Messengers reject recommendation asking WMU to reaffirm loyalty

An Executive Committee recommendation for Woman’s Missionary Union to reaffirm its loyalty to the Southern Baptist Convention failed in a vote by messengers on the opening day of the SBC’s annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C.

Kaye Miller, left, of Little Rock, Ark., national president of Woman's Missionary Union, and Wanda Lee, WMU executive director, bring the auxilliary's report.

The Executive Committee had adopted the recommendation in a meeting the previous day by an overwhelming majority.

The recommendation asked the 118-year-old auxiliary of the SBC to “reaffirm explicitly in (its) governing documents and promotional materials the WMU’s historic, unique, and exclusive promotion of Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries” and/or “become an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention in a manner following the form of the other SBC entities and acceptable to the convention.”

The recommendation came in response to a motion at the 2005 SBC annual meeting questioning the WMU’s allegiance to the SBC, which was referred to the Executive Committee.

Wanda Lee, WMU executive director, told messengers the organization’s current status as an auxiliary works well and should not be changed. She added that the WMU wants to be a promoter, not a recipient, of Cooperative Program funds.

A difficulty with the recommendation is that it would require extensive changes in both WMU and SBC bylaws and changes in the WMU trustee-selection process, she said.

“We have had a singular purpose for all of these years, and it continues to this day — and that is missions,” Lee said. “We exist for the sole purpose of equipping our churches for missions education and missions involvement.

“Also, for 118 years WMU women have paid their own way. We at the national office have never been a part of the Cooperative Program allocation budget. We have been its greatest promoters, and therefore, as an auxiliary — which means ‘helper’ — we desire to continue to be a promoter and not one who receives the funds.”

WMU president Kaye Miller urged messengers to defeat the recommendation, saying that a poll of the WMU executive board reveals that members desire to remain an auxiliary.

“We would ask that you honor our board of trustees’ decision and vote no on this recommendation,” Miller said.

Mike Hamlet, pastor of First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg, and chairman of the Executive Committee’s administrative subcommittee, told messengers the recommendation is not an attack against the WMU, but an opportunity for “openness” and “further understanding.”

“No one in here should think that we are mandating to the WMU what they should do. We understand that they are an auxiliary. There was great support yesterday in (the Executive Committee) for the WMU. And yet there are questions out there that come to us from the convention, and the convention wants these questions answered,” he said, adding, “We believe those questions deserve to be answered.”

Joy Bolton, executive director of the Kentucky WMU, spoke against the recommendation and said there is no reason to question the WMU’s allegiance to the SBC.

“I invite you to come by the WMU booth, examine any piece of WMU literature,” she said. “You will find that WMU teaches and promotes Southern Baptist missions from cover to cover. Come by our archives in Birmingham and examine past issues. This has always been the case and always will be.”

After the vote, Lee told Baptist Press, “We greatly appreciate the affirmation of the Southern Baptist Convention, entrusting us to do what we have been called to do for 118 years. This (convention decision) allows us to move forward without distractions as we look forward to engaging more people in missions.”