An Open Letter to South Carolina Baptists Alex Sands, Convention President Kingdom Life Church, Simpsonville
We've all heard the saying, "the more things change, the more things stay the same." That was certainly the case in 2021, as much as we hoped otherwise. The vaccines we looked forward to last year became available, but we still had outbreaks and quarantines. Worship attendance rebounded, but we still had a shortage of volunteers. Masks were not as prevalent, but the controversy surrounding them was. The calendar year may have changed, but much of what we tried to bury in 2020 was alive and well. Thankfully what also didn't change was the advancement of the kingdom. Churches still preached the Gospel, disciples still grew in their faith, and missionaries were still sent into the harvest, just as before. And in South Carolina, the kingdom-building work of the SCBC continued as well. North Greenville, Anderson, and Charleston Southern universities continued to educate and graduate students with a distinctively Christian worldview. The Bethea and Martha Franks retirement communities continued to provide safe and excellent care to their residents. Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries continued to minister to families and children during the peaks and valleys of the virus. The Courier kept publishing. Summer camps were reopened. New churches were planted. Dying churches were revitalized. God has been faithful. Those are just a few examples of the good things that didn't change and illustrate the wisdom behind the SCBC's formation. In 1821, nine messengers from three associations met at First Baptist Columbia and birthed a Convention to promote missions and Christian education better than any one church or association could do alone. Despite a Civil War, two world wars, and two pandemics, there are now over 2,000 SCBC churches of various sizes, ethnicities, and worship styles. We have been and are Great Commission Baptists, sharing a vision of seeing South Carolina saturated and transformed by the hope of the Gospel, notwithstanding our differences. As a result, no organization in South Carolina has invested more money and resources to win the state for Christ than the SCBC. No wonder the enemy has worked so hard to divide us! He knows a house divided cannot stand, but a house united for Christ and His glory will not fall. We advance better when we Advance Together. It's our shared vision of seeing South Carolina transformed by the Gospel that has made it an honor to serve as president this year. I can tell you firsthand that we are blessed with great leadership at the Convention and have reason to be proud of the work they and our ministry partners do. Admittedly the Convention is not perfect, like none of the churches that make up the Convention are perfect. And like many 200-year-old institutions, there's the uncomfortable history of being on the wrong side of slavery and segregation. Even today, only 1% of our churches are AfricanAmerican versus 27% of the state's population. It's a negative example of how when things change, some ugly things remain the same. But God is merciful, and as we look forward to the next century of SCBC life, we can be confident that God will bless our work to the degree we focus on the harvest and not ourselves. He's done it for 200 years, proving that as things change, God's faithfulness remains the same.
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