A public airing of differences between two leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention is “unfortunate,” said Jim Austin, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

In a March 9 story, “Rankin questions Chapman’s commitment to Great Commission,” Baptist Press reported that, in an undated blog, Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, said Morris H. Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, does not believe the Great Commission is the purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Citing a Feb. 12 Baptist Press story about the Fellowship of State Executive Directors annual meeting, Rankin, who was not present, said: “Dr. Morris Chapman found a receptive audience in speaking to the winter meeting of state executives last month in passionately pointing out that the purpose of our denomination is not the Great Commission but cooperation.”

Chapman, responding in a March 9 statement, said Rankin has mischaracterized his convictions about cooperation among Southern Baptists.

Austin, who was present at the Idaho meeting where Chapman spoke, said he didn’t hear “anything out of the ordinary” in Chapman’s remarks, neither did he “pick up that there was receptivity [by state executives] to any one particular item” in Chapman’s remarks.

Austin said he thought the retiring Executive Committee president was “being nostalgic about his time with the convention and looking at things from a historical perspective and expressed optimism related to the future.”

“I have great respect for both men,” Austin said. “I think both of them have a genuine walk with the Lord and want to do what’s best and may look at the same set of facts and come up with different opinions.

“I find it unfortunate that disagreements are aired as the are on blogs nowadays. It seems like a simple phone call could have resolved a misunderstanding,” Austin said.

Rankin, in his blog, wrote: “Watch for those who stand to lose entitlements of a system that hasn’t been moving us toward effective engagement of the lost,” referencing proposals by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force in its progress report released during the Executive Committee’s Feb. 22-23 meeting in Nashville.

“Apparently it doesn’t matter whether we impact a lost world or accomplish anything else as long as we cooperate together,” Rankin wrote.

Among the task force’s proposals is allocating to the International Mission Board an additional 1 percent of SBC Cooperative Program funding, for 51 percent of the convention’s CP budget. The additional percentage would be transferred from the Executive Committee’s 3.4 percent of CP funding for its various facilitating ministries on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Broadening his comments, Rankin wrote: “What our convoluted priorities are practically saying is, ‘It is better to let the lost multitudes never hear the gospel and go to hell, than change the way our denomination functions.’ …

“Cooperation is about us; it is self-centered, self-promoting and maintaining everything every entity is doing without any concern for priorities or results,” Rankin wrote. “The Great Commission is not about us, our programs and sustaining what we have always done; it is about others. It is about a lost world. It is about consolidating our resources and focusing our energies to proclaim the gospel to those who have never heard, to win the lost and see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord.”

Rankin wrote that God is “honored by anything we do cooperatively for His sake. But not to the neglect of His mission! Cooperation is the means through which we work together, not an end in itself. Why couldn’t our cooperation be for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission? Now that would be a quaint idea!”

In comments March 9, Chapman said, “I am saddened that Jerry so blatantly misrepresented my comments. The men who heard me speak know what I said, what I think of Christ and His commands, and where I think cooperation falls in any list of priorities. I would never say that cooperation is the purpose of our Convention. It is only a means to an end – to assist Southern Baptists in working together for the common purpose of furthering the Kingdom of God.”

Concerning his Feb. 10 comments at a luncheon during the Fellowship of State Executive Directors annual meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Chapman also told Baptist Press, “I have never seen allocation of CP funds as an ‘entitlement’ for any of our entities. However, I stand by what I said about the current SBC CP allocation budget. I simply do not see the reallocation of dwindling contributions as any sort of solution, nor do I see adding a category to tally direct (societal) giving as helpful. In fact, I believe it to be harmful.”

As Chapman stated to the state executive directors, “The SBC funding challenges are not procedural or process problems or problems of the wallet.” Rather, the challenges are “indicative of an underlying heart disease: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” he said. “The convention’s funding solution is to cure the heart disease.”

Chapman concluded his statement to Baptist Press by noting: “It grieves me that Jerry used this open forum to question my allegiance to my Lord and the mandate He has given me, to us as Southern Baptists, and to all who call on His Name. I pray he will retract his unjustified remarks. They do not befit a man of his position and stature.”

– With reporting from Baptist Press.