Florida allows latitude on BF&M
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (ABP)--Florida Baptists declared solidarity with the Southern Baptist Convention last week, overwhelmingly updating their constitution and bylaws to incorporate language of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___However, messengers to the Nov. 13-14 Florida Baptist State Convention in Daytona Beach opted against making the revised statement a litmus test for leadership as earlier proposed by state Executive Director John Sullivan and the convention's Executive Board.
___About 1,500 messengers approved bylaw changes updating references to the state convention's official faith statement from the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message to the document "as revised in the year 2000."
___Florida churches that disagree with the revisions, however, may remain in good standing with the state convention. Language on membership adopted in 1994 requires adherence either to the Baptist Faith & Message or "any other declaration of faith which parallels the tenets of our historic Baptist faith."
___Lakeland pastor Jay Dennis, newly elected president of the Florida convention, told reporters that reference would include the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith & Message, as well as an earlier 1925 version and even the 1833 New Hampshire Baptist Confession, which predates formation of the SBC.
___Dennis said the membership requirement was not intended to exclude anyone but to affirm support for the SBC.
___In today's climate, for Florida Baptists not to update their governing documents would be perceived as opposing the SBC, Dennis said. "Florida Baptists are very supportive of the Southern Baptist Convention."
___Sullivan said the convention needs tight theological parameters to keep extreme viewpoints, such as affirmation of homosexuality, from gaining influence among the state's Baptists.
___Messengers did not support, however, a recommended bylaw that would have made affirmation of "all the principles set forth" in the newest Baptist Faith & Message a qualification for any person nominated to a convention board of trustees and for any person hired by the state convention.
___That requirement had been affirmed by the state convention's Executive Board earlier this fall. At that time, Sullivan had endorsed the change, explaining: "We cannot tell a church what Baptist Faith & Message they are to adopt, but we can say to them that if you're going to participate in the trustee life of the Florida Baptist Convention, it is the framework of the 2000."
___Despite the recommendation from Sullivan and the Executive Board, messengers approved an amendment tacking onto the criteria for trustee nomination the "any other declaration of faith which parallels the tenets of our historic Baptist faith" language.
___Florida Baptists elected Dennis, pastor of Lakeland's First Baptist Church at the Mall, as their new president. He was unopposed for the position. Dennis, 41, moved to Florida from a pastorate in Texas five years ago.


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