FBC Mobile withdraws from association, cites ‘creedalism’

First Baptist Church, Mobile, has officially withdrawn membership from the Mobile Baptist Association (MBA), citing “creedalism.” MBA officials disagree with the reasoning to withdraw but acknowledge that First, Mobile, should disaffiliate if church members do not intend to follow the guidelines.
  
The Nov. 29 move by First, Mobile, came after the Oct. 19 MBA decision to oust Hillcrest Baptist Church, Mobile, for hiring a female associate pastor. Hillcrest Baptist was planted by First, Mobile, in 1984.
  
“[W]e have been deeply troubled by the recent action taken by the Association in withdrawing fellowship from Hillcrest Baptist Church,” wrote Kelly D. Reese, chairperson of First, Mobile’s deacon council, in a Dec. 6 letter to the MBA. “Citing the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M), the Association overwhelmingly expressed its disapproval of … Hillcrest … We strongly believe that this action … is an unequivocal endorsement and implementation of both creedalism and connectionalism in violation of historic Baptist principles.”
  
Thomas Wright, director of missions (DOM) for the MBA, disputes this claim. 
  
“The MBA is not creedal, meaning we do not use man-made documents to tell churches what to believe or what to do,” he said. “Our decision that Hillcrest had stepped outside the guidelines for affiliation was made based on Scripture.” 
  
Wright noted that during the association’s Oct. 19 annual meeting, the membership committee presented 27 Bible verses that he says prove the office of pastor is reserved for males.
  
“We referred to the Baptist Faith and Message to confirm that we were consistent with the historic and approved interpretation of those Scriptures,” Wright explained.
  
Members of First, Mobile, disagree. 
  
“No Baptist church should have its doctrines and practices scrutinized under the supposed authority of any[thing] other than the Bible,” Reese wrote.
  
According to church member David Nelson, the MBA is using the BF&M as “an acid litmus test.” 
  
“What has transpired has happened because of the leadership that has misguided the MBA and led them down sort of a goofy path,” he said. “I think [MBA] has stepped out of line and has gone too far.”
  
Nelson, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of South Alabama in Mobile,  originally suggested that the church consider withdrawing from the association.
  
He mentioned it to the church Nov. 15 and then brought it up at the Nov. 20 deacon’s meeting. The deacons voted to present it to the church at the Nov. 29 business meeting. 
  
Neither of the votes was unanimous, but the church vote was overwhelmingly in favor of withdrawing, Nelson said, noting there was a lot of discussion before the vote. “There are some people who didn’t want to see it happen,” he said. 
  
Reese added that some counseled waiting on the decision.
  
But Nelson said he could not “in clear conscience sit idly by and not object to the MBA’s eviction of a sister church for unjustified, unsubstantive reasons.” 
  
“[Withdrawing] was something I had been thinking of for a long time,” Nelson said, noting the idea first came to him in 2003 when then-DOM Mike Anderson resigned amid controversy. “I chose not to say anything at that time, but it was all kind of festering inside me.”
  
Anderson, then a member of First, Mobile, faced questions about being a member of a church that allowed members to designate funds to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as well as the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Cooperative Program (CP). Another issue dealt with whether to require associational staff to affirm the 2000 BF&M.
  
In 2003, the MBA executive committee discussed requiring associational employees to affirm the 2000 BF&M but voted against it. This policy remains in place today.
  
Wright said the BF&M serves as a summary of Baptists’ statement of faith and “accurately summarizes SBC beliefs in biblical authority. This is why we can include the BF&M in our guidelines for affiliation … and still not be creedal.”
  
Bill Whitfield, chairman of the MBA membership committee, agreed. 
  
“You’ve got to have some kind of parameters to be a part of a group — no matter what group you are in,” said Whitfield, minister of senior adults at Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile. “You’ve got to have some kind of guidelines but we are not creedal. Baptists are not creedal people.”
  
Wright said the association is not attempting to tell churches how to conduct their ministry. “The MBA has never suggested to Hillcrest or FBC Mobile that they cannot hold to their beliefs,” he said. But “we now have each acknowledged that those beliefs are not consistent for affiliation.”
  
Wright said he is not surprised by the move by First, Mobile. “FBC leaders indicated … that removing membership would be their response to the Hillcrest action,” he said. “The association still voted overwhelmingly to honor the pre-existing guidelines for affiliation.”
  
Congregations that deviate from the guidelines “are wise to transfer their affiliation,” Wright said, noting an addition of nine congregations to MBA’s “108 churches and missions.”
  
James Walters, retiring pastor of First, Mobile, said that because First, Mobile, helped found the association, he is “disappointed [it] has reached this point.”
  
“We feel they are the ones who have moved away from Baptist principles, and we are trying to hold to them,” Walters said. “Our church tries to live up to the stark Baptist principles of priesthood of the believer and autonomy of the local church, and these were ignored in the process of Hillcrest.”
  
He said First, Mobile, will continue to be involved in ministries  such as the International Ministries Center. “We will just support them directly instead of going through the association,” Walters said.
  
First, Mobile, budgeted to give $8,700 to the MBA for 2006. Just more than $8,000 had been received by the MBA when the church voted to withdraw, Wright noted. 
  
Reese added that the move will not affect the church’s relationship with the state convention “as far as we are concerned” nor is it planning to make any changes with its support of the SBC CP.