In the past week, I’ve been asked two questions related to the back-to-back meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship:
- Will churches leaving the SBC because they support women in ministry join CBF?
- What is the future of CBF?
First, a little context for anyone who just dropped in on this conversation. CBF began in 1991 as a refuge for “moderate” churches fleeing the SBC. From its beginning, a sizable percentage of churches that affiliated with CBF retained dual affiliation with the SBC.
That “dual affiliation” usually was a way to keep the peace in congregations that were divided on the issues in the SBC and as a way to help old-timers — including a fair number of retired SBC missionaries — continue to support the SBC’s International Mission Board. This resulted in churches coming up with complicated offering envelopes where congregants were asked to choose how to allocate the beyond-the-church portion of their missions giving.
One other important bit of background. To be part of the SBC, churches must give something — anything — to the denomination’s Cooperative Program unified budget. The SBC Constitution always has carried other provisions about belief and practice but says churches must have “a faith and practice which closely identifies with the convention’s adopted statement of faith.”
The rub today is that the most conservative element in the SBC wants “closely identifies” to mean “absolutely identifies.” This is why churches with female clergy are being kicked out of the SBC even though the Constitution was not amended to require that.
CBF, on the other hand, is open to any church or person who wants to be part of its movement. Its website explains its core values.
“In theory, churches expelled from the SBC could join CBF — but the vast majority will not unless they already were dually aligned.”
So in theory, churches expelled from the SBC could join CBF — but the vast majority will not unless they already were dually aligned.
Take First Baptist Church of Richmond, Va., which recently voted to leave the SBC over its restrictions on women in ministry. The church was dually aligned mainly because of its historic ties to the SBC’s IMB and the number of retired missionaries in the church. But the church largely was and remains a CBF congregation. However, the SBC pushed so hard against women in ministry that First Baptist had to make a choice.
Up the road a bit in Alexandria, Va., First Baptist Church wanted to stay in the SBC but was kicked out anyway because they ordained women as ministers. Yet the church is very conservative in every other way.
Will First Baptist of Alexandria join CBF now that it has been removed from the SBC? Not likely. No doubt CBF overall is too “liberal” for the rest of the church’s doctrine.
The net result of these two Virginia scenarios is that some churches that have remained dually affiliated with the SBC and CBF will move to sole affiliation with CBF and some churches that were solely affiliated with the SBC will become independent.
SBC churches that wanted to join the CBF movement have had 30 years to do that. It is not likely they will “change sides” now.
How this differs from Methodists
There’s an interesting contrast to what has happened in The United Methodist Church. Its split has gone the opposite way of the SBC’s. The more conservative churches left and have formed several different breakaway groups, the largest of which is the Global Methodist Church.
Hundreds of U.S. churches have disaffiliated from the UMC and the majority — but not all — appear headed to the GMC. This has even led to some local church splits.
For example, in the part of Northeast Dallas where I live, the pastor of a large United Methodist church urged her congregation to disaffiliate from the UMC but did not get sufficient votes to do that. Now, she and some of the more conservative members of that well-established church have started their own GMC congregation that meets at the YMCA within walking distance of my house.
“Unlike the SBC, the conservative side of American Methodists still supports women in ministry.”
Notice the pronouns used above. The breakaway conservative pastor is a “she.” Unlike the SBC, the conservative side of American Methodists still supports women in ministry.
That should show you, by the way, what an outlier the SBC is in its strict prohibitions on women in ministry.
What the breakaway Methodists and today’s SBC have in common is a disdain for gay people. And yes, I used the word “disdain” on purpose. They are driven not just by a belief that homosexuality is sinful but that it is against God’s created order. They are neither welcoming nor affirming.
Lessons from Texas and Virginia
Back 30 years ago, when it became apparent the SBC was taking a hard right turn for sure, two state Baptist conventions with historic ties to the SBC put up resistance. Only two. Those are the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
That resistance sparked the birth of new, rival conservative conventions in both states. Those new conventions were formed to walk in lockstep with the SBC’s more conservative direction. And they pulled away hundreds of churches from the historic state conventions to their new bodies.
There was a time when it looked like the BGCT might morph into its own national body and compete directly with both the SBC and CBF. But that never materialized. The BGAV, on the other hand, created some new networks of missions and ministry that creatively transcend state lines and denominational labels. Those still exist, and some believe they are the future of cooperative mission work in Virginia, while others think they ought to be shuttled off to their own universe. But they also tend to oppose full LGBTQ inclusion.
“In Texas, I like to tell people there are three kinds of white Baptist churches.”
In Texas, I like to tell people there are three kinds of white Baptist churches: SBC churches, CBF churches and “Texas Baptist” churches. The latter category is for churches that consider themselves centrists and have shunned both the SBC and CBF.
This is why the BGCT is in a tough spot now due to its partial endorsement of women in ministry. By acknowledging that some BGCT churches believe women may be ordained and may preach, the BGCT alienates other churches that don’t like the SBC but also don’t believe in ordaining women or in women preaching.
This also is why the BGCT’s longstanding relation with the SBC’s North American Mission Board is in peril. The BGCT has not affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message — which is more strict against women — but instead affirms the 1963 doctrinal statement.
This could drive some Texas churches away from the BGCT and into the arms of its more conservative rival convention. Time will tell on that one.
What’s the future?
To ask, “What’s the future of CBF?” is to ask what is the future of all denominations. And as we all know, that’s a trend that’s not so promising, Denominations are dying and becoming irrelevant.
CBF sought to escape this death spiral by declaring itself not a denomination. Former CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter cleverly called the group a “denomi-network.
The truth is that “denomi” anything is dying. The fact that churches being expelled and voluntarily leaving the SBC don’t need to find a new denomination illustrates this.
“The truth is that ‘denomi’ anything is dying.”
While CBF has done and continues to do some great things — I’ve been along for the ride from the beginning — perhaps its greatest fault is not being able to start churches aggressively. It has not and is not replacing the churches and church members who are dying.
Although CBF does not report statistics the same way the SBC does, its total number of churches and total number of members in affiliated churches has been declining. Those losses add up more quickly for an already small group than they do for a mammoth group like the SBC.
But do not be deceived: The SBC also is dying. It is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into church planting and getting half the results it got 30 years ago. The growth of the “nones” is a real thing.
The future of Christianity in America is not to be found in denominations of any kind. It will be found in networks and affinity groups. And it’s possible those churches being left homeless by the SBC could lead the way in shaping that identity.
Time will tell.
Mark Wingfield
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves
and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality. His brand-new book is Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
Related articles:
One week later, CBF meeting is the antithesis of the SBC meeting | Analysis by Mark Wingfield
Women as pastors isn’t the only way SBC churches are out of compliance with Baptist Faith and Message and SBC resolutions | Analysis by Mark Wingfield
The Sunday we left the Southern Baptist Convention | Opinion by Jim Somerville
Day before voting on Law Amendment, SBC removes church that is Mike Law’s neighbor
Making sense of denominational decline and church shifting | Analysis by Tyler Hummel