Greensboro church ends SBC funding

From staff reports

First Baptist Church of Greensboro voted Sept. 15 to remove all denominational affiliation from its bylaws and cut its last funding for a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) agency. The moves effectively end the church's formal ties with the SBC.

About 225 people voted on the issues, said Ken Massey, the church's pastor. Three people voted against the bylaw change that took out the reference to cooperation with any specific Baptist group. About 25 voted against removing funding for the International Mission Board (IMB) from the church budget.

Massey said the church could still send messengers to the SBC annual meeting because some members designate funds for the Lottie Moon offering for international missions or the Annie Armstrong offering for North American missions. The church hasn't sent messengers to the meeting since 1991, he said.

The change to the bylaws says the church's relationships to other groups "must remain free, faithful and mutually edifying."

"For the time being that limits our cooperation with the SBC," Massey said.

Massey said the church rejected the word "independent," choosing instead to identify itself as a "missionary Baptist church."

Massey said the church is not angry, but just wants to move forward "unencumbered."

"We didn't want to simply say we're severing ties," he said. "That has such an unchristian feel to it."

Massey said the church will evaluate all its funding, a practice of good stewardship.

"We're just not going to get bogged down in denominational politics," he said.

The church will financially support two missionary families, which both have ties to the church, Massey said. The $954 previously going to the IMB will now be included as part of $5,000 going to one of those families, he said.

First Baptist Church in Greensboro is one of more than two dozen N.C. Baptist churches to leave the SBC. Most of the churches are moderate and disagree with the SBC's decidedly conservative shift over the past 25 years.

At least two churches have left the Baptist State Convention as it has become more conservative in recent years.