ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
Although they feel alienated from the conservative-controlled Southern Baptist Convention, an association of the denomination's "moderate" churches apparently will not try to break away to form a separate convention.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, formed in 1991 in reaction to shifting control of the national convention, will conclude its annual meeting here today with a vote on a motion to break away from Southern Baptists.
If a meeting to discuss that idea Friday was any indication - and fellowship leaders think it was - it will be overwhelmingly rejected.
About 400 of the 3,750 registered members of this general assembly attended meetings to debate the question Friday afternoon, where speaker after speaker urged others not to force churches to choose between affiliation with the fellowship or the Southern Baptist Convention.
The fellowship is a loose association of 1,450 churches and 2,700 individuals - nearly all of whom continue to identify themselves as Southern Baptist and contribute money to both organizations. The fellowship hires and supports missionaries, supports the Baptist Theological Seminary here in Richmond, and offers some support to local churches in the form of ministerial stipends. Its budget this year will be about $12 million.
Almost since its founding, fellowship members have been debating just what their organization should be. A special study commission was formed a year ago to "raise our level of conversation and understanding" about whether the group should become a separate denomination.
Its report, released at this meeting, concluded that while fellowship members want to associate with each other, they are not ready to separate from the mother denomination.
"They want to belong to something," said task force Chairman Randall Lolley, but he said it will not be an organization in the old denominational mold.
In addition to having suspicions about the viability of a formal denomination, many fellowship members worry that their congregations - already wearied in a decade-and-a-half long battle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention - cannot withstand another internal clash.
A Tennessee layman said his church, where he is chairman of the board of deacons, would be torn apart by a fight over affiliation.
"We're getting ready to start a building program. It would be disastrous if we were to have to draw a line in the sand and fight it out now." He said his congregation includes a group of "hard-shell" supporters of both the Southern Baptist Convention and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, as well as a group in the middle.
"If we give it a little more time - two, three or five years - the convention will make it easier for us to solve this situation."
That philosophy was endorsed by a Baton Rouge, La., pastor who contended "confrontation now would be premature. A lot of people (even in churches that send money to the fellowship) are not involved."
Confrontation now "would shut us off from the great body of people who are gradually becoming disillusioned with the SBC and will be willing to listen to us in the future," he said.
Even some belonging to churches that have severed their ties to the Southern Baptist Convention expressed reluctance to force a showdown in churches that have not reached a similar decision on their own.
Other business scheduled for today's concluding session include alterations to the constitution and bylaws to allow the fellowship's coordinating council to alter the budget between general assembly sessions, and election of officers.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Members sing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" duringby CNBthe General Assembly's opening ceremony.