Mission board trustees seek removal of trustee Burleson

Bill Bangham/BP

International Mission Board Chairman Tom Hatley addresses other board members in this file photo. Hatley issued a statement Jan. 11 asserting that the steps to remove trustee Wade Burleson of Oklahoma revolved around issues of “broken trust and resistance to accountability.” Burleson has countered on his Web site that contention centered, instead, on his own opposition to IMB policies enacted in mid-November involving believer’s baptism and private prayer language.

A Marietta trustee of the International Mission Board is calling a fellow board member’s decision to post committee deliberations on the Internet “unfortunate” and one that could damage support of its missionaries.

John Schaefer, a layman at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, said Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson erred when he used his blog to air criticism of recent board action. While Schaefer said he does not disagree with Burleson’s theology, he does disagree with Burleson’s approach.

As a result of the blog posting, trustees of the Richmond, Va.-based agency are asking the Southern Baptist Convention to remove Burleson from the board. If granted at the SBC annual meeting this summer in Greensboro, N.C., Burleson will become the first trustee to ever be removed from the board of any SBC agency.

“It is unfortunate that Wade did not choose to follow established procedure to voice his concern,” Schaefer said in a telephone interview with the Index. “I believe his heart is in the right place but trying to shape board policy by Internet postings is not the way to go. Board deliberations should remain in the committees where they were discussed; that’s why committees are established, so all sides can engage in the discussion and come to a consensus.”

The issue dealt with a discussion of whether missionaries should be appointed who use glossolalia, commonly referred to as “speaking in tongues,” in their private devotions. The board voted against such appointments.

Schaefer, who has been an IMB trustee since 2001, said, “Everything is done by committee and the discussions generated a lot of controversy, but it was a healthy exchange. If you are on the losing side of a vote you go back to the committee and try to bring clarity to an issue and change it. These committees change every year and there are opportunities to be heard.

“Wade wasn’t happy with the vote on those issues and, not liking the results, went public with his views by expressing them in his blog.

“We run enormous risk in society if we begin using blogs to shape policy. There is great potential to destroy an organized, orderly process for governance, regardless if you are serving in the secular or denominational world,” added.

“Because his blog is mixed with truth and heresay, people now don’t know what to believe. He seems to be comfortable with the idea of making public what is said at trustee meetings, but I think there is basically a great spirit at the IMB and I can’t think of a trustee who is not supportive of President Jerry Rankin.”

Burleson, who serves as senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., served as president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma from 2003-05. He was elected to a four-year term with the IMB during the SBC’s annual meeting in 2005 in Nashville.

Burleson was reporting on his encounters with trustees during the board’s Jan. 9-11 meeting in Richmond, Va., via his online weblog, or “blog,” kerussocharis.blogspot.com. Burleson posted entries on his blog after the trustee action Jan. 11, and, earlier, on Monday and Tuesday of the board meeting.

Two men who also have blogs but are not IMB trustees gave Internet reports of the meeting, too. The impetus for the meeting reports by Burleson and the other two men was their opposition to missionary personnel policies, which the trustees adopted during their Nov. 14-17 meeting in Huntsville, Ala.

Burleson, on his blog, has contended that the controversial policies are overly restrictive, even among some Baptists who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. He and other trustees maintain that the policy on a private prayer language was actually aimed at undermining IMB President Jerry Rankin, who has acknowledged using the practice when he was a missionary in Southeast Asia.

IMB Board Chairman Tom Hatley issued a statement Jan. 11 following a trustee vote the previous night in a closed session, to terminate Burleson’s term.

Burleson released a statement on Jan. 11 to Baptist Press expressing his dissatisfaction with the IMB trustees’ move to dismiss him.

Burleson said, “I am greatly saddened by the action taken by the IMB board of trustees. I have yet to be presented with specific allegations but I am willing to respond to the particulars of these allegations should they materialize.

“In recent days I have expressed deep concern with a precedent set by certain IMB Board members who voted to establish IMB missionary policies that reach beyond the guidelines of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

“Secondly, I have also questioned and brought to the attention of the full board the inappropriateness of certain IMB board members, who in violation of IMB board guidelines, have held private caucuses to develop and craft IMB motions and policy.

“Seeing the issue had become increasingly personal, political and overreached into the matters of the local church, I chose to express my concerns to a broader Baptist constituency for further discussion and dialogue.”