baptist 21 is publishing a series of articles by a guest poster, Steven A. McKinion, who is a theology professor at Southeastern Seminary. Professor McKinion is describing the heirs of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. He talks about the “third generation” of conservatives, their distinctives and their influences. Very interesting stuff indeed.
in part one Professor McKinion identifies the group he is discussing and their distinctives. Here is how he begins:
There are two types of under 40’s in the Southern Baptist Convention. Some look, sound, dress, preach, and act like the first generation of conservatives (those who led the Conservative Resurgence of the 1980s). These SBs hope one day to pastor a megachurch and preach at the SBC Pastor’s Conference. They love Jesus, love the Bible, and love the SBC, in that order.
Their SBC “cousins” (descendants of the same “grandparents”) don’t wear suits and ties, rarely say “Aaaaaamen” when someone is preaching, don’t shout “hello?” after making a good point in a sermon, and could not care any less about getting an invite to preach at another church. They love Jesus, love the Bible, love missions, and love the work of the SBC, in that order. They don’t look or sound like their cousins, and they don’t aspire to the same roles.
I want to comment on the latter of these under 40s. I’ll leave it to others to judge their commitment to Jesus, the Bible, and the SBC, as I want to focus on identifying them and their antecedents.
then later he gets to the things that set this group apart as an identifiable group. He talks about theological distinctives, cultural distinctives, Biblical distinctives and intellectual distinctives. Like I said before, very interesting indeed. here is Professor McKinion’s take on the theological distinctives of this group:
Theological Distinctive: third-generation conservatives understand the Gospel to be robust, encompassing ALL of life under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. A limited view of the Gospel in which church people obtain a “get out of hell free” card by saying some prayer seems Gnostic, at best, to these young people. They have come to adopt a holistic perspective in which Jesus is Lord, not just of the believer’s eternal state, but of all His creation. For that reason, the younger conservative desires obedience to the only Law for the Christian: Love God and love neighbor. While for many this robust Gospel has led them to a more or less Reformed soteriology (and all that accompanies it), their trending this way is due to a rejection of man-centered revivalism and not due to a convictional association with Dort. Not all of these younger conservatives are Reformed per se, but they do practice and preach a robust Gospel of the Lordship of Jesus over every area of their lives.
emphasis added.
Go read the rest of part one for the other distinctives and then read part two for the historical antecedents of this group of conservatives.