Baptism vote: What happens next?
The Rev. Dennis Newkirk, senior pastor of Henderson Hills Baptist Church, said the Edmond church is not seeking to separate from the Southern Baptist denomination, but if the congregation votes to change the church’s bylaws to eliminate baptism as a requirement for church membership, the ministry’s formal relationship with other Southern Baptist congregations in Oklahoma and across the nation would be jeopardized.
Every Southern Baptist church is autonomous.
In a column in the Baptist Messenger, the Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, addressed the issue.
“Autonomy in Baptist life and as seen in Scripture does not mean an ‘anything goes’ independence. Rather it is a voluntary relationship of accountability to hold deeply held doctrinal truth.
“In addition, I would suggest a church practicing ‘open membership’ may well jeopardize its ‘cooperating’ relationship with the convention at both the state and national levels,” Jordan said.
Historically, only one Oklahoma Southern Baptist church has separated from the denomination, the state’s largest.
In 2001, First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City voted to sever ties with the Southern Baptist Convention over issues of doctrine and women’s roles in the church.
In June, leaders of the Edmond church asked the congregation to consider eliminating baptism as one of the church’s requirements for membership. Church leaders said the congregation is to vote on the matter today and Sunday.
The church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Dennis Newkirk, has said the church’s elders propose changing the ministry’s bylaws to remove baptism by immersion as a membership prerequisite. Salvation - accepting Christ as one’s personal Lord and Savior - would remain the chief requirement for membership of the mega church.
Response from other Southern Baptists has been building momentum in recent weeks. From the outset, the Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, expressed his concerns about the proposal.
“Historically and theologically, Baptists have believed in a membership of baptized believers,” Jordan said in a statement in June.
On July 17, the Capitol Baptist Association, made up of Southern Baptist churches in the Oklahoma City metro area, approved a resolution reaffirming scriptural baptism as a prerequisite for church membership. In the association’s resolution, posted on its Web site, www.cbaokc.org, the association encourages Henderson Hills’ members to maintain their current requirements for church membership, including the baptism-by-immersion prerequisite.
On July 20, baptism and church membership was the focus of the Baptist Messenger, the official news journal of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. The special edition included comments from Southern Baptist pastors and leaders across the state, including Jordan and the convention’s president, the Rev. Bob Green of Broken Arrow.
Newkirk declined to be interviewed this week, deeming it inappropriate to discuss the matter publicly as the congregation’s vote nears. Jeff Wilson, a Henderson Hill’s elder and associate pastor of education, said with 7,000 members, it may take a while to tabulate the results. He said, in light of that, the results will be shared with the church body later in the week.
Meanwhile, Newkirk did share his thoughts in The Oklahoman in June and in the Baptist Messenger’s recent special edition. Newkirk basically reiterated the baptism beliefs that spurred Henderson Hill’s Elder Council to bring the proposal to the congregation.
“There are two concerns driving our consideration to stop using baptism as an initiatory rite of church membership,” Newkirk said in the Baptist Messenger.
“First, we do not find clear biblical evidence for using baptism as a prerequisite. We have read and reread the New Testament searching for one. ... Secondly, if there is no clear biblical command requiring baptism as a prerequisite for membership, then each local church has the right to decide whether or not baptism should be used as a prerequisite.”
Issue remains afloat Ray Sanders, executive editor of the Ba
