Pastors denied teaching posts over ties to Fellowship
By Lacy Thompson

(ABP) — Two Southern Baptist pastors have been disqualified as adjunct instructors for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary because of connections with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Jon Stubblefield, pastor of First Baptist Church of Shreveport, La., said he was approached in January about teaching Greek in the seminary’s Shreveport extension center. Later, he was told the course was being canceled for financial reasons.

When he offered to teach the course for free, he said, he was informed he was disqualified because he spoke at a state Fellowship meeting.

Stubblefield’s church also allows members to channel funds to the Atlanta-based Fellowship, a moderate organization offering alternatives to missions and ministries of the conservative-led Southern Baptist Convention.

In a letter to Stubblefield, New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley wrote: “Because the CBF has chosen to be very public and aggressive in presenting itself as an alternative to the SBC and its ministries, and because the CBF is basing its growth and fund-raising strategies on diverting SBC churches from the support of the SBC and its ministries, we cannot in good conscience use Cooperative Program [the SBC’s unified budget] funds for teachers who are actively and publicly supporting the CBF.”

Stubblefield acknowledged leading a session on Baptist distinctives at a state chapter of the Fellowship. He said he was asked to do so by a church member.

The church’s associate pastor is head of the Louisiana chapter of the Fellowship and as many as 40 percent of church members opt to have portions of their church offerings channeled to the Fellowship.

“While this is true, the majority believe in and give generously to the Cooperative Program,” Stubblefield said. “Our church gave $65,000 to the Lottie Moon Offering last year, and we just completed our Annie Armstrong offering in the amount of $20,000. Our church historically and currently is solidly anchored in the (SBC).”

Stubblefield said the seminary’s policy will only drive persons with Fellowship sympathies away from the SBC “and will cause those who have wholeheartedly supported SBC work to question the continuing efforts of our current convention leadership to exclude all who do not agree with them.”

A similar thing happened to Philip Wise, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dothan, Ala., who said he was “talked into” teaching a two-term course at the seminary in an Alabama center by administrators who assured him “politics” were not a factor in selecting faculty for off-campus courses.

Near the end of the first term, Wise said he was told he would not be used in the second term because of his “connection” to the Fellowship.

Wise termed the action as a breach of commitment and vowed never to make himself vulnerable “to this kind of unchristian treatment from my alma mater and its leaders.” He said he has received no response to his letter.

When contacted by the Louisiana Baptist Message, both Kelley and Assistant Provost Jimmy Dukes said the seminary has a policy of not addressing personnel decisions publicly.

However, Dukes said the Greek class would be offered in Shreveport this fall and the policy about use of Fellowship-related persons was not a new one for the school.

Kelley said he has not consulted with other seminary leaders but that he would imagine they are taking similar stances.

Kelley said the policy not to use persons related to the Fellowship is not written “but it is something I think our [trustees] feel pretty strongly about.”

Kelley said seminary leaders have not defined what level of Fellowship support would disqualify a person under the policy. But he said he does not consider a church that simply has members who support the Fellowship to be an active Fellowship church.

“Our church has never taken a stand for CBF,” he said. “We consider ourselves mainline Southern Baptist. We support the Cooperative Program. We give generously to the mission offerings. In effect, this decision penalizes the majority of First Baptist Church of Shreveport, who support the Cooperative Program by automatically stereotyping this church as a CBF church.”

Stubblefield called the policy a “tightening of the screws” by SBC leaders. “I think it’s an effort to continue to exclude within the denomination.

October 1997