G3 will certainly face a crisis like the ones I just mentioned which those men and organizations failed. And, most shockingly of all, I never thought I would see 9 Marks tell churches not to gather. I never thought I would read The Gospel Coalition spend a year spreading lies about the kind of people who fund their endeavors. Greear reach such a depth of cravenness that he would say, from a pulpit, that God whispers about homosexuality. I never dreamed that I would see a day when David Platt preached cultural Marxism from the platform of Together for the Gospel, nor that I would see him stand side-by-side with a man claiming Jesus was dysphoric. ![]() This is historically how those temptations to drift into error come – like it did for the Ephesian elders. Most likely it will come from within, in an arena that was unexpected. What that means is the trial will not come from those avenues or, at least, are highly unlikely to. I do not think G3 is subject to embracing Rick Warren and Andy Stanley-style pragmatism or the church-hating elitism of David French, Russ Moore, and Ed Stetzer. I do not foresee any way in which G3 would find itself embracing wokeness or egalitarianism or LGBTQ+ positivity. G3 is insulated in many ways against the fashionable errors of our moment. What then? And, to be clear, I assume there already is an answer – just one I would like to know more about before I seriously consider bailing on the Southern Baptist Convention for their ongoing doctrinal error. Inevitably this kind of trial/temptation is going to come to G3. This seems to happen particularly when God’s blessing is on the group – because God is providing refining trial, the devil wants to derail the work, or both. I think God is blessing G3 and I am thankful for what G3 has become in (what appears to me) so short a time.Ĭhurch history makes clear that in our fallen world the temptation to doctrinal drift necessarily comes to Christian organizations and movements. G3 has grown, in the eyes of this outsider, like a wildfire. ![]() (1) If we leave and partner with G3 what is the plan for when doctrinal error comes to G3? Context Here is the first, along with some necessary context before and some elaboration following: My hope here is to offer – from a much, much smaller platform – a few follow-up questions in response to Pastor Buice’s statements, questions I hope Buice will see and respond to. Now that Josh has announced his church’s decision to leave the SBC we have two public statements from Pastor Buice about his thoughts on the state of the SBC, what faithful churches should be thinking through as they evaluate their relationship to the SBC, and what opportunities for other options there are. After all, as Josh said, we can plant churches without the SBC. That cheer, however, led me to believe Pastor Buice’s words – intentional or not – had landed as a call, a call to join him in partnering with the faithful brothers at G3 which he mentioned just prior. Pastor Buice and his congregation are free to make whatever decision they believe is in their best interests. I believe local church autonomy is Biblical. The resulting cheer I heard from the crow landed heavier on me than Pastor Buice’s own words. This section ends with him saying, “I’m just not going to do it any more.” At around the 3:18 mark Pastor Buice asks whether or not there is value in staying in the SBC to “fight the fight” – which I take to mean fighting for reform and/or not allowing the bad actors he mentioned (Ed Litton and his supporters, in particular) to continue driving the SBC into ever-increasingly gross doctrinal and ethical error. The first 3 minutes of his answer could have come from my own thoughts and the conversations I have been having since the annual meeting in Birmingham in 2019. Click the image above to watch the video. I was in Georgia for the 2021 G3 conference and watched Pastor Josh Buice deliver the answer he gave in the video below. ![]() I also have been deeply involved in the Southern Baptist Convention for a long time, at personal costs, and am thinking for the first time seriously about what that relationship should look like in the future. I count many of the men working with G3 among the most helpful Christians in our age. I support G3 – I attend often – and am glad for its existence. Toward that end I want to note that I think Josh Buice is right on about what is wrong with the SBC. I think what I write below is likely to be misunderstood as an attack or condemnation or attempted rebuke. I think in a deeply tribal age – particularly when talking about sharply defined fault lines between the tribes – it is important to clarify as explicitly as possible where one stands and what one’s intentions are.
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