SBC and ‘Gospel Coalition’ Leaders Exclude White Pastors From Church Planting Network
In a move surprising absolutely no one paying attention to the critical race theory downgrade in the Southern Baptist Convention, the Gospel Coalition’s Thabiti Anyabwile Ron Burns, Darryl Williamson, and a series of woke pastors have formed the Crete Collective, an initiative ostensibly for the purpose of increasing church plants in minority communities, but which by their own words continues the redefinition of the Gospel to include all sorts of woke, non-gospel nonsense.
Rather than the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this cabal of race-obsessed “pastors” continues to beat the drum of “justice” (Marxism), deliberately conflating the Gospel with the social justice issues of the day. According to the interview article in Christianity Astray, Anyabwile sees the Gospel and justice as “siblings” – apparently salvation through Jesus needs to cooperate with “immigration challenges, prison reform, hunger, and homeownership.”
The Collective includes men like John Onwuchekwa, who gladly accepted $175,000 in SBC money to renovate his church (as well as NAMB money to secure the loan for the building), only to leave the convention in 2020 accusing the denomination of not being woke enough and insinuating that churches made up of mostly minorities should do like his – take the money and run.
I do not see the utility of our church made up predominantly of ethnic minorities remaining in the SBC. Because rather than being an agent of change, I fear our presence has largely been an advertisement for other churches of similar makeup saying “Come in…the water’s fine.” The sign I’d rather hold up is “Enter at Your Own Risk!”
John Onwechekwa
Also on the board of the Crete Collective is Aaron Reyes, who is introduced on the website first as a “second-generation Mexican American” so we won’t mistake him for a white guy and we’ll know his presence in the group is legit. Aaron apparently is focused on the “story arcs of immigration, redemption, and justice throughout the Bible” rather than the story of salvation.
If the Southern Baptist Convention knew what was good for it (it doesn’t), it would rid itself of churches and pastors who subscribe to the devilish lie that racial identity and social justice are in any way related to the Gospel of Jesus. Instead, they continue to respond to Critical Race Theory with “Nothing to see here!” If nothing else, the SBC can prevent losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to men who call them racist.
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Racist idiots. No wonder much of the church is sick.
Amen to that.