A two-year review of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship policy banning the employment of gays is wrapping up.
The CBF Governing Board plans to receive the final report of the Illumination Project at a meeting Feb. 8-9 at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. Aaron Weaver, communications director of the 1,800-church Fellowship, said the presentation is tentatively scheduled for Friday afternoon.
The CBF Governing Board launched the Illumination Project at the 2016 CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C., just days after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., that killed 49.
An ad hoc Illumination Project committee set out to explore how Cooperative Baptists can maintain unity amid increasing diversity in beliefs and practices among CBF constituencies on matters of human sexuality.
The assignment gave specific attention to a policy adopted in 2000 that bans the hiring of staff or field personnel who are gay.
The task force used a process borrowed from the business world called Integrative Thinking aimed at holding opposing views in tension while seeking a third way forward that everyone can accept.
CBF leaders hope the process will become a model for churches and organizations to navigate differences over other hot-button issues that polarize secular society.