The Journey Church in St. Louis does not have a future in Southern Baptist life.
The Missouri Baptist Convention Theological Study Committee wrote an exhaustive review of the “emerging church”. Clearly, one of the particular churches that fall within the “emerging church” is the Journey Church of St. Louis. Should the Committee’s view be accepted by Baptist churches in Missouri, the Journey is not helping the work of God and should be removed from its association with all aspects of Southern Baptist life. This church in St. Louis cannot be tolerated per the view of the Committee as recorded in their lengthy diatribe over the vulgarity and ruin that will come with the allowance such subversive influences as “emerging” or “young” or “not-like-us-old-folk” generational churches.
So remove the Journey from Southern Baptist life. So choke to death the future of Southern Baptist churches.
The committee’s exceptionally strong tone clearly leaves no room in Southern Baptist life for the emerging church. Though the committee was not charged with the task, the report does not address why the emerging church exists nor does it answer the question of why the emerging church is emerging apart from the main life of Southern Baptist influence.
There is always danger and problems with change. The emerging church demonstrates this well. The correct assessment of the Theological Committee on the over-indulgent nature of American society and it’s reflection in the emerging church style of “it’s-all-about-me” is true. The “ME” in many is still wanting to know what the sermon, activities, and mission of the church has to do with “MY” importance in the world. This is a constant problem. The Committee quoted the Missionary Alliance pastor A.W. Tozer commenting over 50 years ago on this issue in his time. However, if the pandering to the post-modern generation is wrong by these newbie emerging church preachers, how can they justify the spending of millions of dollars by The First Baptist Church of Arnold on a gymnasium for its members? Ten’s of thousand of dollars will go to the interest payments over and beyond the cost of the million dollar facility in Arnold. The cost and resources required for the recreation building is huge. What does any church’s attention to gyms, running tracks, latte machines, plush carpet, padded pews, “Christian cruises”, soccer leagues, and golf outings have to do with the Good News of God’s Glory in Jesus Christ?
These are the accepted appeasements of the established church to it’s members. These things are often explained as “ministry” and outreach. But they are in fact used mostly by the members of the church. In these accepted appeasements to the self interest for church members, the established Southern Baptist core forgets that the mission of God in the world isn’t about self. Because these normal indulgences — SBC established self interest that are not allowed to be questioned — Southern Baptist do not appeal to the post-modern generation. The post-modern generation does not have any desire to contribute to Southern Baptist self interest when they have their own self interest to fulfill.
The burden of the Committee was not to send out videos about the faults of people unlike them and not controlled by them in the emerging churches. (Which they did.) But they felt so disturbed by this new influence they took it upon themselves to attack it with a multi-media assault. I feel that the broad swipe taken at the current emerging church has placed a mandate on a narrow style of sermons, a narrow vocabulary accepted in MBC churches, and freezes the attempts to engage a truly pantheistic public majority that exist in American life.
Instead of understanding “why” things are changing, some are insisting nothing shall change. Hence, Missouri Baptist have found another way to restrain their importance to their God’s work.
