By Steve DeVane
Associated Baptist Press
The chairman of the International Mission Board is asking the board's personnel committee to take another look at two controversial measures the board passed in November. Chair Tom Hatley, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark., announced the decision in a letter to Southern Baptist pastors March 7. The IMB released the letter, as well as an “open letter” to all Southern Baptists, two documents supporting the decisions, and other materials.
The information focuses on the trustees' votes on glossolalia (the practice of speaking in tongues), the use of a private prayer language by missionary candidates, and candidates' mode of baptism. The information is posted on the IMB's web site at www.imb.org. In his letter, Hatley told pastors that they can comment on the matters through an e-mail address for trustees, [email protected].
“As chairman I am asking our personnel committee to take a fresh look at these documents with the intention of providing further clarification,” he said. “Your suggestions will be passed along to this committee as they are received.”
During a November meeting in Huntsville, Ala., the IMB trustees approved a policy stating that a missionary candidate will be disqualified if he or she practices tongues or a “private prayer language.” They also adopted a baptism guideline stating that future missionary candidates must have been baptized in a church that practices believer's baptism by immersion alone; does not view baptism as sacramental or regenerative; and embraces the doctrine of the security of the believer.
Exception clauses were included in both for special situations. Neither the guideline nor the policy is retroactive, and neither will be applied to anyone already in the missionary appointment process. Critics of the policy and guideline warn the conservative-controlled IMB and Southern Baptist Convention are becoming too exclusive and narrow.
The controversy surrounding the IMB changes was a factor in a dispute between IMB trustees and Oklahoma trustee Wade Burleson. In an unprecedented move, trustees tried in January to remove Burleson from the board for discussing board deliberations on his weblog. Hatley has since said he will ask trustees in March to drop the challenge against Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla.
Some critics of the policy on the private prayer language also have suggested it might have been approved as a way to embarrass IMB president Jerry Rankin-who has acknowledged he uses the practice-or pressure him to resign.
Hatley responded to that suggestion in his letter to pastors. “Trustees have been blamed for having the motive of trying to hurt our president,” Hatley wrote. “The force that pushed the issue to this higher level, however, included the president and a few others on staff and on the board.”
Rankin said last month he insisted the full board deal with the issue because of its importance. “I did insist it come before the full board because I think you have to be very circumspect in your processes,” he said in a question-and-answer session with Baptist editors. “It was at my insistence that the full board act on it, rather than it just being a committee that puts this in place.”
Rankin said in February that he didn't think the issue was dead. “I think there's a lot of reaction … that's been generated across the convention to revisit it,” he said. But Rankin said he wasn't confident the policy would be reversed.
“As much as there's been reaction against it, there's been a lot of support for it as well,” he told the editors. “I think even controversy strengthens the resolve of our board to kind of justify or defend what they've done.”
Rankin said March 7 he appreciates Hatley's explanation to Southern Baptists. “Much of the confusion and misperceptions regarding these actions came from the lack of clearly defined explanations for the policies,” Rankin said. “While some will not be in agreement with the rationale, these documents will help others understand the deep convictions of those on our board for moving in this direction.
“There is no question that those on each side of these issues are committed to the effectiveness of the International Mission Board and are conscientious in their desire to be accountable to the SBC. God is at work around the world in unprecedented ways. We want Southern Baptists to be assured of the doctrinal integrity and practices of our missionaries and move forward to win a lost world to Jesus Christ.”
Hatley said he edited position papers on speaking in tongues, private prayer languages and baptism. The paper on tongues quotes past and present SBC leaders, including the late W. A. Criswell and Paige Patterson, the current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas.
“Most pastors and theologians among Southern Baptists of recent decades and of today regard the charismatic movement as divisive, encouraging spiritual pride, and stressing minor gifts out of proportion to biblical evidence,” the paper says. “Although there remain some charismatic churches excluded by associations that consider themselves as still belonging to state conventions and the SBC, their number has declined over the years since the mid-seventies.”
The paper on baptism notes that the 1925, 1963 and 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement all demonstrate that Southern Baptists have interpreted Scripture to teach that baptism is an ordinance administered by the local church.
“A church's beliefs, therefore, matter,” it says.