February 2, 2000
Conservatives form new
North Texas Baptist Association
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___CARROLLTON--Eleven North Texas churches have formed a new regional association to relate to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
___North Texas Baptist Association should be constituted by the end of February, said Ed Ethridge, pastor of Woodlake Baptist Church in Carrollton and volunteer director of missions for the new association.
___Some churches may retain ties to existing associations that cooperate with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, but others will relate uniquely to the new association and to SBTC, Ethridge said.
___His own church, for example, will relate uniquely to the new association. Within the last year, Woodlake withdrew from Denton Baptist Association because of an associational missions conference at which missionaries from both the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship were present. Ethridge, a Texas trustee on the board of LifeWay Christian Resources, said he objected to CBF missionaries being included on the program alongside SBC missionaries.
___While not begrudging Ethridge's stance, Gary Loudermilk, director of missions for Denton Association, explained that the missions conference in question included missionaries from the IMB, the Fellowship and All Peoples. "The reason was because within our association we have churches relating to each of those, and sometimes relating to multiple groupings of those. We see our role as an association to assist our churches. We're trying to work with them where they are," he said.
___Formation of the new association is the latest development in a movement that already has led to creation of SBTC as an alternative state convention to the BGCT. SBTC leaders contend the BGCT is not loyal enough to the conservative leadership of the SBC and is too accommodating to moderate Baptist influences.
___North Texas Baptist Association will be the second association created to relate uniquely to SBTC. Cross Timbers Baptist Association previously was formed in a region between Abilene and Fort Worth as a home for conservative-minded churches.
___Ethridge insisted creation of North Texas Baptist Association is not meant to reflect negatively on what anyone else is doing.
___"We want to emphasize strongly that we're interested in kingdom work," he said. "We are not on a bandwagon or vendetta against anybody. We're just starting something new that we believe strongly in."
___The association grew out of an informal fellowship gathering of pastors from small and medium-size churches in North Texas, he explained, calling it a "grassroots movement."
___"It's just a group of guys who are like-minded. It's kind of the same premise as SBTC in the sense of our mission and missiology. We began to talk as we fellowshipped that some of us were not really involved in an association at all for various and sundry reasons and began to recognize the need for fellowship and accountability and responsibility in helping churches who have an interest in doing mission work."
___Though he believes the association will grow in numbers once word gets out about its creation, he pledged neither he nor the association would be involved in "hard-core sales" efforts to pull churches away from other associations.
___The name of the association was specifically chosen to leave open the possibility of participation by churches in a wide geographic area, according to Ethridge and a news release announcing the new association.
___The geographical boundaries of Baptist associations have become a topic of increasing interest in Texas in recent months.
___Hispanic churches across North Texas recently formed their own association, which is seeking affiliation with the BGCT. And a new "non-geographic" association of moderate churches from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico--called the Baptist Association of the Southwest--will be constituted this spring and will seek affiliation with the BGCT as well.
___These developments led the BGCT to create an ad hoc committee to study the basis of associational formation. That committee has not been named.
___What seems increasingly clear for now is that the way Texas Baptists have created associations is changing, although how far the trend will go is uncertain, agreed several directors of missions.
___Creation of new associations that are not tightly geographically based is indeed a trend, Loudermilk said. "Churches are not only looking for their neighbor church, they're looking for churches they share an affinity with. The affinity is stronger than the geography."
___This new reality "makes it imperative upon the traditional association to become very aware of the needs that exist within member congregations and to become responsive to those," Loudermilk said. "That develops affinity. If I'm not interested in what you do, it's hard for us to ever become friends. If I'm interested in what you're interested in and perhaps can offer help, then we become friends."
___Recent splintering seen in some associations does not foreshadow the death of the traditional Baptist association, added Gary Hearon, director of missions for Dallas Baptist Association.
___"The future for the association is very bright. I don't anticipate that this most recent move is going to greatly impact Dallas Association," he said.
___While he does not see the need for creation of the North Texas Baptist Association or the Baptist Association of the Southwest, Hearon said he understands the differences that have led to both actions.
___"These are all good people of God, and if they believe this is the direction they ought to take, while I do not believe it is necessary ... I would simply give to them a covenant of my support."
___Hearon believes it is possible for associations to continue to draw into fellowship Baptist churches with differing theological viewpoints. He notes Dallas Association works with churches that cooperate with both SBTC and CBF.
___"In Dallas, we determined a long time ago that we would not try to fight the national and state issues on the local level," he said. "We have purposed that we will work with any Baptist who wants to do kingdom work."
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