November 20, 2000

New state group tightens relationship to SBC
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___SAN ANTONIO--The 2-year-old Southern Baptists of Texas Convention acted swiftly and unanimously to tighten its close relationship to the Southern Baptist Convention Nov. 14.
___Messengers to the SBTC annual meeting affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement, which the SBC ratified last June. They also voted to channel 51 percent of the state convention's Cooperative Program budget receipts to the national convention. Both actions were approved without discussion, debate or dissent.
___ The actions also clarified the SBTC's distance from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, from which the new convention split in 1998.
___Although the words "Baptist General Convention of Texas" were not mentioned from a microphone during the SBTC meeting, recent BGCT actions formed the backdrop for much that the new convention said and did during its meeting at Castle Hills First Baptist Church in San Antonio.
___In 1999, the BGCT pointedly approved the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith & Message, distancing the Texas convention from a controversial 1998 amendment to the faith statement that called on wives to "graciously submit" to their husbands. This year, numerous BGCT leaders have criticized the 2000 faith statement, particularly its self-description as an "instrument of doctrinal accountability," its failure to describe Jesus as the criterion for interpreting Scripture and its assertion that churches should not have the authority to call women as pastors.
___Somewhat in response to the way the SBC has implemented the new faith statement, the BGCT also recently approved budget changes that could reallocate up to $5.3 million from six SBC seminaries and two SBC agencies, instead giving the money to seminaries and ministries operated by the BGCT.
___So, the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention acted on both fronts.
___In the opening minutes of the meeting, messengers unanimously approved a constitutional change that makes the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message the SBTC's expression of faith.
___Moments later, messengers unanimously approved a $4.3 million 2001 annual budget that directs $2.09 million, or 51 percent of expected receipts from affiliated churches, to the SBC Cooperative Program. It allocates $2.24 million to SBTC causes, with $2.01 million expected from churches and $225,084 anticipated in grants from SBC organizations.
___In addition to the 51 percent of Cooperative Program budget receipts channeled to the SBC, the new convention also will establish the Great Commission Partners in the Harvest Fund, SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards announced. The fund will channel 50 percent of all "surplus undesignated funds" to the SBC agencies and institutions that will experience reduced BGCT funding, he said. In addition, the SBTC will encourage 100 churches each to give $10,000 above Cooperative Program contributions to help with the anticipated SBC losses from the BGCT.
___The in-state budget will channel $776,254 into missions and evangelism, with the lion's share, $440,000, earmarked for starting churches. Other in-state allocations include $334,124 for church ministry support, $275,584 for minister/church relations and $850,211 for administration, operations and communications.
___The new convention also expressed its support for the SBC in two resolutions, one championing the Cooperative Program as "the greatest and most effective mission-giving program in the history of the Christian church." The other affirmed the six SBC seminaries and the SBC's Executive Committee and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, whose funding will be reduced by the BGCT budget changes.
___The vote to provide 51 percent of church contributions to the SBC Cooperative Program--the largest CP percentage shared by any state convention--received consistent praise from representatives of the national convention's agencies who addressed the group.
___The annual meeting repeatedly ran ahead of schedule, since the speedily approved business items took much less time to dispense than anticipated. Richards used one of those time slots to describe the "three core values" of the new state convention.
___First is "theological agreement," he said. "We just adopted the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. If churches wish to work together, they must have some commonly agreed theological values."
___This is not the same as theological conformity and is not a "whipping stick," Richards said. But the Baptist Faith & Message describes "irreducible" theological beliefs, such as "the inerrancy and infallibility of the word of God," that must be upheld.
___The SBTC constitution calls for affiliated churches to affirm the constitution and theological documents. That means the church "is in agreement with and not contrary to" those theological beliefs, he said.
___The second core value is "missiological activity," he said. "This is what we are about. ... It is not enough just to say the Bible is inerrant. We have a mandate to prioritize missions and evangelism."
___The new convention intends to do that through networking with SBC agencies and churches "to help small- and medium-sized churches realize what God called them to be," he said. "We will have no bureaucracy--no ministers of minutiae stacked up in a Baptist Building. We are committed to 10 full-time staff for the first 1,000 churches."
___The third core value is "methodological approach--through a historic relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention," Richards said.
___In an interpretation of the annual meeting theme, "I Press Toward the Mark," Belton pastor Sam Callaway urged Southern Baptists of Texas to look ahead positively.
___"It's time we put our denominational differences behind us and leave them at the Cross," said Callaway, pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church. "It's time we put all malice and bitterness and disappointments behind us and press on for the mark of the high calling of God."
___The convention must stretch beyond conservative theology to compassionate ministry, he added. "It's OK to have it all right in the head, but you've got to have it right in the heart too," he stressed.
___SBC President James Merritt called on SBTC messengers to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
___"Every Christian ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and every Christian ought to know it," said Merritt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga. "It is just as sinful for a Christian not to be filled with the Spirit as to be drunk."
___A Christian will notice if he or she is filled with the Spirit, he added. "If you get filled, your walk will be changed. Christians who get filled with the Spirit will have to get the beer out of the refrigerator, the tithe out of the wallet, the HBO off the TV and the pornography out from under the bed."
___The filling of the Holy Spirit also impacts a Christian's witness, he said. "Without the filling of the Spirit, you never will be effective. With the Spirit, (witnessing) will be inevitable. ... If you're filled with the Spirit, you'll talk about Jesus, because that's what the Spirit wants to talk about."
___Spirit-filled Christians lead "commended" lives, Merritt noted. "If you live a commended life, there will be a gladness about you, ... a gratefulness about you ... and a graciousness about you."
___Commended living is vital among ministers, he added, explaining, "I don't have a lot of patience for some of these big-time preachers who act like they think they're God's gift to the human race."
___In other business, SBTC messengers:
___ Elected Rudy Hernandez, an evangelist from Grand Prairie, as president, succeeding Stan Coffey, pastor of San Jacinto Baptist Church in Amarillo.
___Other new officers are Greg Simmons, pastor of First Baptist Church in Borger, first vice president, and Roy Baxley, a lay member of First Baptist Church in Dallas, second vice president. Gerald Smith, senior associate pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, was re-elected recording secretary.
___ Approved formation of a committee to "pursue the purchase of property and construction of facilities" for SBTC offices. The offices currently are located in Irving.
___ Elected Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, as the convention speaker for next year's annual meeting in Fort Worth.
___ Voted to hold the 2003 meeting in Corpus Christi. The 2002 meeting will be held in Houston.
___ Presented the first Paul Pressler Distinguished Service Award to Pressler, a retired Houston judge and political mastermind of the movement through which theological/political conservatives gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention.
___ Heard a report from Richards that the SBTC has added "two churches every three days" since Jan. 1. Richards has reported the convention now affiliates with 420 churches, 60 percent of which are "uniquely aligned" with the SBTC and the remainder are "dually aligned" with the SBTC and the BGCT.
___ Learned the convention has started 46 new churches and is helping four or five established churches to strengthen their ministries.
___ Approved a slate of six resolutions. In addition to the resolutions on the Cooperative Program and SBC seminaries and agencies, resolutions affirmed the sanctity of life, calling abortion an "American holocaust"; expressed gratitude for the "leaders of vision" who founded the new convention; and expressed appreciation to outgoing President Coffey and the host church.
___The convention attracted more than 1,200 participants. The latest announced registration count included 623 messengers and 620 visitors.

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!