Pastors and other Baptist leaders at a Dec. 5 roundtable discussion voted unanimously to request Southern Baptist Convention officials to reconsider restrictive policies regarding speaking in tongues.
The 100-plus pastors and laypeople who attended the half-day event at Dwight McKissic's Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, also agreed to submit a resolution on “partnership and free religious expression” at the next SBC annual convention, to be held June 12-13.
McKissic, pastor of one of the SBC's largest predominantly African-American churches, convened the meeting in light of controversy over charismatic worship practices in Southern Baptist life.
Billed as a discussion on “Baptists and the Holy Spirit,” much of the discussion focused on some Southern Baptists' use of a “private prayer language,” or utterances in personal prayer that are a form of speaking in tongues.
In the resolution, the group affirmed their “fundamental Baptist distinctive as advocates of religious liberty, especially as it relates to free expression in the public and private worship of followers of Jesus Christ.”
“We are opposed to any attempt to narrow the parameters of cooperation among Southern Baptist churches to limit the full recognition, participation and partnership among member churches on account of preference for worship styles or acceptance of spiritual practices consistent with the teaching of Holy Scripture,” the document said.