NAMB says new churches should affirm inerrancy (updated Oct. 11)

From staff and wire reports

New North American Mission Board guidelines for starting Southern Baptist churches call for the congregations to have a covenant affirming inerrancy and only male ordained deacons.

NAMB officials said the guidelines are not requirements for the agency's support.

A document titled "Ecclesiological Guidelines to Inform Southern Baptist Church Planters" was approved Oct. 6 by NAMB trustees.

Stan Norman, associate professor of Theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote the guidelines, which include a commitment to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) statement. The BF&M neither uses the term "inerrancy" nor addresses women's ordination as deacons.

The paper addresses such issues as the authority of a Baptist church, classic marks of a true church, congregational polity, autonomy, and the offices, ordinances, and mission of a New Testament church.

"It's a statement of guidelines, not a checklist of do's and don'ts," said Martin King, a NAMB spokesman.

King said NAMB officials will work to be sure materials, training, strategies and initiatives aren't outside the bounds of the document.

NAMB officials will continue to work with state convention and association partners when determining whether a new church receives NAMB funding, he said. The guidelines could be part of the discussion, he said.

Milton Hollifield, executive leader of the Baptist State Convention's Mission Growth Evangelism group, said NAMB officials had indicated the document will serve as a guide for planting Southern Baptist Convention churches. NAMB officials said the guidelines are not intended to be a hindrance to church planting efforts, he said.

"I think this is a statement for planting what they see as a New Testament, Southern Baptist church containing foundational principles, rather than something that will be used to determine funding or lack of funding," Hollifield said.

Hollifield said he thinks the guidelines contain helpful information for church planters and leaders of new churches who do not have a Baptist background.

Norman, who also serves as director of New Orleans Seminary's Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry, wrote that "the covenant of a Baptist church must minimally affirm three things: the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the church and its members; the divine inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Bible; and the membership of the church consisting only of regenerate persons who have professed their faith in believer's baptism by immersion."

While the 2000 BF&M "leaves open the issue of whether or not women can serve as deaconnesses in SBC churches," Norman states, "My position is that, if a local church ordains its deacons, then women cannot serve in this capacity.

"In SBC life, ordination carries with it implications of authority and oversight, and I believe the Bible relegates authority and oversight to men," the NAMB document adds. "If a church, however does not ordain its deacons, then the authority-oversight prohibitions would not apply. In that case, the generic meaning of the term 'deacon' ... is that of a servant or a table waiter. Thus, any member of the congregation is qualified to serve."

King said trustee approval of the document does not mean that Norman's opinion is now NAMB's official position on the issue of women deacons. The agency's support of a new church with women deacons might depend on what the deacon's were doing, whether they were ordained and the opinion of NAMB's church planting partners, he said.

NAMB helps start about 1,500 new Southern Baptist churches each year.

"It is important that the North American Mission Board have a very clear statement of what we see to be a Baptist church," said NAMB president Robert E. (Bob) Reccord. "We are not planting 'baptistic' churches. We are not planting churches that resemble what Baptists are. We are planting Southern Baptist churches that reflect what a biblical New Testament church is."

Speaking to trustees during their regularly scheduled meeting, Reccord said the document was needed because of the rapid proliferation across the country of some non-biblical church models including the 'family' or 'simple' church networks.

"In many parts of North America, an errant theology of church has begun to spread, especially in a few younger church planters, because these non-biblical models sound good and it's easy to get sucked in," he said. "A church cannot be myself and my wife meeting in our home, and it's we two and no more. That is not a church. What we're doing with this document is giving guidelines to ensure that Southern Baptists are starting biblically sound New Testament churches."

Norman wrote in the introduction that the guidelines and discussion will help NAMB to know the type churches it affirms.

"Church planting strategies and endeavors must be conducted in such a way that they are obedient and submitted to the New Testament for faith and practice as well as committed to Baptist ecclesiology as stated in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000," he said.

Trustee chairman Barry Holcomb said the paper would "prevent us from getting to the extremes such as one account I read that said a family could use pancakes around the breakfast table for the Lord's Supper. This paper is a sound theological document and position."

Richard Harris, NAMB's vice president of church planting, initiated development of the guidelines "to ensure that churches we help start throughout North America are Southern Baptist." He expressed appreciation to Norman as well as to the Council of Southern Baptist Seminary Deans and two SBC seminary presidents, Paige Patterson and Phil Roberts, all of whom reviewed and affirmed the paper.

David Thompson, chairman of NAMB's church planting committee and pastor of Northpointe Community Church in Old Hickory, Tenn., said, "I'm very passionate and excited about this document. One hundred years from now, much of what we do won't matter, but I believe this document will."

The paper was approved by NAMB trustees with two dissenting votes. Harris said his staff would use the guidelines to review and guide the agency's church planting strategies, processes and materials.

The complete document is available for review at www.namb.net.

In his report to the trustees, Reccord outlined six major goals that will guide NAMB's priorities through 2010:

- Equip for evangelism.

"We desire to work with our strategic partners across North America to equip and engage 1 million believers yearly to share the Gospel and assist Southern Baptist churches to average more than 500,000 baptisms per year by the end of the church year in 2010," Reccord said.

- Assist in church planting.

"We will work with our strategic partners to engage one out of four Southern Baptist churches to be involved in church planting in North America and to enthusiastically support the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Offering so that Southern Baptists can plant 11,000 new churches by 2010."

- Mobilize Christians

"When Jesus talked about church, his focus was on people, yet many times when we talk about church we focus on a building," Record said. "NAMB commits to do everything within our power to equip and engage 750,000 Southern Baptists to participate in short-term mission projects by the year 2010.

- Deploy missionaries.

"North America is the largest English-speaking mission field in the world, because North America is the only continent on which Christianity is not growing," Reccord said. "NAMB will strive to help equip and deploy 10,000 missionaries and chaplains to be on mission throughout North America by 2010."

- Penetrate the cultures.

"Every Christ-follower is called to be on mission right where he or she is," Reccord said. "We want to work with strategic partners to facilitate the creation of a strategic network of passionate on-mission Christian leaders and members of influential professions and arenas such as education, law, politics, business and real estate by the end of 2010."

- Develop leaders.

"NAMB is in the process of creating a leadership greenhouse which will provide for every employee, from the mailroom to the boardroom, a personalized growth development plan with measurable goals to which they will be held accountable for personal growth in servant leadership."

"Southern Baptists have long said, we can accomplish far more together than we can ever do separately."

In other business, NAMB trustees:

- approved a 2005 budget of $120.7 million, a 2 percent increase over the 2004 budget.

- appointed Randy Singer as president of FamilyNet through 2005 in addition to his responsibilities as chief counsel and special assistant to the president.

- approved a cooperative agreement with the Dakota Baptist Convention.