In the 2011 annual session of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, we adopted an agenda called the Great Commission Resurgence. What a great name! In approving financial reductions in every ministry and partnership in the state, we were told that we would increase giving to the International Mission Board by 22 percent over the next three years. The passionate plea of the proponents was that we needed to reach the “unreached people groups” around the world. Who could possibly speak against such a noble cause?
Now, four years later, the SCBC Executive Board is seeking a plan for what we will do after 2016 when the GCR initiatives come to an end. Do we stay the course? Do we return to the status quo? Do we make deeper cuts in ministries to reach “the uttermost parts of the earth”?
Some in leadership today feel it is no longer an effective use of Cooperative Program dollars to continue funding our ministry partners as we have in the past. Some even say we need to defund some of our ministry partners altogether. Others are advocating that we have expensive, outdated and “worthless” assets such as White Oak Conference Center and our state office building that are draining money that could be used for world mission efforts.
When the chairman of the GCR task force made his committee’s recommendations in 2011, he mentioned that our state had seen five years of decline in Cooperative Program giving. Many felt with the adoption of the GCR initiatives that CP giving would rise to all-time highs and that we would give much more to international missions in the process. They said if every church would just give 1 percent more, then everything would work out. But many churches had already advanced their CP giving to 10, 12, 15 percent and beyond, so adding another percent wasn’t possible.
Unless there is a dramatic increase in CP giving by the end of 2016, our state will have seen a 10-year decline in overall receipts. We have reduced our convention staff to what I believe is a critical low, and we have told our ministry partners to prepare for possible further cuts in funding. We have begun using a secular business model to evaluate the worthiness of ministry partners and ministry assets.
I believe the Great Commission Resurgence has not worked for SCBC churches and ministries. I do not fault the GCR task force or anyone else. We overwhelmingly voted to support that initiative four years ago. But Cooperative Program giving did not increase. Indeed, it is still falling away. Continuing on a failed path will only lead to more failure.
In order to get a better perspective on what the future holds, we need to step back and begin evaluating with another set of eyes that doesn’t interpret the Great Commission as only referring to the unreached people groups overseas.
Ask your Executive Board representatives what they think. Tell them how you feel. And if you don’t understand what is happening, call our ministry partners and find out.
Ken Reid
Executive Board Representative for Beaverdam Baptist Association