An 11-point report of the Great Commission Resurgence task force gained enthusiastic approval in a sea of hands raised by messengers voting at a special session of the South Carolina Baptist Convention last November.
KirklandFor many – including convention leaders and the 32-member task force that wrote the document outlining South Carolina Baptist participation in the Great Commission Resurgence launched a year earlier by the Southern Baptist Convention – it was a defining moment. It also was a defining moment in denominational life for the oldest of the state Baptist conventions.
Passage of the report, aimed primarily at enhancing the work of Southern Baptists in international missions, took into account the sobering fact that Cooperative Program giving in South Carolina had decreased for three years. Still, the convention launched the ambitious enterprise with faith in the God who always has provided for the work done in his name, trusting him to make available the resources – both spiritual and financial – to carry out the aims of the resurgence.
Following that uplifting Tuesday night session at the Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, messengers returned home or to their hotels in high spirits, having set in motion a strategy for penetrating the spiritual darkness that exists in too much of our world.
It was a time in convention life not to be forgotten.
And it must not be forgotten – not at this midpoint of February, or in the remainder of 2012, or in the years to come. The South Carolina Baptists who raised their hands to approve a blueprint for greater international missions involvement must now show a willingness, even an eagerness, to put feet to the initiative if the aims are to be achieved.
An important provision of the approved report is a plea to churches giving less than 10 percent of undesignated gifts through the Cooperative Program to increase their contributions by at least 1 percent. Thirty-one churches initially signed on to this challenge. Perhaps others have as well. If your church has decided to up its CP giving by that 1 percent (or even more), the Courier would like to hear from you. It would perhaps encourage others willing and able to follow another’s good example.
To fail to acknowledge the challenge presented by what can only be termed difficult economic times for all South Carolinians – and no less so for churches – would be to ignore reality at great risk to the welfare of our churches and denomination, whose labors for our Lord must be fueled by funding as well as faith.
Early in this new year, there are encouraging signs so far for Cooperative Program giving in South Carolina. Giving by South Carolina Baptists to underwrite the reduced 2012 budget of the SCBC is “off to a pretty decent start,” according to the convention’s executive director-treasurer, Jim Austin, who told the Courier he is “hopefully optimistic” for a turnaround in giving.
Austin carries the heavy burden of spearheading support of the Great Commission Resurgence among South Carolina Baptists in an effort to inspire and involve our more than 2,100 churches in the missions efforts outlined in the GCR report. Such a responsibility is daunting under any circumstances, but especially so when the financial fortunes of our churches, and thus the convention, are below hoped-for levels.
Ultimately, the churches of the South Carolina Baptist Convention bear the heaviest load, for offering-plate money is the means that sets our methods in motion. A reasonable question to be raised by thoughtful pastors and church members is whether it is possible for a financially strapped congregation to increase CP giving in light of the needs of local ministries that also offer an effective witness to the love of God and the saving power of Jesus.
The willingness of South Carolina Baptists to give more is being tempered by the question of how much they are able to give. Keith Davis, who chairs the Executive Board of the SCBC, suggested in a front-page article in the Feb. 2 Courier that “adjustments,” spiritual as well as financial, may be called for at some point. It may be necessary to find ways to do more with less as we push forward in our obedience to the will of God and the needs of his children, both far away and close at home.
South Carolina Baptists, who make up the membership of the oldest state convention in the SBC, can derive satisfaction from a history of missions that reflects faithfulness to the cause of Christ on our collective journey of faith.
The journey is far from over, and faith is ever alive. But we are at an important mile-marker in our journey together. We have embarked – with the best of intentions in some of the worst of times – on a divinely inspired mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ far and wide.
Does the enthusiasm – the determination expressed in that moment when we put our stamp of approval on the GCR report – still exist at a high pitch, and will we do – can we do – what is required in coming months and years to make real what we hoped for and dreamed about in November?
In short: What now, South Carolina Baptists?