Jim Austin, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, is supportive of the work of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force but said he hopes for clarification on at least two of six “components” outlined in the group’s Feb. 22 progress report.
AustinAustin has questions about the task force’s proposal to do away with cooperative agreements between the North American Mission Board and state conventions. Also, he expressed concern that combining Cooperative Program giving and designated giving under a new umbrella called “Great Commission Giving” could trigger a return to a “societal method” of giving in which Southern Baptist agencies and institutions would compete for dollars.
NAMB and state conventions
Members of the GCR task force said that dissolving cooperative agreements between NAMB and state conventions will make the respective sides stronger and better equipped to reach the nation with the gospel.
South Carolina has such a cooperative agreement with NAMB, helping fund the work of 66 missionaries in the state, including 43 church planters.
The cooperative agreements with states would be dissolved by the end of a four-year period to free up more money to “budget for a national strategy” to prioritize the planting of churches, particularly ones in large cities.
The dissolution of the cooperative agreements also would mean that NAMB missionaries would be direct appointments reporting solely to NAMB and not jointly supported with state conventions.
“That would have a direct impact on our work,” said Austin. “If this is all approved in June, we’ll have to decide how we’re going to address it. I’m sure a lot of give and take went into this, and we respect that. We just need more clarification on what it all means.”
Currently, the state conventions forward a portion of Cooperative Program money to the Southern Baptist Convention’s allocation budget, and NAMB takes its portion of that budget and sends $50.6 million each year back to the state conventions – a process that is “complicated” and results “in a lack of productivity and accountability,” the report says.
Under the proposal, NAMB’s role for nurturing young and smaller state conventions would be left for the various state conventions themselves, with the hope that the larger ones would fill the gap – thus freeing up $50.6 million for NAMB to re-prioritize.
‘Great Commission Giving’
The GCR progress report also calls for establishing a category of “Great Commission Giving” to celebrate all types of financial support – CP giving and designated giving – that local congregations provide for Southern Baptist missions.
“We are not recommending any changes to the Cooperative Program but are reaffirming it as our central means of supporting the Great Commission ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention,” task force chairman Ronnie Floyd said. At the same time, however, “we also believe our local associations, state conventions and national entities should celebrate whatever amount a church gives through the Cooperative Program.”
Austin said a Great Commission Giving “option” could “open the door afresh to a societal model. States like ours that have so many institutions – everybody’s back to marketing themselves and getting into competitive giving. I see a lot of issues there.”
Austin said the proposed new giving model may be a “concession to reality. It’s like we can’t increase CP giving, so we’re just going to embrace what we’ve got now.”
Noting that SBC president Johnny Hunt recently led his church to increase its level of CP support, Austin said he hopes other churches will follow the example and get “back on board.”
‘We’ve got to do something’
Austin said he remains supportive of the GCR task force and is “appreciative of those who have given prayerful and thoughtful attention to some options that we need to to consider.”
“We are an aging, plateaued denomination, an almost one-homogeneous-group denomination, and all that’s got to change if we’re going to be faithful to the Great Commission,” he said. “The situation as it is, is unacceptable from a biblical perspective.”
Austin said his message to South Carolina Baptists is to pray for the GCR task force. “Take seriously the fact that we have a very diverse group that is making a unanimous recommendation,” he said. “If we’ve prayed and sought the Lord for them, and they’ve all prayed and sought the Lord, and they come up with a unanimous recommendation, we can’t take that lightly.”
The task force’s final report will be released May 3. Members have encouraged Southern Baptists to provide feedback. Messengers to the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., June 15-16 will vote on the final version.
– With reporting from Baptist Press.