Texas Baptists are historically-rooted

This week, I had the privilege of welcoming and sharing vision with our inaugural group of “GC2 Navigators,” a group of about 30 who met at our Dallas offices for a two-day training in advance of their forthcoming GC2 Pilot Program. 

I am so grateful for these seasoned ministry leaders who are receiving this highly specialized training, while also helping us to develop it further, and for the beautifully diverse churches all across the state who have agreed to participate with them in the pilot program launching in September.

These Navigators will walk alongside church leaders in a spiritual process to discern where they are, where the Spirit is leading, and a few next steps to strengthen their Great Commandment and Great Commission practice. There is great excitement about what the Lord will do through this initiative in the days ahead.

The annual meeting of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) in Toronto concluded last Friday. We are thankful for days filled with worship, challenge, encouragement, testimonies, learning and sweet fellowship. 

Several Texas Baptists staff members were presenters at conferences and in breakouts. They shared relevant information with excellence, benefiting Baptists around the world. Since 1905, Texas Baptists leaders have contributed to the work of the BWA, including figures such as George W. Truett, who served as president in the 1930s.

Texas Baptists partner with the Baptist World Alliance through the Worldwide option of the Cooperative Program. This allows churches to connect and partner with Baptists around the world through giving, praying and going. In partnership with Baptist churches in other countries, they advance the gospel in word and deed.

 In last week’s update, I shared that Texas Baptists are gospel-centered. The lostness and brokenness in Texas and around the world are our biggest challenges. Fulfilling the Great Commandment and the Great Commission is our greatest task. Partnership with Baptists around the world through the BWA for the sake of the gospel is our greatest opportunity to finish the task. 

As I reflect on the third Texas Baptists descriptor, namely historically-rooted, and on the early church’s description in Acts 2, I’m reminded that our faith is rooted around the table of Christ, where he commands us to “remember him.”

The Christian faith is rooted in a historical event: the death and resurrection of Jesus. The church today finds its bearings in the story of the early church. It is in remembering the work of Christ, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the apostles that we find ourselves.

Texas Baptists remember our roots. We celebrate 140 years of rich history. We are mindful that what we experience in the present and what we hope for in the future is built on a solid foundation. Many have given, worked, served, sacrificed and passed the baton to us. When there were five different Baptist state bodies in Texas, leaders such as B.H. Carroll, J.B. Cranfill, J.M. Carroll and Robert C. Buckner had the vision of bringing these bodies together to form one convention for better cooperation and kingdom work effectiveness. The first meeting of the BGCT took place on June 29, 1886.

Article II of the BGCT’s constitution read as follows,

“The object of this Convention shall be to awaken and stimulate among the churches the greatest possible activity in evangelism, missions, Christian education and benevolent work and enterprises; to cultivate a closer cooperation among the churches and promote harmony of feeling and concert of action in advancing all the interests of the Redeemer’s Kingdom.”

A few years earlier, Robert C. Buckner had established the Buckner Orphans Home, serving orphans and widows after the Civil War. Baylor University and what became the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor had been established in 1845. Soon, other universities were established, including Howard Payne, Hardin-Simmons and Decatur (now Dallas) Baptist.

In 1905, Baylor Theological Seminary was founded by Texas Baptists in Waco as part of Baylor University, which three years later would become Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission (CLC) was established in 1950, the first ethics agency related to a Baptist convention in the U.S., contributing later to the formation of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The precursor of the SBC’s Cooperative Program, the $75 million campaign, was led by George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas. The first missionaries to Brazil, the Bagbys, were from First Baptist Church, Waco. 

These are but a few examples of the rich history of Texas Baptists. While we cannot live in the past, we recognize that our history informs our identity and our future.

Let us remember what Christ did for us. Let us remember how the early church lived out the gospel. Let us remember the history of Texas Baptists as we live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.