I was refreshing my memory about W. A. Criswell plagiarizing portions of one of the books he published - Why I Teach That the Bible Is Literally True. Criswell used portions of R. A. Torrey's book - verbatim - without quotation marks or citations.
That led me to get the book about Criswell by Joel Gregory - Too Great a Temptation.
Gregory's two-year stint trying to become the senior pastor at First Baptist, Dallas, led him out of the ministry. He now has this business - Gregory Ministries. When he wrote the book, he was selling funeral planning.
One theme of the book is the Baptist obsession with enormous churches. The bigness in the South is startling. The Lutheran executives doubtless still lust for the same kind of clout. Two of the congregations named with awe in this book are Hybel's Willow Creek (ending in sex scandal) and Jack Hyles' First Baptist in Hammond, Indiana (which has a legacy of abuse from Hyles, his son-in-law, and dozens of their associate pastors in other churches under his wing).
But the point is - those cisterns of corruptive are gigantic, and that is the defining metric. In this book, Gregory's history is constantly measured in terms of explosive growth where he served before the Criswell experience. These miniature cities of Southern Baptist piety are measured by size and real estate and wealthy connections, much less by faithfulness to the Scriptures.
I learned that Baylor University, central to this narrative, really is a Southern Baptist university, with a seminary named after the pastor who preceded Criswell at First Baptist, Dallas. Baylor was owned by the Southern Baptists of Texas until the Baylor board decided it was completely independent of the denomination, but still nominating 75 - 100% of its own board members as Southern Baptists.
It troubles me that ELDONA's own church historian denies the Southern Baptist nature of the school where he earned his PhD. I asked a Lutheran in Texas, very close to the Baylor scene, and he agreed that Baylor was definitely Southern Baptist.
In spite of his own PhD from Baylor, Gregory does not know much about the history of Biblical apostasy in America. Gregory blamed it on Bultmann, post-WWII, but the same issues (Virgin Birth, Resurrection, Miracles, Divinity) were revised by Rauschenbusch - a Baptist! - in 1917. The key Biblical issues were being denied before that, and taught here, thanks to the glory of European study in the 19th century.
So I am thinking that one's lack of knowledge about Baylor may come from Baylor not being very good at training its PhDs.
First Baptist, Dallas not only suffered from bigness worship but also from the adoration of the pastor, which gave Criswell enormous power to do what he wanted, often to the detriment of the congregation. But that was inherent to the Southern Baptist strategy - encasing the community in a bundle of real estate, social activities, sports, games, and children's activities where they could dwell in peace. First Baptist had 47 kitchens, many of them owned and kept locked by a number of groups within the church. Gregory reported that he needed a guide to find placed within the complex.
Criswell's wife had her own Bobble Study of 300 people, in spite of Southern Baptist rules about women teaching men. That, of course, was a power center by itself. As explained to me, Southern Baptists can meet at someone's home for a designated Bobble Study and never step foot in the church for 20 years - and that includes the leader. This is naturally the influence of Pietism and its cell/koinonia/share/care/small group plan. The real church is the small group.
Unethical behavior by pastors who have supposedly taken another call or retired is described in great detail. Here WELS and the Southern Baptists are in complete agreement about previous pastors causing enormous harm to please themselves. The CLC (sic) has the same low standards, adding "the DP's mother.
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| Dr. Joel Gregory |
July 27, 2005
Dr. Joel C. GregoryDr. Joel C. Gregory - Texas Baptist pastor, former president of the Baptist General Convention Texas, publisher and founder of Gregory Ministries - has been appointed professor of preaching at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary for the academic year 2005-2006. Gregory is currently a Distinguished Fellow of Georgetown College, the oldest Baptist college in Kentucky.
The well-known preacher, scholar and author will begin teaching at Truett in the fall.
"At Truett Seminary, we intend to make preaching a priority," said Dr. Paul W. Powell, dean of Truett Seminary and special assistant to the president for denominational relations. "We sought Joel Gregory because I believe he is the finest preaching professor we can put before our students."
"It is an honor that Dean Paul Powell and the faculty of Truett have requested me to join with them in their vision," Gregory said. "I hope to help that excellent faculty in their quest to make Truett a center for contemporary biblical preaching in the historic, mainstream Baptist tradition."
Gregory has been a guest preacher at the Truett Preaching Conference for the last three years, as well as an adjunct instructor for I-term and summer classes.
A Baylor alumnus, Gregory earned his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1970 and his doctorate in 1983, both from Baylor. He received his master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught preaching 1982-85.
While earning his degrees at Baylor and Southwestern, Gregory served as a student pastor at Edgefield and Emmanuel Baptist churches of Waco, Acton Baptist Church of Granbury and Cottonwood Baptist Church of Falls County. From 1977-82, he pastored Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, before joining Southwestern as an assistant professor of preaching.
In 1985, Gregory became pastor at Travis Avenue Baptist Church, the largest Baptist congregation in Fort Worth. He was then called unanimously in 1990 by First Baptist Dallas, historically the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention, to serve as pastor. He held that position for two years, highlighted by preaching to President George H. W. Bush and speaking at the Barcelona Olympics.
Gregory has served in many leadership positions on the local, state and national levels. He was unanimously elected as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1988 and 1989, and delivered the annual sermon at the 1988 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in San Antonio, "The Castle and the Wall," in an attempt to mediate the breach in the denomination.
Following his resignation from First Baptist of Dallas, Gregory wrote a best-selling memoir of his life, Too Great a Temptation. The book has been produced as a play, God's Man in Texas, written by Baylor graduate David Rambo, and is one of the 10 most-performed plays in the United States over the last five years. Gregory also has written or edited several other books, including Growing Pains of the Soul, Homesick for God, James: Faith Works, and Gregory's Sermon Synopses. In addition, he collaborated with the late Earl Allen on Southern Baptist Preaching Today and Southern Baptist Preaching Yesterday and with Dr. Frank Pollard on The Preaching Pastor. Gregory is currently writing the major article on "Expository Preaching" for the Interpreter's Dictionary of Preaching, published by Abingdon Press and edited by Baylor graduate Dr. Cleo Larue, professor of preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary.
An active speaker at churches, conferences and conventions, Gregory has spoken in 46 states and in Middle America, South America, England, Europe, the Far East and the Middle East. He has been a guest preacher at Westminster Chapel, Spurgeon's College, the Barcelona Olympics, Interlaken, Baptist seminaries and scores of university campuses. In 1990, he addressed the Baptist World Alliance in Seoul, Korea. He has more recently been guest instructor in continuing education at Princeton Theological Seminary, as well as lecturer at the United Theological Seminary doctor of ministry intensive.
Gregory also has been associated with two Fort Worth-based publishing groups, Magnolia Media Group, where he was senior vice president from 1994-99, and ACP LLC, where he has served as publisher and CEO since 1999. In 2004, he founded Gregory Ministries for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God through speaking, writing, media, Internet, consulting, homiletical education and ministerial counseling. He now serves as a distinguished fellow at Georgetown College in Kentucky. Under those auspices he will be conducting a seminar on biblical preaching at Regents Park College, Oxford, in August. Gregory also works with a retreat for ministerial renewal and restoration, Restoration Ranch, located in east central Oklahoma.
Gregory is a member of the Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth where he shares teaching responsibilities in the Chapel Bible Class. He is the father of two sons, Grant Joel, 31, of New York City, and Garrett Summers, 28, of Fort Worth.
