Training, the AGC and Fundamentalism // March 8, 2007

(a little background is in order here… to be a chaplain in the Military (or any professional clergy position) you need a graduate degree (for most its an MDiv or its equivalent – now the military will accept you if you have a MA with 72 hours of grad work), an ordination in a recognized denomination/faith group, and an “endorsement.” The Army does not train or validate your religious credentials of course; there is no way of doing that, so they leave that job to various denominational heads to do that for them. Think of it as a doctor’s “board certification,” it legitimizes you and give you’re the professional credentials needed to do you job. Most major denominations have an endorsing agency in them: United Methodist Church, Missouri Synod Lutheran, Assembly of God, Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic Church… on and on the list goes. The last time I looked, I think there were over 300 recognized denominations in the DoD system. However, this leaves people like me (independent/
Non-denominational) out since we do not have a denomination that can endorse us. The goal of endorsement is that a faith group (i.e.
Independent Fundamental Churches of America) has X number of members and therefore needs representation in the Armed Forces – they then endorse a chaplain to meet the needs of that faith group. We all basically do the same thing, we minister to all soldiers regardless of faith group, but we also represent them. To look at the chaplain corps is to see a miniature reflection of American Religion… in all its forms…)

I am represented by the Associated Gospel Churches. (More background… The AGC was founded by a group of conservative Methodist ministers during the great battles between theological liberals and conservative, evangelicals during the 30s. It was a group born to represent the mainstream when the major denoms were denying previously held basic doctrinal beliefs about the diety of Christ, the supernatural, the second coming… In the wake of this, certain “fundamental” groups began to form that held to the inspiration of Scriptures. The AGC was one of these groups. It was so interesting to me (and a source of pride) to discover the place that the AGC has in the Chaplain Corps. At this time (late 30’s, pre-WWII) there were only THREE endorsers in the military. There was Roman Catholic, Jewish, and the Federal Counsel of Churches. That’s it. Three. If you were Protestant, the only avenue you had to the Chaplain Corps was to be a member of a main-line denomination that was also a member of the FCC. Since the FCC was such a liberal organization, most conservative organizations left, leaving conservative chaplain’s no recourse. It was well-nigh impossible for a conservative evangelical to become a chaplain the military.
Along came the AGC. They fought and fought (by this time, the leader was a Presbyterian named W.O.H. Garman) for recognition by the Chaplain Corps. Eventually, the won and now, the monopoly of the “great three” was broken and any recognized denomination could establish an endorsing agency – now there are over 300 recognized denominations, and most anyone qualified that feels the call to military ministry has an avenue to minister and still represent his faith and conscience! Nice…)

Soooo, anyway, I represent independent, evangelical Christians and am endorsed through the AGC. Does that make sense??

I went to “fundamentalist, separatist, baptistic (if not straight-up Baptist)” schools. Fairhaven Baptist College, Pensacola Christian College, Luther Rice Seminary… Only, I’m really none of those things anymore. I certainly am not a fundamentalist nor am I separatist. I wonder now, if I actually represent the group I am endorsed by. I have to admit that I went the conference thinking that this was it for me, I was going to pursue changing my endorser for one that I feel that represents me theologically and practically.

See, (and this might be WAY too much information, but then, it wouldn’t be much of a blog if it wasn’t…) the nature of the fundamentalist movement seemed to lead it in this way. The conservative, evangelical standard was raised for the purpose of combating the liberal theology of the day – thus the idea of being separatist was to agree on a certain set of theological principles – there were the “five V’s”: Virgin Birth of Christ, Vicarious Atonement of Christ, Victorious Resurrection of Christ, Visible Return of Christ, and the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible and other lists/creeds that defined what being a Christian really was.

After a while, (and I believe that most movements tend in this direction) the idea of separation became more important than the actual things they were separating from. Thus, the denominations that had banded together to fight liberalism now fought over things that were previously thought “non-essential” this went on until now, (at least in my own experience) churches and people separate into smaller and smaller groups over things like what kind of music you listen to on the way to church and the version of the Bible you read! The idea seemed to become, “you need to get with the people that agree with you most and stay there!!!” The concept of agreeing on the essentials and letting the little things work themselves out was exchanged for strife and vainglory. No longer did good Christians talk things through, they just “shook the dust off their feet” and moved on. The movement that began with such power and passion, just splintered until – they didn’t matter anymore.

A great example of this would be a situation I heard about a few months ago. Now, let me caveat this by saying that this is all hearsay and I do not profess to know all the details about this situation – so, I’ll just put it to you as I heard it.

The General Association of Regular Baptists started around the same time as the AGC and for essentially the same purpose. There was a time when the Southern Baptist Convention was lead by some theological liberals and the GARBC, being conservative, “separated” from them. Then the schools got involved. The GARBC schools were funded by churches in the GARBC and separated from the SBC. Then, as the SBC got conservative again, the schools started talking again – since, after all, they needed students! This, of course, made the GARBC mad and they decided to let the schools go and “separate” from them! (My question here is: at what point do you go from being separatist to becoming isolationist?? I believe that at that point – whatever that is – you lose relevance; you simply do not matter any more.) Thus, the GARBC, is “staying true” to the “old paths” by being separated from that den of liberalism – the SBC!!

I’m lost here, do they get an extra crown in Heaven because one group that believes in Salvation by grace through faith separated from another group that believes in Salvation by grace through faith?? They even baptize the same way! They run their churches the same way! The schools teach the same thing!

I think that in this case (again, my own opinion), you have men that have “stood for the faith” they probably made huge sacrifices for the stand that they took! So when they hear that people they support are canoodliing with others they separated from – the answer is always a resounding NO! It only stands to reason.

However, I believe that the conservatives, in the end, won! Many of the liberal ideas of the past are not so much of an issue any more and I’m not sure anyone I know would consider the SBC a “liberal” organization… any more… They certainly agree more then they would admit! In this instance, the idea of separation is more important then the issues fought over. I would certainly not be this type of separatist!

Which brings me back to the AGC – remember that? I think this was whole point anyway…

At some point in the late 70’s/80’s the AGC changed hands from the original founders that emphasized certain fundamental theological ideals over denominations to those that followed separatism to its ideological end and changed the organization to independent Baptist. The constitution read “baptistic” and the theological statement emphasized major tenants of Baptist doctrine. More or less, you would not be comfortable in the organization unless you were, if not Baptist, then certainly baptistic!

Round about 2001, I was ministering at an IFCA church in Piscataway, NJ. I had just been kicked out of Pensacola Christian College (I later was awarded my degree after sending the school a contrite letter of apology and much kissing up… we’ll save that for another post…), and was teaching Bible and History in their Christian School. This was where I discovered a passion for teaching. Once I got my degree situation squared away, I knew that I wanted to be in the Chaplaincy. I remembered the only group I knew of that was not Baptist was the AGC. I had met the president very briefly and had gone to school with one of the current members. It had been described to me as a “non-denominational group for independent evangelicals.” I thought that sounded closer to who I was than the “Independent Fundamental Churches of America,” so I joined. When I read the constitution, I remember thinking that it didn’t SOUND very non-denominational and the statement of faith certainly SOUNDED Baptist. But hey, at the time, I was fresh out of two fundamentalist schools and though I was at the beginning of my journey away from that brand of Christianity – I was closer to that than anything, so I signed up.

Fast forward several years and (after not having anything to do with the organization for several years) I am talking to them about getting endorsed so that I could deploy to Iraq with my National Guard Unit! Ahh!! And off I went.

While deployed, I still didn’t have much to do with the group, they were more of less a necessary bit of paperwork that I needed to do my job. The more I DID get to know them, the more I realized that, on the outside, we didn’t seem to have the same values. I would now describe myself as an Emerging Evangelical (if that means anything…) and the AGC certainly does not seem very Emerging! The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I wanted to get into a group that was truly non-denominational and non necessarily Baptist. I am ordained out of an Independent, Elder-run, Bible church and it just didn’t seem to me that I represented the AGC much at all. I certainly did not begrudge them – they have been most helpful to me in during this journey – but after all, many of their chaplains are Bob Jones, PCC, Tennessee Temple types – and I’m just not that any more and have not been for several years!

So I go to this conference. Mostly, I think I am man enough to admit, because I needed a vacation and this seemed to be a quasi one! So, Sara and I packed up the Rav and off we went!

Turns out, annual conferences with the AGC isn’t much of a vacation! They had training scheduled from 0900 to 2100 every night! Needless to say, Sara and I cut out for some of those nights… Since I travel a good bit on weekends training Guard units, we spend as much time as we can together.

This turned out to be a watershed conference for the AGC. Remember that I went convinced that this would be my one and only conference with them, so was I surprised when, as part of their business meetings, they TOOK OUT all the “baptistic” language from their constitution! Took the wind straight out of my sails! I was kind of shocked! I’m still not a fundamentalist nor a separatist (at least by their definition) but now, (to my consternation) the constitution was one that I could agree with! What’s an emerging brother to do?

The words have changed, but the leadership are still classical fundamentalists. (All the guest speakers were from BJU!) But when its all said and done, I am finding less and less that we disagree on – at least on paper… Ideologically and philosophically, we would probably still disagree on many subjects but for the most part I guess we would agree. Part of my “new” new theology is to let folks be who they are and would include being fundamental and separatist!

What to do what to do…

Christianity is a journey. I know this is not where it ends for me. I believe that we change till the day we leave here. I think the only thing that matters to me is that Christ is glorified.