Recently at the 70th Commencement Celebration of the Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri, I ran across this picture. I had never seen it before; however, I recognized most of these men from my childhood. Having grown up in an independent Baptist church where we attended various conferences with our dad, this group of men represented many childhood memories to me. Often you hear people say that a picture is worth a thousand words – this one almost certainly is. This one is a picture worth 969 words.
Who Are These Men?
This group of men cooperated together as the steering committee of the International Conference (or World Congress) on Biblical Evangelism of the early 1970s. This group of men would work together until a disagreement drove them apart.[1]
As noted in the picture below, the men are:
- Lee Roberson from Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee representing the Southwide Baptist Fellowship and Tennessee Temple University
- John R Rice from the Sword of the Lord (organizer)
- Bob Wells from Central Baptist Church in Anaheim, California
- W E (Bill) Dowell from the High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri representing the Baptist Bible Fellowship and Baptist Bible College
- Jack Hyles from the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana and later Hyles-Anderson College
- Earl K Oldham from Calvary Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, Texas representing the World Baptist Fellowship and Bible Baptist Seminary in Arlington, Texas
- Tom Malone from Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan
- Bob Jones Jr. from Bob Jones University
This group was a “Who’s Who” of independent Baptist fundamentalism at that time. All of them with a wide range of methods yet a similar theology, they chose to cooperate together for a conference to promote evangelism. According to an advertisement in Rice’s The Sword of the Lord newspaper, its purposes were to “stir revival fires…[and] promote the fellowship without compromise of fundamental churches, pastors, and people in soulwinning.” The Sword of the Lord (June 18, 1971), 4.[2]
My Initial Reaction to the Picture
Knowing that these men were big in personality, represented a wide-range of churches, opinions, and passions, and were from a spectrum of independent groups, I marveled at this picture. I thought to myself, “That’s incredible that these men would cooperate together for the sake of the Gospel even though they represent such a wide variety of groups with varying positions.” Not quite to the same degree, but in my mind, this was akin to today’s group Together for the Gospel.
I did not know two of the men but did the rest as I was a child in the 1970s when most of these men were very popular.
Therefore, I began doing some research online through a Facebook group and general searches to try to figure it out.
My reaction in a Facebook group where I had placed this picture was that I didn’t think independent Baptists today would be that cooperative together as there were lots of personality and opinion at the table in the picture above.
On one level, I congratulated these men while critiquing independent Baptists of all kinds now who would protect their camps to a much greater extent than seemingly these men did. To be fair, in those days, independent Baptists were the world’s largest Baptist groups and the schools, colleges, and groups represented were booming.
The Rest of the Story
After doing a bit of research and having conversations with several, I learned the rest of the story.
This steering committee met several times until John R Rice asked them in the meeting to not be critical of Billy Graham nor neo-evangelicalism as both would distract from the main purpose of the conference. He further asked the group to invite conservative Southern Baptists W. A. Criswell and R. G. Lee. To Rice the importance of soulwinning trumped what he considered minor disagreements among Christians about biblical separation.[3,4]
As the story goes, Bob Jones Jr. left the group and quite the fight started in print between Rice and Jones.
The group sought to continue without Jones. They then invited Jerry Falwell and Curtis Hudson to join the group and continue planning. In the meantime, they postponed the conference from 1971 to 1972. Ultimately, they chose not to cooperate together and cancelled the conference all together.
A Picture Worth 969 Words
What I thought was a picture to celebrate unity with diversity actually demonstrates that these men struggle as the rest of us are prone to do so as well.
My concern remains. Often when pastors disagree with a fellow pastor over a particular issue, separation ensues rather than a determination to figure it out in humility and grace. The Apostle Paul must have been talking to us in Ephesians 4:1-6 when he wrote about walking worthy of the Gospel unified in the Spirit of peace.
Instead, often we set up ourselves as the standard.
If you are to my right, then you must be too narrow and legalistic.
If you are to my left, then you must be too liberal and a compromiser.
Unless you are just like me then you must have a problem of one kind or another – God can’t be pleased with you.
May God help us as we seek to walk together with those who are also in Christ in fellowship together (1 John 1:1-2:2). May God receive the glory in our attitudes and assumptions toward those with whom we disagree. My prayer is that we would do our best to graciously see others as we wish they also would see us. Again, may God help us as we walk to highlight Jesus Christ, celebrate our future home in heaven, and shine brighter than ever the Gospel message to the people of the world – a message that both saves and sanctifies (even us preachers).
(One more application [not in the word count] – this applies for all of us whatever our “position” is. Counselors included.)
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