NASHVILLE (BP) – A recently-released list of commitments by trustees of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission to Southern Baptists was drafted over the last month, chairman Scott Foshie told Baptist Press, but marks the latest step in a longer process.
Those commitments were approved at a special-called trustee meeting Jan. 30 and published yesterday. There are three, with the first two aimed at rebuilding trust through engagement and relationships and the third for “representing Southern Baptists well in the public square.”
Trustees also announced that the number of presidential candidates has been trimmed to eight. An update from the search team will come at the next regularly scheduled trustee meeting in March. Hopes are for a final candidate announcement in late spring who will be presented at the SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando in June.
Foshie was an Illinois pastor in 2018 when he accepted a nomination to serve as an ERLC trustee. That SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas was the first of several in subsequent years – including a return to Dallas last June – that brought attempts to abolish or defund the entity.
“A lot of us had concerns when I became a trustee,” he said. “I just wanted to learn and was overjoyed with the hard work of the staff, but I did have concerns. I wanted to see the president relate better; that there wasn’t just encouragement, but oversight. We’ve worked relentlessly at that.”
Although the votes went in favor of the entity, Foshie sees them as signals from messengers who wanted to ensure the ERLC heard their concerns. He asserts that trustees did. In 2023, bylaw revisions addressed the relationship between the president and the board. The next year brought a list of advocacy questions outlining the entity’s process for engaging with a public policy issue.
Foshie gave much credit to former president Brent Leatherwood for such steps.
“It’s been a journey for the board, a great one, really,” said Foshie. “When Brent became president, even before when he was acting president, he was committed to working with trustees. We had forward-facing concerns [and] wanted to improve the relationship between the president and board, to discover best practices and live those out, and Brent was really supportive of that.”
Last fall’s approval of former South Carolina state exec Gary Hollingsworth as interim president accompanied the development of a presidential profile.
“We’ve tried to deeply engage with the pastors we serve, with local association leaders, state convention leaders and fellow national entity leaders. We’ve tried to listen to the Lord through them. I think that’s important,” Foshie said.
The “robust engagement” promised in commitment 1 means personally engaging Southern Baptist churches “of all sizes and different cultures.”
“We’re going to expect [the ERLC president] to be out helping us advocate, but he needs to spend a lot of time in churches with pastors, with local association leaders and with state convention leaders,” Foshie said.
Foshie will get a different perspective on that after the June annual meeting, when he will rotate off the ERLC board and officially begin his new role as executive director for the Illinois Baptist State Association.
“I would like the ERLC president to not just be accessible to me, but to my pastors I serve here in Illinois and the local association leaders. I expect the team to continue to be responsive.
“And if there are issues with a range of opinions, maybe convene Southern Baptists with different perspectives. Encourage understanding and dialogue and remind them where we have agreement on carrying out the Great Commission together, even if we have different opinions.”
Foshie also told Baptist Press that Jon Nelson has resigned as a trustee after accepting a staff position with a non-SBC church. Mariano Sarabia, student pastor of First Baptist Church in O’Fallon, Ill., was selected by trustees Friday to replace Nelson until Southern Baptist messengers vote on a permanent replacement.
The just-released three points of commitment are “a clarifying moment,” he added, for Southern Baptists as well as the next president.
“First of all, we wanted Southern Baptists to know of our commitment to them,” Foshie said. “But it also gives clarity to the candidates. They know what to expect and understand the posture we’re expecting them to have.”
Furthermore, the commitments establish an objective standard through which the search team and board can evaluate candidates.
“That’s important for us, too. The board believes in the ERLC as an important place in Baptist life, and we are thankful for the trust we have. We know we still have work to do with some and want them to know we hear their concerns and we’re committed to earning their trust.”
Last month, Atlanta pastor Jason Dees wrote an open letter to ERLC trustees published in The Christian Index that called for the ERLC’s dissolution. Today’s political landscape, he wrote, creates an environment where effective representation of Southern Baptists even among “core moral convictions” is “simply impossible.”
“I don’t sense that has been something the trustees have brought up,” said Foshie. “If anything, there’s more need for the ERLC than ever. We have a [presidential] administration that is extremely open to input from Southern Baptists. And whether an administration is open or not, Southern Baptists need and want an entity that can represent them in the public square.
“I think that the issue has been that some Southern Baptists have felt they can’t trust the entity, and we want them to know that they can. Trustees have been focused on making sure that the ERLC is trustworthy and effective for the future.”
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