To ask whether a Baptist convention should serve all its member churches seems almost a waste of time, at first glance. For most people, the answer is self-evident. A church in good standing with its convention should be entitled to all the appropriate services offered by the convention.
That principle holds whether it is a state convention, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), a local association or an entity of a convention — state or national. If a church is a member, then the convention should serve that church.
Yet, the question of who should be served by a convention, an association or an entity remains a troubling question in Baptist life for many. It has been for decades.
Years ago, some debated whether state conventions should serve churches that did not use Southern Baptist literature in their Sunday Schools. It was argued that serving such churches legitimized the non-Baptist teachings set forth in the non-Baptist literature. A way to encourage churches to use only Southern Baptist literature was to refuse to serve any church that used any other kind of literature, it was argued.
SBC’s LifeWay Christian Resources, then known as the Baptist Sunday School Board, even got in on the discussion. For a time, that entity refused to send any representative to state conferences where their literature was not the only literature used.
Such conversations were really about discipline. State conventions considered disciplining member churches by withholding services, and national entities considered disciplining state conventions by withholding services.
Missions promotion was another area where disciplining churches was discussed. When some of the largest churches in the SBC began combining all their missions offerings into one annual offering, the idea was met with resistance from every corner of denominational life. National mission boards and some state convention mission boards initially declined to cooperate. In some cases missionaries were not allowed to speak in such churches to help promote the one-offering-divided-by-all concept.
The issue grew more contentious when some of the larger churches put SBC missions next to various other mission-sending agencies, even local church-sponsored international and North American missionaries. Leaders argued that participating on equal footing in such promotions undercut the way Southern Baptists do missions. It was not denominationally centered and should not receive services from the denomination, it was argued.
In the early years of the conservative resurgence, state paper editors were roundly criticized whenever they printed stories about some of the leading personalities speaking in local churches. To publicize the presence of such people promoted division, some charged. Local churches that sponsored such meetings should not be allowed room in their state Baptist paper for their news.
Now it is news about moderate-conservative leaders speaking in state Baptist churches that brings howls of protest.
The charge is still the same. Allowing a local church to promote its meeting in the state Baptist paper promotes division. The solution? Deny access to the paper to such member churches, some still urge.
All of the examples point out the temptation to distort a major principle of Baptist life — the convention exists to serve the churches; the churches do not exist to serve the convention.
Alabama Baptists understand this principle well. Alabama Baptists have decided that all churches in good standing with the state convention will be serviced by the convention and its related entities. Disagreements over issues beyond Alabama Baptist life will not cause any church to be discriminated against in state Baptist life. Alabama Baptists will serve all member churches.
Thus, churches that send all of their Cooperative Program gifts directly to the Southern Baptist Convention and give nothing to state causes through any cooperative giving plan still participate fully in Alabama Baptist life. Also, churches that financially support Alabama Baptist work through the state Cooperative Program plan but direct national gifts to other sources still participate fully in Alabama Baptist life.
Not all state Baptist conventions understand Baptist polity as well as Alabama Baptists. In some places voices still argue that conventions, associations and entities should withhold services from churches that do not conform to the desires of some organized body. Many of these concerns seem to relate to denominational politics. That is unfortunate.
It would be truer to the Baptist way of doing things to be concerned if any convention, association or entity attempted to discipline or coerce a member church by withholding services. After all, organized Baptist life beyond the local church exists to help the church. The church never exists to benefit the convention.
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