Today is Good Friday, the anniversary of Jesus’ death on the cross. Given the significance of this day, as well as the general interest that surrounds Easter Weekend, many churches choose to hold special “Good Friday” evening worship services. One such church is Summit Church, a multi-campus organization based in North Carolina. Summit is led by its senior pastor, JD Greear, who just happens to be the sitting president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Frequent readers of this blog may remember that I wrote about Summit Church last December, when it cancelled Sunday services on the weekend closest to Christmas. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I learned this morning that Summit Church is charging $5 admission for it’s Good Friday service.
You didn’t misread that, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention is selling tickets to come to his church and commemorate the death of Jesus.
If I used the type of language that Mark Driscoll does then I know exactly what I’d say to JD Greear. Here’s what I will say:
- I feel sorry for the people who call Summit Church home.
- I feel sorry for the Southern Baptist Convention, that it’s led by this JD Greear (and Ronnie Floyd for that matter).
- I feel sorry for anyone who has a pastor who wants to emulate JD Greear or believes that this businessman in a clerical collar is a leader to be emulated.**
If you have friends or family who attend Summit Church or ensure this kind of standard in another body, love them enough to challenge them to leave it. If you’re a Southern Baptist pastor and you’re silent about this kind of thing, what you don’t say says a whole lot about you.
UPDATE: See commentary about this matter from JD Greear here.
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
**That’s a turn of phrase, Greear doesn’t wear formal clergy clothing.
