ROME, Ga. (ABP) — A Georgia church has voted to leave its state convention and affiliate with another statewide body more in line with its theological stance — but headquartered nearly 600 miles away.
On March 13, First Baptist Church of Rome voted 321-16 to disaffiliate with the Georgia Baptist Convention and join the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
According to a press release on the church's website, the decision was made in part “because [the] BGAV continues to support traditional Baptist beliefs.” While conservatives in sympathy with the fundamentalist-dominated Southern Baptist Convention control the leadership of the Georgia body, the Virginia convention is led by moderates and allows churches to relate to both the SBC and its moderate alternative, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The church's move started in the fall, when its local association voted to adopt the 2000 version of the Southern Baptist Convention's “Baptist Faith and Message” doctrinal statement. Many moderate Baptists, such as First Baptist's leaders, viewed the move by the Floyd County Baptist Association as a swipe at a sister congregation because the statement opposes women as pastors. Rome's North Broad Baptist Church recently called a husband-wife team to be co-pastors.
First Baptist is supportive of women in church leadership roles, but the local association and state convention take more fundamentalist stances on that and other issues.
The church, which was founded in 1835, has historically been affiliated with the Georgia convention and the Floyd County association as well as the SBC. However, the press release read, “Those relationships have gradually weakened with the movement of all three groups away from such historic Baptist principles as the autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of the individual believer, and the diminution of the role of Jesus as the standard for faith and practice.”
The North Broad congregation is reportedly also considering withdrawing from the GBC and affiliating with the BGAV.
The Georgia Baptist Convention offices were closed by press time for this story.