Updated Wednesday, June 11, 2008

SBC refers motions to rejoin BWA, disaffiliate churches with women pastors

By Marv Knox

Texas Baptist Standard

INDIANAPOLIS-The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will consider rejoining the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), removing churches that hire women pastors and restricting agency heads from serving as SBC president.

Messengers presented those and 20 other motions during the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis June 10-11. Motions request the convention to take action, and they typically are referred to various SBC agencies for consideration and report to the following year's annual meeting.

In Indianapolis, messengers referred 10 motions to the Executive Committee, ruled six motions out of order, sent five to various agencies or committees, saw one withdrawn and affirmed, but took no action on another.

Motions referred to the Executive Committee included proposals to:

Ñ Reconsider the SBC's 2004 decision to withdraw from the BWA, composed of more than 200 Baptist conventions and other organizations around the globe.

At the time, BWA critics charged the worldwide body as being "too liberal," echoing a refrain from the schism that split the SBC in the latter decades of the 20th century. More recently, the SBC has sought to build an organization of conservative groups worldwide, apparently attempting to siphon some Baptist unions, particularly in parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, from the BWA.

Larry Walker, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Dallas, proposed the SBC-BWA reconciliation.

In an interview, Walker stressed that many small Baptist conventions and unions - many of them located where Baptists and other Christians face daily persecution - need the support and encouragement of the SBC, the world's largest Baptist convention. And, he noted, the SBC would benefit from relationships with faithful Baptists who bravely and humbly persist in the face of overwhelming odds.

Ñ Amend the SBC's constitution to disallow affiliation by "churches which have female senior pastors."

This proposal would modify the SBC constitution, which regulates convention membership. The convention's Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement asserts, "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

Ñ Change SBC bylaws to disqualify presidents of SBC agencies and institutions from serving as president of the convention.

In the early part of the 20th century, agency heads frequently led the convention as president. The only living institutional head who simultaneously served as SBC president is Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the architects of the ultra-conservative movement that gained control of the SBC in the 1980s and '90s.

Early this year, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., planned to run for president. But an illness and springtime surgery forced him to withdraw.

Ñ Declare Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, to be not "in friendly cooperation" with the SBC. The church has engaged in a public dispute regarding whether or not homosexual couples could be pictured together as families in the church's directory. The church ultimately determined to publish a historical booklet with directory information, but it would not include photographs of families.

The motion was made by Bill Sanderson of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell. He was the author of a statement prohibiting gay-friendly churches from being in friendly cooperation with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

Since Broadway did not send messengers to the Indianapolis meeting, the order-of-business committee determined the convention did not face a credentials issue. But it suggested compliance with the SBC's policy against affiliating with churches that "affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior" merits study.

Ñ Change the terms of service for SBC agency trustees. The proposal would eliminate multiple terms of three and four years, limiting each trustee to a single seven-year term.

Ñ Set new eligibility requirements for service on SBC committees, commissions and boards. Nominees would be required to "give evidence of having received Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior," hold membership in a church that supports the SBC Cooperative Program unified budget, be in good standing with a local church, abstain from using alcoholic beverages and recreational drugs, and "support all the principles" in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement.

LifeWay Christian Resources, the convention's publishing house, received two motions. They asked the convention to:

Ñ Print the Baptist Faith & Message in the five most dominant languages represented within the convention.

Ñ Provide technology that will allow churches and associations with the capability to videoconfernce and/or teleconference through their websites "in a secure and Christian environment."

Messengers agreed with the order-of-business committee and President Frank Page, declaring six motions out of order. Primarily, these motions failed to pass SBC muster because they sought to instruct convention trustees or other groups - an action beyond the messengers' scope of authority. Among those discarded were motions that urged the SBC to:

Ñ Forbid program personalities at SBC annual meetings from reading from or citing LifeWay Christian Resources' Holman Christian Standard Bible "or any translation that questions the validity of any Scripture or verse." Messenger Eric Williams of Belle Rive, Ill., claimed editors of the Holman Christian Standard Bible "believe that there are verses in the (biblical) text that do not belong in the Bible."

Ñ Instruct the six SBC seminaries to charge students who take classes over the Internet the same tuition rates they charge on-campus students.

Ñ Mandate that "all colleges, universities and seminaries that receive Cooperative Program support be responsible to report ... that they teach creation science in their science programs as the true beginnings of life on earth as recorded in Genesis."