Task Force Final Report

It's Done! As the Bullard Task Force pauses to take a breath before our Annual Meetings on June 13 & 14, we direct your attention to our final report. You can read it at: http://www.abcvnh.org/NewsLetter/Bullard_Final_May_6-1.pdf

Thank you for all your prayers and support as we've worked this year. We surely have felt it.

See you all at the Annual Meetings.

Update - November 2007

The Bullard Task Force has continued its work and we post our definitions for your perusal and comment.
Please read the previous post to remember how and why we arrived at this point, and why the definitions are important. What is next is for us, using the guidelines, to begin work toward our statement or statements on human sexuality to present to the 2008 ABC/VNH Annual Meeting for action.
A large part of our presentation will be to walk the participants through the process we are developing. We’d like to get a head start, and involve the Region, on that process. So, please read through the definitions below and leave your comments.
Specifically, are these definitions both clear and accurate? How do they guide our being “Baptist?” What’s missing? You can leave your comments for any post on the blog by clicking the word comments at the end of the particular post you wish to comment on.

Definitions:
Soul Liberty/Competency – In matters of salvation and Lordship of Christ each person has freedom and competency to choose what his or her conscience or soul dictates and is responsible to no one but God for the decision that is made. Neither church, government, family or friends may make the decision or compel the person to choose. A person may change his or her mind over time.

Religious Liberty – Separation of church and state. No entity can compel religious belief. Separation of church and state does not mean separation of politics and faith.

Church Autonomy is the historic Baptist affirmation that local churches have freedom and responsibility, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whom they discern as gifted for ministry and to participate in the larger Body of Christ.
It has also been recognized that churches need to associate together “to do things we cannot do alone and to seek counsel and advice from one another”. A church is free to seek to participate with and relate to other churches through denominational and ecumenical structures, upon knowing and accepting the criteria of those relationships. The congregation retains the right to determine whether they will continue in relationship to those structures.
Church autonomy (freedom) comes with the great responsibility of listening for and responding to God’s call so that a congregation will remain faithful in its life and ministry.

Priesthood of Believers – All believers are called to ministry according to their gifts. This ministry is the responsibility of the entire Body of Christ. Every disciple is a servant, both within God’s community and to the world. Each believer possesses equal privileges and responsibilities in the life and witness of the church. Biblical Authority: I Peter 2:9.

Believer’s Baptism is the conscious decision of an individual to follow Christ’s example into the waters of baptism. We understand baptism not as a means of salvation but as a public confession of faith. It is an outward symbol of the inner transformation brought about by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Biblical Authority: Mark 1:9-11 and Acts 8:26-40.

Associational Principles – While embracing local church autonomy American Baptists have long recognized the need for voluntary interdependence. This recognizes that the Holy Spirit is at work in congregations and that great things can be done in God’s name through cooperation. We voluntarily choose to associate with one another to accomplish a greater work. This process allows congregations to associate with sufficient unity, order and covenant to carry out an effective Christian witness as associations of churches in convention.

Biblical Authority:
This term is very important and the Task Force chose to use the statement found in “We Are American Baptists.” It is part of our IDENTITY Statement (November 2005 version, updated with IN/KY resolution).
American Baptists believe that the Bible, composed of the Old and New Testaments, is the divinely inspired Word of God, the final written authority and trustworthy for faith and practice. It is to be interpreted responsibly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit within the community of faith. The primary purpose of the Bible is to point to Jesus Christ, the living Lord of the Church.

Our Diagram:
As we have been wrestling with the ramifications of these terms and practices for our common life we decided to express it graphically and have designed this diagram. Note that we place Jesus at the center and that the Bible (or Biblical Authority) defines our boundaries.

A Bullard Task Force Update

So, what’s been happening with the Bullard Task Force? Following the Annual Meeting, and the subsequent affirmation by the Board of Trustees, we found ourselves with a full plate. But not everything on our plate belonged there. It seems that the expectations from folks in the Region were very high. It’s not that we don’t appreciate the vote of confidence, but we doubt we could fix all the problems that face our Region. So the first part of our task was to clarify, for both you and for ourselves as well, exactly what our task is.

We see our task having two distinct but connected parts. First, we are to develop a process where we can solve, or at least talk about, problems and opportunities that face our Region. We are to develop a process that is both godly and appropriate to our Region. No one size fits all approach here. This will take into account the strengths, weaknesses, and history of the ABC/VNH. We have no idea where this will end up, so many methodologies and approaches are on the table. We understand that many Associations are going to be dealing with some of the same issues, and we’re ok with that. We can work in parallel.

The second part of our task is to use our newly developed process to write a statement or statements on human sexuality which we will present to the Region for action. If we can deal with the hot button issue of homosexuality using our process, then it will probably be a worthwhile method for tackling our other issues.

That’s it. Our mandate doesn’t go beyond this. This is enough for us!

Here’s what we’ve been doing to meet our goals.

First, we have spent a lot of time talking with each other. We’ve been discovering and re-discovering relationships. Personally, we’ve been surprised to see how far we’ve drifted apart over the last few years. We hadn’t been talking, we hadn’t been praying for each other. We think this is a key element and we don’t want to downplay its importance. We’ve really enjoyed getting reconnected. We hope this type of conversation spreads through our Region.

Second, we realized that we probably had forgotten how to talk to each other. So our facilitator, Donald Woodhouse, has been reminding us of good communication practices and we have been working with a mutual learning model to make sure we don’t get in our own way.

Third, we decided that we should make sure that we had shared definitions on some key terms. These terms are: Biblical Authority, Local Church Autonomy, Covenant, Polity. Associational Principle, and Soul Freedom. The purpose is to make sure we are in agreement with these loaded terms. There is no sense basing our conversation on the assumption that everyone else shares my definition only to find out that we are speaking the same language differently!

So, that’s our nutshell. We are making progress and fully expect to have our statement(s) in your hands for our 2008 Annual Meeting. Please keep praying for us.

Also, we plan to have a Task Force member at each Association meeting this fall for further updates and to answer your questions and to hear your concerns. We hope we see you there.

The Bullard Task Force

Linda Bolton Robert Carpenter David Doyle
Dale Edwards Vivan Martindale Janet McFaul
David O’Brien Steve Payne Rohn Peterson
Cliff Vendt David Wood

Why the Bullard Task Force

WHY THE BULLARD TASK FORCE

On behalf of the “Bullard Task Force”, I was asked to write for the region a transparent and open chronology of events that have led to the formation of this task force. For the sake of full disclosure, I was invited by Dr. Abbott in June of 2006 to be the “2nd liaison” to Dr. George Bullard during his consultation process for ABC/VNH. This role has resulted in numerous conversations, emails and two written documents to Dr. Bullard concerning the region’s life together. I have grown to greatly appreciate and respect Dr. Bullard’s insights.

To begin this chronology of events leading to the formation of the Bullard Task Force, I would like to point out that our region was initiating processes to address our conflict before the presentation of the Bullard Report. On December 2, 2006 our regional trustees voted to form a Koinonia committee to develop for our region a “renewing vision.” The concept for this original committee preceded the Bullard Report and precipitating events of 2007.


PRECIPITATING EVENTS

On the morning of February 27, 2007, a conference call was held with Dr. Bullard, Dr. Abbott, Gordon Abbott, Rev. Rohn Peterson, and Rev. Dale Edwards. This conference call was in response to the escalating conflict within our region concerning the issue of homosexuality, and in particular how our region should respond or not respond to the amended national American Baptist Identity Statement in regards to homosexuality. The presenting issue was that on November 29, 2006 the Southern Association at its annual meeting voted a resolution (33 yes, 3 no, 2 abs.) affirming the amended national American Baptist Identity Statement, and requested of ABC/VNH’s executive committee that the amended national statement be placed before the delegates of the annual convention for a further vote of affirmation, or non-affirmation. On February 3, 2007 the region’s executive committee voted (6 no, 2 yes, 3 abs.) not to grant the request of Southern Association to present its resolution to the delegates at ABC/VNH’s annual meeting. This impasse has moved us from a conflict concerning homosexuality to a broader conflict concerning the practice and process of American Baptist polity within the structure of ABC/VNH. Thus a growing conflict and crisis presented itself in light of the Bullard Report by the end of February, 2007, consequently the conference call of February 27th.




DR. BULLARD’S OBSERVATIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

During the conference call of February 27, Dr. Bullard made the following observations and recommendations to Dr. Abbott, Gordon Abbott, Rev. Peterson, and Rev. Edwards.

• Our region, on a scale of 1-7, is in a high 4 stage of conflict, tipping into stage 5. (The higher on the scale the more destructive the conflict.)
• Our region has no “compelling vision” for ministry and will not be able to develop such a vision as long as we remain in stage 4 or higher conflict.
• No open, healthy process exists within our region for resolving conflict concerning any issue. It is imperative for us to develop open, healthy, and fair processes to address issues of conflict.


Dr. Bullard went on to recommend:
• The disbanding of the former Koinonia group and the formation of a new working group to address the issue of open and healthy process within ABC/VNH. This group would later select the name the “Bullard Task Force.”
• Rev. Rohn Peterson was assigned the role of organizer and convener of this new group. (On the evening of February 28, Rev. Peterson, Gordon Abbott, and Rev. Edwards held a second conference call, working with an initial list of names compiled by Dr. Abbott, to form a task force broadly representative of ABC/VNH.)
• While Dr. Bullard recommended that the new task force compile input and prepare for the 2008 convention a statement on homosexuality to be voted on by the delegates, the broader goal of the task force was to model a healthy, collaborative listening process for ABC/VNH. This process would also inevitably address the practice of Baptist polity in our region and address the question of what is the region’s compelling vision for ministry.


THE TASK FORCE MEETS

The task force met for the first time on March 28, 2007. Rev. Peterson secured for the task force the services of Donald Woodhouse, a professional facilitator/mediator. Including Mr. Woodhouse, Esq., ten members of the committee of 14 were present. The task force first set about establishing a covenant between ourselves. We then went on to discuss our region’s past history and to develop strategies for open process within ABC/VNH, which have been publicized by Rev. Peterson. The group composed the following purpose statement:

“As a task force, with Christ as our guide, we are answerable to the people of the region for the purpose of discerning who we are and how we as ABC/VNH relate to each other.”

The task force will meet again on May 3, 2007, concurring with ABC/VNH’s annual meeting, has enlisted the services of Dr. Bullard to conduct an “open forum” at the convention, and will begin its task of not only addressing the presenting issues, but will seek to develop open and healthy process within ABC/VNH. It is desired that developing such process will foster a new vision for ABC/VNH’s ministry.

On behalf of the Bullard Task Force, I offer this chronology of events and reasoning, as to promote open and healthy process. The task force covets your prayers as we enter a new and serious task concerning the future of ABC/VNH.

Dale Edwards