The Southern Baptist Convention is at a crossroads. Theological infighting, public scandals, leadership failures, and politics inside and outside of our Convention have frayed the threads of cooperation. During these trying times, a cultural problem has emerged in our Convention among our churches, pastors, and leaders that exacerbates every problem: we have stopped talking to one another.
No, we haven’t stopped talking about one another. But there is a crisis of healthy dialogue in our convention where we talk to each other, across the aisle, with people who see things differently. Baptist papers, blogs, and other outlets that once drove our dialogue have shuttered, gone quiet, or become dominated by one ideological perspective. Twitter is a daily war zone marked by personal insult and cynicism, where anger is elevated by an algorithm and reasonability is drowned out. Even the annual meeting has been reduced in time, allowing less and less dialogue than ever before.
As a result, Baptists are often uninformed, frustrated, and left feeling that they have no avenue to ask questions or be heard. In large part, this has contributed to a polarized environment, where only the angriest and loudest voices rise to the top and drive the Convention’s conversation. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The 'Why' of The Baptist Review
That's why we created The Baptist Review. The Baptist Review exists for Southern Baptists to engage in good faith discussion about the issues, current events, and questions that matter in our Convention.
As a curated platform devoted to Convention conversation, The Baptist Review aims to coalesce and elevate reasonable, thoughtful voices from the center of the SBC, where the high values of theological fidelity, cooperation, and charity are not pitted against one another as enemies. We are not a partisan coalition or a political faction, nor do we have a long list of required positions on SBC issues. The leadership team behind this effort don’t agree on what should be done at every turn or on every issue. We do all agree on one thing: we need each other, and we need to talk to each other.
If the SBC is going to become healthy again, its conversation must leave the toxic confines of social media. At the same it, it also must resist becoming yet another piece of institutional PR. Southern Baptists deserve more than discernment blogs and press releases. Real questions deserve real answers—asked fairly and kindly, and answered truthfully.
This undertaking is a forum where Baptist leaders can be asked meaningful questions that contribute to transparency, integrity, and accountability—but without threat, insinuation, or animosity. It’s a place where Baptists can disagree as brothers, and sisters, and talk to one another, not just about one another. That’s why we’ve been using this tagline:
“A better conversation towards a better convention.”
The Baptist Review consists of three forums for discussion among Southern Baptists:
1. Editorial
TheBaptistReview.com will function as an curated editorial page, inviting voices from around the Convention to speak to the significant issues, current events, and questions that matter in our Convention. The website will be an active source of content weekly, on topics ranging from preaching and missiology to cultural analysis and Convention matters. Readers can expect thoughtful, final-draft publications—a commitment which distinguishes the Review from blog-style 'just thinking out loud' and social media contributions elsewhere. In other words, editorial—not a blog.
2. Podcast
The Baptist Review podcast will run in seasons, hosting roundtable discussions and interviews with leading voices, as well as inviting leaders of opposite viewpoints into healthy discussion together. The podcast is hosted by David Sons, former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, with regular appearances by other Review leadership team members and invited guests.
3. Journal
The Baptist Review has begun to work with a number of leading Baptist academics to create a pastors journal. These articles will be longer, and more scholarly in their approach, but approachable for pastors and laypeople. They will be aimed at the most significant issues of the time, and (ideally) published each May before the Convention as a resource to aid messengers as they seek to be fully informed as we handle complex issues together. We hope to publish the first journal in May of 2024.
The Way Forward
We are excited to be in this conversation with you. The Southern Baptist Convention is the world's largest and most effective missions sending agency., home to six of the largest and most effective evangelical seminaries in history, with 10,000 churches planted in the last decade, and so much more. All of this is the product not only of a Cooperative Program, but also a cooperative spirit. Consider these words, adapted from the 2019 SBC Resolution "On The Promotion Of A “Cooperative Culture” In The Southern Baptist Convention For Mission Advance":
In 2010, the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a report that called for us to work together to create a “new and healthy culture within the Southern Baptist Convention” that establishes “a culture of trust, transparency, and truth among all Southern Baptists.” In that spirit, we commit to creating a cooperative culture that recognizes and advances the gifts of all Southern Baptists and exemplifies listening, hospitality, investment, and care for all cooperating Southern Baptists that we may flourish together as we face present and future societal and conventional challenges... we seek to promote leaders from every demographic within the Southern Baptist Convention, recognizing that it is to the benefit of our cooperative mission and the ministry of our churches to listen to a wide range of voices and perspectives within our cooperative body and confessional commitments as we seek to proclaim the gospel together to the ends of the earth...
If The Baptist Review serves the Southern Baptist Convention's churches and pastors well, it will be because we have resolved to live up to this standard. Join us as we join together for a better conversation, toward a better Convention.
