The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) was elected to full membership in the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) July 11 despite strong opposition from Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) representatives.
The 75–28 vote by the BWA General Council came two years after the CBF’s initial application for membership. The vote also followed a decision in June by SBC messengers to reduce BWA funding by more than 30 percent.
The flap over CBF’s membership escalated in 2002 when SBC leaders voiced concerns about how the BWA membership committee handled CBF’s application. Rather than declining CBF’s application a year ago, committee members publicly outlined the steps necessary for CBF to qualify for membership in the global Baptist fellowship.
Membership committee chairman Ian Hawley told participants at the July 7–12 BWA General Council meeting in Rio de Janeiro that CBF leaders had fulfilled the requirements for membership by declaring last fall that “they have separated themselves from the structures and organization of the SBC.” Additionally, CBF leaders submitted 20 “indicators” the fellowship is a separate Baptist body, including the organization’s own mission statement, funding channels and missions structure.
Hawley, who serves as director of international missions for Australian Baptists, noted regret that the membership process contributed to heightened tensions.
“We certainly did not have any intention of hurting or embarrassing the SBC,” he emphasized.
Noting that committee members “agonized and prayed for guidance over this decision,” Hawley added, “The membership committee is of the opinion that the necessary degree of separation from the SBC by the CBF has been met.”
He said the committee determined that recommending CBF as a BWA member body was “the only fair and right decision that could be made.”
Prior to the secret-ballot vote, SBC representatives sought to defer the vote until next year. They suggested that the CBF might be better qualified for associate membership, a new category to be considered next year that would include local churches as well as other Baptist groups such as state, regional or associational entities.
The primary issue is whether CBF is “eligible under our present rules of membership,” responded Tony Peck, a representative from the Baptist Union of Great Britain. “If so, we ought to vote on it now.”
General Council members declined to consider the motion to defer before voting nearly 3–1 to accept the CBF as BWA’s newest member body.
CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal described the vote as “a kind of validation by other Baptist bodies worldwide of our value, worth and place in the Baptist family. Baptist World Alliance is an important ministry, and I’m excited about being a part of it.”
Billy Kim, president of BWA, said, “This decision to accept CBF was based upon the facts that CBF met the requirements for membership.
“It was not a decision against the SBC, but a democratic vote of the council to affirm our Baptist family,” Kim said. “We love our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters and want them to remain active and full participants in all our meetings as we affirm our unity in Christ.”
(ABP, BWA)
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