CBF to vote on new guidelines for membership, governance

by Greg Warner                                                                                                                      Vol. XIV, No. 5, May 2001

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in June will decide whether to adopt more specific membership requirements and create a new governing board. Proposed changes to the CBF's constitution and bylaws would require churches and individuals seeking membership to "embrace" the mission and core values of the Fellowship, not just send money. The revised constitution also would change the CBF's top decision-making body from a "representative" group to a "governing" board, said CBF executive Daniel Vestal.

Leaders said the changes reflect the Fellowship's coming of age. The moderate Baptist group will celebrate its 10th anniversary during its June 28-30 General Assembly in Atlanta, where the changes will be considered.

Last year the Fellowship adopted a new mission statement that focuses on serving local churches. The constitution and bylaw changes, which represent a second phase of strategic planning, were approved 24 Feb. by the Coordinating Council, the representative group that currently directs the organization. The constitution and bylaw changes will require approval by two thirds of those voting at the General Assembly.

Under current CBF bylaws, any church or individual that contributes to the Fellowship is considered a member. That includes churches that simply allow individual members to channel contributions to the Fellowship without any formal action by the church. That practice, critics say, artificially inflates the size of the CBF. "There's no public identification ritual," Vestal explained. Churches are not asked to vote, sign a document or "walk an aisle," he said.

Asking churches to embrace the CBF's mission and values, Vestal said, runs the risk of alienating some churches and shrinking the number now considered CBF members (about 1,800). "It's going to create some tensions." But it also gives churches that want to identify with the Fellowship a clear way to do that, he added. "At some point, I'd like to say, 'Here are our partnering churches.'"

While the new standard will tighten membership in the Fellowship, leaders say it will not limit participation. Any church or individual, whether or not a member, can participate in CBF meetings and programs. But only members can vote on business matters.

Neither do the revised bylaws dictate how a church "embraces" the mission and values. Although some church action is required, the church decides what action to take "in its own judgment and through its own process." "'Embrace' means whatever the church says it means," explained moderator-elect Jim Baucom of Lynchburg, VA. "They will decide for themselves what it means to be a part of the Fellowship." "It's going to be messy," conceded Baucom, a member of the task force that drafted the changes. "But every time we tried to clean this up, we infringed on the autonomy of the local church and we backed away from that."

By creating a more specific category of membership while not restricting participation, CBF is catering to churches that want various levels of affiliation with CBF, council members said. "We are trying to find a place for the church that wants fuzziness and the church that wants clarity," said Gary Parker, CBF coordinator for Baptist life and leadership.

The revised membership bylaw actually requires five things of "partnering" churches and individuals: 1) embracing the CBF mission, 2) embrace the CBF core values, 3) pray for its leaders and ministries, 4) participate in its ministries and decisions, and 5) contribute financially. The CBF's mission states: "We are a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. Our mission: serving Baptist Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission."

The CBF lists seven "commitments" as core values: basic Baptist principles, biblically based global missions, a resource model as the primary means of serving churches, a biblical vision of justice and mercy, lifelong learning for ministry, trustworthiness, and effectiveness. The "organizational value" adopted last year, which prohibits funding of groups that condone homosexuality, is a funding policy and not a core value, CBF leaders noted. The action will affect CBF support of several theological schools that are required by their parent universities to accept gay students.

Dixie Petrey, a council member from Knoxville, TN, made a motion to rescind the policy. However, because prior notice is required to rescind a previous action, the vote on her motion was delayed until the council's meeting in June. Vestal told the council the policy is "a middle-of-the-road solution" that allows CBF to support students at the affected schools through scholarship money while prohibiting direct support of the schools. "I am working real hard to deal with a conscience issue for many churches," he said. [ABP]