PASADENA, Calif. (ABP) — The makeup of the American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse in American Christianity — ethnically, regionally and ideologically. Gathering for their ABC biennial meeting June 25-28 in a region that embodies that diversity, 1,200 delegates and visitors revealed both the glory and the struggle inherent in such inclusiveness.
Meeting a 15-minute drive from the heart of Los Angeles in Pasadena, Calif., delegates participated in worship and other gatherings that featured traditional hymns, mariachi bands, gospel choirs and even Hawaii’s first African-American hula dance troupe. They heard featured speakers from multiple racial backgrounds and national origins and enjoyed Latin and Asian cuisine at a reception that program organizers dubbed “We are ABC: A Multi-Cultural Family Fest.”
Delegates gathered in small-group “caucus” meetings for African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Haitian and Portuguese-speaking churches and ministers. And, for the first time ever, American Baptist Burmese refugees gathered for their own meeting.
“We are 62 percent immigrant congregations. We are at 120 countries represented — [the] gospel is preached in 48 languages in American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles,” said Samuel Chetti, the executive minister of ABC of Los Angeles and Congregations of the Southwest and Hawaii , whose region played host to the meeting.
Samuel Chetti
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“I would say we have Anglos in every church, unless they are language-based,” Chetti continued. “And I’d say 35 percent — 30 percent or so — are purely multi-ethnic congregations; they have everybody.” Chetti said formerly traditional Anglo churches in the region have become multi-ethnic. “I can’t imagine one church that’s truly Anglo,” he said. “I mean, they are dispersed among every community. It reflects very much Southern California.”
But the very reason Chetti’s region exists in its present form points to the conflict that can sometimes accompany such broad diversity. Formerly a local association of churches in Los Angeles and its immediate suburbs, Chetti’s region ended up taking in churches that left the former ABC of the Pacific Southwest region in 2006.
That came after the conservative-dominated region decided to dissociate itself from the national denomination, mainly over regional leaders’ perception that the national denomination had been insufficiently resolute in denouncing homosexuality and excluding gay-friendly American Baptist congregations. As a result of the region’s departure, many centrist and progressive congregations from across the Southwest and Hawaii affiliated with Chetti’s association in order to maintain their ties to the national body.
Multi-lingual sign welcoming worshipers to the historic First Baptist Church of Los Angeles.
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Some continuing tensions over sexuality and other divisive issues were on display in the delegates’ narrow vote June 29 to reject a massive restructuring proposal. Denominational officials — who had been working on the proposal for more than two years — backed it, but progressive American Baptist leaders and some others expressed serious misgivings about the changes.
Delegates ultimately voted 377-217 in favor of the changes — failing, by a handful of votes, to muster the two-thirds majority required to pass them. They would have spun off the denomination’s two mission boards into quasi-autonomous entities, altered the form of representation on ABCUSA’s main governing board and changed the method by which American Baptists approve policy statements and resolutions.
In particular, progressive congregations and organizations feared that the changes would further marginalize their voice within the denomination and make it more difficult to rescind past ABC statements condemning homosexuality.
Grant Ward, a delegate from Central Baptist Church in Wayne, Pa., spoke against the bylaws changes during a “discernment session” when delegates considered them. He read a statement the church had approved opposing the proposal. It primarily discussed the fact that the changes would make it more difficult to rescind official ABC actions with which the congregation disagrees, including a 1992 ABC General Board statement on homosexuality.
“Our principle concern regards the provisions of the new bylaws that transform all existing resolutions and policy statements into ‘Public Witness Statements’ of the ABCUSA, and that set a higher threshold to rescind these past statements than it will take to rescind future Public Witness Statements,” Ward said, quoting the church’s resolution.
Delegates to the American Baptist Churches Biennial meeting June 27 in Pasadena, Calif., enjoy international cuisine at a reception.
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Ward said Central Baptist Church was specifically concerned about the impact the change might have on a 1992 ABC resolution that states, “We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” and the 2005 ABC General Board decision to include the statement in the official “Identity” document that describes the denomination’s core beliefs.
Tim Bonney, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Greater Des Moines , Iowa, and a supporter of the recommended bylaws changes, said he felt the proposed changes failed because they weren’t properly rolled out and communicated to delegates by denominational leaders.
While he understood some of the concerns that opponents had with the proposal, Bonney said, “To me, the need to pass these bylaws was such that I felt we could have come back and reexamined those issues afterwards. I was very sorry to see the whole thing go down because people had some confusions and concerns.”
A former ABC General Board member who served on an earlier committee that studied streamlining the denominational structure, Bonney said ABC’s current top boards are simply too large and cumbersome to run the denomination’s affairs at peak efficiency. “We can’t afford our current structure; it’s just too big,” he said.
Dwight Stinnett, executive minister for the ABC of the Great Rivers region, wrote in a June 29 post on the ABC Views from the Middle blog that the failure to get enough delegates to buy in to the bylaws changes would have significant consequences.
“If there were not serious consequences, the case that ‘we do not need to change’ would have proven true,” he wrote. “We are left with a system that not only does not work (and has not for a long time), but also a system that we cannot afford. The financial stress that drove us to this point was not eliminated by the vote in Pasadena.”
Members of the multi-ethnic First Baptist Church of Los Angeles hold a reception following morning worship June 28. The congregation is historically Anglo, but is now equal parts Anglo, Hispanic, African-American and Asian in its composition.
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Like other mainline Protestant denominations in recent years, American Baptists have generally seen overall declines in membership and giving, and many denominational organizations have been cutting budgets for several years.
But, as Chetti, Bonney and others noted, American Baptists are different. Besides their stunning diversity — denominational officials tout the fact that there is no single ethnic majority among American Baptists’ approximately 1.3 million members in about 5,500 congregations — they occupy an ideological space somewhere between conservative evangelicalism and liberal mainline Protestantism.
Chetti said such diversity is complicated further by cultural differences between the many ethnic and national-origin groups that make up the denomination in his region and elsewhere. “For example, we have here the Armenian Evangelical Baptist Church in Glendale,” he said. “[The pastor] is from Georgia and they are traditional Baptists — men on one side [of the church], women on one side. Very orthodox — very orthodox scripturally, very Eastern in church mannerisms, hierarchical. On the other hand, you have much more egalitarian Anglo, African-American congregations. So, it’s both sides.”
Chetti continued: “We have tensions when we have conferences — because about 30 percent of our congregations are charismatic. And the rest of them are various levels of — shades of evangelical openness, to one church that’s very liberal. We tolerate, we’re together. When the issue of homosexuality came, we took a very strong position. However, we didn’t have any fights. We had a very civil discussion about it.”
Tim Bonney
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For Bonney, who has long served American Baptist churches but came from a Southern Baptist background, the denomination’s diversity can be cumbersome, but rewarding.
“I don’t think American Baptists have generally felt like there has to be a majority group in the denomination,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we have to agree on all these other finer points of theology and issues of politics. My congregation is also politically diverse, theologically diverse and we’re comfortable with that; we like that. I find when I do new members’ classes and people are looking at joining our church, one question that it comes down to is that, are they comfortable with diversity?
“I think American Baptists are generally kind of comfortable with that, but it’s both our greatest strength and greatest weakness at the same time. It certainly would be easier if we all agreed with each other, but I’ve always found that kind of diversity to be very refreshing.”
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous ABP stories:
ABCUSA delegates reject bylaw changes (6/30)
American Baptists observe centennial, Baptist unity at quiet biennial meeting (7/3/2007)
American Baptist regional group moves ahead with plan to separate (5/2/2006)