Taking aim at issues ranging from convention executives’ perks to Calvinism, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting presented a flurry of motions.
In fact, the 29 motions proposed during the June 13–14 meeting in Greensboro, N.C., constituted an SBC record, reported Allan Blume, chairman of the convention’s Order of Business Committee.
The motion that received the most attention asked the SBC Executive Committee to create a special committee to study trustee conflict, as well as external manipulation/coercion at the convention’s International Mission Board (IMB).
Wade Burleson, a trustee who has opposed several key IMB policies since last fall, requested the independent study committee. But convention messengers upheld the Order of Business Committee’s decision to refer the motion back to IMB trustees.
A parallel motion asked that Burleson be restored to full privileges on the IMB trustee board. It was ruled out of order, since the IMB study is expected to take a look at Burleson’s status with the board.
Messengers’ motions most significantly impacted the Executive Committee, which received 15 referrals during the two-day meeting. The referred motions called for:
• An “administrative expense analysis” of all SBC agencies and institutions. The motion seeks examination of agency presidents’ travel, housing and office expenses.
• Examination of the impact of Calvinism on Southern Baptist life.
• Development of contingency plans if the SBC annual meeting could not be held due to a pandemic influenza or disaster.
• The SBC to meet in New Orleans in 2008.
• Amending SBC policies to require that convention officers be members of churches that give 10 percent of their budgets through the SBC Cooperative Program (CP) unified budget.
• A study of the way SBC boards of trustees function.
• A new policy that would require the full convention to vote on “any doctrinal position or practical policy” of an SBC entity “which goes beyond, or seeks to explain” the convention’s Baptist Faith & Message statement.
• Amending SBC bylaws so that a simple majority of messengers at an annual meeting could force a vote on a motion that would deal with the internal operation or ministries of convention entities. Current bylaws require a two-thirds majority.
• Revising SBC bylaws so that a simple majority of convention messengers can decide to consider a resolution that is not proposed by the SBC Resolutions Committee. The present policy requires a two-thirds majority vote.
• Changing the rules governing the terms of SBC trustees so that each trustee would serve one seven-year term.
Under current policies, trustees can serve two consecutive terms. Seminary terms are five years, and other trustee terms are four years.
• Altering the policy that regulates when messengers may submit resolutions for consideration at annual meetings.
• Counting “any and all verifiable giving from a local Southern Baptist church to legitimate SBC causes” toward that church’s “total giving to Southern Baptist missions causes.” This would include funds spent on missions trips, church starts and disaster relief, as well as CP contributions.
• Instructing the SBC Nominating Committee to appoint at least one person under age 40 to each SBC committee and board.
• Improving accommodations to make the SBC annual meetings accessible to disabled messengers. A second part of this motion, which asked the SBC North American Mission Board to hire a disabled staff member to “accelerate disability awareness,” was referred to that board.
• Appointing a committee to research the “emergent church movement” and its impact upon the SBC.
Other referred motions called for:
• Conducting an external audit of all funds handled by the IMB’s Central Asia region from 1999 through 2005. Referred to IMB.
• Determining how the SBC’s two mission boards can “work in greater partnership and harmony.” The motion was referred to the mission boards.
• Investigating why children from evangelical families leave the church as they enter adulthood, why “the vast majority of evangelical Christians do not hold to a clearly defined biblical worldview” and why a “growing carnality” is producing “unregenerate church members.” LifeWay Christian Resources received this motion.
• Opening a LifeWay Christian Store in Phoenix. LifeWay received this motion.
• Authorizing GuideStone Financial Resources to allow lay members of Southern Baptist churches to participate in its products. Referred to GuideStone.
Responding to a motion calling for the convention to set aside at least 15 minutes during each annual meeting to “praise our Lord, confess our rebellion and to cry out and seek His will …,” Blume noted subsequent Order of Business Committees would consider this request.
In addition to the motion supporting Burleson’s reinstatement into the full activities of IMB trustees, the Order of Business Committee declared six other motions out of order. One of those was to stop using the word “gay” when referring to homosexuals in sermons, publications and the media.
Blume said this motion was not in order because “it is beyond the scope of the convention’s authority to direct churches to use a specific vocabulary.” (Editors’ Network)
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