August 7, 2000
Prestonwood threatens to leave
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___PLANO--The Baptist General Convention of Texas stands to lose about $6,000 a year in financial support and the influence of seven agency trustees if Prestonwood Baptist Church proceeds with a threatened break from the state convention.
___Members of the suburban Dallas megachurch reportedly voted unanimously July 23 to dually align with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and threatened to leave the BGCT entirely if Texas Baptists don't give full support to the Southern Baptist Convention.
___Pastor Jack Graham did not return a phone call from the Standard, and church officials did not respond to two other requests for information about the church's action. However, according to other published reports, the action was taken during a Sunday night business meeting upon recommendation of a 10-member denominational relations committee.
___Though not a major financial supporter of BGCT ministries, Prestonwood is an influential church in Texas and beyond. Graham gained national attention this summer at the SBC annual meeting when he nominated James Merritt as convention president.
___Seven Prestonwood members currently serve as trustees of BGCT agencies, one each at Buckner Baptist Benevolences, Dallas Baptist University, Howard Payne University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and three at Hardin-Simmons University.
___According to BGCT policy, should the church formally break ties with the state convention and stop giving any financial support, those Prestonwood members would be ineligible to continue service as trustees.
___Whether the church will go that far will be decided later this year, after the BGCT annual session in Corpus Christi Oct. 30-31. The church's denominational relations committee is to reconvene at that time to reassess the situation.
___The committee's report identified eight "grave concerns" the church has about the BGCT distancing itself from the SBC, which has turned sharply in a more conservative direction in recent years.
___"In recommending temporary dual alignment, the committee does not expect the church to continue supporting both state conventions indefinitely," the report said, according to press accounts. "Rather, it hopes the BGCT will take some action at the fall 2000 convention to reverse its stance against the 1998 version of the Baptist Faith & Message and to address the other issues outlined above.
___"It is important that the leadership of the BGCT make some verbal statement at the annual meeting in the fall of 2000 affirming its intention to support all of the ministries of the SBC on a long-term basis."
___A primary concern listed by the report was the BGCT's rejection last fall of a controversial new article on family added to the Baptist Faith & Message by the SBC in 1998.
___By rejecting the SBC's family article, the BGCT rejected the "clear teaching" of Scripture, the report said. Claims that the SBC article fails to encompass Ephesians 5:21 and its call for mutual submission are unfounded, the report continued.
___"What remains to be determined is whether the BGCT's vote to reject the 1998 version of the Baptist Faith & Message was based on a misunderstanding of the intent of Article XVIII on the family, and whether the BGCT would be willing to reverse its action if it was a misunderstanding," the report concluded.
___Other concerns cited by the church include the BGCT's "failure to make a clear and unequivocal long-term commitment to the SBC and its leadership, including support for all ministries of the SBC," defining Cooperative Program giving differently than the SBC, requiring financial contributions as a means for gaining additional messengers to the state convention, "duplication of SBC functions and services," allowing non-Texas churches to affiliate with the BGCT and "failure to be fair in its public statements about the conservative direction of the SBC and about the churches that support that direction, as well as in its appointment of conservative members to the BGCT boards and committees."
___The church charged that "conservative voices are not proportionately represented on BGCT boards and committees."
___The report said the denominational relations committee worked over a four-month period and held a four-hour discussion with BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.
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