CBF participants to vote on creating
more specific membership policies
___ATLANTA (ABP)--The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in June will decide whether to adopt more specific membership requirements and create a new governing board.
___Proposed changes to the CBF's constitution and bylaws would require churches and individuals seeking membership to "embrace" the mission and core values of the Fellowship, not just send money.
___The revised constitution also would change the CBF's top decision-making body from a "representative" group to a "governing" board, said CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal.
___Leaders said the changes reflect the Fellowship's coming of age. The moderate Baptist group will celebrate its 10th anniversary during its June 28-30 general assembly in Atlanta, where the changes will be considered.
___Last year the Fellowship adopted a new mission statement that focuses on serving local churches. The constitution and bylaw changes, which represent a second phase of strategic planning, were approved Feb. 24 by the Coordinating Council, the representative group that currently directs the organization.
___During its three-day meeting, the council also adopted an $18 million budget for 2001-02 and heard that its new restriction on funding theological schools that accept gay students will be challenged at the council's June meeting.
___Under current CBF bylaws, any church or individual that contributes to the Fellowship is considered a member. That includes churches that simply allow individual members to channel contributions to the Fellowship without any formal action by the church. That practice, critics say, artificially inflates the size of the CBF.
___"There's no public identification ritual," Vestal explained. Churches are not asked to vote, sign a document or "walk an aisle," he said.
___Asking churches to embrace the CBF's mission and values, Vestal said, runs the risk of alienating some churches and shrinking the number now considered CBF members (about 1,800). "It's going to create some tensions."
___But it also gives churches that want to identify with the Fellowship a clear way to do that, he added. "At some point, I'd like to say, 'Here are our partnering churches.'"
___While the new standard would tighten membership in the Fellowship, leaders say it would not limit participation. Any church or individual, whether or not a member, could participate in CBF meetings and programs. But only members could vote on business matters.
___Every member of a participating church would be allowed to vote, as well as individuals who join the CBF on their own.
___The revised bylaws do not dictate how a church "embraces" the CBF mission and values. Although some church action is required, the church decides what action to take "in its own judgment and through its own process."
___By creating a more specific category of membership while not restricting participation, CBF is catering to churches that want various levels of affiliation with CBF, council members said.
___The revised membership bylaw actually requires five things of "partnering" churches and individuals:
___ Embracing CBF's mission.
___ Embracing CBF's core values.
___ Praying for its leaders and ministries.
___ Participating in its ministries and decisions.
___ Contributing financially.
___The CBF's mission states: "We are a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. Our mission: serving Baptist Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission."
___The CBF lists seven "commitments" as core values: basic Baptist principles, biblically based global missions, a resource model as the primary means of serving churches, a biblical vision of justice and mercy, lifelong learning for ministry, trustworthiness and effectiveness.
___The "organizational value" adopted last year that prohibits funding of groups that condone homosexuality, is a funding policy and not a core value, CBF leaders noted.
___That policy came under scrutiny again at this meeting when Dixie Petrey, a council member from Knoxville, Tenn., made a motion to rescind the policy. However, because prior notice is required to rescind a previous action, the vote on her motion was delayed until the council's meeting in June.
___The 78-member Coordinating Council also voted to replace itself with a 40-member Governing Board. The selection process for those board members drew the most heated debate of the three-day meeting.
___Currently 18 state and regional organizations elect members to the Coordinating Council, with each state/region assigned a certain number of positions.
___Under the revised bylaws, the task of nominating members to the Governing Board will fall to a nominating committee. Half the members of the committee will be chosen by the board from names submitted by the state/regional groups. The other half will come from the Governing Board itself.
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