Association yields doctrinal autonomy to the SBC?

The Surry (NC) Baptist Association made news last year as a result of their action to summarily and quickly expel a member church because the church had called a female pastor.

The association, presumably tidying up things after that mess is in the process of revising their associational by-laws. Sounds like a good idea.

Here is the proposed revision as concerns the association's doctrinal statement:

Bylaw I. DOCTRINAL POSITION. The Association affirms the Baptist Faith and Message as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention.

Perhaps the Association desires to have it in writing that the senior pastor of a church can only be a male and that is what the SBC's doctrinal statement, Baptist Faith and Message, says. Perhaps they want to say that without explicitly stating it, which they have done by merely linking their doctrinal stance to the SBC's.

But should an association, an autonomous, cherished, Baptist entity, one that precedes the establishment of the national Southern Baptist Convention, completely yield autonomy on doctrinal matters to the SBC?

I'm thinking no.

But that's what is being done, intentionally or unintentionally, when the association's by-laws reads as it does above. The practical effect of this is that whatever the BFM says counts for the Surry Association. This may be fine for 2012 but the wording is such that whatever changes the SBC makes automatically applies to the association.

Suppose in 2022 the SBC votes to allow female pastors, unlikely, but let's get wild with the possibilities here. That change automatically applies to Surry Association. Letters of apology to follow then, perhaps.

This is all inside baseball and is arcane stuff, but associations should maintain their own doctrinal statement, even if it only "affirms the BFM adopted by the SBC in the year 2000." That wording limits the matter to that document alone and doesn't automically commit the association to any future changes.

Every association I've ever been a part of has some brethren that I would call parliamentary and ecclesialogical geeks who pay attention to this stuff. Surely Surry Association has at least one of these folks who see this yielding of associational autonomy.

I'd hate for my association to adopt by-laws that simly ratify and automatically incorporate whatever the SBC does. The idea that a few thousand folks in Phoenix, or New Orleans could vote and change my association's doctrine doesn't suit me at all.

But...like I said, this is really arcane stuff.

And, yeah, I know that this is none of my business...but what would blogging be without meddlesome bloggers?

Notable SBC quotes from 2011

Folks in the SBC are always good for some quotable quotes although I wouldn't say that they are always helpful for the Convention. Here are some that I picked up from 2011:

Goebbelesque quote of the year:

Restoration to doctrinal purity and a renewed sense of unity in the churches of our Association were our goals.

This from the official communication of Surry Baptist Association, NC.

So, what’s the issue? Deity of Christ? Soteriology? The trinity? Nope.

What happened was that one of the association's churches called a woman pastor, thereby polluting the pastoral gender pool for the association. That bit of “impurity” could not be allowed to stand. It didn't, as the offending church was unceremoniously and hastily cast out. Other churches left in time over the association's action, thereby adding, one presumes, additional levels of purity.

One has to admit that the terminology has a strong eugenics flavor. Plodder will accept criticism for the use of a National Socialist Party figure in this context as it may be considered overly harsh. If persuaded, I will exchange it for 'Orwellian'.

Head-scratching quote of the year:

I think the challenges confronting the SBC today are different than they have been in decades past. I think one of the issues which is a tremendous challenge for us is the theological divide of Calvinism and non-Calvinism.

This from Executive Committee head Frank Page in answer to the question about what the SBC’s greatest challenges are. This would be the self same Frank Page who is in a better position to understand well that the lifeblood of the SBC is the Cooperative Program which is continuing a decades long decline. The CP was not mentioned by Page as one of the SBC's greatest challenges.

From another planet quote of the year:

First, there is an existing [negative] attitude toward evangelists in certain areas of SBC leadership.

This from evangeilst Jerry Drace who was explaining why the SBC evangelist is an endangered species. This was reason number one. SBC evangelists are endangered because NAMB won't pay their travel expenses. Uh, no.

Dodged-a-bullet quote of the year:

...no one [on the SBC Name Change Task Force] believed the word "Baptist" should be removed from the convention's name

Jimmy Draper explaining that the Committee had reached a decision and would report to the Executive Committee in February.

We will remain Baptists. SBCers might all get tattoos and grow goatees but, however we look and act, our forefathers may rest peacefully knowing that we will officially be called "Baptists."

Generic apology quote-of-the-year:

I deeply regret if I've ever offended you...if you speak as speak as much as I speak you're going to say some goofy things from time to time.

Mac Brunson, FBCJax megapastor, addressing everyone in general and thereby expiating any and all sins in one fell pulpit swoop.

It is not known if the blogger behind FBCJax Watchdog, the one who aroused Brunson's ire and who was investigated by local law enforcement merely for blogging negatively towards the pastor, was addressed specifically in this apology. One might be flummoxed over the meaning of the phrase "deeply regret" in this context. He is absolutely right about those who say a lot do say some things they will regret. I share in that.

Refreshing quote of the year:

I will not personally support any At Large appointment of a person who has recently served. Nor will I support the appointment of that person’s staff member or a member of his/her immediate family to key places of leadership, practices which have become commonplace in recent years.

This quote is rather provincial, coming from John Waters newly elected president of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Any SBCer who pays attention understands that an oligarchy of a few dozen prominent pastors maintains control of key positions and trusteeships in most SBC arenas in part by passing appointments among themselves and, when by-laws prevent their being appointed, by having their family members or church staff members appointed as their proxy.

I attribute Waters' electoral victory this year to this quote.

Most notable Baptist Press quote: Sorry, there were none. Baptist Press was so busy reporting sports stories that they left all of the real news stuff to Associated Baptist Press and other news outlets. Maybe next year.


My memory fades after a few weeks. Perhaps you would have some submissions for notable SBC quotes of 2011.

Expelling churches with women pastors: Unstated reasons

I grant that the Surry Baptist Association expelled their member church because they believe that having a woman as pastor is biblically prohibited and harmful to their wonderful unity.

No one else will say it but there are other reasons why we expel churches with women pastors. I often write humor pieces. This isn't one.

1. A church that has called a female pastor is an easy target.

As was said elsewhere, "What do you need to know besides the gender?" Right-O. I take it that the brothers in Surry Association knew enough, once the gender was known, not to believe that much else was necessary.

We Southern Baptist pastors like easy targets and simple decisions. No fuss, no muss, no bother. And it doesn't get any easier and simpler than this.

2. We savor the ability to be selective in our discipline.

And there is no safer selective decision than this one. After all, we're men, right? No one can do this to us because we have gender immunity.

I humbly acknowledge the basis for such decisions, our Baptist Faith and Message Statement, which says,

While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Not much wiggle room there. Commenters have put it succinctly that those who believe in women pastors and those who don't cannot both be right. I can't argue with that.

Perhaps we could check the sentence that precedes the one quoted above:

[The church's] scriptural officers are pastors and deacons.

Many SBC churches now have the office of Elder. This is a direct violation of the BFM. That manner of church organization is defined as unbiblical.

What shall we do with those? Expel them? Alas, Plodder isn't hearing the clamor for the same from where he sits and types. Perhaps elsewhere in the SBC hinterlands such sins are rooted out and churches dispatched for such things.

Surry Association waited less than a week to initiate discipline against Flat Rock Baptist Church. Where are those with a burning, unquenchable zeal for purity who will lead the associations in excising the sinful, unbiblical practice of Elder rule?

Lest we forget, both the BFM and Surry Association point to 1 Timothy 3 in regard to scriptural qualifications. That passage says in part that an overseer must be:

the husband of one wife...sensible...respectable...not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy...one who manages his own household competently...a good reputation among outsiders...

"Not a bully"? I know quite a few pastors who are bullies. Where is the zeal against those? I know pastors who are quarrelsome, who are greedy, who are appallingly poor managers of their households, and some who have disastrously poor reputations in the community. Where is the zeal against those?

To understand Surry Association's action you need only know one thing: They know how to spot a woman in a pulpit. The scripture about what overseers "must" be is, manifestly, just words on a page fit to be ignored.

3. Pastors know how to manage a career in this business.

I know a few pastors. I've got friends who are pastors. I hear a lot about pastors and it is the rare pastor who is not looking ahead to (a) a larger church, (b) an appointment to some committee or board, and/or (c) a future paycheck from some denominational entity. In fact, an ambitious pastor can make his bones in situations like this one. Conversely, if a pastor is on the 'wrong' side of a question like this, it can follow him forever. There is (Gasp!) ambition among us pastors. And pastors know what greases the skids for their future. They also know how to avoid the potholes.

No, I certainly do not know the state-of-mind of the brethren in Surry Association, but no pastor can say with a straight face that motives are pure for all who are involved in this.

I still would not vote to expel a church from my association if they called a female pastor. We all make our decisions. Mine is not particularly courageous, as some have labeled it. I merely see it as both reasonable and Christian.

I just wish that if we are as Southern Baptists going to follow this pattern in our associations, state conventions, and SBC, we would be honest about it.

No, I wouldn't vote to kick a church with a woman pastor out

Flat Rock Baptist Church in Mount Airy North Carolina was quickly and summarily expelled from the Surry Baptist Association the other day according to this APB story from last week. Seems the church had done the unusual, the unthinkable, the unpardonable - they called a female pastor, Bailey Edwards Nelson, pictured at left here.

Tony Cartlege calls it 'courageous, the association calls their kicking out action was an attempt to facilitate "restoration to doctrinal purity and a renewed sense of unity." You bet.

"Unity through purity",the associational mission statement?

Sounds rather foreboding.

The association's response may be read here. It is a rather sterile treatment of the matter which concludes that they did the right thing but that folks should be nice to the new pastor and pray for her. Her what? Success? Souls saved?  Her church to grow? Oh, pray for her to repent and disappear from Surry Associaion. 

Fellow SBC blogger Howell Scott has a good piece on the matter here. Scott takes the association to task for being hasty in this action. The fellow churches took all of two weeks to kick the church out, not much of a honeymoon. Guess time was of the essence for the brethren. I mean, she might have preached a pretty good sermon, led someone to Christ, or (gasp!) even baptized a new believer. You bet, get that church out of the association before anything like that can happen. They did.

I've been in a number of associations and understand that this is a pastor-driven business and sometimes the pastors smell blood and get in a feeding frenzy and act with haste. This is such a case.  Dare I call it a lynch mob mentality? Naw, not the men of the cloth in that association - fine, upstanding, erudite, scholarly gentlemen.

Well, I read that the vote to expel the wayward church and pastor was 80%. Perhaps some of the 20% will speak up. 

I understand that associations are autonomous and may expel churches with female pastors or left handed pastors, whatever they decide among themselves. No one tells a Baptist association what to do, sometimes not even Jesus...but I wish Jesus had been consulted at greater length on this matter. It looks bad for everyone.

No, a woman pastor is not my thing. But no, I wouldn't have voted to kick the church out. Yes, I would have treated the new pastor just like I have treated female pastors (all Methodists) who have been my neighbors over the years at various times. I'd be kind, helpful, encouraging.

This type of situation will only be more frequent in the future. We had better find a better plan for handling it.

We are on the same side, aren't we?