Southern Baptists Making Progress on the Tongues Issue
Interesting findings as reported on ChristianPost.com.
“Amid ongoing discussions, LifeWay Research, a department of LifeWay Christian Resources, wanted to determine the perceptions and opinions of Southern Baptist Convention leaders on an issue that has been a topic of interest, indicated Brad Waggoner, vice president of research and ministry development at LifeWay.
“The study was conducted on 1,004 Protestant laity, 405 Southern Baptist senior pastors, and 600 non-SBC Protestant senior pastors in April-May of 2007.
“Results of the study showed that overall, 63 percent of Protestant senior pastors believe in the gift of a private prayer language. Within the SBC, 50 percent of pastors believe in the gift and 43 percent do not.
“Study respondents also included recent Southern Baptist seminary graduates. Surprisingly, recent graduates (55 percent) are more likely than Southern Baptist pastors (41 percent) to believe the gift of tongues ceased to be a valid gift in times past.”
I think this last item is very important. While learning from books and lecture is important, experience often plays a far greater role in education. Perhaps what we see here is a case of seminary graduates basing their beliefs on what they have been taught in seminary and active pastors tempering their beliefs with wisdom gained through experience, both personal and otherwise. Just something to think about.
from my notebook 