CBF leaders vote to restore references to Jesus deleted from constitution

Posted: 10/17/05

CBF leaders vote to restore references
to Jesus deleted from constitution

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)—National leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship voted Oct. 14 to restore explicit references to Jesus deleted from the group’s constitution in July.

The CBF Coordinating Council approved a preamble to the constitution with little discussion and no disagreement. It will go now to the annual CBF general assembly in June for approval.

The proposed preamble states: “As a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches, we celebrate our faith in the One Triune God. We gladly declare our allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and to His gospel as we seek to be the continuing presence of Christ in this world. Our passion is to obey the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) of our Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to uphold Baptist principles of faith and practice as we partner with one another and other Christians.”

North Carolina pastor Jack Glasgow, who proposed the new language, said he and others hope the move will quiet critics both within the Fellowship and beyond who complained when references to Jesus and the Great Commission were deleted from the earlier document.

For the Fellowship’s “relentless critics,” Glasgow said, “There is nothing we can do in this Coordinating Council to appease them.” But the preamble could reassure two other audiences, he said: those in the Fellowship who want the group to be up-front about their allegiance to Jesus and the Great Commission and those on the outside of the Fellowship who sincerely want to know what the group believes.

At its June 30-July 1 general assembly in Grapevine, the Fellowship voted to approve revisions to its governing documents, but not before several participants objected that the revised constitution and bylaws omitted explicit references to Jesus and his Great Commission—the command to share the gospel and make disciples.

The approved constitution—drafted to bring the document in line with the Fellowship’s new mission statement— says the group’s purpose is “to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.”

“That’s a very Jesus-centered mission,” Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon (N.C.) Baptist Church, told the Coordinating Council. But not everyone recognized it as such, he admitted.

Glasgow said the intense discussion at the recent general assembly “was one of those Baptist moments that can be most uncomfortable,” noting he and his wife were on different sides of the vote. He said he decided to seek a solution when he returned home and his congregants asked, “‘Why did we take Jesus out of our purpose statement?”

Glasgow approached CBF Moderator Joy Yee, senior pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco, Calif., about changing the wording. Glasgow and a task force drafted the preamble, which will precede but not replace the constitution amendments made in July. The Coordinating Council’s legal committee and advisory council approved the preamble before it was presented to the full council.

“We trying to take an uncomfortable moment (in CBF life) and make a positive statement,” Yee told council members. She said adding a preamble seemed preferable to trying to blend two distinct versions of the disputed section.

After the council adopted the preamble, CBF National Coordinator Daniel said everything in it is implied or stated in the earlier documents. Nonetheless, he said, the revision “is an opportunity to reaffirm who we are.”

The latest revision mentions not only the Great Commission but also the Great Commandment—Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor. Council member Brian Harfst from Spotsylvania, Va., welcomed that addition.

“I like that it includes a larger breadth of understanding of the Great Commission in light of the Great Commandment,” he said.

Previously, the constitution mentioned bringing together Baptists and calling out God’s gifts in individuals “in order that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission.”

During the debate at last summer’s general assembly, participants defeated two motions to send the proposed revisions back to the Coordinating Council so members could consider restoring references to Christ and the Great Commission.

Almost immediately after the vote, some Southern Baptist Convention leaders criticized the action. They pointed out many moderate Baptists previously had critiqued the SBC for removing a reference in the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message” to Jesus Christ as the criterion for biblical interpretation. They also cited it as evidence of alleged liberalism and lack of commitment to evangelism within the CBF.

Ironically, the SBC’s constitution does not mention Jesus.

Managing Editor Ken Camp contributed to this story.