Is David Lowrie Qualified?

If one uses the argument from at least one of the Blues Brothers, then David Lowrie is unqualified to be elected president of the BGCT. He has recently attended a Texas Baptist Committed convocation. He (say it silently) attended a TBC meeting. That “evil” organization the Blues Brothers lament and cry about endlessly as being the “machine” that runs the BGCT.

According to David Currie, he attended the TBC convocation to see just what that group was all about. For that he gains my admiration. Seems over the years the TBC has been painted with broad brushes by the Blues Brothers as the worst organization in Texas and any affiliation with it disqualified you from having any worthy conversation with Montoya and Davis.  I know Montoya used to be very involved with TBC. I am not sure about Davis.

So my question to them is, does this attendance at this meeting disqualify David Lowrie from being president of the BGCT? Is he now “in” with them and thus will push thier evil agenda? Did he really go to seek their approval? Hmmm, makes ya wonder.

I personally have no problem with David Lowrie. As a matter of fact, I consider him more qualified becuase he did attend. That tells me he is not closeminded and narrow in his associations with people from all walks of life.  He is willing to learn about TBC from the ground up and what they are really about. I think he will learn that TBC is made up of good people, who just want the BGCT to stay away from rank and file fundamentalism. They are not out to destroy or control the BGCT. They care for and love the BGCT and desire it to be the best.

For the record I support the TBC. I have attended meetings with them and no I have not been selected or appointed to any key committees. I find that they are my kind of people. I have seen first hand the dangers and harm caused by fundamentatlist.  There is still the looming danger of fundamentlist creeping around Texas. They are still a threat to our beloved convention. And TBC has and will keep us all informed as to those dangers and threats.

Honestly, it is a toss up as to who I will vote for BGCT President. David Lowrie has more of my respect for attending the TBC convocation.  That tells me he wants to be informed and educated on the issues at hand.  So good going David!

Texas Baptist Blues Brothers

It must be convention time, Montoya is plugging Lowrie for President. He seems to do so with no apologies. At the same time he will complain that Texas Baptist Committed shouldn’t do so. After all, Montoya seems to have the ear of more people than Currie does, or so he claims. So what is good for the goose— well you know the phrase.

Between Montoya and Davis, they have and will continue to point out the sins of the “building”. Davis, having been a part of the “building” for a period of time, is an insider who tells story after story of abuse. Admittedly, he was, if his stories are true, treated poorly. But then there are always two sides to a story and alas we have only heard his side.

So now we have the “blues brothers” lamenting the horrors of the “building”, while championing certain individuals whom they deem worthy of consideration for placement. I don’t doubt that the individuals they mention are good people.

So now, those in leadership are now called fundamentalist of the left. Wow, that is a very serious charge. Talk about hitting below the belt. Have they become like the current secular political arena and fallen into the gutter? Are they no worst, with using the internet to “advertise” candidates and harshly criticize others?

I have no doubt that the blues brothers and their “followers” are well intentioned people. I know they have the good of the BGCT at heart. My concern is that they imply that those currently in the building, no actually they say it, that they don’t care about the BGCT and the churches. They have already deeply criticized the new Executive and called him an insider and linked him to supposed nefarious groups and people.

The blues brothers are the McCarthyites of Texas Baptist. If you are so much as seen within the shadow of a member of the TBC, then you are part of that group and are evil incarnate. If you don’t support and endorse Lowrie, then you must be one of “them”.  Please understand, I aint got a thing whatever against Lowrie. I have met him and think he is a Godly man who truly desires the best for the BGCT.  He may be the best thing for the BGCT. But then again I don’t really know.

So who is calling the kettle black? If I contribute or support the TBC, then I guess to the blues brothers I am not worthy. If I don’t support the SBC, then am I a liberal? If I push a particular secular party more than another, shame on me.  Have we been reduced to catergorizing people according to “affiliations” and not to Christ?

I pray that at the convention all of the “secular” politics that has been pulled into the BGCT will fall by the wayside and the name of Christ is lifted high. That our common vision of reaching the lost for Christ will prevail. May His name be glorified.

BGCT Convention and New Technology

Every year I make the trip to the BGCT Convention. I admit I look forward to it. It is a great time of fellowship and excitement. I see friends every year at the convention. Many of them I only see at the convention.

Over the years the cost of going to the convention has gotten out of hand. Not only with gas, but with hotel expenses  being prohibitive. For many who live in parts of the state that are very far away from the convention site, it can get really expensive. I think the Amarillo one hit a large part of the state really hard.

As if that isn’t enough, the cost of meals, especially around the convention meeting place are really high. If you want cheap food, you gotta drive a distance and spend gas getting there. So unless you got relatives who can put you up for a day or so, it gets expensive.

I say all of this to say, it is time to consider changing how we do convention. Yes, continue to have annual meetings like always. But send them via satellite and internet feed to key sights throughout the state. Dang, Texas is big and is like driving across the country to attend meetings, so why not have it in several places at the same time.

I remember years ago attending a Promise Keepers event in Minneapolis ( I was pastor in Fargo, ND at the time) and they did a live satelite feed of the event from Detroit at the same time. There we were, all these men from two events singing together. It was an awesome event that I have never forgotten. If they could do something like that in 1996, surely we can do something similar in 2008.

At each site, a voting mechanism could be set up. Again modern technology does allow for such a thing. Sure it might be costly to set up but can we afford not to? It would allow for people to vote on issues that they might not otherwise. Think of all the young people who could participate. Even some who are not able to travel to convention, like many older folks in my congregation, who could then participate.

So what are we waiting for? Could this be brought up at the Convention? Has it been mentioned before? Are the leaders, scared of too much involvement?  More involvement, may mean more ownership, and participation and thus may translate to more financial contributions.  It may well be the future of the convention depends upon how we decide on this point.

They Aint Never Satisfied

Just finished reading some of the Rick Davis blog. He and Montoya have become an echo chamber of complaints and that they are the only ones who know how the BGCT should be.

I have a suggestion. Let’s just stampede all the people out of the BGCT building and put Montoya and Davis in charge. After all that seems to be what they want.  Let em put down the protest signs and walk into the building and take over.

I can just see it now, all of the BGCT staff would be marched out of the building with Montoya and Davis saying prayers over them as they leave. They would ask for God’s blessing as they let the door of the building hit the former staff members on the butt. As they head to their cars with boxes, the “priests” would shout, “God bless you.”

As Montoya and Davis go back into the building they would high five each other and shout, “Amen!”. They would then promptly put into place all the “supporters” from their respective blogs. All those who wrote nice and favorable comments, would be appointed to key positions of leadership.

Montoya and Davis would flip coins to decide who gets the biggest office and desk, while the old guard would all be banished to David Currie’s ranch to corral goats, cows, horses whatever Currie has on his ranch. They will be reduced to singing “Bless Be the Tie” around the campfire, and lamenting that they even let Montoya and Davis near the building.

While the “Mondavis” era starts, money will just suddenly flow into the BGCT coffers as never before.  Convention attendance will grow to record numbers. Young people will praise Mondavis for the vision they have cast before them. Oh, the shouts of glory will rise to the heavens!

Anyway, as I wake from my stupor. Sorry for the side trip taken. I was momentarily delusional. Reality is that Montoya and Davis will never, ever be satisfied with the BGCT. They are the proverbial church members who show up at business meetings and raise their hand on just about every issue brought up. You know, the ones, that make you sigh on the inside as you see the hand go up and you say, “God bless em”.

There will never be a perfect church or Christian organization this side of heaven. Until then, we will have to work with broken things.  Mondavis are free to critique the organizations, but when they start naming names and applying personal attacks, that is hitting below the belt.  Mondavis, I am sure have good intentions, but those good intentions become ugly when we try to sling mud on individuals and claim their intentions are less than what they are.

I pray that Mondavis do not adopt the methods and ugliness of the J. Frank Norris era. That is a deep and dark blot on Texas Baptist history. Or the era of S.A. Hayden and B.H. Carroll, which split the convention deeply and harmed much of the good work of Texas Baptist.  May our “better angels” prevail.

Montoya names, names, well kinda

“David, David, what can I say. Now you are stepping in it again.” In a humorous, not so humorous way he is naming names of those whom he obviously doesn’t like within the BGCT. He has personally wondered why Wayne Shuffield is still employed at the BGCT.  So there he goes attacking someone else.  Charles Wade and others that he didn’t like are gone, so he has no one else to attackand so he goes ugly towards some current people at the BGCT.

David needs targets. He needs to be angry at someone or something in order to function. I guess his karate, judo or whatever it is he is into, just isn’t enough for him. I suspect he puts pictures of BGCT staff he doesn’t like in his gym or where ever he works out and does punches on them.  I can just picture all of the pieces of wood blocks on the floor with pictures of Charles Wade on them. 

He needs enemies. It invigorates him to rant against the “machine” that is the BGCT. He spares no one in his diatribes against the “evil empire”.  I wonder who is the Darth Vader personality he visits with to get encouragement to attack again?

Just when we thought it was all over and that he had gone off to a monastery, he is back and is just as angry as if he Charles Wade is still there.  It is almost as if he sees Charles Wade’s spirit in everyone who works at the BGCT.  I can just see him writing saying in essence that Wade’s “spirit” IS in the building, yada, yada, yada……

I know, I know some people tell me not to respond to David, it just gives him creedance. Others tell me someone has to say something or he will gain more and more of a following. He claims some 1400 hits on his blog. So maybe he is trying to get enough of a following to stir the pot at the convention he says he may not attend. Mark it down, he will be there, cause his followers will beg him to come and do something.

So to stoke up his base of followers, he must name names. Doesn’t matter if the Kingdom of God gets slandered or hurt in the process. It doesn’t matter that the names that he names are people who are God’s children. Never mind that we are to, “Be kind one to another, tenderhearted forgiving one another even as Christ has forgiven us.” In Montoya’s world the end justifies the means.

It Must be Convention Time

It must be convention time, cause Montoya is on his kick again. He was silent for a long time and boy was it nice. He had in essence “shut down” his blog and went into hiding for a while. I predicted he would be back, he couldn’t not stay away from the attention he gets from the pre and post convention stuff.

And he is back to his old ways of tearing down and not building up. Some of his complaints may be legit and worthy of looking at. But it is his tone that again is a put off to seriously listening to him. He just can’t bring himself to be a little more civil in his arguments. He almosts sounds like the politicians with the tv ads that may have some truth but is mixed with lots of fluff to make it sound worst that it is.

He seems to pushing and pushing hard that churches ought to withdraw or consider withdrawing funds to the BGCT to send a message of sorts. He claims that too many of the leadership within the BGCT have salaries that are way too high. Admittedly he may have a point. What with the financial climate going on right now, maybe the salaries should be looked at.  Having said that, maybe the salaries need to be looked at, but one ought to do so in a non-judgemental fashion and work through appropriate committees to determine that issue.

There may or may not be a “good old boy” club within the BGCT, as Montoya thinks. He may be right again. If so then speak your piece at meetings, that is what they are for. There are appropriate and right ways to “complain”. I as a pastor don’t get  happy about people who complain and then never show up at business meetings, or when they do, they say nothing, but speak loudly to others after the meeting.  

So to those who seem to be complaining along with Montoya. Come to the BGCT and state your mind. But do it in a civil and appropriate way. Study and follow appropriate Parlimentary procedures so that you will be heard in the right place and the right venue. 

The BGCT is not perfect, only Jesus is. So come and get involved in the process.