Earlier this week the Wisconsin Fellowship of Baptist Churches held its 68th annual meeting at Temple Baptist of La Crosse. Each year a significant portion of the member churches are represented by pastors and laypersons who gather to renew fellowship, receive exhortation from the preaching and teaching of God’s word, encourage one another in prayer and praise, and manage the business of the Fellowship. One part of business that is transacted each year is a set of resolutions concerning important issues of the day. It is customary to pass resolutions of gratitude to the director of the Fellowship for his service to the churches, to the keynote speaker for his effort and preparation for the meeting, and to the host church for their time and labor in welcoming and serving the representatives of the churches. This year, in addition to those resolutions of gratitude, we passed resolutions on several controversial issues.
On Racial Equality
WHEREAS evangelicals are beginning to promote postmodern issues such as diversity, tolerance, inclusivity, racial reconciliation, critical race theory, intersectionality, identity politics, white privilege and the like (with much of the leftist political baggage associated with those ideas);
AND WHEREAS such evangelicals typically assert that churches cannot effectively reach the culture unless they are politically correct and “woke” on racial issues;
AND WHEREAS the biblical view is that all humanity shares the same race, that all believers are spiritually united in Christ, and that ethnic distinctions make no spiritual difference;
BE IT RESOLVED that the churches of the WFBC retain their commitment to the biblical gospel, biblical language, and biblical practice without recourse to such current trends.
Egalitarianism
WHEREAS many evangelical churches are allowing women to move into positions of pastoral authority;
AND WHEREAS the biblical requirements for male church leadership are indisputable;
BE IT RESOLVED that the churches of the WFBC maintain their commitment to male pastoral leadership.
LGBT Issues
WHEREAS Western culture has largely capitulated to the LGBT agenda;
AND WHEREAS certain influences within evangelicalism seem to be advocating for increasing tolerance and inclusivity of homosexual orientation within churches;
AND WHEREAS the Bible is clear in its condemnation of homosexual desire and behavior;
BE IT RESOLVED that the churches of the WFBC assert their refusal to tolerate or mainstream moral perversion of any kind. We exhort those struggling with such sin to repent of sinful desires and behaviors, turn to Christ to resist temptation, and refuse to identify themselves by their sin;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that WFBC churches encourage those struggling with this sin to seek godly, biblical counsel to escape from the sin of homosexuality, to restore a proper sexual identity, and to align their affections and behaviors with biblical expectations;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that WFBC churches resist all legislative, judicial, and executive efforts of any government to restrict or prevent counseling that churches would provide to help people turn from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
I have included these resolutions without comment for your consideration. There may be questions about them that you would ask, and I would be glad to answer them to the extent I am able. Over the next few weeks I hope to share the rest of the resolutions and offer some comments on their significance both to the ministry of EBC and to churches in general.