August 13, 2001
BWA says CBF does not meet criteria for membership
___By Bob Allen & Kenny Byrd
___Associated Baptist Press
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does not qualify for membership in the Baptist World Alliance "at this time," a membership committee has voted unanimously.
___Meeting in July in Canada, the committee said the Fellowship, a moderate offshoot of the Southern Baptist Convention that supports its own missionaries, theological education and other various enterprises, does not meet membership criteria.
___BWA bylaws require that each member body "shall have an identity of its own and shall not exist as an integral part of some other union or convention."
___The 10-year-old CBF describes itself as "denomination like" but has voted against becoming a convention. In applying for BWA membership last year, the Fellowship presented itself as "an organized and distinct Baptist body" with a "commitment to participate in the worldwide Baptist community."
___But leaders of the BWA, which describes itself as the "official global fellowship of Baptists," said the Atlanta-based CBF is closer to a "well-run missionary organization" than a traditional convention or Baptist union.
___Albert Wardin, a member of the BWA membership committee and a retired professor at Belmont College in Nashville, Tenn., said in a telephone interview that the CBF "is still trying to define itself."
___Among concerns discussed by the committee was a lack of clarity on what it means to be a member of CBF. While some 1,800 churches contribute annually to CBF ministries, few give it sole allegiance. Most churches support both the CBF and SBC. Some budget nothing at all to CBF but allow individual members to designate a portion of their church offerings for the Fellowship.
___While the BWA accepts other churches that are dually or triply aligned, Wardin said, the committee felt that most CBF-supporting churches are not disassociated enough from the SBC to be considered separate.
___Fellowship leaders expressed optimism that some of those issues could be cleared up, but some criticized the BWA as being stuck in an "old paradigm" that doesn't recognize the CBF's intentional effort to develop new ways for Baptists to work together in what some call a "post-denominational" age.
___CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal said he was disappointed by the rejection but hopes to have further conversations with the membership committee about changing information in the application and resubmitting it for consideration next year.
___"We realize we are not like a lot of Baptist organizations in that we have individuals as well as partnering churches, but we are a Baptist body that is separate from other Baptist bodies and we want to be part of the BWA and the Baptist family globally," Vestal said.
___What role, if any, pressure from SBC leaders played in rejection of CBF membership is unclear.
___It's no secret that there's no love lost between the two organizations. After losing a decade-long effort to hold on to control of SBC leadership positions, moderates withdrew to offer alternative denominational programs by forming CBF in 1991.
___Current SBC leaders regard the CBF as a competitor. Leaders of both groups have openly criticized the other's views on issues including women's ordination, theology and the Bible.
___With more than 41,000 churches and nearly 16 million members, the SBC is by far the largest of 201 member conventions and unions comprising the BWA. It is also the BWA's largest contributor, providing $425,000 a year. In comparison, CBF donates $20,000 a year to BWA, despite not being a member.
___BWA leaders denied suggestions that SBC representatives interfered in the CBF application process.
___Wendy Ryan, the BWA's director of communications, said the denial "had nothing to do with the SBC at all" and called it a "myth that SBC is against the CBF application."
___Some observers say overt pressure would hardly be necessary, however, because the BWA doesn't want to do anything that might risk its relationship with the SBC. The SBC is vital to BWA not only financially, they say, but perhaps even more for the fact it represents 37 percent of the BWA's 43 million aggregate membership.
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