Joining the SBCV

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                          Vol. IX, No. 9, October 1996

           I have had a number of calls from churches seeking help in one or more of three areas: (1) how to officially join the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, (2) how many messengers each church would be authorized, and (3) getting information on the new state convention, what it stands for, and the reasons, the background of the split.

How to Join

           Article V, 2(a) of the SBCV constitution states: “Any cooperating Southern Baptist church desiring membership in this body shall petition the Executive Committee at least three months prior to this body’s next annual meeting”

           As you will see below, messenger representation is based primarily upon giving to and through the SBCV. And as specified in Article V quoted above, each church is to write to the SBCV Executive Committee to “petition” for membership. Therefore, there are two constitutional requirements for membership:

1. Donate funds to and/or through the SBCV. These gifts can be in any amount.

2. Send a letter expressing your church’s desire to affiliate with the SBCV. Clearly, before taking such an important step any Baptist church should vote in a business meeting to do so. Then the church should send a simple letter expressing that desire. If no contributions had been previously sent to the SBCV, the letter of application should include a check in any amount. The check should be payable to “SBCV.” The letter should be addressed to: Rev. Doyle Chauncey, Exec. Dir.; 4661 Haygood Road, Suite 110; Virginia Beach, VA 23455. The letter may be as simple as the following:

           “Calvary Baptist Church has voted to (“affiliate uniquely” or “dually align”) with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Please consider this our letter of application under the SBCV constitution.

           [If no previous donations had been sent to the SBCV, add the following:] “Enclosed is Calvary’s initial gift.”

           Note: Having two state conventions in one state has never happened before. In order to avoid having members counted twice in the case of dually aligned churches, both the SBCV and the BGAV will have to know if a church is aligned with both. Therefore, in your letter of application please state whether your church intends to be aligned only with the SBCV or dually with both the SBCV and the BGAV.

           Note #2: The SBCV is in the process of changing from a fellowship to a state convention, and a Transition Committee has been appointed to oversee that process. Certainly there will have to be some changes to the SBCV constitution, and it is possible that among those changes will be a new procedure for becoming a member. Nevertheless, until the constitution is amended, the above procedure will remain correct.

Number of Messengers

           Article V, 4(a) reads: “Each member church shall be entitled to send messengers to the meetings of this body. Each member church shall be entitled to two messengers. The number of messengers after the first two shall be calculated according to the Southern Baptist Convention formula (including SBC Direct, SBC Cooperative Program, and SBCV giving) in effect at the time of the meeting of this body except that the maximum number of messengers shall be fifteen.”

           Turning to the SBC constitution, Article III, 2 says: “one additional messenger from each such church for every two hundred and fifty (250) members; or for each $250.00 paid to the work of the Convention during the fiscal year preceding the annual meeting.” And paragraph 3 states: “The messengers shall be appointed and certified by the churches to the Convention, but no church may appoint more than ten (10).”

           Taking the SBCV and SBC constitutions together, each SBCV affiliated church is authorized two messengers to SBCV meetings, plus an additional messengers for each $250 contributed up to a maximum of 15 messengers. Thus, giving $250 qualifies a church for three messengers, $500 for four, et cetera. The maximum of 15 messengers results from a contribution during the preceding year of $3,250 or more.

Background on Reasons for the New State Convention

           If you have a file of your Baptist Banners, you can review them for pertinent articles. But for those of you who prefer, I have excerpted these articles from the 1995 and 1996 Banners into an 88 page booklet titled “The Banner Files.” You can order a copy by requesting it from the address below. Cost is $4.00 each, including postage. Checks should be payable to “The Baptist Banner.” You are free to xerox and distribute any part or all of “The Banner Files” in as many copies as you wish. Write to:

                                               The Baptist Banner

                                               8601 Buckboard Drive

                                               Alexandria, VA 22308

           If you wish to schedule a speaker to discuss the issues with your church, you may call or email either: (1) Rev. Doyle Chauncey, Executive Director SBCV; phone 888-234-7716, dchauncey@sbcv.org, or (2) T. C. Pinckney, phone or fax 703-780-1566 (someone must be home to turn on the fax), email thebaptistbanner@cox.net