New staff guidelines considered by Mobile Baptist Association

Pastors in Mobile Baptist Association (MBA) declined to require associational employees to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BD&M) as well as fall under other stricter guidelines during the Jan. 14 executive board meeting.

James Mercer, pastor of Hollinger’s Island Baptist Church, said, “A handful of pastors were concerned about three issues” in regard to associational staff members.

Those issues were:

To require the associational staff to sign a statement of affirmation for the 2000 BF&M

To establish guidelines for where the spouse of associational staff members can work

To establish guidelines about where associational staff members can place their church membership

One associational staff member’s spouse serves on the ministerial staff at a church of a different denomination.

“(The pastors) went to the personnel committee…and the committee said there were no guidelines that they could find, so the committee went to the executive committee for help,” said Mercer, former MBA moderator. At that point, the three issues became questions to the association’s executive board.

BF&M vote

“There was discussion, but it was polite,” Mercer said. “It could have gotten very ugly, but it didn’t.”

The three questions were asked and discussed, but only the question about the BF&M made it to a vote, Mercer confirmed.

It was defeated, but not everyone voted, Mercer noted.

While Mercer believes the discussion will not affect the work of the association, he said, “I don’t think these are questions that will go away.”