Click here for a roundup of all state annual meeting reports.
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)–The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina strengthened its membership criteria Nov. 14 to specify churches that do not support homosexuality and do not allow homosexuals to be members until they repent.
Messengers voted by nearly a three-fourths majority to change the convention’s articles of incorporation, Article VI.A.3 concerning membership as proposed in the “Sanderson Motion,” brought before the convention last year by Bill Sanderson, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell.
The original article stated, “A cooperating church shall be one that financially supports any program, institution, or agency of the Convention, and which is in friendly cooperation with the Convention and sympathetic with its purposes and work.”
The addition to the article states, “Among churches not in friendly cooperation with the Convention are churches which knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior. The Board of Directors shall apply this provision. A church has a right to appeal any adverse action taken by the Board of Directors.”
The action needed a two-thirds vote during two consecutive annual meetings.
“This is my personal stand on the Word of God,” said Sanderson, a vocal conservative, on why he sought to change the articles of incorporation. “We are people of the Book. We are not willing to compromise. We have to be willing to take a stand. Others are willing to compromise.”
Last year when Sanderson first brought up the issue of homosexual acceptance in Baptist churches, messengers directed the state convention’s board of directors to develop a policy defining “churches in friendly cooperation with this Convention.” Don Warren of Gastonia, president of the board of directors, appointed a special committee to study the issue.
Mark Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte and head of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board of trustees, chaired the committee, which also included Southeastern Seminary ethics professor Daniel Heimbach. They spoke with the Southern Baptist Convention lawyers, who referred them to the SBC constitution which was amended to include similar language in 1993. They worked with BSCNC staff and looked at whether various state conventions have provisions concerning homosexuals as church members and churches that support homosexuality being in good standing.
Harris said they found specific wording in the Georgia State Convention’s governing documents on membership addressing the issue of churches that affirm homosexual behavior.
“Neither I nor the convention sought out this issue,” Harris said. “It is important to know that this reflects biblical standards we all can unite on. This in no way attacks a person caught in the grips of homosexual behavior. This is the establishment of a standard for the North Carolina Baptist Convention.
“No one sin is worse than another. As believers, we have a responsibility to stand against an agenda which is contrary to Scripture. Nothing would please me more than if this discussion was unnecessary. However, this convention must stand with courage,” Harris said.
During the discussion, messengers who supported the Sanderson Motion were united in saying the BSCNC needed to take a strong stand against homosexuality.
Heimbach said no one on the committee wanted to be on the stage to make the motion. However, he said this is where the church is being challenged today.
“If this is not clear where the world and devil attack today, we are not being faithful to God and His Word,” Heimbach said. “We do not list all the sins in the Bible in our constitution…. [T]his is where we stand and what this means to us as a state convention.”
Opponents of the revision did not see it as necessary. While they all agreed homosexuality is a sin and sinners need to repent, they did not feel such a rigid stance is necessary when the mechanism for membership removal already is in place.
“This is unproductive,” said Nathan Parrish, pastor at Peace Haven Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and a member of the BSCNC board of directors. “We should have more conversations with each other rather than cast stones at each other. Having the right to exclude does not give us the right to exclude. This creates another layer of board-driven committee oversight and power.”
Under the new policy, which adds “teeth” to the existing policy according to convention President Stan Welch, the BSCNC will not act like a “church watchdog.” Instead, two people would have to make a complaint, using their own names, to the BSCNC against a church they are familiar with that ordains gay clergy, for example, or makes public statements supporting homosexuality or accept gays as members, said Welch, pastor of Blackwelder Baptist Church in Kannapolis.
Milton A. Hollifield Jr., the BSCNC executive director/treasurer, said he does not feel there will be a mass exodus of churches from the state convention. However, about 20 BSCNC churches are members of the Alliance of Baptists, a Washington, D.C.-based group which does not exclude homosexuals as church members or “same-sex marriages.”
“Churches are autonomous in nature,” Hollifield noted. “The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina does not mandate what will happen in churches. Today, we are just relating to churches in our convention. We want to reach out in love and minister.
“Churches have particular standards. Most groups do. Homosexuals are welcome in our churches. We will offer them ministry. We want people to come out of that lifestyle. The result today is that we want to help more churches realize they can reach out and minister. We hope this helps create new ministries.”
–30–
A second story on the North Carolina convention’s annual meeting will be posted later this week.
