February 25, 2002

Bluebonnet Association leaders say
they don't require BF&M loyalty
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Despite the claims of four churches that have left Bluebonnet Baptist Association, the association will not require member churches to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, according to Director of Missions J.K. Minton.
___A story in the Standard's Feb. 11 issue reported on the churches leaving Bluebonnet and on plans being made to start a new association of churches along the I-35 corridor near San Marcos. Those churches left Bluebonnet because they perceived recent changes in the association's constitution to mean their churches would have to endorse the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message to remain in good standing with the association.
___In preparing that story, the Standard attempted to contact Minton, including leaving a message with an associational secretary that his input was needed on a story to be published in the paper. That call was not returned.
___Minton has not responded directly to the Standard, but he wrote about the Standard article in the association's newsletter. Minton's response was forwarded to the Standard by two pastors who support the association's actions.
___The association has made "no such decision" requiring churches to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, Minton wrote in the newsletter.
___The association's constitution requires several things of participating churches, Minton explains, including "cooperating with" the association, being in "doctrinal agreement" with the association, presenting a statistical letter at the annual meeting, participating in the programs and activities of the association and regularly contributing to the financial support of the budget of the association.
___However, "by our policy, the only specific condition that disqualifies a church or mission from fellowship in the association is if that church or mission has a woman as senior pastor," Minton wrote.
___The recent action to make the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message the doctrinal statement of the association "in no way obligated local churches to adopt the same statement of faith, and it did not prevent the association from partnering with other Baptist entities that have a different statement of faith," he added.
___Minton acknowledged in the newsletter article that the constitutional change does impact those paid by the association and the type of training that can be offered by the association. Associational staff members must affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, and "the association leadership is responsible to ensure that during association-sponsored events, nothing will be taught or practiced that is not in accordance with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message," he wrote.
___The association's constitution as amended states in Article 4 that "the statement of faith of this association shall be the Baptist Faith & Message adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000."
___The constitution further states in Article 5 that the association "may refuse to seat messengers from churches that are not cooperating with (see Section 2.2) or that are not in doctrinal agreement with the association (see Article 4)."
___In addition to Minton's written comments in the association's newsletter, several individuals from within the association contacted the Standard to protest the earlier article on the four churches that have left Bluebonnet.
___One of those was Charles Nicholson of San Marcos, an attorney and director of Mission Service Corps volunteerism for the association.
___"Reading the two articles (of the constitution) together, as you did, is not correct," Nicholson wrote in one letter to the Standard. "It is perfectly logical for the constitution to use the word 'shall' in adopting the 2000 statement. In legal terms, 'shall' is mandatory language. Thus, the association, for itself, did positively adopt that version. ... On the other hand, 'may' is discretionary, and the article ... which states that the association 'may' refuse to seat messengers because of doctrinal differences does not 'require' any church to affirm either the 1963 or 2000 statements."
___Critics of the association, including some pastors of churches that have withdrawn, counter that the Bluebonnet constitution does allow for exclusion of churches that do not affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. Further, they argue, the constitutional change must be viewed in light of the current atmosphere within the association.
___That atmosphere, they charge, is more friendly to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention than to the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

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