Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber is featured in the September issue of the Illinois Baptist. An hour-long interview focused on several key issues, including how “friendly cooperation” will define a church’s qualification as a member of the SBC. In part one posted last week, editor Eric Reed asked Barber about recent convention actions on the role of women in pastoral life. Messengers overwhelming approved a constitutional amendment limiting the pastoral role to men. A second vote will be required in Indianapolis in June 2024. Here is an excerpt:
Could you see the possibility that a second vote on the Law amendment in Indianapolis might fail, resulting in time for a more thoughtful process going forward?
I think we’re going to have the conversation no matter what happens. The passage of that amendment does not remove a single church from friendly cooperation with the SBC. It does provide the basis for people who wish to do so to report churches to the Credentials Committee. But then the Credentials Committee has to take action. Then it goes to the Executive Committee….The Credentials Committee is going to have conversation about it. The Executive Committee is going to have a conversation about it. So we’re going to be having this conversation for several years, I think, whatever the outcome of the amendment is.
Five former presidents stood when the motion was made for you to appoint a study group about defining “friendly cooperation.” Do you think they were right in their evident concern?
I am concerned about the way that we’re defining friendly cooperation. I think that with increasing frequency, we’re adding items to Article 3 to create more and more clearly defined rigid bases for excluding churches from Southern Baptist Convention’s cooperation. And I think that that’s really bad for the health of the convention.
My ambition for this task force is beyond that, really. It’s beyond cleaning up Article 3. It’s beyond cleaning up Bylaw 8. The fact of the matter is we have ongoing concern about the future of the Cooperative Program.
How you see the CP related to that?
We’re on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program. I have heard from people wondering whether we have to plan for a future of the SBC that outlives the role the Cooperative Program has had up to this point. I’m resolved to say that the Cooperative Program may die, but I’m going to die first.
I want to rally Southern Baptists around a vision for cooperation that we had in 1925 that’s still good in 2025. If there are ways that we need to tweak our governing documents or to figure out a pathway forward to have that same idea, then I want our task force to do it. But the primary thing that I want us to accomplish—I want to get our hearts and our spirit back into the idea of cooperating with one another, to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, starting here at home and going to every corner of the globe.
What you’re talking about is more than a name change or a campaign.
I tell you, I heard people 15-20 years ago say, well, that name is an old name. The youngsters don’t like the word program. And cooperative is an old word too. But I tell you, more than ever, I think the name is perfect. I think it says what it is. I think we need to bring people to the idea that we value cooperation more than we value individuality, that we value cooperation so much that we’re comfortable saying I’m going to take my money and I’m going to give it to our plan.
Some churches especially in larger Southern states have escrowed their CP giving, or have given directly to particular SBC entities instead. How do we address that?
More and more people are trying to use that as a lever to move the Convention. They’re trying to use that as a lever to say, this is my protest, this is how I’m going to make things different. The Cooperative Program ceases to be a political manipulation tool if you have fair votes at the meetings. Because the church down the street from yours is probably not going to change what they’re doing just because you did something about your Cooperative Program funding.
As God gives me strength to do so, I’m going to moderate the meeting in such a way that everybody gets a fair bite at the apple. I want everybody who’s there to leave with confidence that they’re fairly included in this process, even if they lose on one thing that they would like to change. They can go home and say most of our sister churches just don’t agree with me about this, but we still ought to support what we’re doing cooperatively within the SBC. We still ought to be giving through the Cooperative Program.
Coming in Part Three: How a pastor-rancher uses social media.
The full interview is featured in the September issue of the Illinois Baptist.