Association seeks building sale to resolve Southwestern Seminary controversy

FORT WORTH?The Tarrant Baptist Association’s executive
board voted unanimously Jan. 24 to offer to sell a building that has
been a point of contention with Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary.

If
the seminary is unwilling to buy the building on its campus in Fort
Worth, Texas, for fair market value, the TBA executive board asked that
the matter be referred to a three-member arbitration panel as
stipulated in a 1982 affiliation agreement, according to TBA moderator
Al Meredith. The executive board also resolved to pray for seminary
leaders in the matter.

The seminary sent a letter on Dec. 10,
2010, informing the association that it had six months to vacate the
building located at 4520 James Ave. in Fort Worth. According to
Meredith, while the building is located on the seminary’s campus,
Southwestern transferred the deed to the association in 1997. Meredith
added that three or four years ago representatives of the seminary
inquired about the availability of the property, but that nothing had
been said on the matter between then and last December. A second letter
from the seminary dated Jan. 18 reaffirmed the seminary’s position, but
allowed for some leeway in when the association would have to move,
Meredith said.

“I don’t have another step if these measures
don’t resolve the issue,” Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist Church
in Fort Worth, told Baptist Press after the meeting, voicing hope that
the issue can be resolved through a negotiated settlement. Otherwise,
“If the TBA wins, the Kingdom loses. If Southwestern wins, the Kingdom
loses. No one wants to see the Kingdom lose because of this.”

Representatives of Southwestern have declined comment until the matter is resolved.

Published
reports indicate that the seminary holds that the affiliation agreement
between the entities has been breached and is no longer in force.

The
seminary’s letter raised two issues: the TBA’s inclusion of churches
that are not in “friendly cooperation” with the Southern Baptist
Convention and a lack of help with finding preaching assignments and
ministry opportunities for seminary students and faculty.

TBA
member Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth no longer is affiliated
with the SBC and the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) over
differences in how to deal with homosexuality among church members. The
Southern Baptist Convention stipulates that any church that affirms
homosexuality is “not in friendly cooperation.” The SBC voted in 2009
to cease relationship with the church, and in 2010 the church voted to
leave the BGCT.

“What the SBC does is not binding on state or
local institutions or the local churches,” Meredith said. “It is
different for Southwestern, since it is a denominational entity. As an
association, we’re trying to work with people who are archconservatives
and moderates and everything in between.”

As to the
association’s lack of help in placing students and faculty, Meredith
said, “The great majority of the pastors on staff in the Tarrant
Baptist Association attended Southwestern. At my church, I am the only
person on staff who did not attend Southwestern. That does not even
take into account the myriad of seminary students who volunteer in TBA
churches.”

Meredith added, “I pray for Paige Patterson and Southwestern Seminary every day, as I know many of our members do.”