Most likely, messengers to this summer’s Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis will vote on a resolution calling for SBC churches to take church membership more seriously.

In what is perhaps unprecedented, at least three resolutions dealing with the biblical requirements of local church membership are available for public vetting in the weeks leading up to the June 10-11 meeting.

Pastors from Texas and Florida are offering separate resolutions calling churches to return to the historic Baptist principle of a regenerate, or born-again, church membership.

A Baptist pastor from North Carolina is offering a third resolution, similar to the others, focusing on the restorative aspect of church discipline—something all three resolutions advocate.

Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, and Thomas Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., confirmed April 29 their intentions to submit their resolutions to the SBC’s Resolutions Committee for consideration by messengers during the convention’s annual meeting.

Barber, Ascol and Chris Hilliard, pastor of Newell Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., have posted their respective resolutions online.

Each year the SBC Resolutions Committee reports for messengers’ consideration only a few of the resolutions they receive.

During the convention proceedings, messengers may seek to amend the committee’s report to include resolutions not reported out, or amend the resolutions up for consideration.

In phone interviews with the Southern Baptist TEXAN, Barber and Ascol said they att1:PersonName w:st="on">tempted to merge their two resolutions into one document but could not agree on revisions.

Hilliard, on his Internet blog, wrote that his resolution is “in no way competing” with Ascol’s resolution, which he said he supported last year and would support again if it comes to the floor.

At the 2007 annual meeting in San Antonio, Ascol’s resolution, titled “On Integrity in Church Membership,” was refused by the SBC Resolutions Committee and later by convention messengers after Ascol offered it from the floor.

Ascol argued that it is dishonorable to claim 16 million Southern Baptists when only about 6 million Southern Baptists attend church regularly, he said.

Barber’s resolution is taken from one drafted by Malcolm Yarnell, a theology professor at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, which messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention passed last November. Yarnell spoke against Ascol’s resolution at last year’s annual meeting, arguing that the resolution sa