the baton passes

bellevue baptist church has been one of the flagship churches within the southern baptist convention. the pulpit giants r.g. lee and adrian rogers have served as senior pastor of that historic church. both men have made a name for themselves with their memorable rhetoric and ability to turn a phrase. lee's daughter once accused her father of using words that were too flowery and ornate. he told her that the greatness of the gospel demanded he use the finest words he could. lee's sermon "payday someday" was for many years the standard of revivalistic, southern pulpiteering. rogers is so well respected that he can get away with saying things like, "if the sbc voted that pickles have souls, then across our convention in our seminaries, professors ought to teach that pickles have souls." such silliness, however, did not preclude rogers from becoming the primary architect of the 2000 baptist faith and message.

who would succeed pastor rogers at bellevue has been highly speculated. the speculation ends now as steve gaines has been called as the new pastor. in a bp article, gaines was quoted as saying, "you can have all the new techniques, all of the state of the art media and technology. you can have all the bells and whistles and still not have a healthy church in the eyes of God. we need to stop talking about church growth. we need to talk about church health. a healthy church will grow." if gaines' ministry stays true to this philosophy then reform-minded southern baptists have reason to be hopeful. in a denomination dominated by nickels, noses and purpose-driven mentality, here is the pastor of a major sbc congregation talking about biblical health - not a get on the bus, go, go, go, lift 'em up drive to get 1 million people to give mental assent to a particular message that may or may not be the gospel (i'm sorry but a presentation that does not clearly speak of sin and God's righteous judgment is not the gospel). let us watch and be hopeful.