A group described as “grassroots” Southern Baptists has announced the formation of the Conservative Baptist Network to address concerns about the direction of the denomination. The group will hold its first meeting June 8 in Orlando.
“We are concerned about the current road our Southern Baptist family is traveling. It is a road that is twisting what God’s word is saying about things like human sexuality, biblical racial reconciliation, and socialistic justice,” spokesperson Brad Jurkovich said in a news release announcing the group’s formation.
Jurkovich, pastor of First Baptist Church in Bossier City, La., is the only person publicly identified as part of the group’s leadership. He declined to share names of other leaders, though he said it was “really local pastor-driven.”
Among the network’s supporters is Chuck Kelley, who retired in 2019 after 23 years as president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Kelley expressed similar concerns ahead of his retirement in a sermon called “Baptist Blues.”
In its press release, the network noted “a significant number of Southern Baptists are concerned about the apparent emphasis on social justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and the redefining of biblical gender roles.” Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, two sociological frameworks with roots in neo-Marxism, were at the center of a controversial resolution adopted at the SBC annual meeting in 2019. Some leaders have called for it to be rescinded at this year’s meeting.
The network’s formal launch event is scheduled for June 8, the evening before the opening session of the 2020 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando. Preaching, worship, encouragement, a vision statement, and denomination-related challenges are slated for the event, Jurkovich said.
SBC leaders respond
In response to potential division the network’s founding could cause, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president and CEO Ronnie Floyd released a statement Feb. 14.
“The Southern Baptist Convention is at her best when churches are partnering together for mission and standing on the inerrant, infallible, sufficient Word of God,” said Floyd, who assumed the role in May 2019. “Regardless of our secondary affiliations or networks, we must continue to uphold the Baptist Faith and Message, cooperating with one another for the purpose of seeing every person reached for Jesus Christ in every town, every city, every state and every nation.”
Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler tweeted, “The real network of Southern Baptists is called the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s going to meet June 9-10 in Orlando. I look forward to joining you there.”
Mohler has been announced as a candidate for SBC President, along with Randy Adams, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention. The Conservative Baptist Network has announced no plans to endorse a current candidate nor enter a nominee for elected offices of the SBC.
On a podcast for young Baptist leaders, Mohler said he hadn’t meant his tweet to be “snarky,” but rather was pointing out that the one meeting that matters is the SBC annual meeting. “I didn’t say if you’ve got a problem with x, y, or z, don’t come,” Mohler told leaders of the B21 network. “I said come to Orlando in June of 2020, and if you don’t come to that room, the other rooms in the SBC don’t matter.”
Mohler also said he knows of no leaders in the SBC who are trying to “liberalize” the denomination, but that the culture at large is certainly moving in that direction. “It’s going to take keener theological thinking,” he said. “It’s going to take more acute biblical thinking to avoid being sucked into the vortex of this larger culture.”
-From Baptist Press, with additional reporting by the Illinois Baptist