jimmy Draper (President of LifeWay) and Bob White (President of the Georgia Baptist Convention) in that they
frequently said: "That's a good question! We have no answer for that. That's why we need to work together to find a solution."
Again, this is my
realistic post. I kind of lament it b/c most of us are already keenly aware of the problems in the sbc and other denominations--it may serve no good to smack a dead horse here (um, I'm refering to the
issues). On the other hand, I feel I buttered you up in my previous post and may have made you feel all warm-and-fuzzy that things were on the up-and-up.
I have my doubts, and I have my hopes.I guess the long-and-short of it is this: It seems that some of the current leadership of the SBC is interested in hearing our thoughts and letting us make strategic/critical decisions (I think Jimmy Draper is much more legit than others).
It also seems that they are willing to listen to us as long as we move our desired change/reform through their pre-existing system. This is something that many of us younger guys are really not interested in doing. I mean, who has the time to learn the bureaucratic ins-and-outs of a denomination? Let's get missional!! There's gotta be a way........
If you're a denominational guy and you stumbled upon this site, I'm glad you are here. I hope you'll lend your thoughts to the dialogue.
