I am hopeful about the future of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. I am concerned about the future of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Don KirklandI am hopeful because of the two men elected in Columbia – Fred Stone as president of the state convention and Brad Whitt as president of the pastor’s conference.
After his election, Stone said that the future of the denomination depends on “looking at ourselves realistically, making changes that need to be made and bringing younger pastors and church members into leadership and active involvement.”
Lacking that, Stone said the convention “will have seen our best days.”
Whitt, at 35, sees himself as “the type of pastor that many of the leaders in the South Carolina and Southern Baptist conventions are seeking to engage in denominational service.”
Neither represents nor calls for essential change in the beliefs of South Carolina Baptists.
“Our theology is not going to change,” Stone said. “The Baptist Faith and Message is going to be our doctrinal standard.”
Whitt has made it clear that he is “conservative in theology and evangelistic in methodology.”
Stone and Whitt can be counted on to provide solid and forward-thinking leadership in their respective elected positions.
What can be expected to change in the coming months and years, however, is how we do what we do as a convention.
Necessity will demand change. The 2010 budget is 6 percent smaller than the 2009 document. Cuts are across the board. Adjustments will be made in ministries offered. The institutions will surely feel the pinch, and it will be painful.
South Carolina Baptists soon must reckon with its role in the Great Commission Resurgence. That strategy is still being crafted, with a final version to be unveiled next June at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting. For the state conventions, it will be about money.
How much can South Carolina Baptists contribute without doing harm to state ministries? And how much should we? For 2010, the percentage of undesignated offerings distributed to the Southern Baptist Convention through the Cooperative Program is the same as in 2009. There will be a call for us to send more. Will it come from a larger pie? Or will the pie have to be sliced into thinner portions?
There is a tug of war going on between state conventions and the SBC for the Cooperative Program dollar. This is true, too, of the designated dollar not donated through the CP. This will continue. It will grow even more tense when the Great Commission Resurgence begins in earnest.
The need to involve younger South Carolina Baptists in the work of the denomination is not arguable. What is open to negotiation is how best to do that. It will not be accomplished by neglecting or failing to appreciate the contributions of older Baptist clergy and laity who still are vital to our work. And neither must they be condescending toward what at least one Southern Baptist pastor once called “the boys in short pants.”
An answer to the critical issue of money will require the best of minds and hearts. And we can all pray that a resurgent economy will do its part.
I said at the beginning of this Commentary that I am both hopeful and concerned about the future of our convention. My reasons for hope and for concern are the same. Generally, no progress is ever made without some controversy. It is a fact of life. It is a fact of denominational life as well.
Money for ministry and involvement in the denomination are not the only issues of concern to our folks. They are, however, two that are prominent now and will be for some time to come.
We must be willing to deal openly and realistically with every issue that impacts our future as a denomination. And we must do it as a mature family of faith. The maturity of our faith and the worth of our witness to the world are not how we behave toward each other in times of comfort and convenience. The real measure of that maturity and of the effectiveness of our witness is how we behave toward each other in times of challenge and controversy. Shame on us if our Lord has to cite us for bad behavior.
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