RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — The Baptist World Alliance's decision to accept the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into membership helped persuade the Southern Baptist Convention to withdraw from the BWA, an SBC leader said.
Jerry Rankin, president of the SBC's International Mission Board and a member of the study committee making the recommendation, told IMB trustees Feb 2 at their meeting in Richmond, Va., that the CBF issue influenced the decision, since letting CBF have membership in BWA has in effect endorsed a schism among Southern Baptists.
Rankin is only the second member of the study committee to speak publicly about the committee's decision and the first to acknowledge the CBF issue played a part in the decision to pull out of the BWA. A study committee report does not mention the CBF issue, but instead says the BWA is becoming increasingly liberal.
The SBC Executive Committee is scheduled to consider the recommendation to leave BWA at a meeting in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 16-17. If approved there, it will go to messengers to the SBC annual meeting in June for final approval.
In an article released through Baptist Press, Rankin also said the proposed withdrawal of the Southern Baptist Convention from the Baptist World Alliance is not expected to affect the ministries of Southern Baptist missionaries or the IMB's partnerships with Baptist unions around the world.
While some Baptist unions may be reluctant to continue cooperation in mission efforts because of the decision, IMB leaders do not anticipate the decision having any impact on the work of missionaries, he said. IMB missionaries sometimes work in cooperation with local Baptist unions, but not always.
While the BWA emphasizes unity in diversity, Southern Baptists feel there must be parameters in terms of theology and doctrine in order to have an authentic basis of fellowship, Rankin said.
He also said he does not anticipate that Southern Baptists will attempt to form an alternate organization, as the study committee's report implied, but will seek opportunities for training, spiritual nurture and missions advance through global and regional conferences and events in partnership with like-minded Baptists.
-30-