Southern Baptists Change Policy on Speaking in Tongues

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Southern Baptists Change Policy on Speaking in Tongues

Post by zman7720000 » Fri May 15, 2015 9:19 pm

After decade-long resistance, the Southern Baptist Convention will admit missionary candidates who speak in tongues, a practice associated with Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

The new policy, approved by the denomination's International Mission Board on Wednesday (May 13), reverses a policy that was put in place 10 years ago.

Speaking in tongues is an ancient Christian practice recorded in the New Testament in which people pray in a language they do not know, understand or control. The practice died out until Pentecostalism emerged around the turn of the 20th century. In Pentecostal churches it is considered one of many "gifts" of the Holy Spirit, including healing and the ability to prophesy.

Allowing Southern Baptist missionaries to speak in tongues, or have what some SBC leaders call a "private prayer language," speaks to the growing strength of Pentecostal churches in Africa, Asia and South America, where Southern Baptists are competing for converts and where energized new Christians are enthusiastically embracing the practice.

"In so many parts of the world, these charismatic experiences are normative," said Bill Leonard, professor of church history at Wake Forest Divinity School. "Religious groups that oppose them get left behind evangelistically."

The change does not mean that Southern Baptists will commission missionaries who speak in tongues. But Wendy Norvelle, a spokeswoman for the IMB, said an affirmative answer regarding the practice would no longer lead to automatic disqualification.

Southern Baptists have long prided themselves as among the world's most ambitious missionaries—reaching countries and regions few dared to go—but they are increasingly finding competition from fast-growing Pentecostal Christianity, which now has an estimated 300 million followers worldwide.

In 2005, the International Mission Board created guidelines that specifically disqualified all missionary candidates who spoke in tongues. For Southern Baptists, the practice, also known as glossolalia, ended after the death of Jesus' apostles. The ban on speaking in tongues became a way to distinguish the denomination from others.

These days, it can no longer afford that distinction."Southern Baptists are experiencing such demographic trauma of membership and baptism they need new constituencies among nonwhite population," Leonard said.

Indeed, the issue became such a lightning rod for Southern Baptists that it got top billing on the application form.

"If someone said they did pray in tongues, they were automatically disqualified, essentially for being honest," said Wade Burleson, an Enid, Oklahoma, pastor who opposed the ban.

The policy changes approved this week during an IMB trustee meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, will leave the question of tongues in the application.

And the IMB said it will still end employment for any missionary who places "persistent emphasis on any specific gift of the Spirit as normative for all or to the extent such emphasis becomes disruptive," an FAQ on the IMB website explained.

Other policy changes this week would allow divorced missionaries to serve in more positions, including long-term missions assignments.

And the IMB will recognize baptisms performed by other Christian denominations so long as they involved full-body immersion. Previously, a Southern Baptist minister must have baptized missionary candidates who transferred from another denomination.

© 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved.
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Re: Southern Baptists Change Policy on Speaking in Tongues

Post by brent » Mon May 18, 2015 11:06 am

I posted this on my Facebook page.

We are affiliated with the SBC. We accept members from other congregations, who have made a profession of faith and have been baptized. It doesn't matter where they come from, as long as they have accepted God's salvation, through Christ alone, by faith, not of works, and profess to be living like it. Of course, we are going on what people say and visible eviodence. Only God knows the true condition of the heart.

I have missionary friends, from multiple denominations, in South Africa, Philippines, etc. On the mission field, there are soooo many denominations working the same people, spreading different gospels, doctrines, practices, I can see how those poor converts would be confused. They don't know who to believe. After all, there are pagan people outside of Christianity practicing tongues. It makes sense that they would have to be more accepting of other conversion and worship practices, and hope they stick around long enough to mature.

My church would not allow "tongues" to be practiced publicly, at will. It would need to be done in the context of a structured service, with no more than three speaking, and someone interpreting, with confirmation by another party. That is the ONLY biblical model given for tongues in church. We are told not to use a "prayer language" of tongues simultaneously, because Paul said not to. He said visitors would think we have lost our minds. The big issue for me, and many MANY pastors, theologians, etc, is the lack of interpretation. THAT would seem to be the most important gift, currently missing from the planet.

There have been para church ministries and Christian publications who have researched this. They gave a recording of person speaking in tongues to about a dozen people supposedly gifted with interpretation. Not one person agreed on the same interpretation. In fact, the interpreters could not agree on the same purpose. They all agreed that the same message could mean many things. None of those messages were agreed upon as being viable alternatives. Then I began to think, shouldn't more people have the gift of interpretation than speaking? How else would the congregation be able to discern what is said, as directed by scripture? The gift from God would be limited by the number of people able to discern, which means the people with the message could not deliver it. This fact tells me tongues does not have the emphasis we like to put on it. We have a hard time understanding and putting into practice what is written and available for all to read.
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Re: Southern Baptists Change Policy on Speaking in Tongues

Post by pmal » Tue May 19, 2015 1:26 pm

IMO, we just simply don't need this because we have the complete revelation given to us in the Word of God. I'm not saying it's completely impossible, but we have enough trouble as it is with following what we agree on is God's Word. If we can't follow something given to us that has millions of copies made of it and deciphered, how could we possibly follow/handle non-decipherable tongues?
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Re: Southern Baptists Change Policy on Speaking in Tongues

Post by brent » Tue May 19, 2015 8:16 pm

I agree. We have "divine inspiration" of scripture, yet we do not know for sure which ones. We have the Holy Spirit helping us understand, yet no two people understand the same way the same thing. Man has translated it crudely. Man has created his own versions to manipulate what it says, for whatever reason. We have done a fine job making a mess of things.
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