March 22, 2000
Baptist Faith & Message study
committee should report in May
___NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention committee proposing revisions to the Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement will release its report in May, several weeks prior to the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
___Committee Chairman Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., said he anticipates "rank and file of the Southern Baptist family will be very happy with this document."
___Rogers declined to discuss the committee's progress or findings since deliberations are continuing, according to a report in Baptist Press.
___The committee met March 2-3 at the SBC Building in Nashville, Tenn., the second meeting of the 15-member group appointed by SBC President Paige Patterson last August. Rogers said the committee will meet one more time, in the spring, and again just before the annual meeting of the SBC in Orlando, Fla., in June.
___The committee's findings will be presented to the SBC annual meeting for a vote.
___"It is a very good committee, with harmony, progress," Rogers said. "The committee is enthusiastic and anticipates the convention will applaud and appreciate what we have done. We're not finished yet, and it would be premature and inappropriate to give details (at this time) since it is a work in progress."
___Rogers said a May release date for the committee's report will give constituents "enough time to familiarize themselves with the report and then give an intelligent reaction at the convention."
___The last SBC committee to revise the Baptist Faith & Message, in 1998, was criticized for not releasing its recommended changes until days before the annual meeting at which they were to be considered by messengers.
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