About a month ago Dr. Russell Moore was invited to the University of Mobile, to speak at their Ministerial Association Meeting.  Dr. Moore is the Senoir Vice President, and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Thanks to Dr. Jay Robertson, I was given the opportunity to sit and chat with Dr. Russell Moore.  During that time I was able to interview him, and ask him a few questions pertaining to the S.B. Convention, Presidency, and Reformed Theology!

I know that many of you who blog, are able to sit under Dr. Moore’s teaching, but many of us who admire him do not attend SBTS.  Nonetheless, I hope that all who read this enjoy it!

I want to thank Dr. Moore for allowing me this brief interview, and Dr. Robertson.

Interview with Dr. Russell Moore

By Yogi Taylor

February 27, 2008

Yogi Taylor: What are the greatest issues surrounding the SBC presidency this year, and what are the greatest issues to be battled out at the convention this year?

Dr. Moore: Well, I hope there is nothing battled out at the convention this year, and I think we’re going to have a peaceful convention this year from everything I understand.  The SBC presidency really serves two major functions.  One is symbolic: representing Southern Baptists in the public square—speaking to those who are outside the denomination about what Southern Baptists believe, and what Southern Baptists are concerned about—and then speaking to people in the SBC and encouraging them to work cooperation evangelism missions.  And so you’ll see Dr. Frank Paige, our President for the past two years, will be two years as of this summer, has really done I think a phenomenal job with that, with presenting Southern Baptist concerns publicly and also in encouraging us, let’s band together and let’s support evangelism and missions in support of the cooperative program and so forth.  I think he’s done a very good job at that.  That’s a major role of the President of the Southern Baptist Convention.  You have to have someone who’s able to articulate the issues, to articulate the issues well.  The second function has to do with appointments.  With appointing people to be stewards over the missions enterprise of the SBC who are going to be faithful to scripture.  People who are going to be faithful to scripture and to historic Baptist beliefs.  Who are going to guard the deposit in stewarding the finances and the institutions of Southern Baptists.  Those are the two major functions.  And so, I think that part of what has come out of the conservative resurgence over the past thirty years, is understanding that we need to have a president who represents what Southern Baptists believe about scripture and about cooperation together as Southern Baptists.  So I think we will.  I think we’re going to elect a man who’s going to be faithful to those things.  And so I’m very excited about that.

Yogi Taylor:  Are there any other issues pertaining to that (other than what you mentioned) that you foresee rising to the top?

Dr. Moore: Well, I think at the level of the convention, there is, most of the most important issues in Southern Baptist life are not addressed at the convention level.  They are addressed at the local church level.  So most of my concerns are not about things that could happen or not happen on the floor of the SBC.  Rather, they are things that should be happening in our local churches.  And so, it’s one thing to say we’re going to make sure that our convention reflects the wishes and the convictions and the will of the people of the churches (that’s what the conservative resurgence was about). Now we have to ask: Are our churches representing the will and the wishes of Jesus Christ.  And that has to happen church by church by church with faithful pastors and faithful people who are serving Christ in their local congregations.  So sometimes, just like you have people who often think, if we could just get the federal government straitened out, that everything is going to be well in the United States of America.  No, government can’t do that.  In the same way, simply making sure that you’ve got a well tuned, well functioning SBC, that’s not going to bring about revival.  What brings about revival is the local churches.  That’s the pillaring ground of the truth.

Yogi Taylor: And along those lines, you may have just answered this question, but what do you see is the greatest need of our Southern Baptist Convention as a whole, and perhaps even locally?

Dr. Moore: I think the greatest need in the Southern Baptist Convention is to have churches that are counter-culturally Christian.  And so, to have churches in which the gospel is being very clearly proclaimed from the pulpit-I don’t simply mean to unbelievers, but to believers and to unbelievers in which we are recognizably following after Christ in a way that is different from the culture around us.  And so you see transformation in the lives of people in local churches.  Where you have churches in which you have pastors who are preaching the Word, in which you have people who are receiving the Word, in which you have transformation through the Holy Spirit which people are loving one another, people are forgiving one another, people are winning souls to Christ, people are actively engaged on mission in their communities.  Where you see that taking place, then you see the beginnings of something that I think is very very encouraging and exciting about what the Holy Spirit is doing among us.

Yogi Taylor:  Do you foresee the convention as a whole moving towards more of a historic Baptist doctrine, i.e. reformed theology.  What do you see and what are your thoughts around that?

Dr. Moore: I’m not sure where the SBC is moving regarding those issues.  I think we have room in SBC for people who are more or less reformed and people who are more or less not reformed, when it comes to the major issues there.  I think, as Southern Baptists, we do not have room for Hyper Calvinism, which is the idea that the gospel should not preached to all people.  That’s ruled out. We also don’t have room for Pelagianism, or any understanding of my seeing myself as saved by my own action.  But, in the middle there, I think there’s a lot more agreement among Southern Baptists sometimes than we like to pretend that there is. And so, my concern is not, and I’m not a five point Calvinist, um, but, many of my close friends are.  I do believe in election, and many of my close friends don’t believe in any kind of unconditional election.  We’re able to cooperate together on all sides here, as long as we understand and know that the scripture is teaching that it’s God who saves, we don’t save ourselves, we understand that we’re saved by grace, we’re not saved by anything that we do, and we understand that the power of God can save anybody.  So that, when we’re preaching the gospel, we understand that the Holy Spirit can convict, the Holy Spirit can reveal  and that ought to give us great encouragement in preaching the gospel. So I don’t won’t to see us, I would never want to see us in a situation in which we do one of two things. First thing we could do, is kind of a 1 Corinthians 1 a partisan battle over these issues some type of carnally turning against one another when a lot of times some of the shades of difference between us when we really spend time together we understand that we’re kind of sahying the same thing in different words.  That’s not always the case, but more often than we think that’s the case. Or, nor do I want to see us getting to a point where we say let’s just not talk about it.  Let’s just not talk about what the scripture teaches. Instead, everything that God has revealed is important.  And we need to be willing to teach and think about everything that the scripture has revealed. We’re not always going to agree on that. We’re not always going to agree on every detail of scripture. I think we’ve got room conventionally in Southern Baptist life for those type of conversations.  What does Paul mean in chapter one when he speaks of election? What does Romans Chapter 8:28 through 29, what does that mean, what is the meaning of that?  Without having to divide ourselves up into opposing camps, on the one hand, or to say let’s just not talk about these things because they’re controversial. You got to be able to do that.

Yogi Taylor:  If you would, elaborate a little bit on this question. What kind of encouragement and would you give to pastors, both young and senior who take hard stands on reform theology, on both sides, to build unity.  And I know there’s been some recent events and conferences to build bridges.  What kind of encouragement could you give to those pastors, practically, to see that our convention doesn’t rise to where it’s dividing itself.

Dr. Moore: Well, I think what has to happen, is that you have to have reformed people who are willing to understand, first of all, that the scripture commands that the gospel is to be preached to all people.  I don’t know a Southern Baptist hyper Calvinist, I’m sure there are some.  But I’ve not met any Southern Baptist hyper Calvinist. I do know some Calvinist who because they are so excited about what the scripture teaches about the doctrine of election, they almost want to define themselves in terms of the doctrine of election. When in scripture, I mean, think about why the doctrine of election is revealed, whatever you think it is. We all agree there’s a doctrine of election.  It’s revealed in order to knock down human pride and to spur us on to the cause of the mission of Christ in building the kingdom of God. There’s needs to be humility on both sides, of people saying let’s try to hear what the other is saying and let’s try to exist in churches, sometimes you can’t exist in churches together.  Sometimes you do have a level of disagreement that causes you not to be able to cooperate. But that is rarely the case.  I think that if you have someone who is a pastor who is clearly warmhearted, clearly pastoral, clearly evangelistic, and who is clearly making it known, I believe that the gospel goes to all people, anyone can be saved that puts their faith and trust in Christ. I think that that goes a long way. Also, if you have non-reformed pastors, I think what they have to do is communicate what they believe Ephesians 1, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 1, what these passages mean. So, if you’ve got a faithful preacher, that is preaching the full council of God, who doesn’t agree with his reformed brothers on election, I don’t think that’s a reason to divide. So, I would rather have a pastor who faithfully preaches who disagrees with me on what Ephesians 1 means, but who’s willing to say I want to tell you what I think this word means, I think we can agree to disagree on those things.  I think the parts that are dangerous at this point, have less to do with what kind of labels people wear. More to do with the sense in which we have some people in our convention that would rather not preach than deal with issues that are going to be controversial on both sides. I think we have to be wary of that. You also have some people who are wanting to use some doctrines that are revealed by God to separate the wheat from the tares. When this doesn’t separate the wheat from the tares. The gospel separates the wheat from the tares. And so, I think that both of those groups need to listen to one another and love one another and move forward in a conversation, and not move forward in silence.