Two state chapters of the moderate organization have formally asked national leaders to reconsider recommendations altering membership qualifications and the method for electing its governing board. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina's Coordinating Council, however, voted unanimously May 21 to request that the vote on recommendations by a national strategic-planning committee be delayed a year. Bylaw changes scheduled for vote at this year's CBF national gathering call for a smaller and renamed Coordinating Council that is less connected to state and regional chapters. National CBF leaders report criticism from other states as well but say they also have gotten feedback from members praising the plan. Formed in 1991, the 1,800-church CBF opposes conservatives who took over the nation's largest Protestant denomination by political means during the 1980s.
Critics oppose the change both on principle and for practical reasons.
Some say requiring churches to affirm any position statement amounts to imposing a creed. Chief among moderate criticism is that the SBC's current leaders seek to enforce narrow doctrines on the nation's 41,000 Southern Baptist congregations. Baptists have traditionally opposed any effort to impose doctrine through ecclesiastical means, leaving it up to local churches to interpret the Bible for themselves. Other critics of the CBF strategic plan say tinkering with membership requirements will bring division by forcing the issue in local churches where CBF and SBC supporters now peacefully coexist. Virginia CBF leaders, meanwhile, questioned a proposed change in how leaders are nominated.