Illumination Project Booklet

ILLUMINATION PROJECT Introduction The Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship launched an effort at the 2016 General Assembly to seek ways to model unity through cooperation in the midst of cultural change.

This innovative project, called the Illumination Project, aims to shed light on the qualities that have built unity in CBF and, through discernment, to design and develop models of dialogue and decision-making by which the Fellowship can grow through cooperation — now and in the future.

In July 2016, CBF Moderator Doug Dortch appointed a six-member ad hoc committee to guide the work of the Illumination Project during its first implementation that focused on listening to, reflecting and expressing a range of voices within the Fellowship on matters of human sexuality. Charlie Fuller, executive pastor of First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., was appointed chair of the committee.

Over the past year, the group has focused on shining a light within the Fellowship through conversations with a group of CBF stakeholders — including clergy and laity who are diverse in age, gender and geography, as well as LGBT Cooperative Baptists.

Since September, members of the committee have had phone discussions with more than 60 pastors from across the Fellowship and conducted more than 30

The primary commitment of the Illumination Project is to hear and consider the voices of the Fellowship, continuing CBF’s long-standing strategy of using purposeful conversations around difficult subjects to foster greater unity and encourage increased cooperation in the midst of theological diversity.

“The goal, often sacrificially enabled, to seek intentional community in spite of difference has been a strong witness of CBF. We believe that our commitment to Scripture, reliance on foundational faith tenets and the lessons from our history can be used to enable new clarity regarding the process of cooperative Christian community for the Fellowship.”

—CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter 2

two-hour structured interviews about faith, cooperation, what it means to be Baptist, as well as matters of human sexuality. Additionally, committee members have given more than 25 presentations about their work. These presentations have taken place in cities large and small in 14 states, from Spokane to Houston to Richmond to Lumberton. The committee has also received and is still receiving numerous stories via e-mail.

Through research and collecting first-person stories, the committee is building a snapshot of how Cooperative Baptists approach matters of sexuality. The committee listened to the Fellowship and heard heart-felt stories that are respectful of the Fellowship’s diversity — full of passion and understanding of the tensions within CBF life. These facilitated discussions have sought to respect the dignity of each person, helping the committee to keep the Imago Dei, the image of God in each person, at the forefront of its work.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

DOUG DORTCH

CHARLIE FULLER

PAUL BAXLEY

Mountain Brook Baptist Church Mountain Brook, Ala.

First Baptist Church Washington, D.C.

First Baptist Church Athens, Ga.

KASEY JONES

STEVE WELLS

REBECCA WIGGS

National Baptist Memorial Church Washington, D.C.

South Main Baptist Church Houston, Texas

Watkins & Eager Jackson, Miss.

Senior Minister

Senior Pastor

Executive Pastor

Pastor

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Senior Minister

Attorney

INTEGRATIVE THINKING The Illumination Project is seeking to bring light, rather than heat, to the Fellowship around matters of sexuality, to enhance cooperation and cultivate community while eschewing division. To this end, the committee is employing a process called Integrative Thinking in partnership with experts at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, a group that previously assisted CBF with its recent Global Missions renewal process.

deep exploration in search of appreciation of the opposing ideas, and seeking to understand rather than judge or critique. From there, we can try to take the best of those opposing answers to create a new approach that brings the best of the two perspectives together. The committee believes this process is consistent with the way the Scriptures reveal the early church dealt with significant challenges, particularly those recorded in Acts 10-15.

Integrative Thinking is a collaborative approach to profound challenges that begins with a simple notion: that better answers are possible if we choose to look for them.

That means, rather than feeling that choosing sides in an either-or trade-off is a must, a third and better way can be found. Such answers are found through attentive listening,

The committee hopes to discern the Holy Spirit speaking through the voices of thousands of “priestbelievers” — committed to the Fellowship’s core values of soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom and religious freedom — and to find a way forward as a Fellowship that is not already apparent.

SHARE YOUR STORY! Contact the Illumination Project Committee at governingboard@cbf.net.

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PERSONAS In the first phase of this process, the committee looked for a diverse set of perspectives to more fully understand our Fellowship and the convictions of Cooperative Baptists on matters of human sexuality, as well as learn about their experiences working through contentious issues.

The Illumination Project Committee’s goal was not to take a broad survey of opinions or to ask individuals for solutions. Rather, the committee has sought to better understand the people of the Fellowship — pastors, laity, field personnel, chaplains, staff ministers, LGBT persons and more — as human beings, in all of their richness, complexity and contradictions.

important work of discernment ahead, reminding us of the faith, hopes, dreams and concerns of the people from whom we have heard throughout the process.

This booklet includes a small set of the personas that have been created through the committee’s listening process. They each represent composites of multiple people and five distinctly different points of view — presented in alphabetical order and depicted with purchased stock photography. Yet, they are not all-encompassing and don’t capture every story the committee has heard. The words that follow in these personas were spoken by real Cooperative Baptists. These personas have been created to honor their words and honor them, because any new model of dialogue and decision-making that emerges must remain true to the Fellowship.

They will help keep the personal experiences, views and devotions of the Fellowship at the forefront as the committee moves forward with its work in the months ahead.

An extensive series of in-depth interviews were conducted with approximately 30 individuals deeply engaged in CBF life. The committee has attempted to capture some of the stories heard in the form of personas. These personas are summaries of the stories and experiences of individuals interviewed that help us understand the people we want to serve more deeply. They also help build empathy and offer insights into the needs of people. Once finalized, this set of personas will help the committee continue to listen to the voices of the Fellowship in the

Each of the following personas features an “artifact” — an item of interest that is imbued with special symbolic meaning. Interviewees were asked to bring along such an object symbolic of CBF to them.

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BEATRICE Just Let Things Be “I’ve tried and I just can’t get there. I just don’t see it in the teachings of the Bible. I just can’t.”

Age: 68 Occupation: Retired Teacher Artifact: Electric Fan “CBF is putting missions rather than politics at the heart of things. It is a neat, cool breeze feeling.”

Faith is central to my life and always has been. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t a believer. As you get older, you see how faith is underlying,

underpinning everything thing you do. The older I get, the more I realize there’s no way you can make it through this world without faith.

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I sing in the choir and I teach Sunday afternoon classes to refugees. I’ve not felt the call to be a missionary professionally, but by getting to know these people when they are at a point in their lives where the church can really step in and help, I fell in love with missions.

about it, I think of the Bible first and foremost. I just don’t see a positive view on homosexuality in there. I know there are all kinds of arguments such as, “Well, if Jesus had known about orientation, he wouldn’t have said about a man and a woman.” But Jesus is God; I am not comfortable implying there were things He did not know, and He did say those things.

I’ve heard the cultural arguments.

But it is there in Genesis 2 and it is there all the way through Leviticus.

It’s certainly not a major theme by any means, but it is there in the New Testament too. And it is consistent.

Every time the Bible speaks on this matter it says the same thing. I just can’t get around that. I’ve read and read. I just can’t. There has to be a biblical basis for what we do. If this is a sin, like all sinners, we need to treat them like any sinner would want to be treated.

Our pastor has kept it pretty simple: Jesus is Lord. That means you obey Him, you love Him, and you serve Him. Our worship services speak to me well. They are fairly traditional, although we’re not afraid to try some new things. I have a pastor who preaches absolutely God’s word, difficult passages and not. We don’t have women pastors or deacons here.

I certainly think we should. Our pastor thinks we should too. Many people do, but there are still probably more that don’t.

We talk about sexuality in the church.

We talk about marriage just as it comes in passages about what God defined: a man and a woman for life.

Then, of course, someone asks, “Well, what about two men?” I just can’t quite see myself saying that’s okay too, that it’s something God thinks is okay. I think that would be tough.

I just can’t find it in the Bible, to be honest.

I think CBF should emphasize what we have in common: Jesus’ atoning death. From there, these are things that every church will have to decide on. On this issue, some churches will leave. If you change the hiring policy, some people won’t support sending missionaries who are in sin. That will be a game-changer for many people.

It would be for me.

Sexuality is part of who we are, even for a single person. I know some folks who are gay, but when I think 7

JAMES Leading with Scripture “God defined marriage very clearly in Genesis, and I don’t have the authority to redefine that.”

Age: 56 Occupation: Pastor Artifact: Compass “The compass speaks to how much our congregation does to reach the globe for the Kingdom.”

My church is life-giving. It is diverse, loving and accepting. It is an interesting confluence of lives that have come together from all

over the city and from all different walks of life. When I think about how my church fulfills its mission while acknowledging this diversity, I always 8

come back to the idea that it is unified by the concept of missions — the Great Commission. I think they’ve also been unified by a deep love for worship. I think what resonated with me when I came here is encountering people who said “We want to be taught the Bible; we want to grow in relationship with Christ.”

person tells us that they are saying ‘yes’ to something the Bible says ‘no’ to, we want to give them the freedom and time to discern that for themselves, but we probably don’t put them in leadership positions in the church.” She was frustrated, and wrote a letter to the church saying that leadership had not been loving towards her. There are churches that agree with what they are doing.

I said, “I understand that, and I love those churches too. But I don’t think that’s who we are. I know it’s not who I am.” I want her to find contentment and peace and joy in the Lord, as I would my own daughter. For me, this is a convergence of compassion and mercy and a very clear sense of Scripture. I believe that only the truth can really bless a person, so we are not really loving people if we know something is true and choose not to share it. For me, the truth of Scripture supersedes all others; so I believe that if my experience is in conflict with Scripture, then it is my experience that is inadequate.

Matters concerning human sexuality arise at my church from time to time.

A while back, one of our young ladies said to me: “Hey, my neighbors came to church this morning.” I said “Oh, that’s great, I want to meet them.”

She said, “Before you meet them, I just need to tell you, it’s two ladies, they’re married, and they have a son.”

Well, a week before, my staff had been talking about that. It was right after the Supreme Court decision and we knew someday a family like this would come to us. This couple said, “We tried a number of churches that were more progressive; that’s not the Gospel we’re looking for.”

That actually has created a good bit of conversation in the church of how do we hold on to what we think the Scripture teaches about homosexuality, and still love people.

I’m somewhat fearful, apprehensive, for CBF’s future, because my read of Christian organizations that have compromised on Scriptural issues is that their future tends not to be bright. That’s frightening to me for our future. I worry that if CBF has a shift on these things, they will leave us out. They will create a problem for me here, in my congregation.

I once counseled a young woman who was struggling with her sexuality. She brought her girlfriend to church, and she was welcomed.

She asked me how getting married would affect her relationship with the church. I said, “Historically, if a 9

MEREDITH Peace through Affirmation “A lot of churches ‘welcome,’ but it’s like as soon as you get to the church, they want to change you and they don’t necessarily want you.”

Age: 35 Occupation: Mechanical Engineer Artifact: Cup “CBF is a cup — a vessel for water (Jesus’ message) to be taken places. It’s tough and sturdy. It’s mine.”

I was raised in a fundamentalist home. I was raised in a community that said, if you’re homosexual, you’re going to hell. I knew I was gay, but

I kept thinking maybe this will pass, maybe God is testing me. I came out when I was in college, alone, and I was scared. I was scared for my salvation.

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I kept coming back to Scripture and the faith that I was brought up in — the faith that I knew that I was a child of God from the beginning, upon salvation, as reflected in baptism.

I knew I didn’t pick to be gay.

people’s inclusion in the church. I was blown away by that.

Our church was “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” before this. I knew some at my church would accept my wife and me.

However, it wasn’t until we started talking about these hard issues that people started supporting everyone.

We weren’t uniform as a church on voting for the diversity statement, but many more people voted against the diversity statement than have left the church. I really like that statistic.

I like it a lot. I read this statement and I know that I am 100 percent loved

by God. It means something that my church says it. I want to be welcomed, and I want to be who I am.

Many gay people leave the church.

They turn their back completely on God or they go to a church that’s 100 percent gay. That’s not me. I’m a Baptist. I didn’t pick to be gay, and I’m not leaving my church.

At my church, I am a deacon, but what I most love is that I am greeter at our front door. When people come in, it’s “Hey! You’ve been coming here for 50 years, nice to see you!” But then talking to new people about our church, who we are, showing them the options for Sunday school; I love that.

I hope that we can continue to encourage people to listen to each other, encourage people to ask hard questions, and encourage people who are being asked questions to offer grace. I understand how hard this is for some churches and some individuals. That doesn’t make me resent people that don’t see things exactly as I do. It makes me empathize with where they are now.

I think there is room for everyone in the boat. But at the same time, you can’t just not want to rock the boat, because the boat’s already been rocked.

My church has actually grappled with homosexuality. It came up a couple of years ago when we set about working on a diversity statement. It really opened my eyes to the strength of cooperation. The process was unsettling. A lot of it was affirming, but there was a whole range of opinions. There was a person who did not want us to even talk about sexual orientation at all in the church. And then there were people who were straight that spoke louder than I ever would have for my and other gay

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PATRICK Listen to the Silent Majority “You’re not going to hear from us in the newspaper.”

Age: 39 Occupation: Pastor Artifact: Chalice and Paten “We sit together at the table of God — that’s the image of the Church. If you put your faith in the Lord, you are welcome here.”

I’ve always been a person who was sensitive to spiritual things. Looking back to the things that Sunday school teachers reflected back to me when I was young, they saw the beginnings of what God had created me to do.

I began to get a clearer picture of that when I was 17 years old. I don’t know that I had an experience with God that changed my life, and I don’t know at the time that I would have said I was sure it was a call to ministry, but 12

I knew it was a call to get serious about following Christ. Faith is a large part of my daily life, personally, relationally, vocationally.

think it’s important I don’t dismiss the conviction of the conservative voices that ask, “Are you moving because of the Spirit or are you moving because of culture?” I do continue to wrestle with this, and I feel like I’m somebody that is still in the middle in some ways. We have to remember that the traditional position is affirmed by the vast majority of Christian history and the Christian world.

Sometimes, as faith leaders, we give ourselves the grace of having a long gestation period on new ideas and then we don’t extend that same level of grace to other people. That’s not to say we should give them just time to figure it out on their own. We should lead. As I see it, no matter what view you hold, you ought to be able to hold it in the way that you would if the person you loved most in the world were gay. Rejection of a child is not an option. There’s a young man in our church who came out as gay at the age of 17. In walking through that process with the family, who had a more traditional view of this — these kinds of things affect you personally.

The parent-child relationship causes me to think most deeply about this.

What if one of our kids were gay? I’m more conservative, more traditional.

I need to be able to articulate any position I hold with my understanding of biblical witness on the issue. On this, my heart and my head are in conflict. We have to weigh what the Bible says about homosexuality with what it says about loving our neighbors.

I think we ought to be able to collaborate with churches that aren’t in the same place as us on this. CBF can be a connector, especially for smaller churches. But let the churches keep working this out. Let them sit in a room and have conversations with people they love. Because when institutional unity threatens local unity, local wins every time.

I hope more views like mine come to light. It’s those of us who are not in the place where we’re going to stand up and champion traditional, conservative values, because we’re not comfortable with it; but we’re also not at a place where we’re going to stand up and lead the advocacy march either. You’re not going to hear from us in the newspaper. Our approach has been more “Don’t ask, Don’t tell.” But when CBF issues a policy statement, people will feel they have to define themselves as one side or the other — and you might well cut people out.

It does seem that the Spirit is moving folks in our context, and the Spirit is moving me. In my own stance, I’m struggling and searching, but I still 13

SARA Change will be hard, but it has to happen “What if we’re the organization that continues to create space for people to feel included and empowered, equipped and blessed by God to go and serve?”

Age: 32 Occupation: Pastor Artifact: Chalice and Paten “We come to the table in unity, recognizing that we are a broken people looking to Christ for restoration.”

My church is an old one. It was the hub of the neighborhood, and it became this fixture as a physical presence and as a leadership

presence in the city. It flourished, and since its heyday, it has declined in members, in community leaders in the church body, in budget, in enthusiasm 14

for church life. We have a strong hunger to re-engage, to help shape our community. We live that out by focusing more on what we agree on.

If we can agree that hungry people need to be fed, then that is the focus.

I am affirming of LGBT people. If you never know a gay person — or a Muslim person or a Jewish person or an African American or poor person, for that matter — it can be pretty easy to reject other world views, particularly if they feel threatening.

But transformation happens through knowing and loving people who are not like you. We can see through the story of Jesus that people are profoundly changed by human relationships.

We have a wide range of views. This is a group of people who seek to love each other well. That looks like loving people who disagree with you, to learn from one another.

When the CBF hiring policy was passed, I was doing other things.

I wasn’t paying attention. When I learned of the policy, it was like a punch in the gut. A lot of my friends were gay. How could the faith family that I had grown up in do this? How could it be that it wouldn’t hire my friends or let them serve in the field? It felt like dissonance, to see this in a faith family that had loved and encouraged and supported me.

My parents said that God called and equipped me. But if you are gay, you aren’t fully called? We won’t support you as we would if you were straight?

I felt disillusioned and disappointed.

We’ve got this policy; what do we do with it? If we change it, do we lose a large amount of funding? I confess, as a pastor, I have not brought up the issue in my own church because we are going to have to pay for a church renovation in a couple of years.

This is about people. “Love one another” is the greatest commandment. To me, a chorus is emerging and it’s rather loud.

To me, it feels like a chorus of people inviting us to love more profoundly.

What if we are the organization that continues to create space for people to feel included and empowered, equipped and blessed by God to go and serve? That is a conversation motivated by love and by trusting one another that we’re a fellowship whose tent is big enough and broad enough and wide enough for all who believe that God has called and equipped and commissioned us all to go and be a people of love in the world.

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WHAT’S NEXT? Over the next few months, the Illumination Project Committee will continue its Integrative Thinking process focused on these and other personas, analyzing the dozens of stories that have been collected while still receiving additional stories. The committee will place its attention on unmet needs revealed in these stories — needs that can inform future findings about how the Fellowship can move forward together despite theological differences on matters of human sexuality.

shared identity has been a priority of the Illumination Project. Since CBF’s constitution and bylaws entrust the responsibility of personnel policies to the Governing Board, there will not be a vote of the General Assembly. Instead, the findings of the Illumination Project Committee will be presented at the September 2017 or January 2018 meeting of the CBF Governing Board. The Governing Board will then respond to the findings of the Illumination Project Committee.

It is the hope of the committee that the outcome of this project will be the formation of a toolkit or process to better equip congregations in dealing in healthy ways with difficult questions — offering a framework on how to strengthen unity through cooperation in the face of challenges and disagreements in our often divisive cultural context.

The Illumination Project is not convened to make affirming statements or take other actions that would disrupt the balance of cooperation among CBF churches and global missions partners.

Instead, hearing the stories of how individuals find meaning in our

SHARE YOUR STORY! Contact the Illumination Project Committee at governingboard@cbf.net.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH COOPERATIVE BAPTISTS The quotes that follow represent a variety of expressed opinions.

They were taken from correspondence, transcripts and notes from conversations held over the past year between CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter and members of the Illumination Project Committee with Cooperative Baptists.

“When I attended the 2016 CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, I was disheartened and visibly shaken to find so many attendees wearing the Rainbow label in support of an unorthodox and unbiblical stance that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are something other than sin.”

— CBF supporter and denominational leader

“Our church is welcoming [of LGBT persons] but not affirming.”* — CBF pastors

* Follow-up conversations about the

meaning of this frequent statement reveal a diverse understanding of what is meant by “welcoming.”

“Our church is an affirming church, but we don’t expect other churches to be that way.”

— CBF pastor

“There seems to be a false unity in CBF because there were people who left [in 2001] after feeling like they were not welcomed fully — either as LGBT persons or strong allies. I have no problem with disagreements and we need unity. But we must be able to sit in a room and have a real conversation, and have that conversation as equals — and those conversations must include the participation of LGBT Cooperative Baptists.”

— CBF youth/young adult minister

“Our church is NOT affirming, but we respect the freedom of other churches to chart a different course on this difficult question.”

— CBF pastor “In 2001, the [hiring] policy opened doors to some people, but 15-plus years later, it is exclusionary and the language is crass. We don’t have to have unanimity, but we are called to say, ‘You are welcome at this table.’”

— CBF layperson 17

“I often hear people ask, ‘When is CBF going to become affirming?’ and I reply: ‘We’re not — such an affirmation would run counter to our polity and understanding of Baptist freedom. But, if your church cares about missions, CBF welcomes you — think of us as an ally, not as your ideological twin.’”

— CBF pastor

“The outdated and discriminatory policy says to members of the LGBT community that CBF continues to see them as ‘less than’ full members of God’s family. We know this is not the message CBF intends to send and we applaud your efforts to model ‘unity through cooperation.’

We commend you on facilitating discussions such as the ‘Sexuality and Covenant’ conference. We were especially encouraged by our experiences at the 2016 CBF General Assembly and the announcement of the Illumination Project.”

— Letter from CBF Church

“When I go to speak with churches who are exploring CBF affiliation, everyone is welcomed in the Fellowship. It’s been good to fall back on the CBF hiring policy because we can lean on autonomy of the local church. On the other hand, CBF had to make a decision about personnel funded by the money from its churches. A middle ground approach has worked well. If we didn’t have the policy, I don’t think the conservative churches would call for it. But if it went away, I’m not sure how the narrative would unfold because the policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”

— CBF state coordinator

“Most in my state sit in the middle and have a hard time discussing this issue. An overt move by CBF will not be welcomed by CBF churches — most of which are not ready to discuss.”

— CBF state coordinator “The idea that the church should or can affirm homosexuality as a moral expression of human relations will only drive a wedge between CBF and cooperating partner groups in the global Christian community.”

— Former CBF field personnel

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“One of the most difficult areas for us to negotiate is our global partners. The international community is way behind the United States. CBF has multiple global partnerships — matters of sexuality are in a different context there. Other regions in the Baptist world have almost no tendency of increasing tolerance or embrace for LGBT persons. The one exception would be Western Europe, which has a few Baptist unions which allow for LGBT members and conversations, with only one or two unions being affirming of LGBT persons. CBF has to maintain those partnerships, but the hiring policy is not something we should stand on.”

— CBF leader

“It does seem to be a very appropriate time for CBF to rescind the personnel policy adopted in 2001. The world has moved on beyond the climate that originally raised the issue. Time and time again the word has come that ‘this is not the time.’ But to paraphrase Dr. King, ‘How long? When is the right time to do what is right?’ I am deeply committed to CBF, as is our church. But it is becoming harder to reconcile this policy with our church’s mission that we strive to be a loving and inclusive Christian community.”

— CBF senior pastor

ILLUMINATIONS Read an award-winning 14-part series highlighting stories of cooperation, unity and diversity from across the Fellowship at

www.cbf.net/illuminationproject.

A Publication of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship © 2017 Editors: Aaron Weaver, Jeff Huett Graphic Designer: Jeff Langford Assistant Editor: Carrie McGuffin Phone: 770.220.1600 Website: www.cbf.net 19

SHARE YOUR STORY! Contact the Illumination Project Committee at governingboard@cbf.net.

QUESTIONS? Learn more at www.cbf.net/illuminationproject.