Friday, Sept. 20, 2002

Committee to study SBC relationship with BWA

From staff and wire reports

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has decided to take another look at its relationship to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).

SBC Executive Committee Chairman Gary Smith announced the reactivation of a committee studying the relationship at a Sept. 16-17 Executive Committee meeting. The move comes two months after the BWA General Council indicated that it might give a favorable vote to a membership application from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In other action, Executive Committee members met behind closed doors three times to discuss a proposal to make a North American Mission Board (NAMB) television network for-profit and also approved new ministry guidelines for the International Mission Board.

Serving on the committee studying BWA will be Executive Committee President Morris Chapman; LifeWay Christian Resources President Jimmy Draper; International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin; Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson; former SBC president Tom Elliff; and Paul Pressler, a former Executive Committee officer.

The committee disbanded in 1998 after recommending that the SBC not withdraw from the worldwide fellowship of Baptist conventions and unions. One recommendation, however, called for "ongoing review" of the relationship.

The original study dealt with "concerns and questions" among Southern Baptist leaders about reports of liberal theology and a perception that the organization isn't evangelistic enough. After meeting several times with BWA leaders, the SBC satisfied those concerns, keeping its annual contribution of about $400,000 to the BWA in the budget.

Executive Committee President Morris Chapman said in an interview with Associated Baptist Press that reactivating the committee comes in response to a July vote by the BWA's General Council to consider a membership application from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Chapman, who strongly opposed that action, said it indicates a lack of understanding and communication between the BWA and SBC, and a need to "build relationships."

BWA President Billy Kim and BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz spoke at the SBC Executive Committee meeting. Neither talked about the CBF membership proposal.

Executive Committee members gave Kim a standing ovation before and after he spoke. Chapman called Kim "a Southern Baptist at heart."

Closed meetings about TV network

The three closed meetings to discuss the television network included a rare closed-door session by the full Executive Committee. Earlier, a work group and subcommittee both closed their meetings to the public to talk about the issue.

Executive Committee members said they needed to meet in private to talk about legal matters connected to a request by the NAMB to convert its FamilyNet television network from a non-profit to a for-profit subsidiary.

The full Executive Committee met 35 minutes behind closed doors to review "confidential material" provided to committee members and staff. Earlier committee discussions on the issue were also closed to outsiders.

NAMB leaders say Southern Baptists will need private investors in order to raise an estimated $75 million it would take to establish a major presence in television. Currently, NAMB spends about $6 million a year for FamilyNet, which in turn generates about $3 million in income.

A recommendation distributed before the closed session noted for the record that the Executive Committee had received the NAMB request and planned to "consider action on this matter at some future meeting after further exchange of information and when formal documentation has been prepared and submitted for review and approval."

After the meeting, Chapman said in an interview that the committee desired to discuss "matters of financial and legal" concern privately before saying anything in public.

Gary Smith, chairman of the Executive Committee, said he sensed in the closed discussion "exhilaration and excitement about the possibility of expanding our broadcasting capability across the nation."

Background information provided to Executive Committee members and observers prior to the meeting included a letter from NAMB President Robert Reccord describing details of the proposal, except for one section that was deleted because it dealt with "legal matters considered privileged at this stage and inappropriate for public discussion."

Executive Committee members were given the full letter in executive session.

In the letter, Reccord talks about why the move is needed.

"There is no credible voice for evangelical Christianity on television at the present time," he said. "Those Christian networks that have achieved high degrees of media presentation sometimes do more harm than good for the cause of Christ. When an unbeliever sees the type of fringe doctrine and preaching that characterizes some of the 'Christian' television shows on the air, they see a laughable caricature of Christianity that bears no resemblance to the authentic gospel."

FamilyNet presently is carried on cable 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in about 2.9 million homes. To become a "player in the industry and truly penetrate the culture" would require at least 30 million "24-7" homes, Reccord said in his letter.

The restructuring plan calls for establishing guidelines for doctrinal accountability, to determine who qualifies as an investor, to ensure that NAMB and the SBC control the type of programming and articulate an "exit strategy" to protect Southern Baptist assets and programming should the deal ever fall through.

The new for-profit FamilyNet would be formed from three existing NAMB subsidiaries: FamilyNet, a non-profit entity; TimeRite, a for-profit advertising subsidiary; and DFW Uplink, a non-profit subsidiary that includes operations for satellite transmission.

NAMB is proposing that it lend $9 million to the for-profit venture over three years, and continue to provide programming with estimated value of $1 million a year.

Trustees of NAMB voted unanimously in a called meeting Aug. 13 to approve the reorganization plan, subject to approval by the Executive Committee and the SBC.

New IMB guidelines

In other action, the Executive Committee approved changes proposed by the International Mission Board (IMB) in the agency's own statement of its ministry assignments.

The revisions include incorporating "nurturing church-planting movements," which supporting information describes as "the primary, if not only way, of making the gospel potentially accessible to all people."

The document speaks of "sending" missionaries, as opposed to "appointing," a narrower term in the old statement that doesn't take into account the agency's widespread use of volunteers.

It also adds a reference to mobilizing Southern Baptists in local churches, associations and state conventions to pray, volunteer and give sacrificially to missions. At the request of an Executive Committee work group, an added phrase specifies that such financial support is through the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Offering.

It calls for assisting international Baptist leaders with discipleship and training but deletes a specific reference to developing "schools." Some have criticized the IMB's recent emphasis on church planting for neglecting institutions like schools and hospitals. IMB officials say that is just a perception.

The new statement still affirms the IMB's commitment to ministries such as community health and hunger relief, designed to "meet human needs and share the gospel."

IMB leaders say the changes are cosmetic and do not reflect any major changes in missions strategy. The new statements, they say, remove outdated language and are more precise in describing the agency's current approach.

"There is no change whatsoever in what they do," said Executive Committee member Frank Cox, who presented the ministry statements for approval. "They do this just to bring up-to-date the verbiage of what they do."

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