wants to know - First Baptist Church of Springfield, VA

Transcription

What every
Virginia Baptist
wants to know
table of contents
page 3
page 31
page 47
To order additional copies of this publication,
free of charge, contact:
Eddie Stratton, Treasurer,
Virginia Baptist Mission Board;
phones: 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428) or 804.915.5000, Ext. 1270;
email: eddie.stratton@vbmb.org;
fax: 804.672.7048;
or postal mail: VBMB, 2828 Emerywood Parkway, Richmond, VA 23294.
This publication may also be found on the VBMB’s website at www.vbmb.org.
What Every Virginia Baptist Wants to Know
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On These Truths We Stand
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................5
The Centrality of Christ...................................................................................................... 6
The Priesthood of All Believers......................................................................................... 8
Autonomy of the Local Church.........................................................................................10
Freedom of Religion........................................................................................................... 12
The Word is Alive!................................................................................................................14
Baptists, A Non-Creedal People........................................................................................16
Voluntary Connectionalism..............................................................................................18
Separation of Church and State...................................................................................... 20
Theological Education.......................................................................................................23
The People of God................................................................................................................25
Freedom and Cooperation.................................................................................................27
Suggestions for the study of On These Truths We Stand.......................................... 29
Scripture references are from the New International Version.
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Introduction
This booklet, On These Truths We Stand, has been a popular source of information and study for Virginia Baptists
and many throughout the country and around the world. The Virginia Baptist Mission Board has reprinted
this booklet because of its high demand and because of the poignancy with which it responds to our current
context. There is still much need to address what it means to be a Baptist and in particular a Virginia Baptist. This
booklet brings clarity to the issues as well as the challenge to remain faithful and true to the heritage that is ours
to sustain.
In 1989, the Committee on Denominational Crisis of the Baptist General Association of Virginia prepared a series
of articles, On These Truths We Stand. The series of eleven articles appeared in the Religious Herald each week,
May 11 through August 24, 1989. This booklet is a reprint of those articles.
You will find that in this booklet our distinct Baptist truths are well stated. The topics are well selected and
presented with the biblical foundation upon which Virginia Baptists stand and upon which our churches have been
built and upon which we do our missions causes.
I would like to encourage every church in Virginia Baptist life to schedule study groups to dig deeper into these
precious beliefs. Let us not be confused and robbed of a blessed heritage nor have our resolve diminished but
remain steadfast to these eternal truths that have bound us together as Baptists.
It is out of popular demand that this booklet has been reprinted. Throughout the Commonwealth, may there be a
renewed interest by pastors and church leaders to return to the pages of the Holy Bible and lift up once again our
common call in Virginia Baptist life to “advance the Redeemer’s Kingdom” while honoring the autonomy of the
local church. We have also included a suggested study guide for use by your church.
Yours in Christ,
John Upton, Executive Director
Virginia Baptist Mission Board of the
Baptist General Association of Virginia
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The Centrality of Christ
What is the central doctrine of our Christian faith? There is only one answer! Our faith is built upon nothing less
than Jesus Christ. “Jesus is Lord” has long been regarded as the most basic Christian statement of faith. This is
the most cherished and historical foundation of our Baptist heritage.
Hebrews 1:2-3 asserts that God “has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through
whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being
sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
Philippians 2:11 declares that God looks to a day when “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”
Some denominations are confused on this issue. To some groups, it is the authority of the Church and its infallibility
as the true interpreter of God’s will. To others the central doctrine is inerrancy of the scriptures and their authority
over Christian thought and conduct. To still others, it is the freedom of human will coupled with the capacity of
the human mind to discover God’s mind.
The New Testament is clear and unmistakable on this matter. Our primary source of guidance and unity is in Jesus
Himself and in Him alone. “Jesus is Lord” was the favorite confessional claim of early Christians.
Christ’s Lordship grew out of their awareness of resurrection and exaltation. In Philippians 2:9-11, the confession
that “Jesus Christ is Lord” assumes that “God exalted Him to the highest place.” On this same basis, Peter could
say in Acts 2:36, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
This meant to early Christians that God had vested in Jesus the ruling authority which is properly God’s, so that
all people owe Him absolute obedience. In fact, thousands of Christians lived before there was a written word of
New Testament scriptures. There were countless disciples of Jesus long before the Church was ever considered a
channel of divine revelation. And, if human reason and man’s “free will” were sufficient for redemption, then the
incarnation of God in Christ was not necessary.
It is vital that we study the scriptures, for, as Jesus said, “they are they which testify of me.” The Bible was not
given to divide us, but to point us to Christ.
The Baptist Faith and Message clearly states that “the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus
Christ.” Our main task, then, is not to proclaim the infallibility of our Church, our written sources or our human
capabilities. It is to tell the “good news” about what Christ has done for the world and what He has done in us
personally.
Throughout history, there have been those who have sought to alter our Christ-centered faith and take Jesus out
of His primary place in our witness.
To try to replace the centrality of Christ with anything else is to twist and alter the intentions of our Lord and, in
a word, is heresy!
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In the book of Acts, churches resulted from everyday disciples giving a personal witness of Christ in their lives.
They did not debate the infallibility of Peter, or the words of Jesus, or even the evolution of the human mind.
They talked positively of God in Christ and Christ in them. World history was transformed in one century because
Christ was central in the lives and teachings of the early disciples.
Can Southern Baptists be united by this most fundamental tenet of our beliefs—the centrality of Christ? The
answer: Yes! Throughout our history, this conviction has ordered the faith and practice of our churches. It has
given unity to the doctrine of our churches. It has been our motive and guidance for evangelism and world
missions concern. The centrality of Christ is the basis and reason for our unity.
Indeed, we may differ on many details and the latitude of our diversity. But on one thing we have always been at
one—the deity, humanity and saving power of Jesus.
When the focus is upon the person of Jesus, even the “sons of thunder” are brought into a oneness of experience and
purpose. When we give ourselves wholly to the witness and exaltation of Christ, other semantic and interpretive
differences are placed in proper perspective and do not overshadow the very foundations of our faith.
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The Priesthood of All Believers
The centrality of Christ must be given greater primacy in the remaining years of the twentieth century if
Baptists are to do what Our Lord calls us to do in the kingdom of God on earth. As life grows ever more complex,
one supreme simplicity will suffice: “Jesus is Lord.”
From our earliest history, Virginia Baptists have believed and have been committed to the biblical doctrine of “the
priesthood of the believer.” It is basic to our Baptist faith and practice. It is a cherished Baptist distinctive and one
Baptists take very seriously.
Perhaps one of the key Bible passages for the priesthood of all believers comes from Exodus 19:4-6. This is the
account of the establishment of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel.
God called His people to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The people of God responded to that call
and answered affirmatively that they would be priests.
First-century Christians applied Exodus 19 to themselves. In I Peter 2:9 these Christians were reminded, “...you
are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises
of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Therefore, because of New Testament guidance, by the term “priesthood of believers” Baptists have meant that a
believer is once and for all saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:5-10) and has free access to God the Father
through the one and only High Priest, Jesus Christ our Savior (Hebrews 9:11-28).
Guided by this principle of “individual competency under God in all matters of religion,” Baptists have opposed
any distinction between the clergy and laity. In addition, Baptists have refrained from excessive ritualism and
sacramentalism for the same reason. And finally, they have refrained from using creedal statements to enforce
doctrinal conformity, preferring to rely upon the competency of a regenerate believer to interpret the scriptures
rightly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In short, the biblically centered doctrine of the priesthood of the believer affirms: (1) every person has the privilege
of approaching God for himself or herself without the need for any human intermediary, and (2) every person has
equal access to the Bible. This access gives every person the right of interpretation led by the Holy Spirit. And
therefore, no authority can force or presume to compel submission to his or her interpretation or belief by another
believer.
Throughout history, there have been those who have sought to undermine this biblical doctrine and replace God’s
authority with human authority. It is not a new phenomenon that such a basic doctrine as the “priesthood of the
believer” is under attack, as it seems to be today within our Baptist fellowship.
We can be proud that Baptists were part of those early reformers who demanded that the church be open and
that the laity have opportunity for service and ministry. Baptists were on the cutting edge of holding to and
reestablishing this basic belief of Christian freedom.
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Growing out of the priesthood of the believer doctrine is the matter of individual responsibility. Freedom always
brings responsibility.
We are not free to interpret scripture based upon our own wild tangents or preconceived ideas. A proper
understanding of the priesthood of all believers demands that believers interpret the Bible in the context of the
body of fellowship to which they are related and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
This freedom also demands that every believer exercise the truth of scripture, that every person is free and able
to approach God for themselves and that accessibility to our Savior is unlimited. Every person has the right of
access to God.
Indeed, the priesthood of the believer doctrine is not license to be anything, to say anything, or to do anything.
It is the essence of being responsible to God and to God alone.
To pass a resolution at a Southern Baptist Convention attempting to alter this fundamental truth is a departure
from what we as Baptists believe to be a matter that our Lord has already determined. It is our responsibility to
affirm and practice this doctrine. Such truths are not subject to a majority vote.
Virginia Baptists cherish the biblical doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. It is a truth on which we stand.
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Autonomy of the Local Church
What does “autonomy of the local church” mean?
It depends upon who is asking the question. To an uninformed person the answer might be, “That means a church
is independent.” By “independent,” they may mean refusing to be related to other church bodies, or freedom to do
as they please, or taking orders from no one.
Perhaps a more thoughtful answer might be, “It means a church is independent, democratic and interdependent.”
Webster defines autonomy as having self-government or functioning independently without control by others.
True, Baptist churches practice self-government. But the second definition, “functioning independently without
control by others,” calls for a second look.
A local Baptist church is under the control of no human person or persons. It is under the absolute control of
the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it follows that Baptist autonomy is not license for a church to do as it
pleases. Just as personal freedom needs always to be coupled with personal responsibility, church freedom finds
its counterpart in church responsibility.
Church responsibility includes as least two important elements: first, the church’s responsibility is to Jesus Christ,
its founder and head; and second, the church’s relationship to and/or cooperation with other believers and bodies
of believers. This second element is addressed in Voluntary Connectionalism, pages 16-17.
Baptists’ stress on autonomy and cooperation is documented in a pamphlet published by The Historical Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention, Autonomy and Cooperation by H. Leon McBeth.
He writes, “They do not want to lose or compromise either of these important principles. Fortunately, Baptists
need not give up either, for freedom and cooperation do not compete. Instead, they compliment each other. Baptist
churches are both independent and interdependent.”
Baptists hold to these principles for individual believers as well as for churches. Autonomy of the local church
has its roots in the basic belief that the church is a community of autonomous individuals under the Lordship of
Christ, held together by a common faith.
Our Lord relates to believers through his revealed word and through his Spirit. Believers have direct and free
access to Him. Our relationship with our Lord is personal and individual. The Lordship of Christ is basic to
Baptists. As the scripture clearly states in Matthew 28:18, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and again in Revelation 19:16, “On His robe and on His thigh He has
this name written: KINGS OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Our Lord invites every individual to choose to come under the Lordship of Christ. Perhaps the most familiar New
Testament passage of this invitation is John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
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Therefore, the first and finest expression of Christ’s Lordship over the individual believer is in the gift of autonomy.
This is a paradox: the Lordship of Christ and the autonomy of the believers. The paradox is resolved in that the
individual believer chooses to come under the Lordship of Christ.
In short, Baptists follow this New Testament pattern voluntarily choosing to cooperate with likeminded bodies,
while still recognizing Christ as sole authority to the individual and for the local church. Any study of a Baptist
church’s autonomy must recognize that freedom of self-government does not preclude freedom to choose to
cooperate.
New Testament churches chose to cooperate and believed that cooperation did not take away their freedom, but
instead was an exercise of freedom. Following the New Testament example, groups of churches in England chose
to work together, believing that in doing so they did not yield their freedom.
The London Confession of Faith of 1644 set out what Baptists call “the autonomy of the local church.” The
English Baptist pattern for associations influenced the formation of the Philadelphia Association in 1707. The
fourth association to be formed in America was Ketockton in Virginia during 1766. Early on, some churches
chose to remain “unassociated” until convinced that associating would not compromise their autonomy. Virginia
Baptists have favored the associational approach which keeps the common tasks church centered.
The autonomy of the local church is a bright thread in the warp and woof depicting Baptists historically and is
a truth on which Virginia Baptists stand today.
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Freedom of Religion
Religious freedom is at the center of the Baptist way. This great principle is the crown jewel of the Baptists.
Derived from our reading of the Bible, it is imprinted on the Baptist memory by hard experience. Religious
freedom rests upon an essential insight into the nature of human beings and their relationship to God.
Whether it be the witness of Martin Luther before the parliament of the German states, the ringing cry of Patrick
Henry on the eve of the American Revolution, or the peaceful protest of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square,
the thirst for freedom is common to all people. And the most essential freedom of all the freedoms is freedom
of religion.
The Baptist way, quite literally, is anchored upon the principle of religious freedom. Baptists find religious
freedom written into the witness of scripture: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”
(Matthew 22:21).
First-century Christians were ordered by religious authorities to refrain from teaching about Jesus. They replied
they must obey God and not men in these matters. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1),
says Apostle Paul. And John wrote, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
The centrality of religious freedom derives, for Baptists, not only from their reading of scripture, but also from
the hard lessons of their own history.
The first Baptists emerged in lands with established churches and began as dissenters from the standing orders.
Fined, jailed and whipped for non-conformity to religious practices in which they would not consent, and taxed
to support churches they did not frequent, they learned a valuable lesson. That lesson was that conscience and
compulsion do not mix.
As Roger Williams was to explain, the two things that external force could produce in matters of conscience or
religion were martyrs and hypocrites, but not saving faith or sincere Christian conviction.
Central to the principle of religious freedom is the understanding that responsibility rests upon freedom of choice.
Where a person is not given freedom to choose deliberately and freely without compulsion, one cannot rightly be
held to be morally responsible for the choices made under duress.
Thus, for Baptists, religious freedom, however precious, is not so much an end in itself, but the necessary condition
in religious matters for valid commitments and decisions.
The doctrine of religious freedom takes for granted that there is a side or aspect of every person— inward, private,
and sacred. Words like soul, spirit, conscience and heart are used to refer to this innermost core of a person. It is
that part of each person which must be protected against violation by any kind of external compulsion.
Likewise, there are beliefs, convictions and actions that are the expression of the spiritual faculties of a person.
Moral judgment, the discrimination between right and wrong, the sense of the holy, the consecration or surrender
of the self, and the attempt to respond to or worship God are all examples of religious functions.
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In addition to the belief that there is a religious or spiritual dimension of thought and action within human life that
can be marked off and protected from the violation of external constraint, there is one other basic element in the
Christian doctrine of religious freedom.
That basic element is the unique nature of divine revelation in Christian thought. Christians believe in a special
revelation of God in historical events and encounters. Recorded in divinely inspired scripture, the living Word of
God is mediated to persons through the interpretation of the Holy Spirit.
Each person must experience this illumination individually and inwardly. Such an inner and personal experience
does not yield itself to the manipulation or to the commands of other persons. Each must meet God individually,
in an inward, spiritual encounter. Thus the unique nature of Christian experience with God rules out compulsion
or constraint.
If God speaks, as Baptists believe, through the Bible, to the soul, through the Spirit, then each person has an
inescapable duty to stand alone before scripture to learn, interpret, and respond in word and deed. Each believer
must not shirk this duty or leave it to another.
Since no one can understand, interpret, or obey the Word of God for another, it is wrong and harmful to pressure, to
impose or to otherwise bully others into conformity to a prescribed creed, experience or understanding. Therefore,
it is wrong for another person to assume the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is designated as interpreter and counselor for the true source of Christian conviction. Enforced
uniformity in religious thought or practice is an act of distrust toward the Holy Spirit.
Baptist thinkers have always recognized that the essential rights of others cannot be violated in the name of one’s own
conscience or religious convictions. The rights of my conscience end where another person’s body, goods or basic
rights begin.
Religious freedom is not confined to belief in sound doctrine or the practice of “true faith.” Religious freedom
protects the thought and actions of those whose beliefs and practices do not conform to some prescribed standard
of orthodoxy or practice—so long as such external acts do not violate the rights or safety of other people. Religious
freedom is also the freedom to choose not to believe and not to practice religion.
Upon close examination, virtually every “Baptist distinctive” is an expression of the basic commitment to
religious freedom:
1. Believer’s baptism rests upon the necessity, first, of each person to make a deliberate, conscious and
willful decision for Christ prior to receiving baptism and becoming a member of the church. A forced
decision is not the exercise of faith.
2. Priesthood of the believer is the expression of religious freedom over against the infringement of other
believers within the church herself.
3. A free church in a free state (separation of Church and State): Freedom of religion requires that the
government grant religious liberty and guarantee freedom of conscience by a proper separation of the
powers and functions of Church and State.
4. Local church autonomy simply extends the principle of religious freedom to the larger group of
Christians which makes up a local church.
These are truths on which we stand!
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The Word is Alive!
“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;
it judges thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare
before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
— Hebrews 4:12, 13
When the 1988 Baptist General Association of Virginia adopted the Report of the President’s Task Force on the
Denominational Crisis, the messengers affirmed “the sovereign authority of the Bible in matters of faith and
practice.” That action was another in a long and historic series of strong declarations by Virginia Baptists about
our complete confidence in and our absolute commitment to the inspired, written Word of God.
Foundational to all Baptist teaching is that the Bible is the supreme norm for faith and practice for the Christian
life. The New Testament is clear that this principle was basic to the early church. The reading of the scriptures
in the synagogues was a Jewish practice. Young converts to Christianity made the Old Testament and the new
apostolic writings, as were in circulation, objects of careful study.
Luke encouraged Jewish converts in this practice when he wrote, “They received the message with great eagerness
and examined the scriptures every day...” (Acts 17:11). The apostle Paul urged young Timothy to understand that
“All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Baptists, as a community of faith, have stood and continue to stand as “a people of the Book.” The Bible—God’s
written Word for us—has a ministry that opens our hearts and enables the Spirit to bring us to faith in the Living
Word, Jesus Christ, God’s unique Son and our only Savior.
The Bible is nourishment for life in all its fullness. The Bible is where God speaks to us in the here and now. The
Bible is not so much a book about God as it is a book in which God reveals Himself in the experiences of men and
women and nations so that the Book becomes the Truth of God for us. Its truth is food for our individual souls and
nurture for the Body of Christ, the church.
The Bible is best understood in the context of the redeemed people of God, the church. The Bible supports
the main purposes for which the church exists: To glorify God by winning the lost and developing (discipling/
disciplining) the saved. Bible study is a major way of achieving these purposes. Therefore, Bible reading and
study, by individuals, families, groups, are essential.
The Bible is “known and knowable.” The Holy Spirit uses the Bible to direct and guide persons. The Bible is often
the direct means of conversion. Growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ comes as the Bible
is read, understood and applied with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
As Virginia Baptists, we should not be afraid of truth from any source. We should not fear new light being brought
to the Bible. On the other hand, we should be afraid when the Bible is neglected, disobeyed and wrongly used.
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Throughout our history, there has been much agreement about the Bible’s divine origin and role. A variety of
interpretation theories have emerged over time; but Baptists, for the most part, have avoided extreme positions
of interpretation. This has enabled them to focus upon the major tasks of evangelism and missions. Baptists
have stressed that the Bible is divinely inspired, but most do not insist upon a single theory on interpretation.
Historically, Baptists have been cautious about allowing any human theory of interpretation to assume the Holy
Spirit’s role in interpreting Scripture directly with each believer.
The 1963 statement of the Baptist Faith and Message affirms this conviction: “The Holy Bible was written
by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man.... It has God for its author,
salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.... The criterion by which the Bible is
to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.”
Virginia Baptists—indeed all Baptists—must recover and enlarge our authentic Baptist distinctive of the sovereign
authority of the Bible. We cannot—we must not—claim for the Bible what the Bible does not claim for itself. We
must not surrender the Lordship of Christ.
We must be aware that it is wrong to worship the Bible rather than the God of the Bible. We must reject those who
neglect both God’s salvation and God’s judgment. We must not become captives of our culture.
We cannot condone the substitution of a proposition about the Bible, however true it might be, for the Bible itself.
We must resist the misuse of the Bible to support personal aims, such as a secular political agenda, even if those
views may be worthy.
We must present “the Whole Gospel to the Whole World!” To that end, Virginia Baptists will continue to uphold
the sovereign authority of the Bible. Our churches and our people will search its pages and discover all over again
its truth and power. They will be disciplined by its message.
They will proclaim God’s Word as the unerring pointer to the One ... “who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth” (John 1:14), was crucified (Luke 23:33), suffered (Luke 24:26), died (Romans 5:8), and was buried
(Luke 23:53). On the third day, He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures (Luke 24:46, Acts 10:40). He
ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9) and is seated at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 12:2). He will come again
in glory (II Thessalonians 1:10) to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42), and his kingdom will have no end
(Luke 1:33).
The Word of God is alive! It is a truth on which we stand.
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Baptists, A Non-Creedal People
Baptists reject creeds, but they have written many confessions of faith. Historically, Baptists have made a clear
distinction between a creed and a confession of faith. The distinction is that a confession of faith is a summary of
Christian doctrine believed at a particular time by those who are willing to subscribe to it. It may pass into disuse
and be forgotten, or, if remembered, be regarded as little more than a historical relic. It may be superseded by
another confession of faith.
A confession of faith, whenever it was written, was never imposed upon believers as a test of orthodoxy. It was a
statement of what a person or persons believed, rather than what they must believe.
A creed, on the other hand, is a binding summary to which legal status is assigned and to which conformity is
required on the part of an individual within an organization. Creeds are regarded as permanently binding and can
only be altered officially by those at the top of the organization, which is a very difficult and painful process.
Baptists are a confessional people, not a creedal people. And they have not taken this distinction lightly.
The introduction to the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message affirms, “Baptists are a people who profess a living faith.
This faith is grounded in Jesus Christ who is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever.’ Therefore, the sole
authority for faith and practice among Baptists is Jesus Christ whose will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
“A living faith must experience a growing understanding of truth and must be continually interpreted and related
to the needs of each new generation. Throughout their history, Baptist bodies, both large and small, have issued
statements of faith which comprise a consensus of their beliefs. Such statements have never been regarded as
complete, infallible statements of faith, nor as official creeds carrying mandatory authority.”
However, Baptists have used confessions of faith freely. Such confessions have been framed during times of
crisis. Thus, in 17th-century England, Baptist confessions were issued to persuade opponents in both Church and
State that Baptists were orthodox and pious Christians and were not a threat to peace or public order.
Baptist confessions have been used to show differences of conviction between Baptists and other Christian groups,
and in some instances to indicate similarities with other denominations. When an overpowering State Church
threatened the existence of dissenting groups, it was important that the Free Church people draw closer together.
Again, Baptist confessions have been used for purposes of instructing Baptist people through setting before them
a consensus of belief in the form of a brief doctrinal summary. The authors of the Baptist Faith and Message
caution that “confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority over the conscience.” Also, “they
are statements of religious convictions, drawn from the scriptures, and are not to be used to hamper freedom of
thought or investigation in other realms of life.”
Why have Baptists been opposed to the use of creeds?
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First, they have feared the possibility that a creed will usurp the place of the Bible, which Baptists have always
regarded as the foundation of their theology and Christian faith. The Bible belongs in the center of any expression
of the Christian witness, and the Holy Spirit enables Christians to interpret it.
Second, any humanly devised creed is bound to be incomplete. They are too brief to comprehend the totality of
biblical doctrine.
Third, traditional creeds are derived from ancient and often unknown authors and do not necessarily reflect the
experience and terminology of contemporary believers.
Fourth, a variety of interpretations inevitably accompanies the use of creeds. Baptists affirm that believers should
depend upon the Holy Spirit to express doctrinal unity in an atmosphere of freedom.
Finally, creeds tend to concentrate authority in themselves rather than the scriptures. Baptists have insisted the
Bible alone to be their sufficient, external authority for faith and practice.
Even the Bible can be used as some denominations use their creeds— as one huge creed. This happens when
Christians say to one another, “You must believe everything which we think the Bible says and means.” The
heresy of this approach is that their interpretation of the Bible becomes a creed in itself, which they attempt to
impose upon others.
For Baptists, the Bible is the Word of God, the supreme authority for faith and practice, divinely inspired and
uniquely authoritative. Believers have the right before God to interpret these scriptures as the Holy Spirit guides
them. There is always a danger that confessions of faith may indeed be transformed into creeds. This occurs when
they are used to demand external conformity, taking to themselves legal force. When this happens, they become
rivals of the “only Lord of Conscience” and instigators of schism among Baptists.
The concept that Baptists are a non-creedal but a confessional people is a truth on which Virginia Baptists stand.
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Voluntary Connectionalism
What does “voluntary connectionalism” mean? Why is it so vital and important to the life of Baptists?
“Voluntary” is defined as proceeding from or effected by the will, as an act; unconstrained; intentional; by choice.
“Connectionalism” means coming together or union.
These terms were used frequently by our forebears in the faith in building our Baptist consciousness and in their
call for cooperation within and among the churches, associations and conventions.
Coercion and compulsion have no place in Baptist life. Authoritarian and inflexible leadership styles are anathema
to authentic Baptists. We guard jealously what John Bradbury called “the Crown Rights of the Redeemer.”
We own no Lord save Jesus Christ Himself. Since we abhor denominational imperialism in any form, we reject
any and all attempts to coerce these voluntary relationships into any other than voluntary.
In practice, believers choose (volunteer) to join a Baptist church. Baptist churches choose (volunteer) to join
a Baptist association. Baptist churches choose (volunteer) to cooperate with state Baptist conventions and the
Southern Baptist Convention; and these Conventions choose (volunteer) to cooperate with each other.
What holds us, Virginia Baptists as well as Southern Baptists, together? “Voluntary connection” is a
“rope of sand.”
It is a rope because:
• It rests on the Lordship of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11);
• It grows out of His missionary imperative (Matthew 28:19, 20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8);
• It seeks to fulfill His high priestly prayer (John 17, especially vs. 21).
It is sand because:
• It depends on human cooperation and consensus;
• It requires flexibility and care to preserve its genius;
• It prospers only in an environment of mutual trust where diversity and difference are accepted
and appreciated.
Therefore, voluntary connectionalism describes Southern Baptists’ extraordinary strength, our unique mutual
relationships and our practical way of working together. It is part of our self-understanding as a people of God.
It demonstrates our ideal of a unified church with:
• a unified purpose expressed in
• a unified program supported by
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• a unified budget, and conducting its missions outreach through:
• a unified denomination with
• a unified missionary vision expressed in
• a unified missionary program supported by
• a unified missionary budget—The Cooperative Program.
Thus, voluntary connectionalism is a description of Southern Baptist personality, proficiency and possibilities. It
is a description of “what makes us tick.” It is the hallmark of our corporate life. It embraces all we mean when we
use the terms, “cooperate, cooperation, or cooperative.”
Indeed, voluntary connectionalism is the Baptist way! It is a marvelous work of grace when soul liberty and
missionary mandate combine to produce and maintain a procedure by which autonomous Baptist churches and
autonomous Baptist bodies become “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.”
Voluntary connectionalism is God’s glue by which we are joined with others of like faith and order and like
commitment in missionary enterprise called the Southern Baptist Convention.
Voluntary connectionalism is a principle to be cherished and protected. It is a truth on which Baptists stand.
For Baptists, the principle of religious freedom includes the institutional separation of Church and State.
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Separation of Church & State
The belief in and defense of this principle has been and is now extremely important to Virginia Baptists.
Early Baptists believed religious freedom grew out of scripture. Jesus explained his ministry as that of providing
liberty for the oppressed (Luke 4:18). He outlined the proper relationship between the Church and State in his
famous statement, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). In one of
Apostle Paul’s many statements on the importance of liberty, he writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us
free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
Baptists were the first to take a stand for complete religious freedom in England. This principle was set forth
clearly in the writings of John Smyth and Thomas Helwys in the early 17th century. These two English Baptists
refused to admit that earthly monarchs had a right to interfere in the religious life of their subjects.
Their view was maintained in the various confessions of faith which were written in the years that followed. These
convictions were made clear in the American colonies in the teaching of Roger Williams, John Clarke, Isaac
Backus and John Leland. Their story of persecution is well known. Baptists owe a great debt to these men who
denied the right of a civil magistrate to interfere in matters of conscience and religion.
Indeed, democratic America is indebted to the Baptists in colonial New England and Virginia, for it was their struggle
for religious liberty that resulted in the exclusion of all religious tests and restrictions from the Constitution of the
United States.
It is widely agreed that the decisive period for the development of what has been called “the great American
experiment”—the separation of Church and State—took place in Virginia during the years of the Confederation:
1776-1789.
Perhaps, Isaac Backus personified the ongoing struggle of the Baptists for religious freedom. In 1774, Backus
urged Samuel Adams to adopt a consistent policy of separation of Church and State. He pointed out that British
taxation of American colonies was no more unjust than Massachusetts’ taxation of Baptists for the support of a
state church.
In the same year, Backus and the Baptists from the Warren Association presented a “Memorial” to the Massachusetts
delegates to the Continental Congress laying before them their claims for religious liberty.
After much debate, John Adams, the spokesman for the delegation said, “The Baptists might as well expect a
change in the solar system as to expect Massachusetts to give up their establishment.” In the end, Massachusetts
did give up their establishment, but it was not to come until almost 60 years later, in 1833.
Thomas E. Buckley describes the struggle in his book Church and State in Revolutionary Virginia, 1776-1789.
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He identifies three representative groups present in Revolutionary Virginia:
1. Traditional religionists who clung to the establishment arrangement and civil support for religion.
2. Rationalists who fought for an absolute separation of Church and State.
3. Dissenters who wanted equal religious rights and a church free from state control.
A full range of alternatives was developed during the period. In the intense political and religious process of
a decade-long struggle, there emerged a distinctly American arrangement, defining religious liberty and the
relationship between Church and State.
Ultimately, The Virginia experiment became the American way of Church-State relationships: a free church in a
free society.
After disestablishment was achieved, the perspectives listed evolved into two positions:
1. Strict separationists who insisted on an absolute Church-State separation and avoided any entanglement
of Church and State.
2. Instrumentalists who, while rejecting a formal establishment, nevertheless were anxious to use the
state’s powers to advance their religious causes and to shape and control the society about them after
their own sectarian vision.
The present tension among Southern Baptists reflects these attitudes.
On the one hand, some advocate with Walter Berns of the American Enterprise Institute, “a program of
assistance on a non-discriminatory basis, across the board, to all churches, all religions, all sects.” They seem to
prefer the “old world” model and plainly say that the state has an interest in and an obligation to preserve and
foster religion.
Others, while giving lip service to the separation of Church and State, say, “Of course I believe in the separation
of Church and State, but...” They focus on the effort to force society to conform to their sectarian values. Although
less forward in their abandonment of the consensus developed two hundred years ago in Virginia, these tend
toward a zealous affirmation of a “civil religion,” which equates America with the kingdom of God.
Baptists, who maintain the Virginia (and the American) consensus on strict separation, share John Leland’s report:
“Experience has taught us that the fondness of magistrates to foster religion has caused more problems than all
the persecutions ever did.”
These Baptists affirm George W. Truett’s famous words: “Christ’s religion needs no prop of any kind from any
worldly source.” They agree with Billy Graham, who has said, “The kingdom of God is not the same as America...
our nation is subject to the judgment of God just as much as any other nation.”
In short, there are those who would use the state’s powers to secure and maintain their religious views and those who
would not.
Virginia Baptists of the Confederation period set the pattern for a strict separation of Church and State. As
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Thomas E. Buckley wrote, they were “remarkable in their consistency... squarely in the tradition of Roger
Williams and Isaac Backus. . .requesting no favors from civil government, they wanted what may be fairly termed
a separation of Church and State based on the distinctive difference between these two spheres... and the need to
maintain a pure church.”
The choices for Baptists today—a pure church or not? Religious freedom or religious toleration? A strict
separation or co-mingling?
For authentic Baptists, true to their origins and heritage, and most importantly, the guidance of Holy Scripture,
the choice is obvious: A pure church in an environment of religious freedom and a strict separation of Church and
State. It is a truth on which we stand.
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Theological Education
Theological education at its best seeks to take seriously the preeminent command of Jesus: “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
Theological education at its best is pietistic. This means it encourages the regular practices of devotional Bible
study, prayer, worship, stewardship and witness. It is administered and taught by men and women of professed
Christian commitment and exemplary moral conduct.
Competent scholarship and committed churchmanship are not mutually exclusive. Students train for ministry in
an environment in which their relationship with God matures and their calling is crystallized. At the same time,
their minds are stretched and ministry skills are formed.
Theological education at its best is scholarly. It adheres unashamedly to the highest standards of contemporary
academic scholarship. Excellent theological education introduces ministerial candidates to a breadth of ideas
and perspectives. This is accomplished while maintaining a reverence for the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the
authority of the Bible.
Believing that unexamined issues are limited in value and that Truth transcends and survives the critique of finite
minds, students are encouraged to probe, question and reformulate without fear of losing their faith and calling.
Patterns of study and thinking established in seminary enhance the ministries of students across a lifetime.
Theological education at its best is practical. It is more than the academic study of religion to satisfy intellectual
curiosity. It is a process to prepare men and women for a lifetime of Christian ministry. In addition to courses in
theology, ethics and Bible, students take courses to hone practical skills in preaching, evangelism and community
ministry.
Seminaries seek to graduate men and women ready to fill the infinite variety of places where God calls His
servants. Graduates are prepared to present the unchanging gospel of Jesus to a pluralistic world.
Theological education at its best takes place in community. Seminaries are more than communities for learning.
They are places where students, professors, administrators and families participate in each other’s lives.
Caring, worship and relationship-building occur in the context of Christian love and friendship. The quality of
Christian community is part of the educational experience. Seminaries become “demonstration communities” for
churches.
Theological education at its best is accessible. It is readily available to students in all regions of the country
and priced inexpensively in order that no person called of God will be excluded on the basis of finances. It is
academically diverse to meet the needs of students with or without college degrees.
Christian education was a stated purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention at its beginning in 1845. Within
15 years of this beginning, the first denominational seminary was founded, in large part by the efforts of James
Pettigru Boyce.
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This occurred despite reluctance on the part of Baptists to establish specific educational requirements for ministerial
candidates and a suspicion of trained clergy among some segments of Baptists. As the Southern Baptist Convention
grew and spread geographically, opportunities for ministerial training were regionalized to meet a growing need
for theological education.
Virginia Baptists were early supporters of a trained clergy and theological education. Many ministers began their
training in Virginia Baptist colleges and schools. Before the Southern Baptist Convention was formed, students
prepared for ministry at the Virginia Baptist Seminary, now the University of Richmond.
God continues to supply His people with an endless variety of gifts and talents. God calls many into a wide range
of Christian vocations for which theological education is desirable.
At its best the theological education supplied by our seminaries does not create only one style of minister. It
allows every student to be formed into the minister God intended, so that a complex and diverse world will hear
and see the love and power of Christ proclaimed in infinite variety.
These are truths on which we stand!
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The People of God
The New Testament presents the church as “the people of God.” Our Baptist understanding about the church—its
nature, function and mission—is built upon this fact.
When Peter wrote to the early church in exile he said:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people,
but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”
(1 Peter 2:9-10).
The church is the people of God, the elect community of believers in Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Word to every
human being. The church is the Body of Christ, created by the Holy Spirit. People do not create the church.
Persons are incorporated into the church through personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. The church is a
koinonia of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts by which the church fulfills its mission are secured by and through the Holy Spirit who comes to bear
witness to Jesus and to be the Presence of God in the world (John 15:26-27).
The mission of the church—its reason for being—can be described in four words: worship, witness, teach
and serve.
As a “royal priesthood,” the church is to worship the omnipotent living God. True worship is both individual
and corporate, both private and public. True worship celebrates what God has done in Jesus Christ and calls
worshipers to present themselves “as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).
True worship unites adoration, confession, praise and response into a communion so that believers are
rightly related to the Living God. Thus, worship fulfills its high purpose and becomes the most significant
human endeavor.
It is sad when promotional and organizational concerns dominate a gathering so that true worship is diminished.
It is tragic whenever human longings for God are left unanswered in the presentation of a worship service which
gives more attention to human leadership than upon the Living God.
The witness of the church proclaims the Word of God, which became incarnate in the virgin-born, crucified,
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. To this Word, the Bible bears unfailing witness: Jesus Christ is Lord and only
Savior for every human being. The Holy Spirit empowers believers, as divinely authorized witnesses of that
Savior, to “declare the wonderful deeds” of the living God.
All these declarations are innumerable in variety. They all come together to glorify the living God and in authentic
evangelism—leading persons to faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Proclamation, or preaching, is a primary form of witness; however, it is not a substitute for other aspects of the
mission of the church. The ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are dramatic witnesses to the gospel, as
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the scriptures clearly instruct: “buried with him through baptism. . .raised to live a new life.. .” (Romans 6:4); “the
new covenant in my blood. . .in remembrance of me. . .proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians
11:25-26). These celebrations are distorted when their witness theme is neglected or omitted.
Our Lord’s command to the church to teach believers in the faith assures the fulfillment of the divinely assigned
mission of the church. The teaching vocation of the church is linked inseparably with the worship-witness-serve
activities of the church.
Bible teaching is the primary method of discipling the nations and individual believers. “All scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. . .” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Thus, God-like character is formed, a Christian ethic is developed and a righteous society becomes more nearly
possible because the conscience of all humankind is affected by the witness-teaching of the gospel.
The church serves by ministering in the name of Jesus to the whole human personality (physical, emotional, social
and spiritual) and to all the nations of the world. “Missions” is a natural result of the faithful worship-witnessteach-serve endeavor of the church and addresses all these needs.
Ministry is purposefully and unashamedly evangelistic. Ministry is offered humbly in the name and spirit of
Jesus—not on condition of a faith response—because the church is under the judgment of its own gospel.
The church can find fullness of life (John 10:10) only by losing its life in the ministries entrusted to it. The
church’s mission is achieved by following the Lord (Mark 10:35-45). Service to the whole world becomes a
Christian’s responsibility.
An exclusive emphasis on either the “far-away places” or the “next-door needs” subverts the gospel imperative
“into all the world.” A balanced effort to share the gospel with all persons is a continuing quest.
The worship-witness-teach-serve mission of the church is sustained as truth is cherished in all its forms. The life
of the church is strengthened as it guards freedom as the ideal environment for the preservation and spread of “the
faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).
The truth about the life and work of the people of God, His church, is an ever-present challenge to every Christian,
to every Virginia Baptist. Whatever detracts from these truths keeps us from being all God has called us to be and
become.
These truths are God’s marching orders for His people: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you...” (Matthew 28:19-20).
On these truths we stand!
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Freedom & Cooperation
Freedom is a major word among Baptists. It always has been, actually. But what about cooperation? Does
cooperation compromise freedom? Or is cooperation a responsible expression of freedom?
These questions have been asked by Baptists from their earliest beginnings to the present moment. In every
instance, the answers have shaped Baptists’ theology, polity and ministry.
Throughout the Bible, God is revealed as a liberator. The words, “Let my people go, so that they may worship
me” (Exodus 9:1) resound throughout the Old Testament. God willed for people to be free from slavery of any
kind—bound by the government, enslaved to sin, captivated by culture.
Jesus established the possibility of real freedom for all people. At the outset of his public ministry, Jesus declared
as one of his divinely ordered purposes “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners” (Luke 4:18). Freedom!
Later, Jesus made sure that no one misunderstood the liberating nature of salvation, “so if the son sets you free,
you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Freedom!
Paul recognized freedom as an essential characteristic of Christian life. He wrote to the Corinthians, “. . .where
the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). The apostle’s words to the Galatians serve as a
profound admonition to all of God’s people: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do
not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
God has called us to freedom. That much is certain. Baptists’ unrelenting passion for freedom is divine in origin.
But how about cooperation? Can cooperation be enjoyed without freedom being destroyed? The history of Baptists
is a ringing “yes” to that question. After all, cooperation is as basic to biblical Christianity as freedom.
A helpful portrait of this truth was painted by Paul. The apostle likened the church to a human body with many parts
(1 Corinthians 12:12-26). For the body to function properly, each part must work with other parts—cooperation—
while retaining its own uniqueness—independence. An eye is free to be an eye, an ear an ear, a foot a foot. Yet,
maturity and meaningful activity are the results of eyes, ears and feet working in cooperation with each other.
The church is a body—“the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). God has called different members of the
church to different tasks— apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, helpers, administrators (1 Corinthians 12:28-29).
Each is free to fulfill God’s call. However, the church serves best and is best served when each member in freedom
decides to minister in cooperation with others.
What is true for individuals is true for congregations. Paul appealed to numerous free and independent congregations
of believers to cooperate with each other in providing financial support for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
At their best, Baptists have recognized the proper relationship between freedom and cooperation. They incorporated
it into their lives. Baptist people are free. Baptist churches are free. However, free people in free churches have
pledged themselves to cooperate in order better to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ.
The purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention as stated in its constitution underscores the importance of
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cooperation “for the promotion of Christian missions, Christian education, benevolent enterprises, and social
services.”
In 1925, with guidance that must have been from God, Southern Baptists adopted a plan of financial stewardship
that enhanced both freedom and cooperation. The Cooperative Program has provided a way for Southern Baptists
to impact the world for Christ to an extent unimaginable if people and churches only did their work alone.
Reflection on the basic truths that form the foundation on which Baptists stand reveals the fact that the freedom
and cooperation principle is essential to all of the rest.
Individually, freedom finds expression in the practice of liberty of conscience and the priesthood of every believer.
However, cooperation is also affirmed. Each person of conscience recognizes and assumes responsibilities in
relation to the values of others. Individual priests best understand their ministries when they see themselves as a
community of priests (1 Peter 2:9).
Ecclesiastically, freedom is interpreted to mean that every congregation, association, state convention, and the
national convention is autonomous. However, the working relationship between these bodies is one of cooperation,
not competition. Each shares in a ministry that could not be provided by one group alone.
Theologically, freedom is assured by the affirmation of a non-creedal faith which recognizes the authority of the
Bible and the centrality of Christ. Cooperation takes place as like-minded believers joined with each other to
strengthen witness and ministry in Christ’s name.
Politically, freedom inspires an uncompromising conviction about the separation of Church and State institutionally
and the guarantee of religious liberty individually. Yet, cooperation is evidenced as Christians assume the
responsibilities of good citizens.
A proper balance between freedom and cooperation is a necessity for the continuation of the Baptist way of life. If
uniformity replaces liberty as a basis for cooperation, our identity as Baptists will be jeopardized. If autonomous
freedom becomes the enemy of cooperation, the strength of our mission will be weakened.
As Baptists of conviction we must continue to say “yes” to both freedom and cooperation. On these truths
we stand!
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Suggestions for the Study of
The study of this booklet can lead a church to understand and appreciate the biblical foundation on which Virginia
and Southern Baptists are based. Information about these truths is essential for an intelligent understanding of
both our history and our heritage. The study of this series and other related materials can become a rare spiritual
experience to all who participate.
A church might consider conducting a special study of these truths during Church Training or during a Wednesday
evening prayer service. Some churches may wish to use this booklet as a basis of study to help members understand
and appreciate their own church membership.
Such a study would be ideal for new church members, deacon retreats, Bible studies, and a sermon series. Churches
may find benefit in securing additional copies for distribution to each church family. Sunday School teachers will
find the information a handy reference to aid in their own teaching when lessons deal with the subjects contained
in this booklet.
As these truths are studied, leaders can lead participants to locate and read the many scripture passages included
in each article. The use of the Bible, throughout the study, is encouraged.
Other suggestions for sharing this vital and important information might include:
1. Participants might be asked to report on the history of their church as it relates to the teaching and practice of these truths. Older members might be asked to share “how their church has emphasized Baptist doctrinal teachings in the past and what it has meant to the church.” Testimonies might be encouraged. Many church members will be able to share how these basic biblical truths have shaped
and directed lives.
2. Allow time for full discussion of the biblical doctrines under study— especially centered upon their importance for faith and practice.
3. During the course of study, leaders might consider applying each of the truths presented in this booklet to their local church. Such an approach might include such things as how each of these biblical truths influences the life and work of the church; the importance of providing a solid foundation for expanding the message of Christ throughout the world; and ways a local church might help all members—as an ongoing activity—to be knowledgeable of these basic doctrines.
4. The church library or media center might motivate members to increase their study and reading on
the “truths on which we stand” by featuring various books available to them. Many church members
will profit from reading and studying this booklet independently. Home study could be encouraged.
5. Request from the Virginia Baptist Historical Society additional resources to add to the study. The VBHS
has assembled a large research collection of Baptist materials and has published numerous histories. Its
staff presents heritage programs in churches and associations and serves as a resource for planning
historical observances, preserving records and promoting heritage awareness. The address is Virginia Baptist Historical Society, P. 0. Box 34, University of Richmond, Virginia 23173.
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Prepared by the Committee on Denominational Crisis
• Lewis T. Booker, attorney and legal counsel for the Virginia Baptist General Board;
member of Second Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia.
• Michael J. Clingenpeel, pastor of Franklin Baptist Church, Franklin, Virginia.
• William J. Cumbie, retired Executive Director of the Mount Vernon Baptist Association;
member Calvary Hill Baptist Church, Fairfax, Virginia.
• Alma Hunt, retired Executive Director of Woman’s Missionary Union;
member of First Baptist Church, Roanoke, Virginia.
• William L. Lumpkin, retired pastor of Freemason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia.
• Bob D. Lynch, pastor of First Baptist Church, Gate City, Virginia.
• John W. Patterson, Executive Director of Peninsula Baptist Association;
member of Liberty Baptist Church, Newport News, Virginia.
• James Slatton, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, Richmond, Virginia.
• Jean Woodward, President, Baptist General Association of Virginia (ex officio);
member River Road Church, Baptist, Richmond, Virginia.
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• Neal T. Jones, Chairman, pastor of Columbia Baptist Church, Falls Church, Virginia.
BGAV:
The Right Choice
By Michael Clingenpeel
Reprinted by permission of the Religious Herald.
BGAV: The Right Choice
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BGAV:
The Right Choice
Table of Contents
The Right Beginnings (February 27, 2003)...........................................................................33
The Right Beliefs (March 6, 2003). .......................................................................................35
The Right Style of Denominationalism (March 13, 2003)................................................37
The Right Friends (March 27, 2003)..................................................................................... 39
The Right People (April 3, 2003)...........................................................................................41
The Right Spirit (April 10, 2003).......................................................................................... 43
The Right Vision for the Future (April 17, 2003). ............................................................. 45
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BGAV:
The Right Choice
2003 marks 180 years since the Baptist General Association of Virginia was founded.
This is the first in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Beginnings
“Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.” This piece of accepted wisdom, first penned by Alexander Pope,
reminds us that one’s beginning shapes one’s outcome. What is true in humans and nature also is true of churches
and denominations.
The first meeting of the BGAV was on June 7, 1823, in Richmond’s Second Baptist Church. Fifteen messengers
attended. The organization’s constitution stated that its purpose was “to propagate the Gospel and advance the
Redeemer’s Kingdom throughout the State.” They also agreed among themselves that they “shall in no case
interfere with the internal regulations of the churches or associations.”
From its first day the BGAV has been about the gospel, missions and churches.
The gospel
The founders of the BGAV did not believe it was necessary to define the gospel, or add any frills to its essence.
In a 1788 letter to another Baptist, John Leland summarized the gospel in clear, simple terms:
“I believe there is a God, possessed with all glorious Perfections. 2. That the Book called the Bible is of divine
Authenticity. 3. That Jesus Christ is the Messiah, properly God and Man. 4. That Men are all fallen from God. 5.
That absolute Necessity of a Death unto Sin and a new Birth unto Righteousness to be either safe or happy. 6. That
what System or Spirit soever a Man have that does not lead him to love God, hate Sin, deny himself and follow
after Holiness, is certainly wrong.”
This simple gospel has been the core of Christian teaching since the first century, and it is the foundation of the
BGAV for 180 years.
Missions
The BGAV was started to spread this gospel throughout the state of Virginia. Two months after the founding
meeting of the General Association, a small company of men gathered at the home of Andrew Broaddus in
Caroline County, and their first tangible act was to appoint two missionaries.
Daniel Witt and Jeremiah Bell Jeter, ages 19 and 20 respectively, were employed to survey the religious climate
in “destitute regions” of Virginia and report how this tiny nucleus of Baptists could start churches to reach the
citizens of Virginia.
Almost two centuries later the BGAV is missionary to the core. Last year almost 5,000 members from BGAV
churches volunteered for missions projects in and beyond Virginia. Several dozen new churches were started.
Thousands were baptized by the BGAV’s 1,400 churches.
Churches
As the human body is composed of millions of cells, the BGAV consists of more than a thousand autonomous
churches. The building blocks of our Baptist body are the churches.
The BGAV’s founders were careful to write into their constitution that the state body would not interfere with the
internal activities or decisions of the churches or associations.
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Not every church is alike. Not every church agrees, but every disagreement is met with respect for another
church’s freedom to make its own choices. Early Baptists feared the danger of a connectional, established church.
BGAV churches still do.
But our founders were willing to cooperate around the gospel and the task of telling it across our state. They knew
that a family of churches could have more impact than one acting independently. BGAV churches still do.
The BGAV is the right choice for your church because the BGAV began right. Not in anger. Not in reaction to
other Baptists. Not as a franchise of a national Baptist organization.
The BGAV began with three things in common: The Gospel. Missions. Autonomous, cooperative churches. This
is the BGAV’s DNA. And it’s still our life’s blood.
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BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the second in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Beliefs
A recent president of the Southern Baptist Convention stated that the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination,
the SBC, had undergone “a necessary exercise in self-definition” during the final quarter of the 20th century.
Baptists will debate whether a re-definition of the SBC was necessary, but most agree that Baptists spent the past
25 years trying to understand who they are and what they believe.
While Baptists across the South were taking on a new set of beliefs, the Baptist General Association of Virginia
refused to move from the beliefs we have valued for 180 years. In 1989 the BGAV’s Committee on the
Denominational Crisis summarized some of these beliefs in a booklet titled On These Truths We Stand. Virginia
Baptists affirmed these core beliefs at the BGAV annual meeting in 1995.
BGAV churches believe in these truths and principles:
 The centrality of Jesus Christ. “Jesus is Lord” is the confession of the BGAV and its churches from
its beginning. Jesus is the beginning, center and end of our worship. It is heresy to make the church,
denomination or even the Bible as the supreme object of faith.
 The authority of the Bible. In 1988 and again in 1995 the BGAV affirmed its complete confidence in and
commitment to the inspired, written Word of God. It is the primary source that sets our faith and practice.
From its message Virginia Baptists draw truth and power.
 Soul competency. Every human being is free and responsible for his or her relationship with God. This,
wrote E. Y. Mullins almost a century ago, is the “keystone” principle of Baptists. New-style Baptists argue
that making faith a personal matter leads to a subjective faith that overlooks the role of Christ in salvation,
makes secondary the authority of Scripture and eliminates the need for the Holy Spirit. Virginia Baptists reject
this criticism, believing that soul competency comes straight from the Bible’s view of God and humanity. God
is revealed to us, and we are free to respond to God and are accountable for our response.
 The priesthood of all believers. Virginia Baptists believe that every person is privileged to approach God
without a human intermediary and that every person, led by the Holy Spirit, may interpret the Bible. No
human authority should compel another person to submit to his or her interpretation or belief. The BGAV
believes in empowering laity for service, and not in making distinctions between the callings of clergy and
laity, except in function.
 Believer’s baptism. Most BGAV churches practice immersion as the mode of baptism, for compelling
reasons. But the timing is more important than the mode. When Virginia Baptists practice baptism of
believers, the baptism is a sign that one is a deliberate, willing follower of Jesus Christ. This squares with our
belief in soul competency.
 The autonomy of the local church. The BGAV believes every congregation is self-governing. It is to be under
the control of Jesus Christ, not an autocratic pastor, faction of laity or denominational body to which
it relates.
35
 Voluntary connectionalism. Every Virginia Baptist congregation chooses its friends and partners. It may
choose to relate to a local Baptist association, the BGAV, the SBC or the CBF, or it may choose not to relate
to these. BGAV churches believe no denominational hierarchy may force itself on local churches or compel
cooperation. Cooperation is always voluntary.
 Separation of church and state. The BGAV believes this is embedded in the First Amendment to the United
States Constitution. Virginia Baptists want to live in a nation where the institutions of government and religion
exist in an atmosphere where individuals follow their conscience, not the government’s direction, in matters of
faith. Personal faith thrives best where government and church are free and separate.
This is a summary of beliefs held by a majority of people and churches in the BGAV, having been affirmed more
than once by messengers to a BGAV annual meeting.
But they are not binding on any BGAV congregation or its members. It is a consensus of what Virginia Baptists
believe, not an infallible document of what they must believe. This is a final principle of our fellowship. The
BGAV is confessional, but not creedal.
Virginia Baptists have embraced confessions of faith for 180 years. The BGAV has affirmed such confessions as
the Baptist Faith and Message Statement of 1963, which summarizes what Southern Baptists generally believed
at that time.
But the BGAV always has rejected creeds, or written documents designed to instruct people what they must
believe. Virginia Baptists reject creeds because they usurp the place of the Bible and the role of the Holy Spirit as
our Helper in interpreting it. We also reject creeds because as human creations they are incomplete.
The BGAV has not endorsed the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000 precisely because it is being used by the SBC
as a creed instead of a confession. It is being wielded as a tool to enforce conformity rather than as a document
to state consensus.
The BGAV continues to be “the right choice” for more than 1,400 churches, not in spite of its beliefs, but because
it is unwavering in its commitment to historic Baptist truths.
36
BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the third in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Style of Denominationalism
Denominations are dead, some say. They are institutional dinosaurs that thrived in the 19th and 20th centuries, but
they are dwindling into extinction in the postmodern climate of the 21st century.
Don’t be too hasty. Denominations are not dying; they are transitioning to match the demands and realities of what
some are calling a post-denominational age.
Denominations provide for a rich diversity of religious life in the United States. They allow some to be dunked
while others are sprinkled, some congregations to be democracies while others are oligarchies or dictatorships,
some to have latitude in their beliefs while others have little theological wiggle room. Different strokes for
different folks.
When it comes to Baptists, there is a denominational style that needs to die. It is the denomination as
corporation.
Baptists are the staunchest defenders of local church autonomy and non-connectional church polity. Our method
for doing church business is bottom-up, not top-down. The local church is of supreme importance and the state or
national denomination, while vital, have a lower priority. Each of these is separate and distinct.
Baptists in the South forgot this in the latter half of the 20th century. We fell into the mindset that the national
denomination was a huge religious corporation. Churches were franchises of the corporation. State conventions
were agents of the corporation.
In this style of denominationalism the national denomination became an enforcer of doctrine and church practices.
Churches looked to the denomination to set their identity, theology, hymn book, requirements for membership,
architecture, calendar, leadership structure, and missions strategy. As franchisees model the brand of a corporation,
Baptist congregations modeled the brand of the national denomination.
The corporate approach to denominationalism is alive today among Baptists, but no Baptist congregation must
adopt it. Baptist General Association of Virginia churches are embracing with enthusiasm a better approach.
It is the idea of denomination as hub.
For anyone over age 50 a hub is the center point on a wheel. It is the point around which the wheel rotates. Say
“hub” to people under 50, on the other hand, and immediately they think of the internet. The World Wide Web is
composed of millions of links dominated by a few highly connected nodes called hubs. These hubs are the place
where all the links connect. VBMB.org is a Website; Yahoo! is a hub.
In the 21st century the BGAV needs to become a regional hub. It is a denominational entity that exists to link
individual Virginia Baptists and Virginia Baptist churches with each other and with resources and ministries that
enable Christians and churches to fulfill their unique calling under God.
37
Through Experiencing God Henry Blackaby has reminded thousands of Virginia Baptists that Christians are to
find out what God is doing in the world and join God in it. No local church, no matter its size, has the capacity
to know the breadth of God’s work across the world. But the BGAV, acting as a hub, can connect Baptists in
Rich Creek, Troutdale, Upperville, Zuni and Callao with the work of Southern Baptists in the Seychelles, the
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship among the Romani and the Baptist World Alliance in Cameroon.
Denominations are not dead, nor are they dying. They are, however, changing. You can hardwire your church
to a denominational style that will tell you what you must believe, who your church can call as pastor and how
your church must conduct its ministry. But that does not leave any room for the Holy Spirit to speak to your
congregation, and it is not Baptist.
Or you can connect with the BGAV, which in turn will honor your autonomy and link you with resources to
accomplish God’s work in ways that match the limitless extent of God’s grace.
38
BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the fourth in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Friends
Friends are important.
Friends enrich our lives. They open our lives to a larger world, enlarge our reach, strengthen us in our weak places,
guide us when we lose our way and prompt us to become the person God intends us to be.
Our friends also signal who we are. Life is about choices, so who we choose as friends says something about our
values, ambitions and needs.
Healthy friendships are symbiotic. Both partners benefit from the relationship, though the friendship is rarely equal.
Healthy friendships are not possessive or exclusive; they do not demand that partners dissolve ties with others in
order to remain friends.
Friends need not be alike in everything. They respect the ways in which they are different from each other,
recognizing that on occasion they may not endorse each other’s actions and values.
Friendships are not restricted to human beings. Institutions, corporations, nations and denominations
have friends.
The Baptist General Association of Virginia has many friends. Old and new, near and far, young and mature, rich
and poor, large and small. They go by different names, agencies, commissions, institutions, entities, partners but
they are all friends.
Many of the BGAV’s friends are headquartered in Virginia: The Religious Herald. Woman’s Missionary Union
of Virginia. Virginia Baptist Foundation. Virginia Baptist Historical Society. Virginia Baptist Children’s Home
and Family Services. Virginia Baptist Homes. Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia. Fork Union
Military Academy. Hargrave Military Academy. Oak Hill Academy. Bluefield College. Virginia Intermont
College. Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. The John Leland Center for Theological Studies.
Extension Board. Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. Ministering to Ministers Foundation.
Other friends are national or international in scope: Southern Baptist Convention. Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship. Baptist World Alliance. Associated Baptist Press. Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Baptist
Center for Ethics. LifeWay Christian Resources.
Each of these partners provides a service or an array of ministries that enhance the work of Virginia Baptists and
our churches. They contribute to the BGAV a vast network of ways God is active in Virginia and throughout the
world. Virginia Baptists would be impoverished without these friends.
But these friendships are a two-way street. They connect the BGAV to God’s activity, and in return they receive
financial contributions from Virginia Baptists through the Cooperative Program, through designated or direct
gifts or from the sale of products to individuals and churches. These friends also benefit from the prayers,
good will and talents of Virginia Baptists that are mustered in behalf of their agencies. These connections are
mutually beneficial.
39
Does the BGAV keep a ledger that guarantees it profits most from its partnerships? No. Does it force one friend
to give up its other friendships in order to be a partner? No. Does it require all its friends to embrace identical
values or to endorse identical behaviors? No. Most of the time the BGAV does not see a conflict between its
relationships with other Baptist groups and biblical ideals, Baptist principles and its own mission. There is latitude
and flexibility in healthy Baptist friendships.
When your church joins the BGAV you plug into a family of friendships that extend around the world. They are
the kind of friends that will let you and your church fulfill your calling under God.
40
BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the fifth in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right People
“Guilt-by-association” is a time-tested tactic used to destroy people. To damage a person’s image, reputation or
influence one simply links that person to an individual or group that is not well liked. The public assumes the
person takes on all the traits or ideas of the groups with whom he is associated. A half century ago Senator Joe
McCarthy used guilt-by-association to smear many fine Americans as Communists. Ideologues still employ this
tactic. It is used to damage Baptist institutions and denominations as well as individuals.
Jesus preferred to use “virtue-by-association.” He told his disciples that if they had seen him, they had seen the
Father; and he warned them to live in such a way that people would see Jesus when they saw his followers. The
growth of the church is the story of people liking what they saw in Jesus’ followers and wanting to be associated
with them.
One reason many churches want to be affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia is because they
like the people who make up the BGAV. There is a lot to like.
Laity: The strength of the BGAV was and is its laity, the men and women who comprise the rolls of the BGAV’s
1,460 churches. The autonomy of every BGAV church is respected, but most embrace the priesthood of all believers.
While this concept relates to salvation and the interpretation of Scripture, it also has an impact on congregational
relationships. It implies that church members have equal access to God, an equal voice in congregational decisionmaking and equal value in God’s eyes. Clergy are not inherently more valuable than laity, and pastors have no
spiritual authority over laity.
So valued are the laity that for more than 50 years the presidency of the General Association has been rotated
between clergy and laity. Every other year a member of the laity has been elected president, not because the
constitution of the General Association requires it, but because the quality of Virginia Baptist laity argues for it.
No other Baptist state convention follows this practice, and the Southern Baptist Convention has not had a layman
serve as president for 30 years. Baptists in the South, according the church historian Bill Leonard, suffer from
“clergification,” an unhealthy process whereby clergy wield most of the power in local church and denominational
matters.
Your church should consider the BGAV because it is not a clergy-run convention; its laity are not just
worker bees.
Clergy: Virginia Baptist churches have been blessed by excellent ministerial leadership for almost two centuries.
Jeremiah Bell Jeter, one of the SBC’s founders, was a pastor of BGAV churches. George Braxton Taylor, founder
of the Sunbeams, served BGAV churches. George W. McDaniel, SBC president, was a Virginia Baptist pastor, as
was a successor at First Baptist Church of Richmond, Theodore F. Adams, who served as president of the Baptist
World Alliance.
Across the South the average pastoral tenure is scarcely more than three years. In the BGAV the average tenure is
more than eight years. That may speak to the patience of Virginia Baptist laity, but also it is a tribute to the quality
of trained, committed ministers who serve in BGAV churches.
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Though ordination is a prerogative of BGAV congregations, a growing minority of Virginia Baptist churches
ordain women as deacons or clergy. The BGAV was the first Baptist state convention, for example, to have a
woman minister elected as a state convention officer, and the first to have a woman pastor serve as president of
its pastors conference.
Do you want your church to be associated with a Baptist state convention where laity play a prominent role in the
leadership of its ministries and institutions? Where clergy are respected, but not worshipped? Where women can
fulfill their calling under God? If so, then the BGAV is the right choice.
42
BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the sixth in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Spirit
The Southern Baptist Convention has spent much of the past 25 years in conflict. The SBC’s fundamental
wing says the struggle is about doctrine; Southern Baptist moderates claim the issue is control over the
denomination’s institutions. The former says their goal is to return Southern Baptists to more orthodox Baptist
beliefs, while the latter calls the turmoil a hostile takeover of the SBC’s organizational structure and processes.
Almost no one has suggested that a key issue in the division among Southern Baptists is spirit or attitude.
Too bad.
There is more to the Christian life than orthodox doctrine and energetic witness. And a denomination is more than
the sum of its doctrinal statement, institutional size and missions reach.
Christians and denominations must possess the right spirit. A people’s theology may be letter perfect and
their organizations may hum with precision, but they are not much use to God if they are narrow and mean.
According to Paul one can worship in style, fathom the depths of God, accomplish great deeds and die a
martyr’s death; but if a spirit of love is missing, then all this has little to do with God (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
The Baptist General Association of Virginia holds the right beliefs. It conducts an impressive array
of ministries and links BGAV churches to partners who are doing the work of God around the world.
But the BGAV does not ignore the spirit with which it embraces doctrine and conducts ministry.
During the 1920s a painful, fractious debate between fundamentalist and moderate Christians was part
of the Christian landscape. In that era the BGAV celebrated its 100th anniversary. Robert H. Pitt, editor
of the Religious Herald, delivered an address to the General Association in which he described the
distinctive “temper” of the BGAV. “Temper” is a now-obsolete term that means “spirit” or “attitude.”
Pitt characterized Virginia Baptists as a genteel, courteous, cooperative people. Eighty years later this remains true.
Among the galling features of national Baptist gatherings during the present era of doctrinal differences
is the way debates are punctuated by partisan applause or jeers. This rarely occurs at annual meetings of
the General Association. Its messengers prefer to listen with respect even when there is disagreement.
In his speech Pitt said Virginia Baptists “often differed, sometimes seriously and sharply, about doctrine and duty.
Seldom have they allowed their zealous support of their own views to lead them to forget that the queen of all
Christian graces is love.”
This spirit of Christian charity extends to Christians of other denominations. Virginia Baptists, said Pitt “have
claimed no superiority of rank over their brethren, but have never been willing to acknowledge any inferiority on
43
their own part. They have not allowed their denominational self-esteem to run into arrogance, or to degenerate
into intolerance.” A sign of healthy faith is the capacity to appreciate the beliefs and practices of others
without compromising one’s own. The BGAV has a spirit that allows for ecumenism without suffocating under
political correctness.
The spirit of Christian courtesy also allows the BGAV to bear witness with integrity to its beliefs without
bashing non-Christian religions, an ugly practice of some Christian leaders in our pluralistic age.
Virginia Baptists, said Pitt, have found it possible “to maintain firmly, to promote steadily, and to press
earnestly the great truths of evangelical religion without sacrificing Christlikeness of temper.” Still do.
This cooperative Christian spirit does not serve everyone’s purposes, of course, particularly those Christians
who engage in personal kingdom building or set themselves up as guardians of doctrine. “The atmosphere of
this State,” Pitt told the BGAV in 1923, “has never been favorable to the development of doctrinal martinets who
demand that we shall all pass in review before them.” Virginia Baptists are quick to sniff out this judgmental spirit
and refuse it a platform.
The BGAV has the right spirit. Catch it.
44
BGAV:
The Right Choice
This is the seventh in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.
The Right Vision for The Future
Anne Lamott says that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights,
but you can make the whole trip that way. “You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see
your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you”
(Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, p. 18).
This also is a parable about life, discipleship, church and denomination.
The future is, at best, murky. The Baptist General Association of Virginia cannot expect to journey into the 21st
century with the entire way illumined. We can, however, begin with a vision that sheds light on the road immediately
ahead. This consistent vision continues to shove aside the darkness, so we can arrive at our destination safely.
The BGAV has the right vision for a wholesome and fruitful future.
Kingdom more than Baptist
“I am a Baptist, but I am more than a Baptist,” wrote Walter Rauschenbusch. “The old Adam is a strict
denominationalist; the new Adam is just a Christian” (“Why I am a Baptist,” A Baptist Treasury, pp. 183-184).
Virginia Baptists are Baptists in principle and practice, but we are more than Baptists. We are Christians first,
Baptists second. This means we are motivated by a Kingdom vision, not merely a denominational vision.
Though the BGAV’s founding documents state that its purpose is “to advance the Redeemer’s Kingdom,” the
daily demands of church and denomination can shrink this vision. Controversy among Baptists, the turn of the
calendar to a new millennium and the challenges of our postmodern age have forced the BGAV to recommit to
its original purpose.
Missions with, not for
Missions has been the BGAV’s passion since its birth 180 years ago. “Advance” is as important a word as
“Kingdom” in the BGAV’s original purpose.
The methods were left up to Virginia Baptists, so long as they were “in accord with the word of God.” That gives
the BGAV enormous freedom, and Virginia Baptists have responded with an array of redemptive ministries.
Partnership missions captured the imaginations of BGAV churches almost two decades ago. Since then it has
enjoyed a marquee place in the list of Virginia Baptists’ missions methods.
Partnership missions reveals an approach to missions that is essential to the BGAV’s vision of missions—missions
with, not for. Whether in Virginia’s district associations, the United States or around the world, the BGAV’s goal
is to work alongside the recipients of our ministries.
45
This vision of missions is designed to encourage and empower rather than to create a paternalistic relationship
marked by dependency. It is a vision in which Virginia Baptists admit our weakness equals our strength, and that
allows God’s grace to function in relationships to make everyone a recipient as well as a giver. Most important, it
recognizes the work of the Holy Spirit in others, not just in us.
The BGAV works with people, not over or for them.
Engagement, not separation
Christians of every generation decide whether they can fulfill their discipleship best by bearing witness to
Jesus as a participant in the culture or whether they can follow Jesus better by standing outside the culture and
critiquing it.
The BGAV has chosen a vision of the future that engages the postmodern age instead of creating a subculture that
separates from the 21st century and attempts to recapture a prior era.
The majority of Baptists in the South have chosen the latter strategy. They are recreating the glory days of a
denomination as a religious corporation that proscribes the practices and beliefs of its churches and members. The
result is a parallel subculture that engages in a noisy monologue against an increasingly diverse world.
The BGAV has chosen to plant itself in a postmodern age and engage the culture in a conversation about Jesus in
an attempt to woo and win it. This strategy has risks. Attempts to use 21st century styles, engage in dialogue with
different religions, cooperate with diverse Christian groups and champion a church that is separate from the state
will subject the BGAV to accusations that it is accommodating itself to the world. Allowing individual believers
and churches to interpret Scripture rather than endorse a man-made creed, or to open pastoral ministry to women
and men, will invite others to brand Virginia Baptists as liberals.
It is a risk worth taking, because it reflects a vision consistent with the BGAV’s Baptist heritage and
180-year-old mission.
If you want to join hands with Baptists in Virginia whose vision for the future is Kingdom centered, works in
missions with people around the world and engages 21-C in a conversation about Christ, the BGAV is the right
choice.
46
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
The Executive Director and the Treasurer
of the Baptist General Association of Virginia
Respond to Frequently Asked Questions
About the BGAV
2007
Truthfully Speaking: A Response to FAQs
47
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
Letter from John Upton....................................................................................................49
An Overview: Truthfully Speaking................................................................................50
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about the BGAV......................................51
Church Stealing and Countering ‘Untruths’................................................................60
Church Takeovers – A True Virginia Baptist Story..................................................... 62
Takeovers and Untruths Now a Fact of Life – True Virginia Baptist Facts............65
What Virginia Baptists Support.................................................................................... 67
Cooperative Missions* Comparison – BGAV and SBCV............................................78
* Cooperative Missions is Virginia Baptists’ long-standing commitment to the Cooperative Program.
To order additional copies of Truthfully Speaking,
free of charge, contact:
Eddie Stratton, Treasurer,
Virginia Baptist Mission Board;
phones: 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428) or 804.915.5000, Ext. 1270;
email: eddie.stratton@vbmb.org;
fax: 804.672.7048;
or postal mail: VBMB, 2828 Emerywood Parkway, Richmond, VA 23294.
Truthfully Speaking may also be found on the VBMB’s website at www.vbmb.org.
Originally printed in 2003.
Eighth printing, August 2008.
48
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
Letter From
John Upton, Executive Director - Virginia Baptist Mission Board
“Who are Virginia Baptists and what does the BGAV believe?” is a question I’m frequently asked. Simply stated,
the BGAV is a family of 1,405 active churches (as of August 1, 2008) that believes in faithfully working together
in advancing the Kingdom of God. Since 1823, we have been faithful to that call by keeping our focus on the
mission. The mission of sharing the gospel and demonstrating God’s love has been a huge responsibility requiring
leadership, talents, and resources from a vast and diverse Baptist family across the Commonwealth. This journey
of faithful service has seen many challenges over the years – Civil War, World Wars, The Great Depression,
doctrinal controversies – yet the focus of missions always has been more compelling than the worst measures
Satan has used to distract us.
This clear vision of Virginia Baptists working together with all our diversity for the cause of Christ, trusting
the Holy Spirit and trusting one another, is what has kept us together and on course. Unfortunately, there are
challenges today as in the past. Today many untruths and misrepresentations of the BGAV are circulating. Those
who have much to gain for their own agenda often circulate these.
We offer this booklet – Truthfully Speaking (now in its eighth printing since 2003) – as a means to address those
matters directly. As you read this booklet, made possible by generous gifts of an anonymous donor, may you do
two things: First, celebrate the good that Virginia Baptists do and believe together. We are a solid Baptist body
that has many years of experience in ministry and mission together. We know who we are and what God has
called us to be and do. Second, use these answers to help others know the heart and values of Virginia Baptists.
I apologize for the necessity for such a booklet. It is unfathomable to me that anyone would believe many of the
falsehoods raised.
We print this in order to give confidence to those who may hear only these untruths and be tempted to believe
them. You will also find in this booklet comments made by some who have experienced the attempt to move their
church out of the BGAV and the hurt that often is involved in such a struggle. Many Virginia Baptists have already
contacted us to tell us how much earlier editions of Truthfully Speaking, first printed in late 2003, have helped
them. Many orders also have already come from outside of Virginia for this booklet.
Let’s not be distracted any longer. Let’s put our heart and energy into being faithful to our common call as Virginia
Baptists!
Yours in Christ,
John V. Upton, Jr., Executive Director
Virginia Baptist Mission Board
49
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
An Overview
Truthfully Speaking…
Virginia Baptists are not a creedal people because we hold that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God. The Baptist
General Association of Virginia (BGAV) has adopted the following vision, values and ministries statements:
Our Vision
We, the Baptist General Association of Virginia with the Commonwealth as our garden and the world as our field, affirm our calling to
live in Christ and to serve on mission for Him. To this end we:
• Receive the Holy Scripture as inspired and authoritative,
• Proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed,
• Encourage rigorous intellectual inquiry,
• Uphold justice with integrity,
• Exercise mercy with compassion,
• Respect all persons as inherently equal before God,
• Cherish the freedom with which Christ has set us free,
• Love the community of faith and,
• Serve redemptively the stranger.
(Adopted by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, November 1995 in annual session.)
Our Values
We, the Baptist General Association of Virginia, hereby affirm the following values hammered out in the crucible of our history in
serving our Lord, Jesus Christ:
• Centrality of Christ
• Authority of Holy Scripture
• Priesthood of Believers
• Soul Competency
• Religious Liberty
• Separation of Church & State
• Autonomy of the Local Church
• Believer’s Baptism
• Respect for Persons
• Intellectual Integrity
• Cooperative Spirit
• Compassion for Unbelievers
• Responsiveness to a Changing World
(Adopted by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, November 1995 in annual session.)
Our Ministries
In cooperation with churches, associations and other ministry partners, we offer:
• More than 40 Home Missionaries in Virginia,
• Partnership Missions at Home and Abroad,
• Evangelism/Stewardship Training and Resources,
• Salary and Annuity Supplements for Ministers,
• Camps and Conferences for Youth,
• Children and Family Services,
• Training for Sunday School – Discipleship, Music, Mission Workers,
• Baptist Student Ministries – Colleges and Schools,
• Continuing Education for Ministers,
• Scholarships for Church Vocation Volunteers,
• Estate Planning – Trust Management,
• Retirement Communities,
• Church Planning Consultation,
• Grants for New Church Starts,
• Baptist News and Information.
50
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
Executive Director John Upton and Treasurer Eddie Stratton
Respond to Frequently Asked Questions About the BGAV
•
Why does the BGAV exist, and how many churches are members?
The BGAV was organized in 1823, and it exists to “furnish the Baptist churches of Virginia a medium of
cooperation for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the advancement of the
Redeemer’s Kingdom by all methods in accord with the Word of God.” The BGAV has 1,405 active
churches as of August 1, 2008.
•
Is the BGAV “broke financially” as has been reported?
Absolutely not! In fact, in recent years, the BGAV’s Virginia Baptist Mission Board has balanced
its budget, and the yearly audits have shown a surplus. The Treasurer advocated for and has worked a
“receipts based budgeting” plan that allows the VBMB to operate within the receipts that are sent by
BGAV churches. We live within our income and biblical principals of good and proper stewardship.
• What are my church’s giving options?
The following are suggested giving plans. Any church is free to change percentage, negatively designate,
or make other changes. Notify the BGAV Treasurer’s Office in writing of any changes.
Option 1 (World Missions 1 track) – Your WM1 gifts beyond Virginia go to ministries selected by the
Southern Baptist Convention.
SBC and BGAV.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Option 4 (Customized track) – This option was added to the list options to allow a church to
design its own giving plan. The BGAV Treasurer will follow the
church’s written directions for distribution, including percentages.
The church must provide its customized plan to the Treasurer’s
Office in writing.
•
My church wants to give to Cooperative Missions, but wants to know why you have more than one
option and why a fourth was added?
Because the churches asked for options. BGAV churches value the autonomy of the local church and
freedom. In a series of budget hearings across Virginia, Baptists asked to have more say in how their
mission gifts are distributed. So the BGAV voted to give churches several options: WM1, WM2, WM3
and Custom Designed by the church (including negative designations).
•
What is Kingdom Advance and how does it relate to the BGAV?
Kingdom Advance is a vision of the BGAV and its Virginia Baptist Mission Board (VBMB) to be an
umbrella under which diverse Baptists can cooperate on the “main thing” — spreading the gospel and
ministry of Jesus Christ while maintaining their church autonomy and freedom to choose.
51
Kingdom Advance did not originate as a response to controversy but as a way to expand and magnify
missions and evangelism at a time when the state population growth outstrips Christian growth, when
there is a growing crisis in church leadership development, and when ministries are opening up all
around the world. But messengers at the May 10, 2002, meeting at which Kingdom Advance was
adopted embraced it as way for diverse Baptists to work together in unity in a time of
denominational controversy.
Executive Director John Upton describes four Kingdom Advance elements:
(1) Empowering Leaders: Churches are seeking better ways to identify and call their leaders, and ministers
need help in finding places to serve. A more effective staff placement process that does not infringe on
congregational autonomy must be developed, and “assimilation” of new ministers into Virginia Baptist
life must be intentional and strategic. In addition, “burnout” among ministers is an increasing concern
that must definitely be addressed.
(2) Courageous Churches: If our churches are not healthy and vibrant, the BGAV cannot be strong.
Accomplishing that goal will require starting more churches, rejuvenating existing churches, offering
customized discipleship and Bible study curriculum, and helping with conflict resolution.
(3) Emerging Leaders: Virginia Baptists are about 15 years away from a leadership crisis in our churches.
We’re doing a lot better job of talking people out of their call to ministry than in helping them find their
call. We need a deliberate program of leadership development that begins with children and continues
through young people, college and seminary students and adults.
(4) “Glocal” Missions and Evangelism: Virginia Baptists’ missions philosophy is “glocal” – both global and
local – with a mobile missions team as its vehicle.
[For more specific information on Kingdom Advance and other matters related to the BGAV and VBMB,
visit www.vbmb.org or call 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428).]
• Define Global and “Glocal.”
Global means worldwide. “Glocal” was coined to encompass missions ranging from the local to
global scene.
•
Why use the term “Glocal” when it can be confused with “Global”?
“GLOCAL” is not a word with which everyone is familiar. It is a term that encompasses our personal
“mission garden” – VIRGINIA – and the wider mission garden – our WORLD. As Virginia Baptists, our
hearts are here, and out there too. Also, it is worthy to note that CBF uses “GLOBAL Missions,” and the
SBC uses “International Missions.” GLOCAL is used to illustrate that missions is a biblical mandate that
begins at “home” and is carried around the world. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), is our guide.
The coined word “Glocal” has gained broad appeal inside and outside Virginia.
•
Why did the BGAV change its constitution to count only the Virginia portion of Cooperative
Missions toward messenger representation?
In one word—fairness. Messengers approved this change at the annual meeting by more than a twothirds vote. They felt churches that deliberately bypassed Virginia mission work in their Cooperative
Missions giving should not have the same voting strength as those who remain loyal to Virginia causes.
No churches were shut out. In fact, churches in the three basic Cooperative Missions options had an
increase in messenger representation under the constitution change.
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•
Is the BGAV trying to cut its ties with the SBC and its agencies?
Absolutely not. As of August 2008, 44 missionaries serve in the Commonwealth. Seventeen are jointly
funded by the BGAV, local associations and churches, and the North American Mission Board.
The remaining 27 are jointly supported by the BGAV, churches, and associations. The BGAV also has
mission partnerships through the SBC International Mission Board and a contract with the SBC’s
GuideStone Financial Resources (formerly Annuity Board) to assist pastors and church staff with their
retirement and insurance. In fact, the BGAV channeled approximately $8 million to Southern Baptist
causes in 2007.
No church ever has to choose between being related to the BGAV and the SBC.
•
I’ve heard my church’s gifts to the BGAV go to pay for abortions at Baptist Hospital
in Lynchburg?
Absolutely not. The BGAV severed its agency relationship with Virginia Baptist Hospital in 1981. At
that time, the BGAV decided to give limited support to the School of Pastoral Care at the hospital, a
program of the chaplain’s office that trains ministers to do a better job of caring for people. That support
was discontinued many years ago when the School of Pastoral Care was closed. Not a penny ever went
to pay for abortions.
• What is the BGAV’s position on abortion?
In November 1997 the BGAV reaffirmed its opposition to abortion.
Resolution on Abortion:
As we approach the 20th anniversary of Virginia Baptists’ definitive statements on abortion,
the Christian Life Committee recommends that the messengers to the 1997 Baptist General Association
of Virginia reaffirm the following position:
Whereas, Southern Baptists have historically held a biblical view of the sanctity of human life, and
Whereas, abortion is a very serious moral and spiritual problem of continuing concern to the American
people, and
Whereas, Christians have a responsibility to deal with all moral and spiritual issues which affect society,
including the problems of abortion, and
Whereas, the practice of abortion for selfish nontherapeutic reasons wantonly destroys fetal life, dulls
our society’s moral sensitivity, and leads to a cheapening of all human life,
Therefore, be it Resolved, that the messengers to the 174th Baptist General Association of Virginia
meeting in Roanoke in November 1997 reaffirm the biblical sacredness and dignity of all human life,
including fetal life, and
Be it further Resolved, that in the best interest of our society, we reject any indiscriminate attitude
toward abortion as contrary to the biblical view, and
Be it further Resolved, that we also affirm our conviction about the limited role of government in
dealing with matters relating to abortion, and support the right of expectant mothers to the full range of
medical services and personal counseling for the preservation of life and health.
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•
Why doesn’t the BGAV take a stand opposing homosexual behavior and homosexual church
leadership?
It definitely has taken a stand opposing both, and has severed relations with two institutions over
disagreements about their policy on related issues, most recently with Averett University in 2005.
(For more information, contact the Treasurer’s office at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.)
In 1993, messengers at the BGAV annual meeting adopted the following resolution:
Resolution on Homosexual Behavior:
Recognizing that the autonomy of the local congregation historically has been affirmed in the Baptist
life, the Virginia Baptist General Board [now called the Virginia Baptist Mission Board] makes the
following statement:
We believe that homosexual behavior is one of many sins listed by the Scriptures, and that “the
unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” For the Bible says: “Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was met” (Romans 1:27).
We affirm the biblical teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful and unacceptable for Christians.
Therefore, we do not endorse elevating those who practice it to positions of leadership.
We make this statement in the spirit of the grace of the Lord Jesus, confessing our own sinfulness:
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We seek to bring all people to
a loving and redeeming Savior who alone will judge between the redeemed and the lost.
• What position does the BGAV take on marriage?
In 1998, BGAV adopted this resolution on the sanctity of marriage of one man to one woman.
Resolution Affirming the Sanctity of Marriage:
The sanctity of marriage continues to face attacks from a variety of cultural attitudes and moral lapses,
including those of public and religious leaders. Recent occurrences greatly heighten our awareness of the
need to reclaim the moral authority of Biblical principles in marriage and family relationships. The
world hungers for models that demonstrate the joy of family love and the rewards of marital fidelity.
Today, as never before, believers need strongly to affirm and exemplify Biblical ideals in marriage
and family.
God created man and woman in His own image. He established a covenant in marriage between them:
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one
flesh” (Gen. 2:24). Families grow as husbands and wives follow God’s command to: “…be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…” (Gen. 1:28). Mutual fidelity, respect and unselfish
love characterize the marriage relationship God intends (Eph. 5:21-23).
God created the marriage covenant as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman
(Matt. 5:27-32). He judges and holds accountable those who break the covenant. He provides grace and
54
the opportunity for reconciliation (Rom. 3:21-26). The Scriptures repeatedly bear witness to God’s love toward persons who sin. They also bear witness to God’s offer of pardon to all who seek His forgiveness
through repentance and contrition (Lk. 18:9-30).
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board emphatically reaffirms the Biblical principles that undergird the
sanctity of marriage, recognizes the Biblical call to accountability, and challenges all persons of faith to
live out this ideal.
(This Affirmation on the Sanctity of Marriage was approved by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board on
October 14, 1998, and recommended for adoption by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, which
approved it at its annual meeting that year.)
•
What is the relationship between Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia and the BGAV?
WMU of Virginia (WMUV) partners as a co-missioner with the BGAV, and this partnership is funded by
the Virginia portion of Cooperative Missions and the Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions,
promoted annually in September. The president of WMUV serves as a board member of the Virginia
Baptist Mission Board. WMUV has been incorporated as an autonomous Virginia Baptist entity
since 1935.
•
How does the BGAV view the ordination of women and their service as deacons or senior pastors?
The ordination of women and how they shall serve is a local church matter, not a BGAV matter.
The autonomy of the local congregation and the priesthood of the believer are the criteria by which the
BGAV represents churches.
•
What is the relationship between the Religious Herald and the BGAV?
The mission of the Religious Herald is to inform, interpret, and inspire in the context of the witness and
work of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. The paper publishes news and commentary about
Virginia Baptists and the ministries they support. While supportive of the BGAV and its ministries, the
editors are solely responsible for the content of the paper. They are not employees of the Virginia Baptist
Mission Board or any other Virginia Baptist entity.
Begun in 1828, the Herald is published by The Religious Herald Publishing Association, Inc., a private,
non-profit, non-stock corporation. All 24 of its trustees are nominated by the BGAV’s Committee on
Boards and Committees and are active members of BGAV churches. Trustees of the paper ensure
unrestricted editorial freedom, a hallmark of the paper for its entire history.
The Herald seeks to chronicle the life of Virginia Baptists, interpret the Baptist scene, promote healthy cooperation among Baptists, serve as a forum for the expression diverse opinions, and uphold
Baptist distinctives.
•
The BGAV relates to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Why?
Because a significant group of Virginia Baptist churches choose to do missions work through this Baptist
organization and asked the BGAV to assist them. Autonomous churches are always free to relate to
any organization.
•
Does your organization support and endorse the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message?
The BGAV passed a resolution at its 1999 annual meeting that affirmed its support of the 1963 Baptist
Faith and Message. The SBC voted in 2000 to replace it with the 2000 BF&M. The BGAV has taken no
subsequent action but, as an autonomous body of Baptists, still stands behind the 1963 statement as a
matter for our autonomous churches to decide for themselves. There are churches in the BGAV that
55
HAVE endorsed the 2000 BF&M, as is their right. We will, of course, cooperate with them in our mutual
effort to focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
•
In partnering with the IMB, does that mean the BGAV sanctions the SBC’S 2000 revision of the
Baptist Faith and Message? Will the IMB and NAMB require strict compliance of their beliefs
when in such partnerships with the BGAV?
The BGAV voted in 1999 to endorse the 1963 BF&M, and we stand by that. However, we cooperate
fully with those in the BGAV who choose to endorse the 2000 BF&M.
The BGAV requires no signatures on any version of the BF&M from any employee or from churches
who wish to work in cooperation with the BGAV. However, NAMB requires the missionaries it funds or
jointly funds in Virginia to sign the 2000 BF&M, and we respect that requirement.
•
Why does the BGAV see the need to support a seventh seminary (Baptist Theological Seminary at
Richmond) beyond the six SBC seminaries? How does the BGAV support theological education?
Actually, counting the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, the BGAV supports eight institutions
for theological education. BTSR and John Leland receive support from BGAV churches that choose
to support them through their giving track. Support also goes in that manner to the six SBC seminaries.
The BGAV supports these seminaries because our churches choose to give them support. Leland is
supported through the Virginia Missions and Ministries portion of the budget. We also send dollars to the
seminaries based on three suggested giving tracks. One of these tracks includes BTSR. When a church
chooses that track, it chooses to support BTSR. Further, churches can choose to exclude line items
within the particular tracks. When churches do not exercise this option, they continue their choice to
support the seminaries. A fourth giving track allows churches to customize what they want to support
and what percentages to give.
•
What is your organization’s relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention, current
and projected?
As of August 2008, some 882 BGAV churches give all or part of their mission dollars to the SBC
through the WM1 and WM2 tracks. In recent years, the pastor of a church that supports only the SBC
and BGAV through the World Missions 1 (WM1) giving track served as BGAV president, after being
elected without opposition. He succeeded a president from a WM3 church. It certainly can be said that
the BGAV supports the SBC now, and will do so in the future.
•
What is your organization’s relationship with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, current
and projected?
As of August 2008, 106 BGAV churches had selected the World Missions 3 (WM3) giving plan out of
1,405 active churches. Those churches chose to channel their mission dollars through the CBF. In the
WM2 track, missions to the Romany People of Southern Europe is a project we do jointly with CBF at
present. Again, the BGAV supports what our churches tell us, and your messengers vote on at each
year’s annual meeting.
•
Your organization relates to the Baptist World Alliance. Why? What is your projected relationship
with the BWA?
The BGAV has long been one of the largest international contributors to the BWA. We have had an
historic relationship with the BWA since its formation in 1905, cooperating with the world Baptist
family in fellowship, ministry, evangelism, relief, and issues related to human rights and religious
liberty. We will continue in that relationship and also applied for direct BWA membership because
BGAV churches desire it. That application was approved at the BWA’s 2005 Baptist World Congress in
Birmingham, England. As with any other issue, individual BGAV churches are free to make their own
decisions about whether to participate in that relationship.
56
•
Why does the BGAV sponsor and promote alternative Sunday School literature in addition to the
LifeWay materials promoted by the SBC?
The BGAV exists to serve churches of Virginia. Churches are making a number of choices regarding the
choice of their Sunday School literature. We offer training and equipping. We support the decision of the
local church to choose what literature they use in Sunday School.
•
Why does the BGAV see the need for another global missions program (CBF Global Missions)?
Is there some problem with the SBC’s International Mission Board?
We support the work of the IMB, and our work complements their work. We have no intention of
becoming a sending agent. We care more about finding and training “emerging people” who will then
follow God’s call on to the mission field. The CBF’s work is not the BGAV’s work, but we cooperate
with them because some of our churches choose to do that. We will continue to have international
missions projects and partnerships with the IMB and CBF. We also recently signed a new partnership
agreement with the SBC North American Mission Board. Missionaries – appointed cooperatively by the
BGAV, local associations and churches and NAMB – work and will continue to work in Virginia.
Hundreds of our pastors and church staff members, including BGAV employees, depend on the SBC’s
GuideStone Financial Resources (formerly the Annuity Board) for insurance and retirement.
•
What is the most important priority for your organization – autonomy of the local church or
inerrancy of the Bible? Why?
We do not have to choose between the two. We believe in the historical Baptist principals of the
priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church. Also, inerrancy is not a word the Bible
used about itself. After years of using the word “inerrancy” in the SBC controversy, the SBC leadership
DID NOT use that word in the 2000 BF&M. The Bible and the SBC did not choose to use that word.
Neither do we.
•
What is your organization’s stance on the inerrancy of the Bible in regards to matters of faith,
practice, science, history, and morality?
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative Word of God and that we should follow it as
our rule of faith and practice and interpret it with balance and integrity.
We believe in the authority of the Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:15-16 says:
“And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
Many more verses say Scripture is sharper than a two-edged sword and should be a standard for
teaching, used to test everything, rightly divided, hidden in our hearts, delighted in, esteemed above all
things, trusted in, obeyed, etc., etc.
•
How does your organization view other world religions, such as Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus,
Secular Humanists, Latter Day Saints, etc.?
For that answer, go to John 3, where Jesus is in a conversation with Nicodemus concerning the Kingdom
of God. Verse 3 says: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God.” There are no other criteria for acceptance into the Kingdom as far as the BGAV is
concerned. We do believe that adherents of other religions should have total freedom of choice in their
worship, but as Christians we still believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God.
57
•
If your organization had but one choice for its national affiliation, either the SBC or the CBF,
which would it choose and why?
We would never choose. It is the churches’ choice as autonomous bodies to choose their affiliation. The
BGAV is just that, a general association of cooperating churches. We respect the churches’ affiliation and
their right to choose.
•
Explain the difference between the Alma Hunt Offering and Virginia Missions offering because of
the agreement of the WMU of Virginia and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board of the BGAV.
The Alma Hunt Offering IS the Virginia missions offering. As of May 10, 2002, the Alma Hunt Offering
is not JUST used in the state, but it has expanded to support other mission endeavors of Virginia Baptist
churches. It provides “glocal” connections through special ministry projects designed for Virginia
Baptists in response to needs all around the world.
• What is ‘WINGS’?
WINGS is the name of a curriculum resource (for teachers of preschoolers, children, youth, and adults)
created by the VBMB and WMU of Virginia and released at the BGAV annual meeting in
November 2003.
It is a cross between missions education and spiritual formation in that it views missions service as an
extension of the Christian spiritual life and is designed to help people to “connect and fly with the wind of God’s Spirit.” It is a simple planning model that teachers will be able to use to craft their own
learning sessions.
• Define International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.
The SBC uses these terms to define its international missions endeavors overseas (IMB) and missions in
North America (NAMB).
•
What does the BGAV do to start new churches?
The Courageous Churches Team provides such assistance as new church investment grants, pastoral
assistance, church planter assessment and training “boot camps,” and one-on-one field consultations.
Over five years (2003-2007), Virginia Baptists started 108 new churches, now at various stages of
becoming contributing, active BGAV churches.
• Where does the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering money go?
The IMB says that 100% of this offering goes to missions on the mission field. That is the only answer
given. Anything further would have to come from the IMB.
•
Where does the annual Annie Armstrong Easter Offering money go?
According to the North American Mission Board, this money is used in the USA in cooperation with
state conventions and associations, such as the BGAV, and with local associations and churches. One
example of such a program would be new church starts.
• Where does the annual CBF Global Missions Offering money go?
According to the CBF Global Missions office, it is used for missions in the United States and overseas.
•
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How will a BGAV church’s mission gifts be disbursed, and by what agency, if that particular
church chooses no longer to contribute to the SBC?
All your church’s gifts channeled through the BGAV will be strictly distributed according to your
church’s giving plan. No other method of distribution is allowed. We make EVERY attempt to contact a
church when an undesignated gift arrives.
• How are mission gifts to CBF disbursed and by what agency?
All mission gifts given through the BGAV World Missions 3 track to CBF are distributed by the BGAV
to CBF, and they are then disbursed according to the CBF budget.
•
I want someone to come to my church to answer questions like these for our congregation.
Would the BGAV send someone?
Absolutely. Please call the Virginia Baptist Resource Center in Richmond and ask to speak to the
Executive Director’s Office. Our number is 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428) or 1.804.915.5000. Call today!
59
Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
EDITOR’S NOTE: The article below was written by Bob Allen, managing editor of EthicsDaily.com, reporting the first printing of the Truthfully
Speaking booklet in 2003. It has been adapted and updated for use in each of the printings since then.
Church Stealing Charged in States With Competing Conventions
The presence of separate conventions identified with the Southern Baptist Convention in three states has prompted
charges of “sheep-stealing,” or seeking to lure congregations out of one fold into the other.
Concerns are sufficient in the Baptist General Association of Virginia for leadership to issue a booklet of
“frequently asked questions” being distributed among the state’s churches.
“Takeover of churches is a fact of life in Virginia and other state Baptist bodies across the country,” says the
book, titled Truthfully Speaking: The Executive Director and the Treasurer of the Baptist General Association of
Virginia Respond to Frequently Asked Questions About the BGAV.
Countering ‘Untruths’
The book attempts to counter “untruths and half-truths,” which it says “play a big part in the takeover strategy.”
“For example, BGAV leaders have confronted those who spread the word that the BGAV condones abortion
and homosexuality as a lifestyle. Such attempts to intentionally misinform Virginia Baptists are totally
unacceptable!”
*As of October 23, 2006, some 262 churches had left the BGAV to align with Southern Baptist Conservatives
of Virginia (SBCV), a pro-Southern Baptist Convention group formed in 1996 after failing to change the
moderate-led BGAV from within. Another 42 churches align dually with both conventions, typically a first step
toward severing ties with the BGAV. At last count, nine churches had returned to BGAV membership.
Questions addressed in the document include whether the BGAV is trying to cut ties with the SBC and its agencies,
as its opponents suggest.
“Absolutely not,” the BGAV leaders respond, noting that the BGAV channeled nearly $8 million to Southern
Baptist causes in 2006.
Why does the BGAV sponsor and promote alternative Sunday school literature in addition to LifeWay Christian
Resources materials promoted by the SBC? “We support the decision of the local church to choose what literature
they use in Sunday school.”
*What is the organization’s relationship with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship? 96 of the state’s 1,406
active churches gave to a budget option sending all of their world mission gifts to the Atlanta-based CBF as of
June 1, 2007.
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What is the organization’s relationship with the Baptist World Alliance? The BGAV reports that it is one of the
largest international givers to the BWA, cooperating with the BWA in fellowship, ministry, evangelism, relief,
and issues related to human rights and religious liberty. The BGAV will continue its 100-year relationship with
the BWA because BGAV churches desire it. The BGAV became an official member of the BWA in its own right
in 2005. Individual churches are free to accept or opt out of that relationship.
What About Homosexuality and Abortion?
Others question whether the BGAV is soft on homosexuality and abortion. Answers cite resolutions affirming
the sanctity of fetal life and characterizing homosexual behavior as “sinful and unacceptable for Christians.”
Allegations to the contrary on those issues “have appeared in publications of the SBCV and been repeated in
e-mails and in churches across Virginia,” the book says, quoting Executive Director John Upton as declaring,
“Baptists have every right to express their views and to affiliate as they wish, but integrity demands that they do
so truthfully.”
Conflicting Statements
Doyle Chauncey, executive director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, said the statement that
such charges have been in SBCV publications is “untrue.” A similar Q&A section on the breakaway convention’s
website responds to those who accuse the SBCV of using a strategy of trying to “infiltrate and steal BGAV
churches by using false information and deceptive tactics.”
“It is the official position of the SBCV that its employees will NOT in any way court a BGAV church,” the answer
says. [EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sept-Oct. 2003 issue of Proclaimer, the SBCV’s “flagship communications
piece,” lists steps a church could take to withdraw from the BGAV. See “Evergreen Church Joins the SBCV,”
page 6. Copies of this article are available from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board]
The SBCV isn’t the only convention accused of church rustling. The Missouri Baptist Convention news journal
The Pathway recently accused the breakaway Baptist General Convention of Missouri of hiring a “pitchman” to
make calls on churches in the conservative-controlled MBC. The BGCM denied it is interested in luring churches
away from the MBC.
Unlike Virginia and Texas, where the SBC Executive Committee receives and distributes funds from two
conventions, one moderate and one conservative, the national body declined to receive money from the new
[moderate] Missouri group, saying it wasn’t in Southern Baptists’ best interest to cooperate with another group
opposed to the conservative leadership of the Missouri Baptist Convention. Individual churches in the newer
convention may, however, contribute to the SBC directly.
The BGAV booklet also describes the anatomy of the typical “takeover” of a local church. [See “Church
Takeovers: A True Virginia Baptist Story” in this book.]
“Takeover tactics explode lives, reputations and relationships in an attempt to discredit and dis-fellowship any
opposition that stands in the way,” it says. “They pit people against each other, creating fear, anger and discord.”
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Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
EDITOR’S NOTE: Listen to the pain of some Virginia Baptist church members who have experienced attempts, some successful and some unsuccessful,
by ultraconservatives to take over their churches and move them out of the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV.) They are first-hand
observers who expose things that are really happening in Virginia, but wish to remain anonymous so they won’t create more pain among family,
friends, and church members who have found themselves in conflict. Invariably, when one of the interviewees heard what had happened in other
churches, he or she said something like: “That’s what happened to us! How did they know that?”
Church Takeovers: A True Virginia Baptist Story
“This thing [fundamentalist takeovers of churches] has split families and friends; some won’t even talk to each
other anymore,” the Virginia Baptist layperson said with obvious pain. “It’s taking us a long time to heal.”
If this Virginia Baptist, one of several interviewed from different churches, had been standing in a literal war
zone, he would have described the smell of scorched earth and the sight of destroyed buildings, bomb craters, and
battered bodies.
Instead, he stood in a fractured church and spoke of the “spiritual stench” created by scorched lives, lost trust,
deep grief, great anger, overwhelming bitterness, wounded spirits, and much disgust all rolled into one.
This Virginia Baptist and others interviewed did not speak about a shooting war but of a no-holds-barred political
battle by ultraconservatives to take over her or his church and move it out of the Baptist General Association of
Virginia (BGAV) into another state Baptist group. (See “Church Stealing Charged in States with Competing
Conventions,” in this issue of Truthfully Speaking….)
People who have experienced takeover describe it as an effort to gain victory at any cost – no matter how many
people may get hurt or discredited or how many untruths and half-truths must be told.
One person said takeover tactics remind him of the neutron bomb developed in earlier years – a weapon that
kills people with radiation but leaves most buildings intact. Takeover tactics explode lives, reputations, and
relationships in an attempt to discredit and disfellowship any opposition that stands in the way. They pit people
against each other, creating fear, anger, and discord.
“My Bible says that God is not the author of anger, fear, discord, and confusion,” said one person, whose church
survived the takeover attempt, but went through a long healing process. “They sowed those unholy seeds in my
church.”
Correct Information – an Important Element
The above church survived because correct information got into the hands of enough people to head off the
process, but it left no less pain. In many situations, information is spread too little, too late, or not at all.
Why is that? “Hindsight is 20-20, but it’s easy to see that there’s enough blame to go around,” said one former
member of a church that was taken over. “Our previous pastor sheltered us from the denominational controversy,
our messengers don’t attend the sessions at Baptist meetings, our people don’t read about what is happening and
get upset when anyone tries to tell them the truth.”
A fundamentalist pastor publicly told one teacher, who talked about the controversial 2000 Baptist Faith and
Message in her Sunday School class, that she had “desecrated” the class by discussing such issues.
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A Lesson Learned
“One of the most important lessons learned was that a great deal of effort and time must go into providing
information on both sides of the issues so everyone may make a decision based on correct information,” one
church member said.
“We need to know where we have been as Baptists, where we are now, and in which direction we need to go
to protect the autonomy of the local church congregation, which in turn protects our basic beliefs of individual
religious freedom and responsibility,” the church member continued.
“We will lose our individual religious freedom if we allow a pastor who believes strongly in pastoral authority to
make decisions for us,” the church member said.
“People need to know this is happening – that the pastor sometimes acts as if he believes that he serves in the role
of the Holy Spirit – to dwell with us (John 14:17), to inspire the Scriptures and speak through them (Acts 1:16)
according to his understanding of what the Scriptures mean to him…”
“We are not supposed to read our Bible and seek understanding through the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. This
is why the Baptist Faith and Message recently had deleted from its content that ‘…Jesus Christ is the criterion for
interpretation of the Scriptures,’” the church member said.
How Takeovers Happen
Takeovers happen different ways in different locations: Sometimes, they begin slowly and move along subtly, a
pastor relates. A fundamentalist with a strong personality comes into the church and starts sewing seeds of discord.
He may hold private meetings to convince individuals that the truth is not being proclaimed in that church.
He gives liberally and offers to serve. People trust him. He becomes a Sunday School teacher, a deacon, and
chairman of committees. He may quietly assemble followers. He or others may secretly tape Sunday School
classes to ferret out dissent.
Other new members may join the church with the hidden agenda to align with him. Some church members may
catch on early, but others won’t believe them and criticize them, even as he and his group begin to sew discontent
and manipulate the nomination and election processes for church positions.
Then the pastor leaves to go to another church, and the group of crusaders begins to manipulate the replacement
process and to stack the pulpit committee with people who will vote to bring in a like-minded pastor.
Search Committee Deceit
Firsthand observers tell of cases in which resumes and recommendation letters were doctored to conceal the
fundamentalist background of a candidate in previous churches. The rationale: “We can’t let the people see that
type of information.”
And they tell of search committees where a chairman eliminates resumes and letters of recommendation from any
other source but a fundamentalist one. They tell of pulpit committees who become so secretive about the process
that no one knows anything until a candidate is brought forward.
Pastoral Deceit
In another scenario, perhaps a pastor leaves, and a pulpit committee begins the search in good faith. They may ask
a potential pastor if he has any political agenda, where he stands on certain issues, and if he supports the BGAV.
In too many cases, they get “a lie – that’s the only thing you can call it,” one church member said. He will tell them
what they want to hear and that he is 100 percent behind the BGAV. Then, at some point, he begins the drumbeat
to ignore the BGAV and its programs and publications and eventually to leave its membership to join the Southern
Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV).
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He begins to inundate the church with outside speakers and publications that advocate a fundamentalist point of
view that contradicts what he told the pulpit committee and what he is now preaching himself.
Asked what he would do differently in the future, a former pulpit committee member said, “I’d insist on giving
the prospective pastor a lie detector test.”
“My new pastor took off his ‘sheep’s clothing’ fairly soon,” another person related, “and began to run down the
BGAV with what turned out to be lies about such issues as homosexuality, abortion, Bible belief, Cooperative
Program support, relations with the SBC, etc.” For example, many Baptists are falsely led to believe that the
BGAV supports homosexual behavior, employs known homosexuals, and condones same-sex marriages.
Congregational Deceit
New people, often with a hidden agenda, begin to join and support his viewpoint and help him browbeat and
intimidate people who try to raise an objection.
People who object will be publicly embarrassed, backstabbed with gossip, pitted against each other, or told they
are unspiritual when they object because God talks directly to the pastor and not to them. They are told to leave
the church or stay home if they disagree. Often conspirators call committee meetings and fail to invite those who
might disagree.
Disgusted and disillusioned people begin to leave “and new ones come in as fast as the older ones leave,” said one
former member of a taken-over church.
Women Targeted and Browbeaten
Women become a special target. They are intimidated, embarrassed, silenced rudely, talked down to, or lectured.
Even longtime women Sunday School teachers may not be allowed to teach any class with a man in it – “even
down to the fourth-grade level,” one woman said.
Only the pastor’s view of what the Bible says about the role of women in marriage and in the church is allowed
– and only part of what the Bible says about women is preached, according to those interviewed.
Members of Woman’s Missionary Union, usually the people in the church most informed about the denomination,
are marginalized even more. Mailed materials related to WMU may be thrown in the trash. The pastor may
adamantly refuse to allow WMU promotions or speakers.
The pastor may try to change the church’s preselected patterns of giving through the BGAV so its money won’t
have to mix with any “tainted money” going to groups with which he disagrees.
“Our pastor said if your dollar lies in the offering plate with a dollar someone gave to the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship, that makes you sinful,” one member said.
Church members report that people involved in takeovers try to convince them that the BGAV opposes and will
not cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention.
“We have to get the word out that that is untrue,” one said. The BGAV cooperates with all willing Baptists in
missions, and it allows churches to give through different tracks to support different causes.
“That’s called the autonomy of the local church – the very thing the people taking over want to destroy.”
Takeover of churches is a fact of life in Virginia and other state Baptist bodies across the country.
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Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
Takeovers and Untruths Now a Fact of Life —
True Virginia Baptist Facts
It’s part of more than two decades of denominational controversy that focused first on the national Southern
Baptist scene and then began to invade churches, associations, state conventions, seminaries, and missions at
home and overseas.
Controversy has resulted in competing state conventions forming in three states – Virginia, Texas, and Missouri
and may soon affect North Carolina. The Virginia body that split from the Baptist General Association of Virginia
(BGAV) in 1996 is the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV).
*As of October 23, 2006, some 304 BGAV churches had either left to align only with the SBCV (262) or to align
dually with the SBCV and the BGAV (42). [At last count, nine churches had returned to the BGAV.] Usually, dual
alignment leads to the next step in the process – leaving the BGAV altogether.
Untruths and half-truths play a big part in the takeover strategy. For example, BGAV leaders have confronted
those who spread the untruthful word that the BGAV condones abortion and homosexuality as a lifestyle.
Such attempts to intentionally misinform Virginia Baptists are totally unacceptable!
Those kinds of charges have appeared in publications of the SBCV and been repeated in emails and in churches
across Virginia.
“Baptists have every right to express their views and to affiliate as they wish, but integrity demands that they do
so truthfully,” declared BGAV Executive Director John Upton.
“The BGAV went firmly on record in our 1993 annual meeting that, while we recognize the autonomy of the local
congregation, ‘We affirm the biblical teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful and unacceptable for Christians.
Therefore, we do not endorse elevating those who practice to positions of leadership,’” Upton said.
The resolution further resolved: “We make this statement in the spirit and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing
our own sinfulness: ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). We seek to bring all
people to a loving and redeeming Savior, who alone will judge between the redeemed and the lost.”
Upton and BGAV Treasurer Eddie Stratton also disagreed strongly with “indiscriminate statements” about the
BGAV’s stance on abortion.
“The BGAV strongly reaffirmed its opposition to abortion in our 1997 annual session, on the 20th anniversary of
previous definite statements on abortion,” Stratton said.
That resolution noted that Baptists have “historically held a biblical view of the sanctity of human life.” It said,
“…the practice of abortion for selfish, nontherapeutic reasons only destroys fetal life, dulls our society’s moral
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sensitivity, and leads to the cheapening of all human life.” It resolved that “in the best interests of our society, we
reject any indiscriminate attitude toward abortion, as contrary to the biblical view….”
Both BGAV leaders also responded to statements critical of the BGAV because certain Baptist individuals and
churches may hold differing views on abortion and homosexuality.
“The BGAV has spoken decisively as a body on these issues in annual sessions,” Upton said.
Concerning the virgin birth – there is absolutely NO TRUTH to the false accusation floating that the “BGAV does
not believe in the virgin birth.” The Bible speaks clearly on that Upton said.
The full wording of the 1993 and 1997 resolutions on homosexuality and abortion may be found on the BGAV
website at www.vbmb.org, as well as in the 1993 and 1997 Virginia Baptist annual reports respectively.
[See further information on the homosexuality issue in the Question & Answer portion of this booklet.]
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Truthfully Speaking
Ephesians 4:15
What Virginia Baptists Support through the
Cooperative Missions Budget
(in alphabetical order)
Most information below for agencies and institutions outside the VBMB is
quoted or paraphrased from the respective agency or institution’s Website.
Annuity Board (SBC)
(see GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention)
Associated Baptist Press
Associated Baptist Press is the nation’s first and only independent news service created by and for Baptists. Working out of
its Jacksonville, Florida, headquarters, and with bureaus in Washington and Dallas, ABP provides daily coverage of Baptist
news, news from the nation’s capital, and other general news and information of concern to Christians in the U.S. and
around the world. ABP is supported through the generous contributions of friends, several Baptist institutional partners and
foundations and is led by a self-perpetuating, independent board of directors. In 2007, APB entered a publishing partnership
with the Religious Herald and two other Baptist state journals.
Mission Statement: Associated Baptist Press will serve Christ by providing credible and compelling information about
matters of faith.
Website: www.abpnews.com
Baptist Center for Ethics
Baptist Center for Ethics’ mission is to provide proactive, positive, and practical ethics resources and services to congregations.
BCE believes church leaders and faith communities possess the keys to developing moral character, teaching sound decision
making, offering a clear moral witness to the larger culture, and advancing social change. BCE’s goal is to equip leaders
and churches with quality, relevant resources and services from a christo-centric perspective. Located in Nashville, BCE’s
programming includes a website (ethicsdaily.com), an e-newsletter (distributed three times weekly), a publishing division
(Acacia resources), and numerous conferences on family, race, health care, citizenship, stewardship, and congregational
leadership.
Website: www.ethicsdaily.com
Baptist Extension Board
The Baptist Extension Board serves to assist BGAV congregations by providing first and second mortgage loans at a
competitive interest rate for land acquisition or church building construction or renovation. Interest paid provides additional
loan funds for churches in need.
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Serving fourteen Baptist bodies, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is a non-profit 501(c)(3) education
and advocacy organization that has worked for nearly seventy years promoting religious liberty for all and upholding the
principle of church-state separation.
Mission Statement: The mission of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is to defend and extend God-given
religious liberty for all, furthering the Baptist heritage that champions the principle that religion must be freely exercised,
neither advanced nor inhibited by government.
Website: www.bjconline.org
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Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is a distinctively Baptist seminary operating within the context of an ecumenical
consortium in Richmond, Virginia. BTSR offers accredited masters and doctoral degree programs and continuing education
opportunities.
Mission Statement: The purpose of the seminary is to provide advanced theological education and training for effective
leadership in the various ministries of the church for those men and women who are called and committed to Christian
ministry. As a community of learners committed to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, the seminary is dedicated to the
following principles:
The seminary seeks to maintain excellence in scholarship and to provide for and encourage the spiritual growth of its
faculty, staff, students, and constituents.
The seminary stresses classical theological disciplines and pursues new avenues of education, encouraging practical
application and hands-on practice in ministry.
The seminary is distinctively Baptist in terms of heritage with an ecumenical commitment, a global perspective, and
participation in the world-wide Christian mission.
The seminary is committed to gender and racial inclusion, and, in the development of faculty and staff, pledges to seek
to achieve balance in gender and race.
Website: www.btsr.edu
Baptist World Alliance
The Baptist World Alliance is a fellowship of more than 200 Baptist conventions and unions comprising a membership
of more than 36 million baptized believers and a community of over 105 million Baptists worldwide. The BWA began in
London, England, in 1905 at the first Baptist World Congress. The goals of the BWA are to unite Baptists worldwide, to
respond to people in need, to defend human rights, and to promote mission and evangelism.
Mission Statement: Networking the Baptist family to impact the world for Christ.
Vision Statement: The Baptist World Alliance is a global movement of Baptists sharing a common confession of faith in
Jesus Christ, bonded together by God’s love to support, encourage and strengthen one another, while proclaiming and living
the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to a lost world.
Website: www.bwanet.org
BGAV Ministers’ Support Ministries
This category of the Virginia Missions and Ministries portion of the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget funds various
services for ministers. Ministers’ Support Ministries in the 2008 budget include emergency financial assistance, opportunities
for education and fellowship, subscriptions to the Religious Herald for ministers and key leaders, and retirement support.
BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds
The BGAV offers three separate options for scholarships and ministerial educational funds: BGAV Achievement
Scholarships, BGAV Ministerial Educational Funds, and BGAV Nontraditional Ministry Education Scholarships. The
BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds Committee oversees all three funds and makes awards to Virginia
Baptist students who meet all established requirements. As part of this program, students at existing BGAV educational
partners are given priority for student scholarships at each of those institutions. Additional money is set aside for the
Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds Endowment Fund in order to support BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial
Educational Funds in perpetuity.
Website: www.vbmb.org/scholarships
BGAV Support Ministries
This category of the Virginia Missions and Ministries portion of the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget funds the VBMB
Executive Director’s Office and Treasurer’s Office. It also includes expenses related to promotion of the BGAV Cooperative
Missions budget; VBMB meetings; the BGAV annual meeting; and publication of the Virginia Baptist Resource Directory,
Diary, and Annual. This category also includes stewardship education funds for the Office of Stewardship Development
and funds for debt retirement. Currently, the VBMB has an outstanding note related to the waste water treatment plant at
Eagle Eyrie.
Bluefield College
Bluefield College is a private, Christ-centered, liberal arts college located in the mountains of southwestern Virginia.
Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to offer baccalaureate degrees in 22 majors of study,
Bluefield College is touted for its classroom technology, affordability, personalized instruction, and learning settings on the
mission field and in countries abroad.
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Vision Statement: Bluefield College will be a nationally recognized Christ-centered liberal arts college, preparing innovative
learners and transformational leaders to impact the world.
Mission Statement: Bluefield College is a Christ-centered liberal arts college in covenant with the Baptist General
Association of Virginia. We offer a challenging academic experience within a diverse Christian environment. Our academic
and co-curricular programs transform students’ lives by integrating liberal arts with career-oriented studies and service to
God and the global community. We are committed to graduating students who think critically, communicate effectively, and
adapt readily to a changing world.
Website: www.bluefield.edu
Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies
Established in 2000 following an agreement between the Baptist General Association of Virginia, the University of
Richmond and the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies seeks to champion Baptist
distinctives and Baptist heritage and to provide educational opportunities related to Baptist distinctives, history and heritage.
It accomplishes its mission in numerous ways, including the production of resources and publications, the offering of
convocations and programs on special topics of interest, and the availability of a Heritage Fellows program for college
students and an essay contest for high school students. The Center also publishes a family magazine, Heritage Seekers.
Website: www.baptistheritage.org
Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, Inc.
Since 1920 a non-profit organization called Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia has assigned chaplains to Virginia
prisons and juvenile institutions. The goal of Chaplain Service is to have a full-time chaplain serving each of Virginia’s 33
major adult state prisons and four state juvenile correctional centers. By distributing Bibles, conducting worship services,
providing counseling, and coordinating volunteer programs, their staff of chaplains have reached even the most violent
offenders through much needed prison ministry. Because Chaplain Service receives no federal or state tax dollars, it must
rely on many different groups, foundations, religious organizations and caring individuals for support.
Website: www.chaplainservice.org
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great
Commission of Jesus Christ and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. CBF’s four strategic initiatives
are (1) building community and networking, (2) faith formation, (3) global missions, and (4) leadership development.
Vision Statement: Our vision is being the presence of Christ in the world.
Mission Statement: Our mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.
Website: www.thefellowship.info
Courageous Churches Team (VBMB)
Mission Statement: To further advance the Redeemer’s Kingdom through church planting, revitalizing and supporting
existing churches, and developing discipleship and worship.
Courageous Churches ministries funded by the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget include:
• 21-C Conference
• “670” (a five-year statewide evangelism strategy to reach the lost for Christ)
• Church Planting
• Church Music and Worship
• Senior Adult Sing and Share Festival of Praise
• Worship Arts Camp
• Church Music Conference
• Praise Team/Praise Band Weekend
• Handbell Festivals
• All-State Choirs
• Spiritual Development Training
• Sunday School and Discipleship
• S3 Sunday School Summit
• S4 Southwest Sunday School Summit
• Pastors and Friends Conference
• African American Church Growth Conference
• Deaf Ministry
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• Korean Ministry
• Hispanic Ministry
• Language Ministry
• People group/Worldview Strategy Development
• Research and Demographics
• Mosaic Lifestyle Segmentations
For more information on these and other Courageous Churches ministries, visit the Courageous Churches website:
www.vbmb.org/courageouschurches
Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center (VBMB)
Eagle Eyrie, Virginia Baptists’ flagship conference center, is located on 400 wooded acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains near
Lynchburg, Virginia, and provides facilities, meals, and lodging for retreats, conferences, seminars, and other gatherings.
Purpose Statement: The purpose of Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center is to provide a Christian environment where
people come to discover, develop, and nurture their spiritual lives. This is accomplished through worship, Christian training,
Bible study, and fellowship with God and one another.
Website: www.eagleeyrie.org
Emerging Leaders Ministries (VBMB)
Mission Statement: To assist Virginia Baptist churches in evangelizing, identifying, equipping, and discovering missions/
service opportunities for God-called Leaders.
Emerging Leaders ministries funded by the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget include:
• Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, Collegiate and Young Adult Ministry, Adult Emerging Leaders
• Missions Connection Celebration (MC2)
• Children’s Ministry Conference
• Vacation Bible School Tour
• Children and Youth Bible Drills
• Church Weekday Education Conference
• Junior & Senior High Weekends
• GO Teams
• “Consider Your Call” Sunday
• Summer Youth Ministry Conference
• Youth EnCounter (YEC)
• Learning to Lead Conferences (periodic/regional)
• Regional Youth Evangelism EnCounter Conferences
• Call 2 Ministry Conferences
• Virginia Baptist Youth Minister’s Association (VBYMA)
• Collegiate and Young Adult Training and Discipleship
• Baptist Collegiate Ministry (collegiate ministers and centers)
• Collegiate Conferences
• International Student Ministry to Collegiates
• Training for Ministry to college students and young adult leaders
• Small Group Leadership Conferences for Collegiates
• Baptist B.E.S.T. (Building Exemplary Systems for Training) Initiative for Youth Ministry Training
• Educational Funds for Ministerial Studies, both for full-time and part-time students, and scholarships for
undergraduate students
• Emerging Church Plants
For more information on these and other Emerging Leaders ministries, visit the Emerging Leaders website:
www.vbmb.org/emergingleaders
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Empowering Leaders Ministries (VBMB)
Mission Statement: To partner with God as His Kingdom advances through an intentional, energetic matching of clergy
& churches; through nurturing healthy relationships & caring networks; and through growth opportunities and spiritual
renewal.
Empowering Leaders ministries funded by the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget include:
• Kingdom Advance Field Strategists
• Pastor/Deacon/Church Leadership Conference
• Minister Matching and Search Committee Resources
• Interim Ministry:
o Intentional Interim Ministry
o Transitional Pastor Program
• Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network
• Deacon Training
• Southwest Evangelism Conference
• Bivocational Ministry
• Counseling and Education
• Conflict Resolution Network
• Family Ministry
• Minister’s Family Retreat
• Gathering of Silence Retreats
• Appalachian Ministers and Staff Retreat
• Retirement Planning for Ministers
• Expanded Church Retirement Plan
• Baptist Ministry Assistants of Virginia
• Church Architecture
• Forced Termination
• New Minister Orientation
• Minister’s Care Program
• SafetyNet:
o Minister’s Unemployment Fund
o Minister and Family Counseling Services
o Baptist Minister’s Relief Fund
• Continuing Education/Sabbatical
• Financial Support Planning for Church Staff
• Church Staff Compensation Study
For more information on these and other Empowering Leaders ministries, visit the Empowering Leaders website:
www.vbmb.org/empoweringleaders
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (SBC)
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention that is dedicated to addressing
social and moral concerns and their implications on public policy issues from local government to the federal government.
The ERLC has offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
Vision Statement: An American society that affirms and practices Judeo-Christian values rooted in biblical authority.
Mission Statement: To awaken, inform, energize, equip, and mobilize Christians to be the catalysts for the Biblically-based
transformation of their families, churches, communities, and the nation.
Website: www.erlc.com
Fork Union Military Academy
Founded in 1898, Fork Union Military Academy is a college preparatory school for young men, located near Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Mission Statement: The mission of Fork Union Military Academy is to provide young men a college preparatory education
in a residential, Christian environment. Using the best aspects of the military system, the Academy teaches its cadets
responsibility, leadership, discipline, and pride by providing an atmosphere in which spiritual, mental, and physical growth
can flourish.
Website: www.forkunion.com
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“Glocal” Missions & Evangelism Ministries (VBMB)
Mission Statement: To involve churches in ministry and evangelism for the cause of Christ both globally and locally.
Glocal Missions & Evangelism ministries funded by the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget include:
• Disaster Relief
• International Partnership Missions
• Impact mission camps and The PLUNGE mission camp
• Transformers (construction missions)
• Venturer Missionaries
• Mission Opportunity Points
• Collegiate Missions
• Latino Ministries
• Muslim Ministries
• Military Ministries
• Ministries to Romany Gypsies
• Baptist Men’s Ministries
• Resort and Leisure Ministries
• Appalachian Regional Ministry
For more information on these and other Glocal Missions & Evangelism ministries, visit the Glocal Missions and Evangelism
website: www.vbmb.org/glocalmissions.
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. GGBTS offers accredited
masters and doctoral degree programs, as well as diploma and certificate programs, on campuses in northern and southern
California; Vancouver, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; and Denver, Colorado.
Our Mission: Shaping effective Christian leaders who accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the churches of
the West and on mission to the world.
Website: www.ggbts.edu
GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)
(formerly SBC Annuity Board)
GuideStone offers retirement, investment, and insurance services to individuals and institutions. GuideStone’s “Adopt An
Annuitant” program provides financial help to thousands of retired ministers and their widows. This program is supported
by direct gifts from churches and individuals and by the SBC Cooperative Program.
Vision Statement: GuideStone Financial Resources exists to honor the Lord by being a lifelong partner with our participants
in enhancing their financial security.
Mission Statement: GuideStone Financial Resources exists to assist the churches, denominational entities, and other
evangelical ministry organizations by making available retirement plan services, life and health coverage, risk management
programs, and personal and institutional investment programs.
Website: www.guidestone.org
Hargrave Military Academy
Hargrave Military Academy is a college preparatory secondary boarding school for boys, located in Chatham, Virginia.
Mission Statement: The purpose of Hargrave is to assist young men and women of secondary school age to become
knowledgeable, thinking, and responsible citizens of their community, nation, and world. Our educational program is based
on rigorous instruction in basic skills and in preparation for further study in the arts and sciences.
We believe that to be effective, the educational process must be reinforced by order, structure, and discipline, and we feel
that the worth, potential, and integrity of the individual must be promoted in every area of school life. For our students to
mature spiritually, socially, emotionally, and physically, as well as intellectually, we must seek to achieve our goals within a
healthy, wholesome environment, in which the Christian faith and principles pervade all aspects of the school program.
Website: www.hargrave.edu
HopeTree Family Services (formerly Virginia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services)
In April 2007, the Virginia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services changed its name to “HopeTree Family Services.”
HopeTree provides care to at-risk children and youth through six programs: (1) Emergency Care, (2) Foster Care &
Adoption, (3) the Gus Mitchell School, (4) Residential Care, (5) Independent Living, and (6) WOODS (Wilderness Outdoor
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Opportunity Discovery Schools). HopeTree also has a Developmental Disabilities Ministry that operates group homes for
adults with developmental disabilities.
Mission Statement: The Mission of HopeTree Family Services is to provide Christian residential and support services to
at-risk children and youth, and to adults with developmental disabilities.
Website: www.HopeTreeFS.org
Impact Northeast (Northeast USA project)
This category of the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan funds Virginia Baptists’ partnership with the
Baptist conventions of District of Columbia, Maryland/Delaware, Mississippi, North Carolina, New England, New York,
Pennsylvania/South Jersey, Tennessee, and Texas to reach the 25% of the U.S. population who live in the Northeast. Goals
include establishment of churches, student ministries, church revitalization, and leadership development.
International Mission Board (SBC)
The International Mission Board (formerly Foreign Mission Board) is an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention. The
IMB’s main objective is presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to lead individuals to saving faith in Him and result
in church-planting movements among all the peoples of the world.
Mission Statement: Making Jesus Christ known among all peoples.
Vision Statement: We will lead Southern Baptists to be on mission with God to bring all the peoples of the world to saving
faith in Jesus Christ.
Website: www.imb.org
The John Leland Center for Theological Studies
The John Leland Center for Theological Studies offers accredited masters degree programs, as well as diploma and graduate
certificate programs, in five locations throughout the state in order to make theological education available to everyone:
Arlington/Northern Virginia, Newport News/Hampton Roads, Mineral, Richmond, and Roanoke/Southwest Virginia. At
The John Leland Center for Theological Studies, students are equipped as servant leaders for the 21st century ministry
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by integrating scholarship, spiritual discipline, and Christian service in the context of the
international community.
Mission Statement: The mission of The John Leland Center is to equip transformational leaders for the emerging church
and ministries in multi-ethnic, metropolitan communities. We are committed to bringing together scholars, practitioners and
students from our area and around the world, who are called to this task.
Website: www.johnlelandcenter.edu
Kingdom Advance New Mission Initiatives
This category of the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan funds various mission initiatives at the discretion
of the VBMB Executive Director, Treasurer, and/or Executive Committee. Initiatives in the 2008 budget are Arabic/Muslim
ministries, Latino/Hispanic ministries, and partnerships with the European Baptist Federation and the Amity Foundation in
China.
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, located in Kansas City, Missouri.
MBTS offers accredited masters and doctoral degree programs, as well as a graduate certificate program. Midwestern Bible
College, SBC, the undergraduate school of MBTS, offers bachelor’s and associate’s degrees.
Purpose Statement: The purpose of Midwestern Seminary is to biblically educate God-called men and women to be and to
make disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world.
Website: www.mbts.edu
Ministerial Educational Fund
This item in the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan funds a supplementary ministerial educational fund
for ministerial students at the college and seminary levels. The BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds
Committee oversees these funds and makes awards to Virginia Baptist students who meet all established requirements.
Website: www.vbmb.org/scholarships
Ministering to Ministers Foundation, Inc.
Ministering to Ministers Foundation, Inc. serves individual ministers, their families and church organizations. The
Foundation is an advocate for ministers and their families in all faith groups who are experiencing personal or professional
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crisis due to deteriorating employment or congregation-minister relationships. It works as a mediator to reunite minister and
congregation when resolution of issues is needed. Ministering to Ministers strives to develop church-minister relations in the
beginning stages of their relationship, promoting strong communication before conflict arises. The Foundation, a non-profit
corporation, was created in 1994 by a group of ministers who had experienced involuntary separation from their congregation,
along with interested laypersons. The purpose of Ministering to Ministers is represented by the acronym “C.A.R.E,” which
encompasses the organization’s four divisions: Communicating (Education and Communication Division), Advocating
(Dispute Resolution Division), Reclaiming (Personal Wellness Division), and Equipping (Assistance Division).
Mission Statement: The MTM Foundation seeks to be advocates for clergy and their families in all faith groups who are
experiencing personal or professional crisis due to deteriorating employment or congregation-clergy relationships.
Website: www.mtmfoundation.org
Missions Development
This Virginia Baptist Mission Initiative in the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan helps provide for
construction, medical, and training needs while sharing the gospel around the world. Special funding requests are presented
to the VBMB’s Glocal Missions and Evangelism Committee, which recommends them to the entire Virginia Baptist Mission
Board for approval.
Missions Relief
This Virginia Baptist Mission Initiative in the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan aids underdeveloped
nations who are in desperate need of help. While meeting obvious physical needs, volunteers find many opportunities to
share testimonies of salvation. Special funding requests are presented to the VBMB’s Glocal Missions and Evangelism
Committee, which recommends them to the entire Virginia Baptist Mission Board for approval.
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. NOBTS offers accredited
masters and doctoral degree programs, as well as diploma and certificate programs, on its main campus in New Orleans and
through many extension center campuses across the Southeast.
Mission Statement: The mission of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is to equip leaders to fulfill the Great
Commission and the Great Commandments through the local church and its ministries.
Website: www.nobts.edu
North American Mission Board (SBC)
The North American Mission Board, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, assists Southern Baptists in their task
of fulfilling the Great Commission in the United States, Canada, and their territories through a national strategy for sharing
Christ, starting churches, and sending missionaries, in cooperation with Acts 1:8 Partners.
Vision Statement: We see a day when every person in every community in the United States and Canada will have the
opportunity to hear the gospel, respond with faith in Christ, and participate in a New Testament fellowship of believers.
Website: www.namb.net
Northeast USA Project (see Impact Northeast)
Oak Hill Academy
Oak Hill Academy is a coeducational, Baptist affiliated, boarding/day high school committed to excellence in education and
adolescent development in a non-military setting. The mission of Oak Hill Academy is to provide a safe, secure, nurturing
environment for girls and boys needing a change in school, peer, community or family relationships. Oak Hill seeks to
provide a structured college preparatory program to students in grades 8-12. Oak Hill’s curriculum challenges the brightest
student and encourages those who are unmotivated, underachievers or experiencing difficulty in their school setting.
Website: www.oak-hill.net
Partnership Missions
This category of the Virginia Missions and Ministries portion of the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget enables development
and planning related to partnership missions between Virginia Baptist volunteer teams and local, national, and international
partners and is administered through the Glocal Missions and Evangelism Team.
74
Piankatank Camp and Conference Center (VBMB)
Piankatank Camp and Conference Center is a year-round Virginia Baptist facility located on 90 acres along the Piankatank
River in Hartfield, Virginia. Camp Piankatank provides pristine natural surroundings, comfortable lodging, quality food
service, proper program space and equipment, and exciting recreational opportunities for its summer camp programs, as
well as for retreats, conferences, and other gatherings.
Purpose Statement: The Camp Piankatank summer camp program exists to provide a diverse range of age appropriate
programs for children and youth that encourage physical, spiritual, social, and emotional growth within a safe and exciting,
Christ-centered environment.
Website: www.camppiankatank.org
RASNet (The Ray & Ann Spence Network for Congregational Leadership)
The Ray and Ann Spence Network for Congregational Leadership (RASNet) is a router for networks that helps to connect
churches and church leaders with each other and with best ministry practices in order to impact the world with the Kingdom
of Jesus Christ. RASNet is designed to facilitate connections between individual leaders, networks, and congregations,
enabling fruitful exchange of innovative ideas and best ministry practices. RASNet receives some funding though the
BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget.
Mission Statement: The mission of RASNet is to feed networks of congregational leaders to advance Kingdom initiatives. We
will do this with services include creating, affirming, and funding ministry forums for church leaders, as well as providing
venture capital and networking for “best ministry practices” that connect churches and leaders. Quite simply we are
“Connecting congregational leaders to advance the Kingdom.”
Website: www.RASNet.org
Religious Herald
The Religious Herald is the journal of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. It is published by the Religious Herald
Publishing Association, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that operates under a charter issued in 1950 by the Corporation
Commission of Virginia. Established in 1828 and privately owned and operated until 1950 (as were most state denominational
journals), the Religious Herald apparently is the oldest religious publication in America to have been published continuously
under the same name and from the same city.
Website: www.religiousherald.org
Romany People of Southern Europe (Project Ruth)
This Virginia Baptist Mission Initiative in the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM2 giving plan funds ministry among
the Romany people in Southern Europe through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and its partnership with Project Ruth.
Websites: www.thefellowship.info, www.projectruth.ro
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, located in Wake Forest, North
Carolina. SEBTS offers accredited masters and doctoral degree programs, as well as diploma and certificate programs.
Mission Statement: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students
to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).
Website: www.sebts.edu
Southern Baptist Convention (Operating Budget)
Some money given through the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM1 giving plan is used by the Southern Baptist
Convention for expenses related to the basic SBC Operating Budget. See separate entries for the other SBC agencies and
institutions that are funded through the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget WM1 and WM2 giving plans.
Website: www.sbc.net
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBC)
The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives is a worldwide center for the study of Baptist history. Operated by
the Council of Seminary Presidents, the SBHLA is one of the major denominational collections in the nation and serves
by assignment of the Southern Baptist Convention as the central depository and archives of SBC records. The Library and
Archives is located on the fourth floor of the Southern Baptist Convention Building in Nashville, Tennessee.
The purposes of the Library and Archives are:
To serve as a research center for the study of the life and history of Baptists, in particular Southern Baptists,
To collect, preserve, and make available for use a wide range of materials that document Baptist history,
75
To serve as the denominational archives for the Southern Baptist Convention and to collect, preserve, and make available
for use the official records of the Convention and its agencies,
To assist Southern Baptist churches, associations, state conventions, and SBC agencies in the location and preservation
of historical records.
Website: www.sbhla.org
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, located in Louisville, Kentucky.
SBTS offers accredited masters and doctoral degree programs, as well as diploma programs. Boyce College, the undergraduate
school of the SBTS, offers bachelor’s and associate’s degrees.
Mission Statement: Under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is to
be totally committed to the Bible as the Word of God, to the Great Commission as our mandate, and to be a servant of the
churches of the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful
service.
Website: www.sbts.edu
Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network
(see also Empowering Leaders Ministries)
The Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network was established in 2004 to provide a program of continuing education
and leadership training for ministers and laypersons in the Southwest region of Virginia.
Mission Statement: The mission of The Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network is to provide practical church
training and theological study for laypersons and ministers in Southwest Virginia in order to further the cause of Kingdom
Advance, enhance the ministry of our churches, and provide spiritual renewal for individuals. Our target groups: (1) Fulltime staff ministers (2) Bivocational ministers (3) Laypersons.
Website: www.vachristianleadership.net
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC)
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, located in Fort Worth, Texas.
SWBTS offers accredited masters and doctoral degree programs. The College at Southwestern, the seminary’s undergraduate
school, offers bachelor’s degrees and a certificate in biblical studies.
Purpose Statement: The primary purpose of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is to provide theological
education for individuals engaging in Christian ministry.
Vision Statement: A community of faith and learning that develops spiritual leaders with a passion for Christ and the Bible,
a love for people, and skills to minister effectively in a rapidly changing world.
Website: www.swbts.edu
Student and Ministry Formation Scholarships
(see BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds)
Support Services (VBMB)
Mission Statement: Serve the BGAV churches and partners, Kingdom Advance initiatives, and VBMB staff through caring,
educational support and information in a manner dedicated to stewardship and integrity, enabling the advancement of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Support Services ministries funded by the BGAV Cooperative Missions Budget include:
• Support/Business Services Team (includes treasurer and business services)
• Information Technology Services
• Office of the Assistant Executive Director
• Communications
• Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center
• Piankatank Camp and Conference Center
• Office of Stewardship Development
• Capital Stewardship Services
For more information on these and other Support Services ministries, visit the Support Services website:
www.vbmb.org/supportservices.
76
Virginia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services
(see HopeTree Family Services)
Virginia Baptist Foundation
Founded in 1923, the Virginia Baptist Foundation was established by the Baptist General Association of Virginia to encourage
and facilitate charitable giving to the many institutions, missions, and other ministries affiliated with the Baptist General
Association of Virginia. The mission of the Virginia Baptist Foundation is to promote Christian stewardship among Virginia
Baptists and to provide revocable money management for the gifts that strengthen Virginia Baptist ministries. The Virginia
Baptist Foundation is the charted trust agency of Virginia Baptists in the areas of church related financial and estate planning,
wills, and trust fund management.  Types of funds under management include church cemetery, scholarship, mission and
endowment funds, life income plans, annuities, charitable trust agreements, and several other financial and estate planning
vehicles. With a multi-million dollar principal asset value under management, the Virginia Baptist Foundation is in a position
of strength to assist Virginia Baptist individuals, churches, agencies, and programs with the investment and management of
church-related giving.
Website: www.vbfinc.org
Virginia Baptist Historical Society
Founded in 1876 by those interested in preserving Baptist history and by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, the
Virginia Baptist Historical Society soon became a premier institution within the field of historical organizations in religious
history. It early became a repository of Baptist congregational records and other tangible documents and artifacts of the
Baptist story. Its collection became widely used by scholars, local church historians, denominational workers, pastors, and
students of Baptist history.
Its facility on the University of Richmond campus was built through the aid of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia
and was dedicated in 1955 as a memorial to the Baptists who struggled to secure religious liberty. The Society collects,
preserves, and makes available the records of Virginia Baptists.
Website: www.baptistheritage.org
Virginia Baptist Homes
Virginia Baptist Homes was established in 1945 as an agency of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. VBH operates
four retirement communities in Culpeper, Newport News, Richmond, and Roanoke, as well as the Virginia Baptist Homes
Foundation, Inc., which was established to solicit, receive, and administer gifts, grants, contributions, and donations for the
retirement communities in support of their various programs and activities.
Mission Statement: Dignity in Living
Website: www.vbh.org
Virginia Intermont College
Virginia Intermont College is a private liberal arts college, affiliated with the BGAV, located in Bristol, Virginia. Originally
named the Southwest Virginia Institute, Virginia Intermont was founded in 1884 by Rev. J. R. Harrison, a Baptist minister,
as a school for the higher education of women. The college’s name was changed in 1922 and it became a co-educational
institution in 1972.
Mission Statement: Virginia Intermont College is small comprehensive institution serving traditional students in its
professional programs and its humanities, arts, social science and natural science curricula. Virginia Intermont also serves
the educational needs of its regional adult population through its Adult Degree Studies Program. The college is dedicated to
delivering to all of its students an educational experience in which critical thinking, creativity, oral and written communication
and cultural appreciation are fundamental components. Virginia Intermont strives in its service to its students to create an
atmosphere conducive to intellectual, spiritual, physical, social, aesthetic and professional development.
Website: www.vic.edu
Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia
WMUV functions as a missions organization believing that missions is the telling, communicating, and acting of God’s love
as expressed in Christ to the people of the world in need that they may, through the words and ministries of those sent, find
hope in Christ. WMUV has been incorporated as an autonomous Virginia Baptist entity since 1935.
Vision: The World for Christ, Hallelujah!
Purpose Statement: Our mission is to challenge the whole church family to live out the biblical concept of radical Christianity
and lead individuals to be dynamic, relevant, caring witnesses connecting to a needy world.
Website: www.wmu-va.org
77
Notes
Cooperative Missions* Comparison
(See BGAV giving options
on page 51)
* Cooperative Missions is
Virginia Baptists’ long-standing
commitment to the
Cooperative Program.
78
BGAV SBCV
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BGAV SBCV
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(BGAV and SBCV)
Virginia Missions and Ministries
Courageous Churches Team (VBMB)
Empowering Leaders Team (VBMB)
Emerging Leaders Team (VBMB)
Bluefield College
Fork Union Military Academy
Hargrave Military Academy
Oak Hill Academy
Virginia Intermont College
John Leland Center for Theological Studies
BGAV Scholarships and Ministerial Educational Funds
Glocal Missions and Evangelism Team (VBMB)
Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia
Religious Herald
Virginia Baptist Foundation
Baptist Extension Board
Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies
Virginia Baptist Historical Society
HopeTree Family Services (formerly Virginia Baptist Children’s Home & Family Services)
Virginia Baptist Homes
Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, Inc.
VBMB Support/Business Services
BGAV Ministers’ Support Ministries
BGAV Support Ministries
Partnership Missions
World Missions 1 and 2
SBC Operating Budget
SBC International Mission Board
SBC North American Mission Board
SBC GuideStone Financial Resources
SBC Southern Seminary
SBC Southwestern Seminary
SBC Southeastern Seminary
SBC Midwestern Seminary
SBC Golden Gate Seminary
SBC New Orleans Seminary
SBC Historical Library and Archives
SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
World Missions 2
Kingdom Advance New Mission Initiatives
Missions Development
Missions Relief
Romany People of Southern Europe (CBF Project)
Northeast USA Project (see Impact Northeast)
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
Ministerial Scholarship Fund
Ministering to Ministers Foundation, Inc.
Baptist Center for Ethics
Baptist World Alliance
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Associated Baptist Press
World Missions 3
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Facilities
Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center
(see VBMB Support/Business Services)
Piankatank Camp and Conference Center
(see VBMB Support/Business Services)
Baptist Collegiate Ministries centers on Virginia campuses
(see VBMB Emerging Leaders Team)
Notes
79
Notes
80
2828 Emerywood Parkway | Richmond, VA 23294
800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428) | 804.915.5000 | fax 804.672.2051
www.vbmb.org

wants to know - First Baptist Church of Springfield, VA

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