GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship approved revisions to its constitution and bylaws July 1, turning aside a move to make a commitment to Jesus Christ and evangelism explicit in the CBF purpose statement.
The old statement said, in part, the Fellowship's purpose is “to bring together Baptists who desire to call out God's gifts in each person in order that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission.”
The first sentence of the revised statement says the CBF's purpose is “to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.”
Jay Robison of Lexington, Ky., moved that the revised constitution and bylaws be sent back to committee, pointing specifically to the purpose statement.
Bob DeFoor of Harrodsburg, Ky., likewise criticized the purpose statement for failing to include a specific reference to Jesus Christ and evangelism. Alluding obliquely to the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message,” which was criticized by moderate Baptists for deleting a reference to Jesus Christ as the criterion for biblical interpretation, DeFoor said the CBF was in danger of a similar omission.
“I don't think we should ever leave out Jesus Christ,” he said.
Dick Allison of Hattiesburg, Miss., chairman of the CBF legal committee, said the intent was to bring the language in the Fellowship's governing documents in line with its publicized mission statement — “serving Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.”
The motion to refer the entire constitution and bylaws back to committee failed. DeFoor then introduced another motion referring only the article about the organization's purpose back to committee.
“We need to make explicit our commitment to Christ and make explicit our commitment to evangelism,” he said.
The motion failed.
Southern Baptist leaders immediately picked up on the language change in the CBF document. “My central concern is what this means about the true nature of the CBF and its commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., told Baptist Press.
Russell Moore, theology dean at Southern and a frequent critic of CBF, told Baptist Press: “This represents the eclipse of Christ in the moderate Baptist movement. For years, CBF leaders and divinity schools have rejected the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation. … Sadly, this is what happens when a group seeks unity around what they do not believe.”
Bob Setzer, CBF moderator, said that criticism is misdirected. “Jesus is present in all we think, do and say in CBF, and anybody who reads that mission statement otherwise is not being fair to [Jesus] or us,” said Setzer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga. “It's hard to believe that a movement whose mission statement is 'being the presence of Christ' isn't committed to Jesus. We are.”