Baptist Heritage Council Launched in Georgia

                                                                                                                     Vol. XIII, No. 8 Sept/Oct 2000

[Introduction: Emerging as a moderate spokesman in the media is David Key, director of the Baptist Studies Program in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, which is a CBF-funded partner school. Blessings of same-sex unions are permitted in the campus chapels of Emory University. Key also has served as the director of the Georgia state chapter of The Interfaith Alliance (TIA), a religious left organization that supports the legitimation of homosexuality. The TIA executive director is Welton Gaddy, who has served on the CBF Coordinating Council and was formerly a professor/chaplain at Mercer University. The former director of the Baptist Studies Program is Nancy Ammerman, who has served on the CBF Coordinating Council. Atlanta-area layman and organizer Tommy Boland has also served on the CBF Coordinating Council. Keith Ninomiya]

by John D. Pierce

Baptists Today, June 1, 2000

Organizing around concerns and strategies similar to other "mainline Baptist" groups functioning or forming in several states, the Baptist Heritage Council of Georgia held a meeting on the Mercer University campus here May 18. While pastors were largely represented at the informational meeting, the group focus will be on educating and involving laypersons in Baptist life according to the group's two newly employed leaders.

Kent Anglin, a pastoral counselor and the former pastor of Hartwell (Ga.) First Baptist Church, and Becky Matheny, former Baptist campus minister at the University of Georgia, will both work part-time in leading the new organization. Anglin is currently interim pastor at Athens (Ga.) First Baptist Church where Matheny is an active member and deacon.

Plans for launching the council have been in the works for nearly two years. Atlanta-area laymen Tommy Boland and Blair Trewhitt, along with David Key, pastor of Union Point (Ga.) First Baptist and director of the Baptist studies program at Emory University's Chandler School of Theology, were charged with forming the non-profit organization and enlisting staff.

According to a document distributed at the meeting, the group seeks "to help strengthen churches and individuals to better understand who we are as Baptists and Christians." The stated goals are:

1. To enlist the laity of Georgia in a serious study of what it means to be Baptist in today's world.

2. To involve 3000 Baptists in (Georgia) who will become active in associational and state concerns.

3. To produce a newsletter once a quarter to help interpret Baptist principles and the issues that face Baptists.

4. To inform Baptist laity of local, state and national issues that affect Baptists.

5. To encourage local ministers to stand for Baptist principles and to inform their congregations about issues that affect them.

6. To organize a network of concerned Baptists around the state to present seminars of Baptist principles.

7. To form a speakers bureau.

After several years of close presidential elections and leadership shifts, the Georgia Baptist Convention has most recently elected leaders supportive of the Conservative-Fundamentalist control of the Southern Baptist Convention with little opposition. Matheny said it is unlikely the group will immediately organize a challenge to the continuation of such elections. However, the council will strongly encourage more lay involvement in local Baptist associations and the state convention.

The council is forming a board of directors and raising operational funds through individual donations. Representatives of the Georgia group participated in an April meeting in Atlanta that resulted in the formation of a national Mainstream Baptist Network.

Texas Baptists Committed, an organization credited with keeping that state's convention from a similar fate to the SBC, has provided a model for many other "mainstream" organizations. TBC executive director David Currie and Houston layman John Baugh visited more than a dozen states in recent months to assist in forming these groups. The Georgia group officially begins its work in June.