EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated.
NASHVILLE (BP) – SBC President Clint Pressley urged Southern Baptists toward unity in his report to Executive Committee members, even referencing a recent online callout between two seminary presidents to make one of his points.
Pressley made seven points, each taken from Ephesians 4:1-3 and the “Walking Worthy” theme of next June’s annual meeting. His third focused on verse 2 and urged those listening to “be extremely careful about pride” and walk in a manner worthy of the calling with all humility.
“Just a couple of days ago, some of you might have seen on social media the back-and-forth between Danny Akin and Al Mohler,” Pressley said.
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary recently posted a clip on its Facebook account of its president speaking in chapel, sporting a gray hoodie and good-naturedly ribbing his longtime friend, who is known for his suit-and-tie dedication.
Mohler responded with his own video, speaking on a need to reflect decorum, but perhaps just as important, because “we, each, have reached an age where one of the kindest things we can do for humanity is to wear as many clothes as possible.”
“It was a great day,” Pressley said to EC members. “That’s just a little picture of the going back-and-forth, the camaraderie, the being able to laugh at yourself. To build relationships and have disagreements, but do it in a way that honors the Lord Jesus and maintains fellowship.”
His first point was to be extremely vigilant about doctrine.
“We want to be strong with what we believe [and] clear on what that is,” he said. “We want to love our confession of faith … [and] affirm it with gladness and joy, with seriousness.”
Pressley referenced time spent digging through the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives and discussions from the 1970s into 1980, when the SBC’s Conservative Resurgence began to find its footing. “I listened … to things I never dreamed they would talk about,” he said. “We need to be clear on the Gospel.”
Other points called for Southern Baptists to be extremely focused on self-control, extremely patient with one another and extremely concerned for one another.
“To actually think the best of each other. What a good thing when someone extends the benefit of the doubt,” he said on when people hear what someone has said and assume the worst rather than reach out to the speaker personally.
“Let’s ask a direct question instead of putting one another on blast,” Pressley said. “Not only that, but why don’t you and I allow for some mistakes? We’re all going to make them.”
His final point called on Southern Baptists to protect their fellowship.
The SBC is “something we have invested in, something we believe in,” he said.
“What does the text say in verse 3? ‘With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager’ – oh, there’s the word, circle it and star it – ‘eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ Eager to keep it, not eager to tear it down. Not eager to destroy it. Not eager to chunk rocks, which there are some things to criticize. Not eager to do that, but to be unified, to have supernatural unification around one truth that is the Gospel.
“The Gospel keeps us together. And our Gospel-centered churches will keep us together as a Convention.”
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