Boundaries of Cooperation: Differing Viewpoints

First in a series on Biblical Church Partnerships.

If you are a pastor, how do you decide what churches, denominations, or movements you will partner with?

This is a question that the Southern Baptist Convention has been grappling with recently: What churches should be considered to be in friendly cooperation with the convention? In more blunt terms, how do we decide who to kick out or refuse to let in? Where should the line be drawn, if a line is drawn at all? Or should the decision be left to whichever messengers show up at the annual meeting?

Generally speaking, there are two sides to this debate, although many nuanced positions exist within these two sides. The more restrictive side wants to use the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) to establish theological boundaries for cooperation. The less restrictive side wants to use a broader understanding of “a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith” as a guide for cooperation.

Below are summaries of linked articles that some leading thinkers in the SBC have written describing or promoting their viewpoints. This list will be updated as additional articles are published online.

• Concentric Circles of Cooperation in Southern Baptist Life (June 17, 2022) by Tony Wolfe, Associate Executive Director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC). Wolfe indicates that unlike the state convention he serves, which requires cooperating churches to affirm the BFM, the SBC only requires cooperating churches to closely identify with the BFM. He writes of the SBC, “All of the churches do not necessarily hold to every word of the faith statement, but all of their cooperative work is guided and guarded by that faith statement.” He also states that the SBC’s Credentials Committee, which brings recommendations to the messengers whether to disfellowship churches reported to it of being in violation of the parameters of SBC cooperation, has a constitutional duty “not to determine whether a church has violated one article or another, but whether that church, in its deviation, still has a faith and practice that is close enough to the faith statement to be considered in general alignment with the Convention’s doctrine and work.”

• Non-Contradition (not Subscription) Is the SBC’s Confessional Standard (June 21, 2022) by Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College. Burk takes issue with a key component of Wolfe’s article: the definition of “closely identifies with” as stated in the SBC Constitution. He contends that Wolfe’s position allows for churches to violate articles of the BFM, and that makes each year’s Credentials Committee apply a subjective standard that can change. Burk says that the SBC Constitution itself defines the term “closely identifies with” by giving an example of a church that endorses homosexual behavior, dismisses sexual abuse, or discriminates on the basis of ethnicity as being out of cooperation with the SBC. Therefore, the standard for cooperation in the SBC is that, although churches need not subscribe to the BFM, they must not contradict it in theology or practice. Burk adds that when the Credentials Committee receives a complaint about a church’s lack of cooperation with the SBC, it can and should give the church ample opportunity to correct its deviations.

• Convictional Cooperation and Confessional Commitments (June 27, 2022) by Adam Greenway, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Greenway writes, “Southern Baptists face a critical choice at this juncture in our history: do we want to spend endless energy finding new ways to divide ourselves by seeking to disfellowship every local congregation that does not march in lockstep with every jot and tittle of the Baptist Faith and Message, or will we channel our best efforts into bringing together every church whose faith and practice closely identifies with the BFM for the purpose of reaching our world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Greenway argues that if non-contradiction to the BFM is the standard, SBC churches that have women serving in associate staff roles with the title “pastor” will need to be expelled, as will churches that practice open communion. He suggests that the best course of action is to allow churches to remain in the SBC if they are “wrong” on secondary issues, while continuing to dismiss churches that are “sinful.”

• Update: Non-Contradition (not Subscription) Is the SBC’s Confessional Standard (June 27, 2022) by Denny Burk. After Greenway’s article was posted, Burk responded with an update to his own article (the update is on the same page but beneath his original article). Burk repeats what he said before, that “closely identifies with” is defined in the SBC Constitution itself as meaning “non-contradiction.” He adds that if we allow churches to contradict the BFM, almost any part of the BFM is violatable by churches wishing to remain in the SBC, including what we might consider to be primary doctrines (such as the deity or atonement of Christ). With regard to churches using the term or function of “pastor” loosely, they should adjust their behavior or terminology so as to not contradict the teaching of Scripture. Burk concludes, “The big tent must not be bigger than the BF&M. The BF&M is big enough.”

This Far and No Further

Minutiae Moment: On the Church Rescue Blog page, the featured picture for this article has Peter Falk’s Columbo holding a bottle of Full’s Irish Dew, a fictional Irish whiskey name that was a pun for “Fools I Arrest You.” In that 1978 episode, called “The Conspirators,” IRA supporter Joe Devlin etches a line in the bottle with his diamond ring and remarks, “This far and no further,” indicating how much of the whiskey he will limit himself to indulging. The scratch made by the particular diamond in his ring is the evidence that gives him away as the murderer, as a similar bottle with a similar scratch was found at the crime scene. As Columbo reveals to Devlin that he has been caught, he scratches the bottle with his finger and repeats Devlin’s line, “This far and no further;” only this time it has a double meaning: it is an indication to Peter Falk’s many fans that this would be the last episode of Columbo. Fortunately for us, however, Falk would return as Columbo a decade later on a different network.

The reason that I chose this image of Columbo as the preview picture for this article on the blog page is because there may come a time when each pastor and church must decide for themselves what the boundaries are for cooperating with other churches, denominations, and movements—saying, in essence, “This far and no further.”