Category 4
Verdict: JD Greear led the Southern Baptist Convention astray.
Preface
Part of how this Discernment ministry operates is taking in reader questions about prevalent teachers. JD Greear was requested but did not have the most. In this case, Evangelical Dark Web chose to write about him. Our patrons can see who has the most active requests. You can make a request here and see our answered verdicts here.
Bio
JD Greear is an American evangelical pastor, author, and theologian. He was born on May 10, 1974, in Mobile, Alabama. Greear attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and later earned a Ph.D. in religious studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
His career began as a youth pastor at Macland Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia. He later became the lead pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, a position he held from 2002 until 2020. During his time as lead pastor, the church grew significantly and became known for its mission focus and its emphasis on discipleship.
In June 2018, Greear was elected as the 62nd President of the Southern Baptist Convention, a position he held until 2021. As President, he focused on issues such as theological unity, church planting, and social justice. He also authored several books, including “Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary” and “Not God: Stop Seeking Your Own Glory – Start Seeking His.”
Currently, Greear serves as the dean of the Summit Church’s new theological seminary, called The Summit Theological Seminary. He continues to be active in theological discussions and is a prominent figure in evangelical circles.
Critical Race Theory
JD Greear is arguably the most woke president in Southern Baptist history. In the years leading up to 2020, JD Greear was instrumental in moving the Southern Baptist Convention to embrace Critical Race Theory. In 2019, the Resolutions Committee would bring forth Resolution 9 (which was edited away from its original intent) to endorse Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool. It was under JD Greear’s presidency that this was done.
In the wake of George Floyd, JD Greear was among the most prominent Evangelical leaders embracing Black Lives Matter.
We know that many in our country, particularly our brothers and sisters of color right now, are hurting. Southern Baptist, we need to say it clearly as a gospel issue: Black Lives Matter. Of course Black lives matter. Our Black brothers and sisters are made in the image of God. Black lives matter because Jesus died for them. Black lives are a beautiful part of God’s creation and they make up an essential and beautiful part of His body. And we would be poorer as a people without them and other minorities in our midst.
Let me echo my friend, Jimmy Scroggins, a pastor down in Florida, and saying that Black Lives Matter is an important thing to say right now because we are seeing in our country the evidence of specific injustices that many of our black brothers and sisters and friends have been telling us about for years. And by the way, let’s not respond by saying, oh, well, all lives matter. Of course all lives matter. But I’ve heard it described this way. Say you’re in a group or with a group at a restaurant.
And the waiter brings the food to everybody except for one guy at your table, your friend Bob. And so you say to the waiter, hey, excuse me, Bob deserves food. And somebody at your table corrects you to say, no, no, no, all of us deserve food. Well, that’s true, but you’re missing the point. Bob is sitting there by himself without food. And so we are saying we understand that many of our black brothers and sisters have perceived for many years that the processes, the due processes of justice have not worked for them as they have for some others in our country.
By the way, like Jimmy, like Dr. Shragan says, let’s spare each other the quotation of stats right now. You know, if you talk to some Black friends, you’ll know that they can tell you about their experiences and how some of them can be quite different from others in our country. We want rights and privileges to be extended to everybody. We Christians want to hear our brothers and sisters, to feel their pain, to enter into that pain and bear that burden with them. Black lives matter. And by the way, I realize that the movement and the website has been hijacked by some political operatives whose worldview and policy prescriptions will be deeply at odds with my own. But that doesn’t mean that the sentiment behind it is untrue. I do not align myself with the Black Lives Matters organization.
JD Greear clearly teaches that Black Lives Matter is a gospel issue. At the end, he tries to distinguish Black Lives Matter from the organization and website, erroneously claiming that they are hijacking a movement (that they pretty much started over a decade ago). JD Greear places no distance between his sentiment on the gospel and the Black Lives Matter movement in his viral 2020 video. Thus, JD Greear erroneously maintains that Black Lives Matter is a gospel issue. This is a subversion of the gospel in favor of false narratives surrounding the death of George Floyd. While several pastors compromised and went woke in 2020, JD Greear, who had always been woke, was one of the worst offenders of this regard.
Additionally, JD Greear has publicly stated in 2021 that calling Kamala Harris a Jezebel was “unwise” because of a “history of certain racial stereotypes.”[1] This was an attempt to publicly struggle session fellow Southern Baptist, Pastor Tom Buck.
Moreover, those empowered by JD Greear include his former woke worship pastor who was also gay-affirming. And then there is the Janetta Oni, the communications director for Summit Church. She wrote a heretical blog post of Greear’s website, titled “Racial Reconciliation and the Church: Same Song, New Response.”[2] She would call “racial reconciliation” a gospel issue.
Racial reconciliation is a gospel issue. When Jesus was asked what the greatest law was, he said it is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—and, though they didn’t ask for a second one, he told them anyway that you are to love your neighbor as yourself. We say that as a blanket statement that has no nuance to it. How do I love someone as myself? I’ve got to figure out what’s going on in their life, and I also have to look at my own life and how I love myself. If we don’t do that as the church, then people won’t trust us. If people feel like they can’t trust us with their body and their melanin, then they won’t trust us with their soul, either.
Much of the article presupposes George Floyd was traumatic to all Black Americans.
Sanctification is slow, and there is no “done.” That’s the posture we should take with racial justice and reconciliation. We are being sanctified together as the church in the United States, and we shouldn’t jump to solutions any more than we should jump to “three ways to quick sanctification.”
What I’m talking about here isn’t about complacency, but about pace. Just because the journey is a slow one does not mean it’s an optional one. I have faith that I will see my God offer to us this far-off solution in the land of the living. But, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I declare that “even if he does not,” I will engage the church in racial discipleship with eternal hope.
When we commit to the long haul of repentance and reconciliation and acknowledge God in all our ways, then he will make our paths straight.
Oni argues for struggle sessions as part of her woke sanctification process. That JD Greear published this nonsense on his personal website is detrimental evidence to his credibility as a pastor.
Egalitarianism
The theological liberalism of JD Greear is on display with the issue of egalitarianism. When the Southern Baptist Convention was debating whether to ban female pastors by amending their constitution to explicitly state that churches with female pastors as not in friendly cooperation, JD Greear on the frontlines protecting female pastors in the SBC.
JD Greear wrote in opposition to the Mike Law Amendment:[3]
I do oppose this amendment because it binds the hands of the Credentials Committee from differentiating between those churches who have committed (to use Al Mohler’s words) a “grievous error” (in this case, rejecting complementarianism) and those who I believe simply have a nomenclature problem. Since the Conservative Resurgence, we have sought to be united on primary things (e.g. salvation by faith alone, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the inerrancy of the Bible, etc.) and secondary things also (e.g. complementarianism, believer’s baptism, regenerate church membership, etc.). This amendment, however, makes conformity on a tertiary thing (right nomenclature of an office) a standard for fellowship.
JD Greear omits that the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 clearly draws a line in the sand on the female pastor debate, thus making it a “secondary” issue worth enforcing. After all, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was formed in opposition to patriarchy in the SBC.
Here’s why this might have unintended effects: With this amendment, if a church is brought to the Credentials Committee that has any woman on staff, who is a “pastor of any kind,” such as a woman who oversees their children’s ministry or website development, the Constitution mandates that the committee recommend disfellowship. They are, by Constitutional declaration, “not in friendly cooperation.” No exceptions. Even if we discern they are, indeed, complementarian, and this is merely inaccurate titling of someone’s staff position.
JD Greear echoed the woke narrative that banning female pastors would disproportionately impact Black or Hispanic churches. He also claimed that banning female pastors sends the wrong message.
Proponents of this amendment have said it would be tragic to compromise on complementarianism. I agree. But it would be equally tragic—and it seems far more likely in our given moment—to fail to celebrate or even recognize the gifting and calling of more than half the members of our churches.
We can and should do both—guard our doctrine and set up our sisters to thrive.
And that’s why we need to take our Acts 15 moment, as our African American brothers and sisters are urging us—to slow things down and ask for wisdom, allowing the Holy Spirit to find a solution that “seems good to us and the Holy Spirit,” a solution that will lead to both doctrinal faithfulness and missional flourishing in our churches.
Evangelical Dark Web views pastors who promote egalitarianism in traditional circles as far worse than those who come from egalitarian backgrounds. JD Greear thus proves to be a subversive agent because of this issue.
Compromise on Sexuality
JD Greear has long been called out over his compromise on sexuality. He famously quipped that the Bible “whispers about sexual sin.” This infamous line would lead to enough backlash for Greear to walk it back. Moreover, he would also advocate and walk back “pronoun hospitality.”
However, JD Greear has not repented of his original compromise of legitimizing homosexuality in the first place. Greear spoke at an Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission event telling the audience:
I do want to apologize to the gay and lesbian community on behalf of my community and me for not standing up against abuse and discrimination directed towards you. That was wrong and we need your forgiveness stand up and be among the fiercest advocates for the preservation of the dignity and the rights of LGBT people.
JD Greear argues that Christians should advocate politically for homosexuals to be able to commit sodomy without criminal or social consequences. This position is untenable for a Christian to hold and has contributed to societal decadence everywhere tried. The Bible, Leviticus 18 and 20, proscribe homosexuality as a crime further reinforced in Romans 1.
Promotion of Spontaneous Baptism
JD Greear was president of the Southern Baptist Convention while the convention was actively promoting the practice of spontaneous baptism, whereby an alter call turns into an alter baptism. This practice does not validate the faith of those baptized. As a practice, it is an unserious treatment of the ordination of baptism that in megachurch culture is used to inflate the evangelism numbers.
Branch Covidianism
JD Greear famously shut his church down for all of 2020 due to COVID-19. In doing this he violated Hebrews 10:24-25 by “forsaking our own assembling together.” As President of the Southern Baptist Convention, he illegally canceled the annual convention and assumed a third term in office. JD Greear would famously have a campus of his multicampus megachurch. At the Downtown Durham location masks were required for all and the unvaccinated are subject to presenting a negative COVID test in order to worship. It’s worth noting that this burden is unscientific and implemented only to inconvenience those who are not vaccinated with the failing COVID-19 vaccine. However, this was abhorrent legalism inhibiting the ability of Christians to worship.
JD Greear’s neglect for worship became his reasoning for cancelling church when Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2022. Greear’s reasoning was so brazen that he was the most prominent pastor mentioned in their article, “O Come All Ye Faithful, Except When Christmas Falls on a Sunday.”[4]
“Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and it ought to be a day you spend with the family of Christ,” said J.D. Greear, the church’s pastor, who was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2021. “But I don’t want to be the Pharisees of this generation, where I turn it into some kind of rule that there’s never an exception for.” He pointed to the Bible’s account of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath, in defiance of local customs about proper behavior on that day.
The New York Times would go on to showcase Greear’s approach to Covid and Christmas.
Canceling church is not a free pass to ignore the day’s spiritual significance, as Mr. Greear sees it. His family will have a small worship service at home using materials provided by the church, and will take a walk in their neighborhood. They will also open presents, which will include a family tradition of an envelope addressed to Jesus, with a donation to a charity or the church inside.
Mr. Greear said the decision to close had an echo in his church’s approach to the pandemic, when the Summit closed its church facilities for most of 2020. “You could almost look at Covid, at lockdown, as a year of an exception,” he said.
Greear’s tyrannical approach to the local church is matched by his willingness to push lies onto his congregation. And while many pastors failed in 2020, JD Greear is among some of the worst high-profile offenders, and he furthermore set a terrible example as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Conclusion
The ministry of JD Greear has been to the detriment of The Summit Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. On major issues, he has been a leader for the apostatizing of Evangelical doctrine to churches that are more readily resistant to downgrade. In the Southern Baptist Convention, especially, the fight over female pastors is a major proxy for theological orthodoxy, particularly the authority of Scripture itself. As Scripture clearly forbids female pastors of any kind in 1 Timothy 2, JD Greear’s support for female pastors should be viewed as being a figurehead for apostasy in the context of the Southern Baptist Convention.
JD Greear is especially woke, which has enabled much of his apostasy. His dedication to Social Justice has him advocating for gay rights, female pastors, and Black Lives Matter as a gospel issue. Perhaps JD Greear is desperate not to be like “those other Christians.” In other words, he wants to be liked by the world. JD Greear has achieved worldly acclaim. He has achieved a church that appears to be majority Democrat. And he has sacrificed truth and doctrine to achieve it.
JD Greear is most certainly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
[1] https://x.com/jdgreear/status/1356680906828881927
[2] https://jdgreear.com/racial-reconciliation-and-the-church-same-song-different-response/
[3] https://jdgreear.com/a-time-to-come-together-the-unintended-effects-of-the-law-amendment/
[4] https://archive.vn/ZJWGf#selection-279.0-279.63
One Response
So then, since you identify him as a false prophet, why do you also call him evangelical?