NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention will vote in June on a proposal to change the way churches in the District of Columbia Baptist Convention are represented on SBC governing boards.
A proposal set for a vote at the SBC Executive Committee’s pre-convention meeting in June would combine representatives of D.C. convention churches with those of the adjoining Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee gathers in the opening plenary session of its Feb. 18-19 meeting in Nashville, Tenn. (BP photo by Morris Abernathy) |
Staff of the Executive Committee said Feb. 19 the proposed change is in response to complaints that current trustees are chosen from only a small number of D.C. churches actively involved in Southern Baptist life, creating impressions of favoritism. A single congregation, Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, has provided 40 of 65 D.C. Baptist representatives during the past 10 years, according to background materials provided to committee members.
While leaders said there have been no complaints about the service of the trustees from Capitol Hill Baptist Church, the trend goes against an unspoken tradition of trying to choose representation from as broad a number of congregations as possible.
The new arrangement — given a first reading during the Executive Committee’s Feb. 18-19 meeting in Nashville, Tenn. — would alter connections that make the District of Columbia convention uniquely aligned not only with Southern Baptists but also with other Baptist groups, including American Baptist Churches USA. Historically the arrangement was presented as a unified witness that unlike other cities, the nation’s capital transcends geography and belongs to all U.S. citizens.
The SBC once funded the DC convention to the tune of $475,000 a year. That ended in 2003, when D.C. Baptists turned down a cooperative agreement giving the SBC North American Mission Board greater control over how those funds would be expended.
Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.
Related story:
Proposed change could diminish D.C. Baptist representation on SBC boards, say leaders