WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Conservatives in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina elected their candidate as president, toughened the convention's stance against gay-friendly churches, replaced the interim executive director and approved new institutional trustees without dissent.
But they failed in another key objective — to eliminate a budget arrangement that allows moderate churches in North Carolina to fund non-Southern Baptist causes.
The flurry of actions came during the Nov. 14-16 annual meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in Winston-Salem.
A motion to eliminate four spending plans that allow churches to choose what Baptist causes they support outside North Carolina — including the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — failed on a close vote. But money contributed to CBF through the convention's budget will no longer count as state “Cooperative Program” funds.
This was the second year in a row that Ted Stone of Durham made a motion to delete the four budget options and return to the traditional one budget channel that requires contributions sent outside of North Carolina to go only to the Southern Baptist Convention. Many moderate Baptist churches have remained involved in the North Carolina convention because they could support CBF and not support the SBC.
Stone's motion was expected to pass when he postponed its effective date to 2008, so that conservatives who had promised not to delete the alternative plans immediately could support the motion. However, it lost on a ballot vote, 56 percent to 44 percent.
During debate, Stone said of the four-option budget, “Instead of bringing us together, it has divided us” and “undermined the work” of the Southern Baptist Convention and North Carolina convention. Eliminating the option of CBF support would “restore a sense of honesty to the way we do cooperative missions in North Carolina,” Stone said.
But Dave Stratton of Brunswick Island Baptist Church in Supply argued eliminating the four plans “will have the effect of further splintering this convention” and would actually decrease funding for Baptist causes in the state as moderate churches move funding elsewhere.
The budget change that prevents support for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship from counting as “Cooperative Program” giving came from the convention's budget committee. Two attempts to delete or alter that proposal failed during budget discussion Nov. 16.
Conservatives said the Cooperative Program is a Southern Baptist plan and should not include funds for CBF, even on the state level. Moderates say counting all their gifts sent through the state convention keeps them included as full participants in the state convention, even if they don't participate in the SBC.
The approved budget calls for a goal of $36.4 million for 2006 and $37.8 million in 2007. The Southern Baptist Convention will receive 32.5 percent.
Messengers easily approved a motion to instruct the convention's Board of Directors to implement a policy that would expel from membership any church that “knowingly affirms, approves, or endorses homosexual behavior.”
North Carolina Baptists already have a financial policy that prohibits churches that condone homosexuality from contributing to the convention, which is a condition of membership. It is unclear how many churches would be affected by the new policy. But the new strictures likely will exclude congregations “that affiliate with any group that the church knows to affirm homosexual behavior.” That would shut out about 25 North Carolina churches that are members of the Alliance of Baptists, a national organization that conservatives say has a “pro-homosexual stance.”
“It is most important that we as a convention uphold the teaching of the inerrant word of our heavenly father,” said Bill Sanderson, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, who introduced the motion. “I believe we must stand up for absolute truth, not relative truth or untruths, as it seems so many others are willing to do these days.”
Opponents worry the policy would prompt churches to screen applicants for membership based on sexual preference — something few churches do.
Speaking against the policy, Rob Helton of Cherry Point Baptist Church in Havelock, said he agrees homosexual behavior is an “abhorrent sin,” but he added, “I struggle also with a policy to exclude members based on that one sin. I believe according to Scripture that all sins are equal in the sight of God.”
“Could it be that we oppose homosexuality because it is not our sin?” he asked. “If we need to have a policy on homosexuality, it seems to me that we need a policy on every sin in the Bible,” Helton said. Admitting he has struggled with the sin of gluttony, he added, “Eventually you would come to my sin and I would be excluded.”
Most moderate Baptists in the North Carolina have quit attending the annual convention, conceding conservatives now control the nation's second largest Baptist state convention. After losing a string of elections, moderates did not offer a candidate for president ahead of time.
Moderate pastor Ken Massey of Greensboro told a local newspaper that going to the state convention would be like attending the funeral of a close friend.
Outgoing president David Horton objected to that description. “It appears to me we're doing just fine,” he told messengers during his address. “I'm not here to attend a funeral. I'm here to celebrate a resurrection!”
Conservative Stan Welch, pastor of Blackwelder Park Baptist Church in Kannapolis, was elected president with 70 percent of the vote. But the surprise nomination of moderate leader Blythe Taylor, associate minister of St. John's Baptist Church in Charlotte, drew 30 percent of the votes from the 3,276 messengers registered.
In other business, the Board of Directors elected Mike Cummings, director of missions for the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association, as acting executive director. Cummings, whose association includes Lumbee Indian congregations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland, replaces George Bullard, current associate executive director. Bullard had been expected to remain until a search committee finds a new executive director next year. Instead he will retire in August.
Messengers approved all nominees to trustee positions in the convention despite complaints the process excluded moderates. The nominating committee earlier rejected several nominees because they are members of churches affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and rejected several candidates for the board of the Biblical Recorder, the convention's newspaper, replacing them with conservatives. No objection was raised when the nominee slate was presented Nov. 15.
Ricky Speas, conservative pastor of Old Town Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, was elected first vice president without opposition.
In another surprise, however, Leland Kerr, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Shelby, defeated the conservative-endorsed candidate Barry Nealy, a director of missions from Boone. Kerr, who is not clearly aligned with one of the state's factions, was nominated by Jim Royston, who recently retired as executive director of the convention.
— This article is includes material from Tony Cartledge and Steve DeVane of the Biblical Recorder.