Ideas Welcome in the CBF Not Welcome in the SBC

I am often asked, “What is the difference between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.” The Way We Were by Fisher Humphreys, Professor of Theology at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, has helped me understand what has happened to the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Humphries writes, “There are four progressive beliefs that are no longer welcome in the Convention.” These beliefs are welcome in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

1. The ordination of women to serve as pastors is the first belief that has no future in the Southern Baptist Convention. Perhaps the words of 1 Timothy 2: 11, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man," were expressing God's will for the first century, when a woman's exercise of public leadership of any kind would have been considered a scandal. But women today exercise leadership in government, business, education, and many other realms. Today it is a scandal to exclude women from leadership roles and will hurt the cause of the gospel to do so in the church.

2. The critical study of the Bible is the second progressive belief. The word "critical" does not mean that anyone is to criticize the Bible. It means putting critical faculties into play when we read the Bible and asking what it meant when it was written. We want to study the Bible in our church using the best scholarship and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

3. That the best higher education is exploration not indoctrination is the third progressive belief that Dr. Humphreys says is now not welcome in the Southern Baptist Convention. The danger of indoctrination is that it will prevent students from studying alternative views so that they can freely decide for themselves which view is truthful.

4. That Baptists should participate in ecumenism is the fourth rejected progressive belief. Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have shown that they are willing to have constructive conversations with leaders of other denominations in order to serve Christ alongside them. They engage in constructive conversations with leaders of other religions for the sake of mutual understanding.