It’s come to our attention that folks from Pastor Floyd’s church have popped by our house for a visit. I’d like to thank them personally, and I’d like to thank the folks from Woodstock, GA who have also come by to visit us. I hope you found us gracious and welcoming. I gather you’re reading up on what the Baptist blogs are saying about Pastor Floyd.

Let me assure you that any problems our writers have with him or with any other potential candidate are not personal. They are related to things like CP giving, or the infamous confetti baptistry and the mentality that we have to repackage the gospel to make it “relevant,” and the obsession with increasing baptismal numbers while being unable to get 1/3 to 1/2 of your people to worship on Sunday, or the simple wisdom of pastoring two large churches and being SBC President. The big problem has to do with wondering why (a) the SBC needs a megachurch pastor as president nearly every year and (b) why the same folks rotate on and off boards more often than not, control the programming for Pastor’s Conferences and other activities, etc.

Now, that said, I’d like to piggyback on Timmy’s last article to define “hyper-Calvinism,” for those visitors who may be wondering what exactly it is. Hopefully, it will give you something to take back to your pastors for their edification.

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Since we have been focusing on the SBC presidency of late, I thought I would write something that I think needs to be addressed. Leaders of the SBC (especially previous presidents and future potential presidents) have made a collective effort to speak out explicitly about the matter of hypercalvinism in the SBC. In the most recent Baptist Press interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd, there was a small section in which this was brought up. Here is what it said:

Floyd responded to other issues that have infused the conversations of Southern Baptists in recent months — increased sensitivity to the presence of Calvinism among Southern Baptists and the practice of private prayer language, which many equate to speaking in tongues. He offered that whatever the theological issue, “If it does not help ignite a greater passion for the Word and the greater passion to reach the world, then we have to evaluate the positions we hold.”

Floyd said some Southern Baptists may hold Calvinist beliefs, but that the threat was a “hyper” form of Calvinism that has a spirit of condemnation.

“My whole thought processes on that will be … we know it’s an issue,” he said. “How big of an issue? I have no way to know. I do think it’s important that somehow, some way, that we recognize the good that exists in whatever people believe and try our very best to come together to discuss what we can do together and believe together. The more we split hairs on various matters, the less effective we’re going to be in carrying forth our mission.”

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