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Technorati"LifeWay Research is committed to studying issues and trends that impact churches. This is an issue that is being discussed throughout the Convention, and we wanted to determine the perceptions and opinions of SBC leaders," stated Dr. Brad Waggoner, vice president of research and ministry development at LifeWay.
Controversy over speaking in tongues erupted when the Rev. Dwight McKissic, trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke of experiencing private prayer language during the seminary's chapel service last year. Months later, the seminary adopted a ban on private prayer language or such practices.
Since then, McKissic and other SBC pastors who back him have called for the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a formal stance on such charismatic practices.
As Southern Baptists prepare for their annual meeting next week, Alan Cross – pastor of Gateway Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., who plans to write a book on the Holy Spirit from a Baptist view with McKissic – says he is ready to move on to "bigger issues" and has only participated in the tongues debate defending the continuationist position to show "that those who have a private prayer language are not just making stuff up."
"PPL is not the big deal," Cross wrote on his blog. "The big deal is this: Are we going to be a convention of churches that focuses on Jesus Christ and the participation of all of His saints in proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth, or are we only going to create a convention of theological elites who get to participate in God's mission, leaving all of those who see things a bit differently on side issues behind?
"I pray that we will quickly embrace a perspective that says it matters far more what kind of person you are and how much you love Jesus than whether or not you completely agree with every jot and title of every side doctrine in the Bible as advocated by those who happen to be in power at the time."
