LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — Arkansas Baptist leaders will try to turn control of the Arkansas Baptist News over to the state convention staff, replacing the independent board that currently governs the newspaper.
A task force, appointed last year by the president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, will make five recommendations to the annual convention meeting Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
The one concerning the newspaper asks that “the president of the Executive Board and the president of the Arkansas Baptist News board each appoint a committee of no more than three board members, including themselves, to discuss the possibility of merging the Arkansas Baptist News and the Vision publication under the Executive Board ministries of the state convention.”
Charlie Warren, longtime editor of the Arkansas Baptist News, reacted cautiously to the recommendation.
“I am pleased that the recommendation simply calls for discussion of the option rather than just outright recommending that the ABN be absorbed under the convention's Executive Board,” Warren told Associated Baptist Press. “My career has been built on Baptists' right to know. This recommendation has potential to undermine that principle.”
A similar move by the executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention backfired last November, when messengers to that neighboring state convention's annual meeting voted to retain the Baptist Message's independent board rather than turn control over to the convention's executive board.
Other state conventions have a variety of arrangements. Some state Baptist newspapers function with an independent board, while others report to the executive director or a convention committee. Since conservatives gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s, there has been a push to centralize control of newspapers under state convention authority.
The nine-member Arkansas Baptist task force was appointed by then-president Grant Ethridge, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lavaca, on the instruction of convention messengers in November 2004. Its purpose was to “study and recommend ways the ABSC can more effectively maximize resources and mobilize for Kingdom work.”
The task force's other recommendations, if approved, would make the convention's doctrinal statement on communion and baptism less restrictive, increase Arkansas contributions to the SBC's national Cooperative Program, consider relocating the state convention office and regionalizing the staff, and better promote its services to churches.
The task force said its recommendation to study the newspaper's independent status is “an effort to enhance communication about the ministries of our convention, and to maintain careful stewardship of our [state] Cooperative Program resources.”
The constitution and bylaws of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention require the Arkansas Baptist News be governed by a 15-member board of directors. Any recommendation to merge the newspaper into the Executive Board would necessitate a constitutional amendment, which would require approval by a two-thirds majority of messengers at two consecutive state convention meetings. That likely would take until November 2008 to accomplish.
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