National Religious Broadcasters name Criswell College leader as CEO. Criswell College President Jerry Johnson has been named president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, effective Nov. 1. The Washington-based NRB is an international association of Christian communicators whose organizations represent millions of viewers, listeners and readers worldwide via radio, television and the Internet. The NRB board unanimously elected Johnson to succeed Frank Wright, a Presbyterian who is stepping down after a decade at the organization’s helm. Johnson has served as president of Criswell College in Dallas since 2010 and from 2004 to 2008. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from the college in 1986. He earned a master’s degree in historical and theological studies from Denver Seminary and a doctorate in Christian ethics from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

ABP board approves merger. Associated Baptist Press directors voted Sept. 30 to merge with the Religious Herald, a Virginia Baptist newspaper published since 1828. Details of the merger plan, by mutual agreement marked confidential until acted upon by both governing boards, were discussed in executive session. Both organizations agreed in principle to combine operations in April. Vote by the Religious Herald trustees on the merger plan is scheduled Oct. 7. Associated Baptist Press was founded in 1990 as the nation’s first independent news service for Baptists. Since 2006 the Herald and ABP have shared content through New Voice Media, a partnership that also includes the Baptist Standard and Missouri’s Word & Way.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (ABP)—Cultural and theological diversity among Baptists worldwide is both a challenge and a strength, Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam told European Baptist leaders gathered in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Callam urged the council of the European Baptist Federation to endorse a Covenant on Intra-Baptist Relations adopted by the BWA General Council in July. The covenant, available in 22 languages on the BWA website, recognizes the diversity of language, culture, opinions and perspectives among the 228 member organizations in 121 countries that comprise the worldwide Baptist organization formed in 1905.

While global in scope from the start, in the early years BWA membership was composed of conventions and unions mostly from the Western world. That changed in the last century, when explosive expansion in Africa, Asia and Latin America shifted the locus of Christianity toward the Southern Hemisphere.

No ‘dominant group’

Baptists today should see themselves as “a family without a dominant group marked by a plethora of languages that does not lead to Babel” and in which “all cultural groups have an equal voice,” Callam said.

BWA General Secretary Neville CallamThe Covenant on Intra-Baptist Relations, drafted by a special commission, provides a framework for responding to growing diversity in BWA meetings and operations,

“This diversity includes various cultures, languages, customs, histories, racial identities, ways of expressing theological conviction and personal and communal encounters with Christ in different cultural contexts,” the covenant says. “By God’s grace, the BWA reflects, in a visible way, the rich diversity of the one body of Christ.”

At the same time, that diversity brings challenges, including the difficulty of achieving clear, precise and commonly understood communication across multiple languages.

“That challenge is enhanced when well-meaning individuals do not know or fully appreciate the biblical, cultural, historical or theological distinctives and sensibilities that inform the perspectives articulated by various members of the BWA family,” the document states.

Commitment to offer opinions

The covenant begins with a commitment to offer opinions and perspectives “in a spirit of humility and with the request for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our speaking and in our listening to others.”

No matter how passionate BWA members feel about a particular issue or position, it continues, conversation and dialogue “must always be focused on principles and not on individuals, cultures, regions, nations or denominational bodies.”

“As a world community of Baptist believers, we remain incomplete until we have vigorously sought to hear, understand and respect the diverse viewpoints reflected by others, especially those persons from cultures that have been marginalized through material poverty and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism,” the covenant says.

Open up cultural perspectives

“Therefore, we strive to avoid practices or conversations that perpetuate the dominance of one cultural perspective as providing the normative experience or theological perspective for all members of the BWA.”

The BWA pledges to identify and employ tools to communicate more effectively and seek to develop “lasting and meaningful relationships through thoughtful and prayerful conversations both within and outside of formal meetings.”

“When we believe an opinion or perspective is seriously flawed, we challenge each other as beloved family members rather than as strangers and enemies,” the covenant says. “Even the correction of perceived errors must be done in love.”

Callam acknowledged the significant role Europe has played in the BWA and suggested the European Baptist Federation consider ways to apply principles of the covenant in its own ongoing efforts to bring internal diversity into conversation with its commitment to unity.

More than 50 Baptist unions involved

Founded in 1949 to unite European Baptists emerging from the devastation of World War II, the European Baptist Federation today encompasses more than 50 Baptist unions representing 13,000 churches and 800,000 members stretching from Portugal to Russia. The federation represents nearly every country in Europe and Euro-Asia and also five unions in the Middle East. It is one of six regions that make up the Baptist World Alliance.

In recent decades, the federation has stressed evangelism and church planting through an Indigenous Mission Partnership that provides funding for suitably gifted people to work as evangelists and church planters in their own countries in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.

The organization also has taken up the cause of religious freedom in countries where Baptist and other religious minorities suffer discrimination, repressive religious laws, violence and imprisonment. It also deals with issues of human rights, like human trafficking, that affect Europe as a whole.

The European Baptist Federation also owns a major resource for theological education, the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic. Last year, federation leaders approved plans to move the seminary to Amsterdam to make it more cost-effective and focus more narrowly on doctoral studies rather than duplicating master’s-level studies being offered by national and regional Baptist seminaries that have arisen since the 1990s.

Blackaby heart surgery successful. Southern Baptist Bible author Henry Blackaby’s Sept. 24 quadruple bypass surgery “could not have gone better,” and his prospects for future ministry look good, according to a statement from his family. He had been living with arteries blocked 70 percent or more several years, the Blackaby Ministries International website reported. A Sept. 25 update on the website said he had been removed from the respirator and had been transferred from the intensive care unit to a regular hospital room. Blackaby, 78, suffered a heart attack while driving in Atlanta, becoming confused and traveling 29 hours before police found him Sept. 20 in Tifton, Ga., 150 miles southeast of his home. Blackaby is best known for the Experiencing God curriculum he wrote with Claude King. The discipleship resource, first published in 1990, has sold more than 7 million copies in 45 languages.

Historic New Orleans church calls woman pastor. St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans called as its 19th senior pastor Elizabeth Mangham Lott, associate pastor at Westover Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. Elizabeth Mangham LottFounded in 1898, St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church was instrumental in the development of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and other Southern Baptist institutions in New Orleans. The congregation voted to leave the Southern Baptist Convention in 2001 and now is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches USA. In 1971, St. Charles Avenue became the first Baptist church in Louisiana to ordain women as deacons. In 1980, it became the first Baptist church in the state to ordain a woman to the gospel ministry. A native of Mobile, Ala., Lott is a 2008 graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, earning the master of divinity degree. She has served in associate ministerial positions at Northminster Baptist Church in Richmond and at Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Ala. She earned her bachelor’s degree in congregational studies at Samford University. She is married and the mother of two.

N.C. ministers urge release of torture report. The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina joined other faith leaders in a letter from the North Carolina Council of Churches seeking the public release of a 6,000-page Senate intelligence report on U.S. torture of terrorism detainees after 9/11. The letter tells Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the use of torture is always wrong from a Christian perspective. In addition to Larry Hovis, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, other signers include Brooks Wicker of Raleigh, N.C., on behalf of the Alliance of Baptists, and Haywood Gray, executive secretary-treasurer of General Baptist State Convention of N.C. About 200 religious leaders from North Carolina added their names to the appeal, including Peter Carman, pastor of Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill; Christopher Harbin, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntersville; Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh; and Guy Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville. Signers also included several faculty members at Wake Forest University School of Divinity—Gail O’Day, Bill Leonard and James Dunn, former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

GLORIETA, N.M.—An Arkansas couple who own a house on leased land at Glorieta Conference Center have sued LifeWay Christian Resources and numerous other parties for more than $12 million, accusing the Southern Baptist publishing house of fraud.

Kirk and Suzie Tompkins of Little Rock, Ark., originally filed a complaint in U.S. District Court prior to the Sept. 10 closing date of LifeWay’s $1 sale of the conference center to Glorieta 2.0, a group directed by Anthony Scott, executive director of Camp Eagle in Southwest Texas, and chaired by Houston homebuilder David Weekley. The initial complaint asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order to block the transfer of property.

When the presiding judged denied in part the request for an injunction because it failed to indicate all parties named had been served summons, Tompkins said, he filed an amended complaint Sept. 18.

While the original court documents did not ask for monetary damages, the amended suit seeks $12 million for the leaseholders in general because LifeWay and Glorieta 2.0 “completely ignored” the first complaint, Tompkins said. The suit also requests $400,000 in damages specifically for Tompkins as the plaintiff.

The suit names as defendants a long list of officers and employees of the SBC Executive Committee, LifeWay and Glorieta 2.0.

‘No legal authority’

The lawsuit asserts LifeWay “has no legal authority to divest the SBC Glorieta Conference Center and any action completing such transaction is an act within laws governing ‘Statutes of Fraud.’”

The suit also alleges as recently as 2011, LifeWay encouraged some leaseholders to buy previously owned homes for more than $200,000 and led them to believe Glorieta could continue to be associated with the Southern Baptist Convention for another 50 years.

The legal complaint asserts the original 1950 warranty deed grants the conference center property to the SBC Executive Committee, and no other transfer of deed is on record.

Glorieta Baptist Assembly opened as Southern Baptists’ second national conference center in 1952. The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, which changed its name to LifeWay in 1998, operated Glorieta for six decades. For about 20 years, the conference center has reported financial difficulty.

LifeWay ‘violated charter’

The suit claims LifeWay violated the SBC charter when its trustees voted to transfer property to Glorieta 2.0, which the court documents characterize as “a non-Baptist, non-related group of businessmen operating for profit children’s camps not legally affiliated with SBC or LifeWay.”

Glorieta became SBC Executive Committee property when messengers to two consecutive SBC annual meetings voted to acquire the conference center, and the governing documents require Glorieta to “go out the same door it came in,” Tompkins said.

“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on this open legal process, except to say that we expect a favorable outcome and to reiterate that LifeWay had proper deeds to all of Glorieta, and Southern Baptist Convention approval was not required for the transaction,” said Marty King, director of corporate communications for LifeWay.

Augie Boto, executive vice president and general counsel for the SBC Executive Committee, declined to comment on the current lawsuit. However, in regard to the original complaint, he earlier emphasized that LifeWay, not the SBC Executive Committee, owns Glorieta.

“The only sale of property by an entity of the convention which would need convention approval—in one meeting—would be if the entity proposed to sell all or substantially all of its property. This sale does not rise to that level,” he said.

Glorieta 2.0 gave leaseholders three options regarding their houses:

• A one-time buyout for $30 per square foot, with a minimum $40,000 and maximum $100,000 payment, regardless of the appraised value.

• A new 12-year lease. At the end of the lease, the building would go to Glorieta 2.0 for no compensation.

• Donate the building to Glorieta 2.0.

In a widely disseminated email, Tompkins asserted documents filed with the court attest to “deceptive and intimidating practices of coercion from both LifeWay and Glorieta 2.0 in pushing homeowners to accept pennies on the dollar for their homes.”

Supporting documents submitted to the court describe other leaseholders who claim they were caught by surprise this year when LifeWay unloaded the 2,400-acre retreat center.

John Yarbrough, a retired Southern Baptist minister and one-time home missionary, said more than 10 years ago he responded to an appeal by LifeWay to invest in a “new” Glorieta by purchasing a $150,000 home in need of repair. If Glorieta were ever sold, he claims he was told, “I would receive a fair market value for my retirement investment.”

Yarbrough said he felt “suckered” in 2011, when LifeWay CFO Jerry Rhyne responded to a question about whether any LifeWay employees own homes at Glorieta by saying, “I would never have signed that lease.”

One couple, ages 76 and 72, said they had intended for the home they purchased eight years ago for $155,000 in cash to pass to their children after their deaths.

Another admitted to failure to subject the lease to close scrutiny by an attorney when they invested their life savings to buy their home in 2007, because they joined “other, wiser Christians … in believing that Glorieta would continue its 60-year history of recurring lease agreements.”

Both of them are now out of work, as their jobs were dissolved in a Glorieta downsizing and their duties turned over to summer interns and volunteers.

After the article orginally was posted, the last six paragraphs were added to include additional reporting by Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—After contradictory rulings in federal courts, the Hobby Lobby challenge to the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate is going to the Supreme Court.

The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to require Hobby Lobby to provide cost-free contraceptives as part of its employee insurance coverage over the religious objections of the Southern Baptist family who own the chain of more than 500 arts-and-craft stores across the United States.

In papers filed Sept. 19, the White House asked the high court to resolve contradictory rulings in federal courts about whether for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby are entitled to protection by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 law that says the government cannot “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” without a compelling interest and by the least restrictive means.

Catholic and Mennonite cases

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Roman Catholic-owned manufacturing company in Michigan cannot exercise religion because it is not a person. This summer, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also said a Lancaster County, Pa., cabinet-making company owned by a Mennonite family does not qualify for religious protection.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the opposite June 27, allowing the Hobby Lobby case to move forward because the plaintiffs have a likely chance to succeed.

Hobby Lobby is owned by Green family members who worship at Council Road Baptist Church in Bethany, Okla. Their lawsuit is one of about 60 cases challenging portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The Greens believe human life begins at conception, and therefore using certain forms of birth control—such as morning-after pills and intrauterine devices—are immoral. They object to “facilitating” their use by having to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives.

Benefits entitled by federal law

The Obama administration claims RFRA does not allow a for-profit corporation to deny its employees the benefits to which they are otherwise entitled by federal law.

“The United States government is taking the remarkable position that private individuals lose their religious freedom when they make a living,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead lawyer for Hobby Lobby.

“We’re confident that the Supreme Court will reject the government’s extreme position and hold that religious liberty is for everyone—including people who run a business.”

The same day the government asked the Supreme Court to decide, lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom asked the high court to strike down the contraceptive mandate. The Arizona-based ADF represents Conestoga Wood Specialties, owned by a practicing Mennonite family who desire to conduct business in a manner that reflects their sincerely held religious beliefs.

“All Americans, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said Senior Counsel David Cortman. “A major aspect of freedom is at stake. If the government can force the Hahns to violate their faith just to engage in their livelihood, then the government can do the same or worse to others.”

Henry Blackaby, the Southern Baptist author of several books on spiritual renewal including the Experiencing God curriculum, suffered a heart attack while driving near his Atlanta home, became disoriented and was missing 29 hours before police found him in Tifton, Ga., about 150 miles away.

“Doctors say he needs at least four bypass surgeries performed on his heart immediately. …His heart is not in good condition,” an update on the Blackaby Ministries International website said.

The website reported his surgery would likely be Tuesday but might be as early as Monday. It also reported Blackaby was “in good spirits, joking with staff.”

Blackaby, 78, disappeared Thursday afternoon, Sept 19, according to a Twitter post by his son, Richard, president of Blackaby Ministries International. He subsequently added a post to his Twitter feed noting his father’s credit card had been used within six miles of his Atlanta home.

At 8:14 p.m. Friday, Annie’s LInk—an email sent to former personnel of the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board or North American Mission Board—reported: “The Blackaby family would like everyone to know that Henry has been found and is safe. His health concerns are being addressed, and we will keep everyone posted with the news. We wish to express to everyone our appreciation and gratitude for the prayers.”

Earlier in the day, Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, had posted a prayer request on his website. In addition to asking for prayer for his safe return, Rainer asked readers to pray for strength for Blackaby’s wife, Marilyn, and their children and other family members.

Blackaby was on his way to pick up his wife Marilynn from an appointment when he suffered the heart attack, according a posting on the Blackaby International Ministries website.
“He did not have his cell phone with him nor insulin for his diabetes,” the statement said. “As a result, his blood sugar rose and his kidneys began to struggle as well. The family was able to track his movements as he used a credit card to make occasional purchases. The police assigned a detective group to monitor his movements and to track him down. Hundreds of volunteers, many from his church at First Baptist Church Jonesboro, Ga., drove all over the city looking for him.

Blackaby, a native of British Columbia, served as a pastor of churches in California and Canada and was president of Canadian Baptist Theological College seven years, as well as president of the Canadian Southern Baptist Conference.

At one point in his career, he served on staff at the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board while also serving as special assistant to the president of the International Mission Board and LifeWay Christian Resources.

GuideStone ready to battle mandate in court. GuideStone Financial Resources has renewed its vow to fight the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for contraceptives, looking to court action alongside efforts in Congress and before federal agencies. The mandate covers all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause early abortions. GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins told members of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee litigation is the latest front in GuideStone’s three-pronged fight to protect church health plans. GuideStone also has been working with a broad coalition of religious denominations on both the regulatory and legislative fronts.

Baptist heads farmworker ministry. Lindsay Comstock, an ordained Baptist minister and former human-trafficking specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, is the new executive director of the National Lindsay ComstockFarm Worker Ministry, a faith-based organization advocating justice and empowerment for an estimated 3 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the United States. Comstock, until recently minister of Christian education and youth at First Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass., succeeds Virginia Nesmith, who stepped down in 2012 after 15 years. Comstock’s first order of business is relocating the ministry’s office from St. Louis to Raleigh, N.C. Formed in 1920 as a service ministry to provide farmworkers with food, clothing and day care, the National Farm Worker Ministry shifted to advocacy in the 1960s when United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez called on the religious community to change its emphasis from charity to justice. Comstock holds degrees from Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C., and Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond. She served previously as associate pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., which ordained her to the gospel ministry in 2007. She served four years as a human-trafficking specialist in Southeast

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)—Pastors and scholars familiar with a new book about liturgical worship say its publication signals the practice’s spread in Baptist churches who see ancient Christian practices as inherently missional and able to lure younger generations to the faith.

Gathering Togther: Baptists at Work in Worship is a collection of essays with an index containing resources including creeds and procedures for employing sacraments.

“It represents an increasingly widespread Baptist recognition that our tradition by itself is not sufficient,” said Steve Harmon, an adjunct professor of Christian theology at the Gardner-Webb University divinity school and author of Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision.

Steve HarmonHarmon, who also endorsed the new book of essays and practices, said its release this month coincides with growing enthusiasm for liturgical practices among divinity students and reports of churches blending contemplative forms into existing worship styles.

“My sense is it’s slowly picking up steam instead of being in the same churches,” he said.

Harmon isn’t alone in his intuition. A number of other pastors and scholars, some of whom penned essays for the new book and some who didn’t, say the growing missional movement in American Christianity may be the catalyst for the spread of liturgical worship in Baptist churches.

Those experts also cite anecdotal and published reports that Millennials and other young people are gravitating toward high-church traditions, turned off by what they see as gimmicks and fads in hyper-contemporary worship.

And when it comes to Baptists, it may be catching on also because younger people aren’t hung up on the anti-creedal mentality that has dominated Baptist faith.

Rodney Kennedy“It attracts young people,” said Rodney Kennedy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, and co-editor of Gathering Together. “And that gives hope for the movement, because young people don’t have the same historical conscience of Baptists being anti-Catholic.”

Kennedy referenced his own experience with college students and also a 2013 essay by blogger and author Rachel Held Evans in which she describes what a turn-off modern worship can be.

“In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular,” Evans said in the CNN Religion blog posted in July.

“Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with ‘being cool,’ and we find that refreshingly authentic,” she said.

Amy ButlerLiturgy also makes church attractive because it fosters a sense of community, said Amy Butler, pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and author of Liturgical Ties of Community, one of the book’s 10 essays.

Reciting creeds and passages of Scripture, viewing and participating in communion as a sacrament and other ancient practices intentionally promote congregational unity, Butler said.

That sense of connectedness is magnified when participants remember that other congregations are following the same practices, she said.

“Liturgy connects us in a more global way to the larger confessing community.”

Butler said she finds many people are drawn into her church in search of a world and experience utterly different from the one outside.

“People are seeking something sacred and divine and ritualistic, and church is one of those places where they can find it,” she said.

Cameron JorgensonThat characteristic of ritual is what makes liturgical worship fundamentally missional in nature, said Cameron Jorgenson, professor of theology at Campbell University divinity school and author of the essay titled The Missional Heart of Liturgy.

The growing missional movement is driven by the idea that God is at work in the world and the church must discover that work and find ways to join in, Jorgenson said.

That God-first mentality is the spirit behind ancient worship, which functioned to offer praise and worship to the Creator, not to uplift participants or evangelize newcomers.

“It’s not about drawing a crowd, but giving God what God is due,” Jorgenson said.

All that said, American Baptist minister and blogger Tripp Hudgins said it’s way too early to declare that liturgical forms are taking hold across the Baptist world.

While Kennedy said he envisions a follow-up book that will function as Book of Common Prayer for Baptists, Hudgins said it will take more than that to get Americans on the same page liturgically.

Tripp Hudgins“You need a critical mass” for that to happen, said Hudgins, who is working on a doctorate in liturgics and musicology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and blogs at anglobaptist.org. Critical mass would likely include larger, flagship churches setting the example by adopting liturgical forms, he said.

But there are signs that such churches are increasingly inching that way with mid-week contemplative services, Taize programs and by blending liturgical elements—like reciting a Psalm together—into the Sunday morning lineup.

Plus, it’s increasingly common to find members of congregations to favor the practices even if they aren’t used in church. “There are a lot of us,” Hudgins said.

Kennedy said he believes Baptists will increasingly welcome liturgy as they are exposed to it. At his church, communion is offered weekly, and earlier this year even included wine as a neighboring Episcopal parish participated in worship.

“I have learned that … Baptist people will be receptive to it, but it just takes time,” he said.

Maryland/Delaware executive director elected. Will McRaney, a former Florida Baptist church planting and evangelism strategist and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary professor, was elected executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Will McRaneyThe convention’s general mission board voted unanimously Sept. 10 to call McRaney to fill the position vacated by David Lee, who retired from the Columbia, Md.-based convention July 31. Since 2011, McRaney has served as team strategist for Florida Baptists’ English-speaking church planting team in Jacksonville, Fla., after previously directing the convention’s evangelism strategy department. McRaney, 50, served previously at New Orleans Seminary, where he occupied the Max and Bonnie Thornhill Chair of Evangelism from 2001 to 2007 and the Cecil B. Day Chair of Church Planting from 1996 to 2000. McRaney was founding pastor of Life Church in Mandeville, La., 1997 to 1999; lead pastor at Daybreak Community Church in Littleton, Colo., 1992 to 1996; and pastor of Jackson Avenue Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Miss., 1987 to 1991. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University who earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from New Orleans Seminary. He and his wife, Sandy, have three children— Blakeney, Hadley and Macy.

BWA plans dialogue with Methodists. Representatives of the Baptist World Alliance and the World Methodist Council met recently in London to plan an international theological dialogue. The dialogue is planned for 2014-2018 and will explore the theme, “Faith Active in Love: Sung and Preached, Confessed and Remembered, Lived and Learned.” Participants in the planning meeting agreed on several goals for the dialogue—greater understanding of, and appreciation for, one another; mutual exchange of gifts for the enrichment and renewal of Baptist and Methodist churches; increased participation in a common mission and witness in the world; and deeper fellowship and cooperation by identifying and overcoming barriers.

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—In its efforts to engage and mobilize younger leaders and laypeople in ministry, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship needs a little help from its friends, CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter told the organization’s new Ministries Council.

Suzii Paynter gives her Executive Coordinator report Sept. 12.“I think one of the questions for everybody in this room is not what can we get from our churches, but how can we support them toward their healthy, vital and strong future,” Paynter said at the inaugural meeting of the new Ministries Council, formed last year in an organizational structure designed to guide the CBF the next 20 years.

Paynter, former director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, reminded leaders of state and regional CBF organizations, theology schools and other CBF partners that while they have their own missions and constituencies, they all share values and passions with about 1,900 churches that identify with the CBF.

“My request to you is to share our identification with the Fellowship,” Paynter said. “I hope you will not be afraid or ashamed to say you love and connect and care for this group, that you serve our churches, our students, that you serve along with us for a greater kingdom vision.”

While none of the partners’ main job is helping the Fellowship, Paynter said, it is in all their best interests for the CBF movement to flourish. She called on the broader Fellowship community to recognize, “We can be better by being together.”

Bo Prosser, coordinator of missional congregations for CBF.Bo Prosser, coordinator of missional congregations, said a new vocabulary is moving into CBF life, with verbs like “curating” instead of “creating” resources for CBF churches.

“The field is crowded with resources that have already been created,” he said. “A lot of us have some really good inventory.”

Prosser said other terms in the new CBF lexicon include “collaborate,” “co-create,” “co-brand” and “co-develop” that focus on relationship instead of ownership.

When the CBF formed out of a controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s, it was determined that rather than starting out as a full-service denomination, the new group would focus on central tasks like global missions and rely on free-standing partners to provide things like theological education, curriculum, youth ministry and an autonomous Baptist press.

“At the CBF, we have stated from the beginning that it is not our intention to own anything,” Prosser told ministry leaders. “Most people in the local church think we own all of you. I’m quick to say: ‘We don’t own them. We partner with them.’”

The 2012 Task Force that recommended the new CBF structure discovered over time, partners were branching out into areas of work in ways that created duplication of effort and competition for customers and resources.

The CBF Missions Council held inaugural meetings Sept. 9-10 in Decatur, Ga.The committee recommended decentralizing the former 69-member Coordinating Council into a smaller governing body for administration, a nominating committee, and two new councils to specialize and focus on ministries and missions within the CBF community.

Rather than a developer and provider of resources, the Ministries Council is set up to function as a clearinghouse of products and services already available and being developed through a myriad of sources, including CBF partners and churches.

“Status quo is no longer the default position for any of us,” Prosser said. “The Fellowship movement has given us a new mandate, and they have said very clearly through the 2012 Task Force: ‘Learn to work together. Learn to share resources.’”

The Sept. 9-10 inaugural meetings of both the Missions and Ministries councils were primarily listening sessions to flesh out general directives of the 2012 Task Force. Prosser thanked CBF partners for participating in meetings termed “tedious but necessary, like a root canal.”

Michael Cheuk, chairman of the CBF Ministries Council.Michael Cheuk, chairman of the Ministries Council and senior minister at University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., compared the rapid gathering of ideas to “drinking from a fire hydrant.”

“Hopefully we will able to collate them in such a way that we will be able to see themes that emerge,” Cheuk said. “That will allow us to prioritize, or at least identify, what is important to everybody.”

“I see what we’re doing now as laying the infrastructure—laying the groundwork—that will allow us to make forward progress.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—An Arkansas couple who own a house on land leased from Glorieta Conference Center filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking a temporary restraining order or injunction to prevent the transfer of property from LifeWay Christian Resources to Glorieta 2.0.

Kirk and Susie Tompkins of Little Rock, Ark., allege LifeWay lacks authority to dispose of the conference center without the approval of messengers at two consecutive annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention annual.

The legal complaint—filed Sept. 4 in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M.—asserts the original 1950 warranty deed grants the conference center property to the SBC Executive Committee, and no other transfer of deed is on record. The suit names as defendants a long list of officers and employees of the SBC Executive Committee, LifeWay and Glorieta 2.0.

Opened in 1952

Glorieta Baptist Assembly opened as Southern Baptists’ second national conference center in 1952 and has been operated since then by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, which changed its name to LifeWay in 1998.

The conference center reported financial difficulty for more than two decades, and LifeWay agreed to sell the property for $1 to Glorieta 2.0 in a deal scheduled to close this month.

The suit alleges LifeWay acted in violation of the SBC charter when its trustees voted to transfer property to Glorieta 2.0, which the court documents characterize as “a non-Baptist, non-related group of businessmen operating for profit children’s camps not legally affiliated with SBC or LifeWay.” Individuals involved in Glorieta 2.0 also operate Camp Eagle in Rocksprings, in Southwest Texas.

Leaseholders’ options

Glorieta 2.0 gave current leaseholders three options regarding their houses:

• A one-time buyout for $30 per square foot, with a minimum $40,000 and maximum $100,000 payment, regardless of the appraised value.

• A new 12-year lease. At the end of the lease, the building would go to Glorieta 2.0 for no compensation.

• Donate the building to Glorieta 2.0.

The legal complaint characterizes those options as unfair and unreasonable.

As of Sept. 5, LifeWay had not received notice of the suit from the court, said Marty King, director of corporate communications.

“However, we are confident Southern Baptist Convention approval is not required for the transaction,” King said. “LifeWay’s bylaws do require approval for such action by our SBC-elected board of trustees. LifeWay’s trustees approved disposition of the Glorieta property two years ago and sale to Glorieta 2.0 for a camping ministry later this year.

“We will review the court document when we receive it and respond to the court.”

Filing as individuals

The lawsuit includes as exhibits signed affidavits by several other leaseholder families who registered dissatisfaction with the actions of LifeWay and Glorieta 2.0. However, Tompkins emphasized he and his wife filed the legal action as individuals, and they are not seeking monetary damages.

“We don’t harbor any ill will. We just want truth and justice,” he said.

About 65 individuals and organizations own houses built on property leased from Glorieta.

Before filing the complaint, Tompkins sent an Aug. 17 enjoinment letter to leaders of the SBC Executive Committee, LifeWay Christian Resources and Glorieta 2.0 demanding the parties involved “cease and desist all actions involving any disposal of Glorieta Conference Center.” The letter gave notice of “appropriate lawful action” if all parties failed to confirm in writing by Aug. 31 they were halting the transfer of property.

Tompkins said he received an email from Augie Boto, general counsel and executive vice president for the SBC Executive Committee, but no further correspondence.

In his email to Tompkins, Boto wrote: “We presently see no legal basis for the proposition that Executive Committee or convention permission is required before LifeWay may dispose of the Glorieta property.”

In response to questions from the Baptist Standard, Boto underscored that LifeWay, not the SBC Executive Committee, owns Glorieta.

“The only sale of property by an entity of the Convention which would need Convention approval—in one meeting—would be if the entity proposed to sell all or substantially all of its property.  This sale does not rise to that level,” he said.

Boto added his belief that that the lawsuit is “without any legal merit, and that the court will concur.”

Editor’s Note: The article was edited and the last five paragraphs added at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, after the article originally was posted.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—A Baptist state newspaper editor has questioned whether the report of a Calvinism study committee implies some high-profile Southern Baptist leaders believe infants who die before reaching the “age of accountability” are destined for hell.

Gerald HarrisGerald Harris, editor of the Georgia Christian Index, voiced concern in an Aug. 22 editorial about a section of a June statement by a Calvinism Advisory Committee appointed by Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank Page. It cites disagreement about what happens to children who die before they are capable of moral action.

The report stated: “We agree that most Southern Baptists believe that those who die before they are capable of moral action go to heaven through the grace of God and the atonement of Christ, even as they differ as to why this is so.”

The statement troubled Harris so much, he asked the advisory team for further clarification: “What Southern Baptists are there who do not believe that those who die before they are capable of moral action go to heaven?”

“I have been a Southern Baptist for 62 years, and I have never met any Baptist in our convention who admitted to believing that children who die before they are capable of moral action go to hell,” Harris wrote. “Therefore, it would appear that the nebulous statement about the destiny of children would have to be influenced by a person or persons on the advisory team.”

Not satisfied by responses

Harris wasn’t totally satisfied by the responses he received. Some told him the statement didn’t necessarily reflect the views of any member of the advisory panel but simply acknowledged a wide range of viewpoints among rank-and-file Southern Baptists. Other members did not respond to his inquiry. Some who support Calvinism said they believe the Bible teaches all who die in infancy are among the elect.

But Harris said Eric Hankins, pastor of First Baptist Church of Oxford, Miss., who assisted in writing the document, indicated the wording of the section in question was crafted to accommodate some advisory team members who were not comfortable with the assertion that all children who die who are morally incapable go to heaven.

David Allen, dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, stated wholehearted agreement that all infants who die are safe in the arms of Jesus, and said, “To suggest otherwise represents an extreme position within a Calvinistic Baptist framework.”

Calvinists differ

“Calvinists outside the SBC have differed for centuries over whether all who die in infancy should be considered among the elect,” added Adam Harwood, associate professor of theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. “For some Calvinists, both the Bible and the Westminster Confession are unclear on the matter. But Southern Baptists, whether Calvinist or non-Calvinist, have been united on this issue—until now.”

Harris, a former pastor and Georgia Baptist Convention president who has edited the Christian Index since 2003, voiced skepticism before about the growing popularity of views labeled as Calvinism, the “doctrines of grace” and “young, restless and reformed” in the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics.

In 2012, he editorialized about a “presumable encroachment of Calvinism” he believes is more rigid than that held by Southern Baptist founders who were influenced by Princeton Theological Seminary in the mid-1800s.

“I am getting the distinct impression that many who embrace a reformed theology in the Southern Baptist Convention are beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the new kind of Calvinism very unlike the reformed theology of Charles Spurgeon, David Livingstone, William Carey, James Petigru Boyce, Carl F.H. Henry and Martyn Lloyd-Jones,” Harris wrote in his more recent editorial.

Conversion necessary for salvation

The Calvinism Advisory Committee report, titled “Truth, Trust and Testimony in a Time of Tension,” said Southern Baptists are united in belief that conversion of the sinner is necessary for salvation.

“We deny that salvation comes to anyone who has not experienced conversion,” the committee said. “We also deny that salvation comes to any sinner who does not will to believe and receive Christ.”

Article III of the Baptist Faith & Message, however, claims people become transgressors only “as soon as they are capable of moral action.” Historically, Baptists have turned to a doctrine called “the age of accountability,” which maintains personal soul competency before God presupposes a conscious choice and does not apply to infants or others incapable of coming to faith in Christ. 

Herschell Hobbs’ view

Herschel Hobbs, chairman of the committee that drafted a previous version of the Baptist Faith & Message in 1963, wrote in a 1979 article in Review and Expositor the result of the fall is that people inherit a “nature and an environment inclined toward sin” rather than imputed guilt.

“This, of course, agrees with the position generally held by Baptists concerning God’s grace in cases of those under the age of accountability and the mentally incompetent,” the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, who died in 1995, wrote in the article titled “Southern Baptists and Confessionalism: A Comparison of the Origins and Contents of the 1925 and 1963 Confessions.”

Meetings of the 19-member ad hoc task force—appointed to study the impact of recent seminary graduates who adhere to a “five-point” Calvinism at percentages far higher than the people in Southern Baptist pews—were closed to the press.