NC Baptist meeting could be decisive

by Steve DeVane and Lindsay Bergstrom                                          Vol. XVI, No. 5, May/June 2003

[Editorial Introduction: First, note that the article below is from Associated Baptist Press, the liberal competitor to the SBC Baptist Press. Second, look at the clear differences between the liberal and conservative approaches to cooperation implicit in the article: Throughout the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC, conservative Southern Baptists have maintained that biblical cooperation must stand on mutual acceptance of the Bible as the inerrant, God-breathed Word (Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”), that is, doctrine is not only important but primary. On the other hand, just as consistently liberals maintain that doctrine is of secondary importance as long as we cooperate in what we do. Pastor Massey asks, “Is there room for churches that are no longer loyal to the SBC?” Because such churches reject the SBC due to its commitment to the Bible, the answer clearly must be, “Absolutely not!” Let all Southern Baptists pray for our brethren in North Carolina that their November meeting will settle this long-standing question in their state convention. TCP] 

Many observers believe November's meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) could be decisive in the ongoing controversy between conservatives and moderates in the state. Candidates who worked together on a failed shared-leadership proposal in 1999 will face off in the race for president, and messengers likely will hear recommendations from a study-committee authorized last November to examine a giving track favored by moderates when Baptists in North Carolina meet this fall.

David Hughes, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem was endorsed by Mainstream Baptists of North Carolina (MBNC) [liberal] officials March 29, while Conservative Carolina Baptists (CCB) [conservative] leaders named David Horton, pastor of Gate City Baptist Church in Greensboro, April 24.

Hughes and Horton became friends in 1997 while both served on the "Committee of 20," a group of 10 conservatives and 10 moderates who met to discuss the BSC's future. They later served together on the Commission on Cooperation, which proposed a shared-leadership plan at the 1999 BSC annual meeting.

The proposed plan focused on the election of officers. The individual receiving the most votes for president would have been elected president, while the one with the second-most votes would be president-elect. That presumably would have put a conservative and moderate in each position. The president-elect would automatically have become president the next year, while the current president would stay on as past-president, effectively allowing both officers to serve two years.

Similarly, the vice-presidential candidate receiving the most votes would have been first vice-president, with the candidate coming in second being named second vice-president, both serving a two-year term. The four officers together would have appointed members of a key nominating committee.

Proponents said the plan would have avoided deepening the division among the state’s Baptists. Opponents said conservatives and moderates have different visions for the convention, making true cooperation impossible. In the end, the proposal, though receiving 55 percent of the vote, was defeated when it failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary to change the convention’s constitution.

For the past eight years, conservatives have dominated the state convention elections with moderates gaining some ground briefly in 2000. But last year’s formation of a committee authorized to study “Plan C,” one of four giving tracks available to the state’s churches and the only one that includes funding for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has North Carolina’s Mainstream group asking if churches affiliated with the CBF can be full partners in the BSC and if loyalty to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is going to be a litmus test in the state.

Speaking to a group of about 70 at the MBNC meeting at First Baptist Church, Greensboro, where Hughes was announced, Ken Massey, pastor of First Baptist and a member of the MBNC steering committee, said MBNC wants to know if the BSC is going to be as rigid and exclusionary as the SBC. "It's not a mandate; it's not a threat," he said. "We simply want to know, 'Is there room for churches that are no longer loyal to the SBC?' In November, we aim to have an answer."

If the battles can be stopped, Mainstream churches are willing to partner with all N.C. Baptists, Massey said. "If not, our congregations have some difficult choices to make."

Raymond Earp a layman from Beaufort will be nominated by MBNC for BSC first vice-president. CSB officials will offer Brian Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, East Flat Rock, as second vice-president. [ABP]