Is the Southern Baptist Convention about to say to churches like the one I pastor, “We want your money (even if it is a tiny amount) but are not interested in your ideas or personal participation?” I sort of get that impression – or I will if the Convention approves “the recommendation that Southern Baptists elect officers from churches which contribute at least 10 percent of undesignated offerings to the Cooperative Program.” (See The Baptist Courier, June 1, 2006, page 1.)
What is a church “like the one I pastor?” It is a small church struggling in an old transitional community. It is a church that long ago may have ceased to exist if it had not dedicated a larger percent of its offerings to updating it own facilities and providing more ministries through additional staff. It is a church that has supported every special offering of the SBC, SCBC and its own association. It is a church that supports, with finances AND personal involvement, its association. It is a church that regularly supports several very worthwhile local ministries that simply could not be provided without the help of such churches. It is a church that immediately sent $6,400 to the IMB for relief for the tsunami victims, then sent two of its own members there in person to minister. It is a church whose conference room is equipped with a folding table and inexpensive chairs and with walls decorated with cracked plaster and peeling paint, to be contrasted with the furniture in the office of our state and national level facilities. It is a church that? maintains a financial reserve equal to about three to four months of its operating budget. (I wonder how many of our agencies, boards and institutions could operate for one year, two years, or longer without receiving any money from our churches?) It is a church in which the salary and benefits of every staff person are made known to every member.
I wonder:
How many churches are there in the SBC and the SCBC like the one I pastor?
How much money do those struggling churches jointly give to the Convention?
If our input is not desired, why should our money be?
“But now there are many members, but one body.?And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no?need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.'” (1 Corinthians 12:20-21, NASB)
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