Southern Baptist of Texas pledge to continue cause one more year
by Marv Knox
–Associated Baptist Press

FORT WORTH-Southern Baptists of Texas will continue their quest to gain control of the Baptist General Convention of Texas at least one more year.

Meeting hours after their candidates for BGCT office were defeated by 2–1 margins Nov. 11, about 250–300 members of the group voted to continue their cause in Austin a year from now, rather than split immediately from the state convention.

The Southern Baptists of Texas organization exits to urge support for the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC, which was divided by controversy in the 1980s, now is controlled by its more conservative element, which has turned the convention sharply to the right.

Southern Baptists of Texas have said they want the Texas convention to march in step with the SBC. However, they consistently have lost votes for BGCT office and policy.

During their meeting at the end of the first day of the BGCT annual meeting, Southern Baptists of Texas spoke with ambivalence about whether to pursue their campaign to control the state convention through votes in upcoming years or to pull up their stakes and form a new convention.

Rick Scarborough, the group’s presidential candidate who lost to incumbent President Charles Wade, 2,308-4,583, reflected that ambivalence in remarks to the group.

After his defeat, the pastor of First Baptist Church, Pearland, said he asked himself, “What do I need this for?”

“I don’t call the Baptist Building for anything,” Scarborough said. “There are some fine men in the Baptist Building, but if that thing blew up tomorrow, it wouldn’t affect First Baptist, Pearland. You'd have to call us to tell us.”

However, the effort he headed is one of denominational reformation he said. “We’re not trying to take over the BGCT, we’re trying to set it free…

“This is a dying state denomination. The only hope for her… is to make a course correction. It may well be we should pull away and let her die.”

But Scarborough resisted leading that pullout movement. “We ought to start marching from here to Austin (site of the 1997 annual meeting) in an all-out effort to turn this thing back to God,” he said. Then he considered the alternative. “If it’s going to be any less than that, we ought to go back, rest two or three weeks and; start something new.”

Scarborough compared his group’s cause to the Old Testament story of the young Israelite David, who defeated the giant Goliath with a stone fired from a slingshot.

“David had five stones,” he said, “and we’ve only used one so far.”

The theme of battle was reflected in a statement from the crowd, made by Wes Massey, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Seguin.

“I’m willing to fight tooth and toenail to turn this thing around,” he said to the chorus of amens. “Just tell us what you want us to do.”

“I’m not optimistic,” noted Terry Fox, the group’s candidate for first vice president and pastor of Gardendale Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. “It’s going to take a great ministry of God to change this thing.” Fox urged the group to consider whether to continue their cause within the BGCT is worth their time and effort.

Bill Sutton, pastor of First Church in McAllen, said he believes Southern Baptists of Texas can gain control of the BGCT if they're willing to persevere.

He referred to the state convention’s strong support from alumni and friends of Baylor University and said: “I played (football) at Baylor. They can’t win in the fourth quarter.”

Sutton advocated cutting off financial support for the convention, contending churches’ contributions go fund “the bureaucracy” that formulates what he described as one-third of the messengers to BGCT annual meetings.

“You paid for one-third of the people togo to the meeting and vote against you,” Sutton claimed. “We need to have the guts to say, ‘We’re not going to pay for you to go down there and vote against us.’” They know one language—money.

“You’ve got to have the guts enough to cut off their money or forget it.”

Carol Yarber, wife of the group’s parttime director, Ronnie Yarber, urged continued pursuit of convention control.

“I think we can go to Austin and make the change,” she said. “We’ve got to decide. Is God’s word worth it? Are souls worth it?”

Southern Baptists of Texas President Miles Seaborn appealed for support to continue the campaign. “We need people. We need votes. We need to go back to your people and say, ‘if this means anything, you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is.’”

This year’s campaign cost between $40,000 and $50,000, said Seaborn, pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in For Worth.

Seaborn called for a vote on whether to challenge for convention control next year. The group voted in favor of the challenge by voice vote, with only one negative vote cast.

After the vote, Scarborough urged pastors present to save their money and buy a fax machine so they can maintain contact with the Southern Baptists of Texas organization.

He also appealed for them to put the group in their church budgets, implicitly affirming that they channel funds from the state’s Cooperative Program unified budget to do so.

And the group must go home and “network, network, network” to get out a larger vote next year, Scarborough said.

Article used by permission, Associated Baptist Press.

February 1997