Regarding the hiring of non-Southern Baptists for support positions: As I speak with both pastors and laypeople, the biggest concern I hear is “What if this is just the first step” to bringing in views contrary to those we as Southern Baptists hold true.
Quite frankly, in most of our churches, the people who do the landscaping or facility maintenance are not employees; they are contractors who collect no benefits from the church or convention. What assurances do we have that this will not eventually lead to leaders for our state convention coming from outside Southern Baptist ranks?
It seems to me this policy sets the precedent for this in the future. I understand we have three employees who were already on staff who were non-Southern Baptists. Did this not violate the previous hiring policy?
This issue simply seems to raise far too many concerns for our future. It should be reexamined and changed. We can “grandfather in” the existing employees but any new hire, support or leader, should be Southern Baptist. Regardless of their position, they are a representative of our state convention.
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