PHOENIX (BP)–A meeting of “SBC Conservatives” June 13 in Phoenix drew about 20 pastors and laymen who lamented the current direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Kent Cochran, a Missouri messenger from Calvary Baptist Church in Republic who organized the meeting at the Hyatt Hotel, announced at the outset that the session was on background rules, for attendees to be assured their comments would not be attributed to them.
Such rules disallow attribution of all comments. Cochran, however, agreed to be quoted on the record.
The meeting’s agenda centered on Cochran’s plans to make a motion at the SBC’s annual meeting in Phoenix, June 14-15. The motion — ruled out order — called for a “Unity Committee” to study the “perceptions and realities about impact and implementation of the GCR Task Force Report,” which set forth a number of recommendations that were adopted by the SBC during its 2010 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Cochran announced the launch of a website, www.sbcr2.com, “to be a resource center for pastors and laymen who share his concerns about where the SBC is now headed.”
Attendees’ concerns included the Acts 29 church planting network and relationships that SBC employees at the North American Mission Board, LifeWay Christian Resources and Southern and Southeastern Baptist Theological seminaries have had with Acts 29 leaders.
According to Cochran et al, Acts 29 holds views regarding alcohol consumption diametrically opposed to numerous Southern Baptist resolutions and also requires its church planters to embrace Reformed, or Calvinist, theology.
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Norm Miller is a freelance writer based in Richmond, Va.
