The SBC And The Social Gospel

Tim Rogers of SBC Today waxes eloquent about the SBC's possible movement toward a return to the Social Gospel. Here is an excerpt from that post:

Before I articulate my thesis I want our readers to understand a couple of things. First, I am not against doing social ministry. I believe that every church must involve herself in reaching out to community projects and other secular ministries in order to help meet the needs of the poor. Second, I do not discount the power of meeting the needs of someone that is in need of help. It certainly opens a door that otherwise would not be opened. Third, I am by no means insinuating that the ministries mentioned below are pushing for a Social Gospel. With that said, allow me to reveal my concern that we may be heading down a road in a return to a Social Gospel movement within the SBC.

Interesting prospects---one can only hope that there is a future for social ministries within the SBC. Others are worried that the SBC is moving beyond Fundamentalist positions since the Fundamentalists won the war to drive the Moderates/Liberals out of the state and national Conventions. The battle for biblical inerrancy---the hill on which the Fundamentalists set their stakes to die on is no longer an issue within the SBC as they've already fought that battle and declared their self-victory. Inerrancy is pretty much set in stone within SBC life---what with the advent of the revision of the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000.

Because of this new battles have sprung up within the SBC---which causes great and major concerns for all Baptists---some Baptists such as the Southern Baptist Peter Lumpkins are worried that the SBC is moving too closely in the direction of legalistic confessional Dortian Calvinism/Semi-Hyper-Calvinism. Critics within and outside of the SBC are wondering what the future of the SBC holds. Can all the competing factions within the SBC ever stabilize? They must learn to in order for the Great Commission Resurgence to move forward. And what of the relationship between Southern and non-Southern Baptists---how will competing factions within the larger Baptist world effect our relations? Only time will tell how all of this will play out---so what are your thoughts?