Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando this June will be asked to approve a body of recommendations from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) that will change the shape and function of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Mike O’DellI encourage you to read the report for yourself before you go to the convention. It is important that you give this much prayerful consideration. You can find it at www.pray4gcr.com.
As I read the report, I am left with mixed feelings, but also with a definite conviction – mixed feelings because I fear what this could mean to our funding, yet I know in my heart that the need addressed by the GCRTF is real.
What could it mean to our funding? My association receives the equivalent of a little more than half of the salary and 98 percent of the insurance for our North American Mission Board (NAMB)-appointed church and community missionary position through a cooperative agreement the South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC) has with NAMB. Add to that another several thousand dollars we receive for each new church planted in cooperation with the SCBC. (SCBC new work funds are a combination of NAMB and Janie Chapman funds) The disruption of these two income streams represents a large deficit that we would have to make up from our churches if we are to continue the ministries that these funds represent.
The GCRTF recommendations call for a seven-year phaseout of the cooperative agreements, so we would have time to figure out a solution. If the economy remains as is, it will take some effort to do this. If the economy comes back, it would not be as difficult. In either case, our churches would need to determine if these funds are necessary and worth the extra support the association would require of them. At the same time, our churches will be considering their increased support of the local missions of the association while also being pulled in the direction of increasing their gifts to the Cooperative Program – leaving us between that “rock and hard place.”
I have heard discussions about the need for our state convention to downsize so it can pick up the funding for the 20 or so missionary positions in South Carolina funded by NAMB. That will be difficult to do. Consider this: The GCRTF recommendations would require the SCBC to shrink its share of the Cooperative Program and increase the amount sent to the Southern Baptist Convention to 50 percent. That will mean shrinking the already stressed SCBC budget from $19 million to $16 million and then finding another half-million dollars to make up the deficit from the NAMB cooperative agreement.
Where will this money be found? Some say the SCBC staff is too large. Perhaps it could be leaner, but it has already been downsized considerably over the past few years. Others have pointed out that South Carolina spends far more per capita on its institutions than other southern states, so perhaps some could be trimmed from our funding to our colleges and the children’s and retirement homes. Yes, they are probably in a better position to find funds from fees and gifts that could make up the difference, but do you think the alumni and constituents of these worthy institutions are going to let that happen? I doubt it!
So we are left with some very hard choices: Fund the Great Commission in the pioneer and metropolitan areas of North America at the expense of Great Commission work in the more established southern states, or find more funds so that more can be done without eliminating or downsizing these established ministries. Either way, we will be called on to make greater sacrifices than we are comfortable with.
And yet, I am convinced that the need that the Great Commission Resurgence is trying to meet is very real and must somehow be addressed. I agree that we must become more intentional about funding the International Mission Board, become more practical and strategic in reaching North America, and call our church members and churches and associations and conventions to a greater focus on the Great Commission in these last days. Most of all – and I say this with fear and trembling – we must not remain as we are!
As fearful as I am of the impact to our funding that this GCRTF recommendation may mean, I am much more afraid of what will happen if my denomination chooses to maintain the status quo. We live in an age that requires a Great Commission vision that calls each of us to a greater sacrifice than we have ever known before. I can proudly say that the SBC has been the brightest mission-minded denomination in the modern age. But we now live in a post-modern age that requires denominations to be leaner and more intentional about multiplying the kingdom. God help us if we choose modern maintenance over a post-modern mission!
– O’Dell is director of missions for York Baptist Association.