January 26, 2000

Reconciliation covenant ready
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___Texas Baptists soon will be urged to join a movement designed to draw their state convention together.
___They will be asked to affirm a four-point "reconciliation covenant." It was drafted by the Reconciliation Forum, an informal coalition of about 70 pastors that has spent two years seeking resolution to theological/political conflict within the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___The reconciliation movement started in 1998, launched primarily by several Southeast Texas pastors concerned about what they perceive as polarization.
___The Reconciliation Forum has met four times, most recently during the BGCT annual session last November in El Paso. It also has sponsored a statewide rally and conducted numerous regional dialogue sessions.
___In El Paso, forum leaders decided to focus on personal reconciliation rather than political solutions to BGCT division. They created an eight-member committee to draft a reconciliation covenant, which they hope can be affirmed by Texas Baptists.
___The reconciliation covenant has been completed and soon will be distributed statewide, announced Pete Freeman, pastor of First Baptist Church in The Woodlands and chairman of the covenant committee.
___The covenant states:
___"Recognizing the need for reconciliation among God's people, I covenant to actively pursue personal reconciliation with all of God's people.
___"This covenant will exhibit itself through integrity in our relationship with each other and with a goal of oneness in the Spirit. Reconciliation will provide opportunities to minister to others, to grow spiritually, to provide understanding, to demonstrate the love of God and to glorify God.
___"Therefore, I covenant:
___ "To pray that God would bless my friends in Christ.
___ "To dialogue with other Christians with whom I sense a broken relationship.
___ "To encourage others to join me in being actively involved in reconciliation.
___ "To assist with the process of reconciliation as led by the Holy Spirit."
___The covenant will be presented to the BGCT Executive Board when it meets in Dallas Feb. 22, Freeman said. Then copies of the covenant will be mailed to all pastors of BGCT-affiliated churches, with the hope that pastors will share copies with laypeople in their churches. The covenant also will be publicized through ads in the Baptist Standard, he added.
___"I hope the covenant accomplishes at least a spirit of reconciliation and an activity of reconciliation, which is needed among Texas Baptists at this time," Freeman said.
___The stakes are high, Freeman added, expressing concern for "losing a lot of fine people in the middle somewhere." If reconciliation is not achieved, Texas Baptists who are not politically aligned might withdraw from convention activity and cooperation, he predicted.
___"The thing I hear most from fundamentalists and moderates who are not active (in political activity) is, 'I'm tired of the fighting,'" he said. "I've had more pastors say, 'I'm going to pastor my church and forget about the denomination.' That's scary, but I'm afraid that's where a lot of them are."
___Some Texas Baptists have been hesitant to join the reconciliation movement because they are concerned about a "fundamentalist takeover" of the BGCT, similar to what happened in the SBC during the past 20 years, he acknowledged.
___"I would say to people who are concerned about a fundamentalist takeover: 'I don't think you need to let down your guard (politically), but maybe you need to temper it with reconciliatory conversation, rather than the negative wording that has characterized our conversations,'" he noted.
___"I also have talked to fundamentalist pastors, trying to help them understand what we've got to do in Texas. If they will work with our leaders, they can help us, and some of them want to."
___Forum members are presenting the covenant on an honor system, without attempting to track the numbers of supporters and without recording who affirms or does not affirm the document, he said.
___Success of the covenant will be measured by "a decrease in the negative rhetoric and a general sense of greater cooperation together," he observed.
___Texas Baptists can get along one-on-one, and that's the foundation upon which to build a platform for peace, said Bennie Slack, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville and co-moderator of the Reconciliation Forum.
___"In our meetings, from three people to 300, everyone got along. When we get on the convention floor, that's when we debate denominational issues," he explained. "Neither group is evil. They just cannot relate politically to their two world views or church views."

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