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 From the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary online journal

The Mission of Today’s Church: Baptist Leaders Look at Modern Faith Issues
Edited by R. Stanton Norman.
Nashville: B&H Academic, 2007. 210 pages. Softcover, $16.99. 
 
This collection of twelve essays originated with a conference entitled “The Mission of Today’s Church,” held at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in February 2005 under the auspices of The Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry. The Center for Baptist Theology and Ministry at New Orleans was directed by the editor, R. Stanton Norman, at the time of the conference. Since then, Dr. Norman has taken an administrative position at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. Steve Lemke, the provost at New Orleans Seminary, has since been tasked with directing the work of this important locus of Baptist thought and practice. The purpose of the book is to explore what “Baptists believe about the nature and mission of the church and how that mission is contextualized in our contemporary world” (ix). The book meets its goal, but raises unintended questions about divergent views of the nature of the church and its mission. 

On the one hand, the commonalities manifested by Baptists within the book should be stressed. On the other hand, the divergences expressed within the book should be noted, too. Below, we consider the book from the perspective of both unity and diversity with regard to Southern Baptist understandings of the Great Commission, the nature of the church, and the denomination’s direction. (Kenneth D. Keathley’s excellent essay on divine sovereignty and human salvation draws upon the Great Commission, but it is a heavier theological piece that is not easily classified within this book.)  First, it should be noted that the authors of the book are all Southern Baptists and are dedicated to Great Commission ministry within that denominational context. Beside Norman, the lineup includes one pastor, one state convention executive, three school presidents, three theology professors, and three other denominational servants. The preponderance of educators and denominational servants should not be seen as negative, however, for the writers collectively have many generations of pastoral experience between them. Moreover, the lives and words of each writer indicate that they are committed to serving the churches through their various roles.  

Second, the editor comments that the authors are each passionately committed to fulfilling the Great Commission within the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. There is little doubt in this regard, but the essays stress the mission of the church to varying degrees. The essays primarily devoted to consideration of the Great Commission as a practice include those by James Jenkins (“Three View of the Church’s Mission in the Black Community”), Charles L. Quarles (“Explaining the Gospel to Kids”), Ed Stetzer, (“The Missional Nature of the Church and the Future of Southern Baptist Convention Churches”), and Barrett Duke, (“Being Salt and Light in a Post-Christian Culture”). The essays by Jenkins and Quarles are perhaps the most practical, even as their practicality necessarily entails a restriction of their subject matter to the black community and to children, respectively. Unfortunately, none of the writers were tasked with actually defining theologically and missiological what the Great Commission is and means. 

The essays by Stetzer and Duke are more theoretical, even as they address the mission of the church in the world today. Both men address the problem of the relationship between culture and church. Duke carefully threads his way between the opposing reactions of engagement and retreat as the churches are confronted by an increasingly post-Christian, post-modern culture. Duke laments the loss of belief in a universal moral truth that accompanies post-modernism, even as he brings Scripture to bear in order to define and propose a relevant Christian worldview. Stetzer’s essay is much less careful, for even as he notes the shift to a post-modern paradigm, he is loath to offer any criticism of it. Rather, Stetzer argues for contextualization or cultural relevancy, placing himself squarely against the dominant Southern Baptist tendency to regard the culture as a scandal. (Stetzer also argues for an expanded role for younger leaders.) The increasingly stark differences between the views of theologians like Stetzer, who want to downplay cultural problems in the name of evangelistic effectiveness, and the views of theologians like Duke, who want to maintain biblical truth in an increasingly anti-Christian environment, requires further thought by Southern Baptist intellectuals. 

Third, there are a number of essays that consider the local churches, including offerings by David S. Dockery (“The Church, Worship, and the Lord’s Supper”), R. Stanton Norman (“Together We Grow: Congregational Polity as a Means of Corporate Sanctification”), and Jerry Sutton (“Congregational Polity and Its Strategic Limitations”). Dockery intends to recover a Reformation doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, including the spiritual presence of Christ within the worshipping congregation and the imagery of the supper as the visible Word. Dockery correctly argues that the supper should be “more than a mere appendage to the preaching service” (49). However, the place of the Lord’s Supper as the expression of church communion and, therefore, of church discipline (i.e. excommunion) is remarkably absent. Norman draws upon many years of advocating biblical ecclesiology by defending congregational polity as a means of holiness. Sutton, on the other hand, argues against congregational polity as strategically limited, even as he denies that there is a discoverable “biblical model” for the church (citing Millard Erickson; 113). As with the divergence between Stetzer and Duke, so the divergence between Sutton and Norman is noticeable, if not intentional. 

Finally, there are four essays that consider the progress of Southern Baptists. Two of the four essays are concerned with the cooperative nature of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jim Richards (“Cooperation among Southern Baptist Churches as Set Forth in Article 14 of the Baptist Faith and Message”) discovers four areas of cooperation within the common confession of Southern Baptists. Those concerned about the decline of Baptist identity and the rise of evangelical ecumenism should consider Richards’ very helpful paradigm. Providing yet another contrast to Sutton, Chad Owen Brand (“Toward a Theology of Cooperation”) argues from the hermeneutic of the regulative church principle that Scripture, including the descriptive passages in the book of Acts, certainly does provide a model for the church and for cooperation between churches. 

The remaining two essays, actually printed first, consider the progress of Southern Baptists as a whole. Daniel L. Akin (“Ten Mandates for Southern Baptists”) provides a balanced and comprehensive vision for the future of the Southern Baptist Convention, with regard to a recovery of biblical ecclesiology within the churches, with regard to the Great Commission focus of the denomination, and with regard to the function of its missionary and educational agencies. Finally, Charles S. Kelley (“Between Scylla and Charybdis: Reflections on the Baptist Way”) writes that Southern Baptists have always been a people of controversy and rehearses conflicts over Sunday School, evangelism, sin, and theology. He thus demonstrates that Baptist theology and polity have helped the Southern Baptist Convention to become a responsive and responsible organization that “emerging leaders” should enthusiastically embrace. “Feeling tensions is not a sign of death. It is a sign of life” (35).  

Reflecting upon the current Southern Baptist tensions on unintentional display in this book itself, Kelley’s words strike this middle-aged reviewer as concurrently biblical and relevant. Perhaps the older generation has some wisdom to relay to the middle and younger generations after all. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is rendering Southern Baptists a great service through the continuing work of The Center for Baptist Theology and Ministry. And B&H Academic, a division of LifeWay Resources, has rendered Southern Baptists a great service by publishing this fine collection. 

--Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Center for Theological Research
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary