English
Korean
Spanish
NASHVILLE, Tenn.? Southern Baptist Convention messengers meeting in Nashville amended the charter of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, declaring the SBC the “sole member” owner of the seminary’s legal corporation and ending public disagreement between the seminary and the SBC’s Executive Committee staff over legal ramifications of the sole membership corporate model.
Messengers approved the charter change 5,627 to 1,528?a 78-to-21 percent margin.
In a debate held before messengers at two consecutive annual meetings, NOBTS trustees argued that unique features of Louisiana law could put the SBC’s Cooperative Program assets at risk of ascending liability in any future lawsuit against the seminary. NOBTS President Chuck Kelley also warned against the centralization of power vested in the SBC Executive Committee as a violation of Baptist polity, pointing to actions that occurred over the past few years as the EC lobbied for sole membership.
In preliminary remarks June 21, SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman said the discussion on sole membership “has no standing alongside” the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, sufficiency of Christ for salvation, nor the God-inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God. “But it does have standing in the rich heritage of our convention existence,” he reminded, calling the recommendation “the result of over seven years of research and review by your Executive Committee.”
Chapman disputed Kelley’s claim that an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention is an autonomous body. “This is not and has not been the tradition of the SBC.” While stating that the local church, state conventions and Southern Baptist Convention are all autonomous, “the entities of the convention are owned by the SBC,” he said to the applause of Executive Committee members and staff seated on the platform and much of the audience.
“Each SBC entity willingly and voluntarily cooperated in naming the SBC as a sole member with the exception of New Orleans Seminary. Presently, the seminary’s board of trustees is the sole member of the seminary. Consequently, trustees could rightfully challenge the SBC’s ownership in a court of law in generations to come.”
Chapman insisted that the issue boils down to ownership. “The question is, do you or do you not believe the Southern Baptist Convention should own the entities that receive Cooperative Program funds. If the answer is yes, then voting to approve these charter changes already approved by the seminary board is the final step in joining all other entities in naming the Southern Baptist Convention as the sole member.”
Initially, in 1995, the role of the corporate “member” was introduced in the SBC when the North American Mission Board was created. Soon after, the Executive Committee asked every Southern Baptist entity to comply with the corporate model language, seeking to avoid the problems experienced in a number of state conventions where some Baptist colleges and other institutions changed their bylaws to break free from denominational oversight. Between 1996 and 2004, all entity boards except for NOBTS responded with charter changes that satisfied the EC and messengers gathered in annual session.
After messengers to last year’s convention approved an EC recommendation requesting NOBTS adopt the model, the seminary’s trustees complied in October, adopting sole membership while asking seminary officials to state their reservations at this year’s annual meeting.
Kelley was allowed six minutes to respond to the recommendation?”twice as long as he was afforded last year,” Chapman noted. The NOBTS president spoke for 12 minutes, pleading with messengers to allow seminary trustees to suggest an alternative to sole membership that would clarify the SBC’s ownership of the 88-year-old school within the framework of Louisiana law.
SBC attorney James P. Guenther rebutted Kelley for just under 12 minutes while another 10 minutes of debate occurred on the floor involving three messengers favoring the recommendation, three messengers opposing it and an additional rebuttal from the platform from Guenther. Two NOBTS attorneys were on the platform to address the issue if called upon.
Kelley noted the following points of agreement between the seminary and Executive Committee:
4gratitude for the conservative resurgence and its impact on the SBC;
<SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Webdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-la
