CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) — Moderate Baptists in North Carolina are now talking seriously about “realignment,” a move that could divert millions in contributions from the conservative-controlled Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Executives of virtually all of the convention's institutions met privately Dec. 1 to discuss alternatives for the future, now that conservatives have solidified control of the convention and indicated they will install sympathetic trustees and leaders for the institutions.
No plan was announced at the meeting, hosted by St. John's Baptist Church in Charlotte, but participants said there is more momentum for action than ever before — with a major shift in funds from moderate churches expected as soon as January 2007.
“I think this one's going to amount to something,” said one leader, on condition of anonymity, after the meeting.
Participants agreed to form a committee to explore options, but no one was ready to predict if the outcome will be a simple network of churches, an alternative budget, or — least likely — a “shadow” convention.
North Carolina moderates have talked about breaking away from the state Baptist convention for at least four years but have feared their beloved colleges would suffer financially. Leaders said this was the first time all the agencies participated in a conversation about realignment.
North Carolina Baptists support five colleges, as well as a newspaper, children's home ministry, retirement center and foundation. The colleges receive $6.1 million from the convention. But lumped with funds for the other agencies — as well as mission offerings and other sources — the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina controls about $16 million that benefits institutions and other mission causes in the state, the leaders were told Dec. 1.
The meeting's objective, according to participants, was to make sure moderate and progressive Baptists have a way to support the institutions they like — particularly colleges — without funding the state convention, which they say has excluded them and their views.
“If the colleges and institutions presently affiliated with the North Carolina Baptist Convention opted to realign themselves denominationally, and if many Baptist churches throughout our state are contemplating a similar move, would it not be possible for all of us to realign together?” asked Richard Kremer, pastor of St. John's Baptist, in a letter inviting sympathetic leaders to the Dec. 1 meeting.
Said one participant afterward: “The events of the last few months have made it clear … that the institutions are willing to break away from the convention if they need to.”
Most of the North Carolina agencies are led by moderates, or conservatives not aligned with the convention's power structure. And moderates say it was their past contributions that built the institutions. But the convention's power structure is clearly in the hands of conservatives, who have won a string of elections by a widening margin.
Kremer declined to name the participants or discuss the content of the Charlotte meeting. “We agreed at the beginning this would be an off-the-record meeting,” he told Associated Baptist Press. “We just needed a level of honesty.”
That was achieved, Kremer said. “We achieved a level of honesty in the last couple hours of that meeting that I had not witnessed in 14 years in this state,” he said. He declined to predict the outcome of the talks, except to say, “North Carolina churches and colleges are all examining the nature of their relationships.”
He said more significant gatherings, with more substantive results, will follow now that churches and the agencies are walking together.
The key to the new resolve, other participants said, is getting the colleges to act in unison. In other states, Baptist colleges have parted ways as conservatives have come to power. Some have courted the favor of conservative leaders, forging closer ties, while others — Furman, Mercer, Belmont, Baylor, Wake Forest, Stetson — have fought for greater independence.
The five colleges still related to the North Carolina convention — Campbell University, Chowan College, Gardner-Webb University, Mars Hill College and Wingate University — recently asked for a formal study of their relationships with the convention. (Meredith College already has broken away.) The study by the Council on Christian Higher Education is expected by August 2006.
Moderates are expected to wait for the outcome of the study before taking radical steps. If the colleges are freed to elect their own trustees and can still get some convention funding for scholarships, then a continued relationship with the convention is possible, leaders say. But most moderates suggest that's not likely.
If the colleges break away en masse, the long-awaited realignment would follow, some predict. “Once the colleges go, I think $6 million would shift,” one leader said. That would “create a slipstream” for other institutions and more churches to follow, another added.
Until now, most moderates in North Carolina have been content to channel their money for institutions through the state convention, which offers four budget channels with varying support for conservative and moderate causes.
But attempts to eliminate those options — allowing only support for Southern Baptist-approved causes — have become a regular occurrence at the state's annual convention meeting and are now viewed by both sides as inevitable.
Conservatives, who have a goal of “cleaning up” their denominational house before the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Greensboro in June, did achieve other objectives during the Nov. 14-16 state convention — electing their candidate as president, toughening the convention's stance against gay-friendly churches, and approving new institutional trustees despite complaints the process excluded moderates.
A search committee is currently looking for a new executive director for the convention, and conservatives promise to replace the retiring executive — viewed by many as sympathetic to moderates — with a clear-cut conservative.
Larry Hovis, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, said moderates in North Carolina could turn to the state CBF as the alternative structure to support the institutions. With a funding channel already in place that supports North Carolina causes, he said, “there's nothing [under consideration] that can't be accomplished” through the North Carolina CBF, which is an affiliate of the national CBF, a moderate alternative group.
Although the national CBF is moving away from funding institutions, Hovis said, there's no such impulse within the North Carolina affiliate. “I really don't see any resistance among agencies or churches” to using the state CBF for that purpose, he said. And unlike the state convention, the CBF group does not want to control agency trustees, he added.
“We want to partner with them; we don't want to control them,” Hovis said, whose group has a $660,000 annual budget. Already 318 Baptist churches in North Carolina fund either the state or national CBF, and Hovis said most moderate churches believe CBF of North Carolina is an adequate alternative.
“My feeling is that any church that does not feel comfortable working through the Baptist State Convention would feel comfortable [with the state CBF],” he said. “I absolutely do not think there will be a new organization. I didn't hear anything yesterday that would indicate otherwise. In fact, I heard a strong desire not to create a third group.”
But others said the state CBF won't be enough. There are many moderate and middle-of-the-road churches not ready to align with the Fellowship, otherwise they would have done so by now, one agency leader said. The point of the Dec. 1 meeting was to meet the needs of those churches, he said. “We need some channel where they can do this.”
Although support for North Carolina Baptist institutions remains strong, most observers agree there's no energy for starting another convention — as has been done by moderates in Missouri and conservatives in Texas and Virginia.
In an age in which denominational structures are shrinking and denominational loyalty is waning, the other alternatives seem more likely.