Dwight McKissic

Last updated

William Dwight McKissic, Sr. (born 1958) is a prominent African-American Southern Baptist minister from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He is the founder and current senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. McKissic is a controversial leader of the Bapticostal movement, marked by rejection of cessationism and support of the charismatic gifts. He has also made several controversial statements, specifically about homosexuality and divine wrath.

Contents

Biography

McKissic planted Cornerstone Baptist Church in 1983 in his garage. Today, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas averages about 1,800 members each Sunday. McKissic's vision is to continue developing a multi-cultural ministry that will eventually house a K-12 school, retreat and communications center, and also ministries to reach and mentor fatherless children. In addition to mentoring church planters, he is the author of several books including "Beyond Roots: In Search of Blacks In The Bible", "Beyond Roots II: If Anybody Asks You Who I Am", and "Moving From Fear to Faith". No information is available on the church website or elsewhere in regard to McKissic's educational background. McKissic has served as a guest lecturer for schools such as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he serves as a trustee, Criswell College, University of Minnesota, Emory University, Southern Illinois University, Wheaton College, and Harvard University. [1]

Hurricane Katrina as the wrath of God

McKissic said "New Orleans flaunts sin in a way that no other places do. They call it the Big Easy. There are 10 abortion clinics in Louisiana; five of those are in New Orleans. They have a Southern Decadence parade every year and they call it gay pride. When you study Scripture, it's not out of the boundaries of God to punish a nation for sin and because of sin. When I look at our country, at what's happening, and what's happening in New Orleans in particular, it's not beyond the realm of possibility." [2]

Position on speaking in tongues

Following the new qualification of missionary appointments, the Rev. Dwight McKissic gave a sermon during a chapel service to students attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and announced that he speaks in tongues and uses a private prayer language and emphasized not taking a cessationist view of the charismatic gifts. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary quickly distanced itself from McKissic's comments saying,

"Rev. McKissic’s interpretation of tongues as 'ecstatic utterance' is not a position that we suspect would be advocated by most faculty or trustees. In keeping with Baptist convictions regarding religious liberty, we affirm Rev. McKissic’s right to believe and advocate his position. Equally in keeping with our emphasis of religious liberty we reserve the right not to disseminate openly views which we fear may be harmful to the churches." [3]

However, shortly after his election as president of the Convention, Rev. Frank Page expanded on his "big tent" view of Southern Baptists by saying,

"Churches must deal with charismatic issues and theology as a part of their own autonomous structure. I think that many charismatics function well within traditional Southern Baptist churches. In fact, we have several in our church. Some are more vocal and sometimes disruptive. Churches must deal with those kinds of attitudes on a case by case basis. Trustee bodies must do the same." [4]

Related Research Articles

Southern Baptist Convention Largest Protestant Christian denomination in the United States

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word Southern in "Southern Baptist Convention" stems from its having been organized in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, by Baptists in the Southern United States who split from the northern Baptists over the issue of African-American enslavement; citing biblical texts, the SBC strongly opposed its abolition.

Holiness movement Set of beliefs and practices which emerged from 19th-century Methodism

The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is Wesleyan in theology, and is defined by its view of personal sin, and emphasis on the doctrine of a second work of grace generally called entire sanctification or Christian perfection. For the Holiness Movement "the term 'perfection' signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from all sin, and possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind." A number of evangelical Christian denominations, parachurch organizations, and movements emphasize those beliefs as central doctrine.

Frank Stagg was a Southern Baptist theologian, seminary professor, author, and pastor over a 50-year ministry career. He taught New Testament interpretation and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1945 until 1964 and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky from 1964 until 1978. His publications, recognitions and honors earned him distinction as one of the eminent theologians of the past century. Other eminent theologians have honored him as a "Teaching Prophet."

No one...has ever taken the New Testament more seriously than Frank Stagg, who spent his entire life wrestling with it, paying the price in sweat and hours in an unrelenting quest to hear the message expressed in a language no longer spoken and directed toward a cultural context so foreign to the modern reader.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) is a Baptist Christian denomination in the United States. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is in Decatur, Georgia.

In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctrines of salvation and ecclesiology. It is frequently associated with incorporation into the Christian Church, the bestowal of spiritual gifts, and empowerment for Christian ministry. Spirit baptism has been variously defined as part of the sacraments of initiation into the church, as being synonymous with regeneration, as being synonymous with Christian perfection that empowers a person for Christian life and service. The term baptism with the Holy Spirit originates in the New Testament, and all Christian traditions accept it as a theological concept.

Signs and wonders refers to experiences that are perceived to be miraculous as being normative in the modern Christian experience, and is a phrase associated with groups that are a part of modern charismatic movements and Pentecostalism. This phrase is seen multiple times throughout the Bible to describe the activities of the early church, and is historically recorded as continuing, at least in practice, since the time of Christ. The phrase is primarily derived from Old and New Testament references and is now used in the Christian and mainstream press and in scholarly religious discourse to communicate a strong emphasis on recognizing perceived manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the contemporary lives of Christian believers. It also communicates a focus on the expectation that divine action would be experienced in the individual and corporate life of the modern Christian church, and a further insistence that followers actively seek the "gifts of the Spirit".

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1908 and is one of the largest seminaries in the world. It is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and the National Association of Schools of Music to award diplomas and bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

B. H. Carroll Theological Institute is an accredited Christian Baptist institution in Irving, Texas with multiple sources of funding and a self-perpetuating board of governors. It is named after Benajah Harvey Carroll and teaches Baptist principles and practices. It operates in cooperation primarily with Baptist churches, and also cooperates with other Great Commission Christians. The institution offers classes in both conventional classroom settings and by innovative means. It trains students in "“teaching churches” located in multiple Texas cities, as well as through interactive lessons taught over the Internet", with 20 such "teaching churches" in operation throughout Texas as of November 2006. The school plans to focus on the use of distance education to make it easier for students to obtain theological education. As of 2006, the school's second year of operation, B. H. Carroll Theological Institute had 300 students taking courses and an additional 300 students auditing courses. Bruce Corley was Carroll's first president; Gene Wilkes is Carroll's second president.

John MacArthur (American pastor) American Protestant pastor, televangelist, and author (born 1939)

John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. is an American Reformed Baptist pastor and author known for his internationally syndicated Christian teaching radio and television program Grace to You. He has been the pastor of Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in Sun Valley, California since February 9, 1969. He is currently the chancellor emeritus of The Master's University in Santa Clarita and The Master's Seminary.

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Southern Baptist seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is a Southern Baptist seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the first institution created as a direct act of the Southern Baptist Convention. Missions and evangelism are core focuses of the seminary.

L. Paige Patterson served as the fifth president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., from 1992 to 2003, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 1998 to 2000, and as the eighth president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, from 2003 until his firing in 2018. He played a major role in the Southern Baptist "conservative resurgence", called "Fundamentalist Takeover" by opponents. He has been alternately described as a fundamentalist and a conservative evangelical.

Benajah Harvey Carroll

Benajah Harvey Carroll, known as B. H. Carroll, was a Baptist pastor, theologian, teacher, and author.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. The seminary has been an innovator in theological education, establishing one of the first Ph.D. programs in religion in the year 1892. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and moved to its current location in 1926 in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. In 1953, Southern became one of the few seminaries to offer a full, accredited degree course in church music. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries, with an FTE enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.

Bapticostal movement Movement in some Baptist churches

The Bapticostal movement is a movement in some Baptist churches towards adopting certain elements of the charismatic movement. The word Bapticostal is a combination of Baptist and Pentecostal. The term has been used in a limited manner to describe a worship style of high-tempo Contemporary Christian music accompanied with spontaneous shouts, clapping and hand raising. But it also describes those churches where members profess to have and exhibit the charismatic gifts that are practiced in Pentecostalism such as speaking in tongues, being slain in the Spirit, or being granted a word of knowledge. The prevalence of such beliefs within Baptist churches worldwide is unknown. In some unions or conventions it hardly exists but in others it is common. In the United States, it has been estimated that among Southern Baptist churches, 5% of the churches could be classified as Bapticostal, and the numbers are growing. According to a study in 1989, 69% of Baptist churches belonging to the Baptist Union of New Zealand, the main Baptist association in New Zealand, identified positively with the charismatic movement.

Beginning in 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the organization. Its initiators called it the conservative resurgence while its detractors labeled it the fundamentalist takeover. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a liberal trajectory.

Russell H. Dilday is a pastor, educator, former seminary president, and chancellor of B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. He is best known for his tenure as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary until his abrupt dismissal in 1994 during the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence.

Craig Alan Blaising is the former Executive Vice President and Provost of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Blaising earned a Doctor of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a Master of Theology Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a recognized authority in patristic studies and eschatology and is one of the primary proponents of "progressive dispensationalism."

J. D. Grey, sometimes known by his adopted name as James David Grey, was a major figure in the Southern Baptist Convention and from 1937 to 1972 was the pastor of the large First Baptist Church of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Teddy Gerald Stone was a Southern Baptist evangelist and former drug addict who founded his own ministry to help addicts. To raise funds and awareness of the ministry he completed three walks across the United States and was on his fourth walk when he died. He was also on the board of trustees for Southwestern Baptist Seminary, wrote for the Baptist Press, and ran for statewide leadership roles in the church in North Carolina.

References

  1. "- Black Christian News". Archived from the original on 2010-11-19. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  2. :: BlackElectorate.com ::
  3. Baptist Press – Southwestern trustee's sermon on tongues prompts response – News with a Christian Perspective Archived 2006-09-12 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Baptist Press - BP debuts Frank Page column; SBC.net launches Page site - News with a Christian Perspective Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine