Trustees of Connie Maxwell Children’s Home are calling for a one-year waiting period to allow Southern Baptists time to evaluate the potential impact of sweeping changes proposed in the final report of the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.
The GCRTF report was released May 3 and is scheduled for possible adoption at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.
Meeting May 6 at the ministry’s main campus in Greenwood, Connie Maxwell trustees voted unanimously to “adopt and support” a statement written by Connie Maxwell president Ben Davis and submitted to a South Carolina Baptist Convention Executive Board task force charged with assessing the possible impact of GCRTF recommendations in South Carolina. Davis himself is a member of the Executive Board task force but could not attend a May 6 meeting of the task force in Columbia because it coincided with the Connie Maxwell trustee meeting.
“Nobody wants to quickly criticize this report and pick out a few things here and there that they don’t like,” Davis told the Courier. “Maybe there are many issues in there that would be good policy and good ideas, but there also are a number in there that nobody’s really sure about and nobody knows exactly what the effect is going to be.
“Rather than just discarding the whole thing – and certainly rather than just endorsing the whole thing – let’s give it some time. Let’s table it, think about it, answer questions, try to research what it really means, and then vote on it a year from now. Our board endorses that approach.” Twenty-four of Connie Maxwell’s 25 trustees were present at the meeting.
In his statement (printed in full on page 2 of this issue), Davis said there are “too many unknowns about the consequences to vote to accept this proposal one month after it is presented.” He said Southern Baptists “need more time to review – ask questions and determine outcomes before such wide-sweeping actions are taken.”
Davis pointed to “three primary areas of concern” regarding the report, including the proposed creation of a “Great Commission Giving” category that “will surely deemphasize the value of the Cooperative Program.” He also expressed concern over the “financial burden” states will face if cooperative agreements with the North American Mission Board are eliminated. Finally, Davis said GCRTF proposals “pressure state conventions to give a higher percentage of money to the Southern Baptist Convention at the same time that state ministries are suffering financially.”
Connie Maxwell joins North Greenville University as the second SCBC-affiliated institution to formally adopt a position on the GCRTF report. In an April 21 letter addressed to GCRTF chairman Ronnie Floyd and others, North Greenville trustees said the proposals “will greatly handicap the work of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, North Greenville University and other state ministries.”
Among other issues addressed in their letter, North Greenville trustees called on SBC leaders to endorse the Cooperative Program as the primary vehicle for missions giving. (Access the full story from our April 29 issue at www.baptistcourier.wpengine.com/4142.article.)
SCBC Executive Board chairman Ed Carney announced April 13 the appointment of a task force to assess the possible impact of GCRTF recommendations.
Members of the South Carolina task force, in addition to Carney and Davis, include SCBC president Fred Stone, SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin, Executive Board officers Wofford Caughman and Keith Davis, and Bill Dieckmann, director of missions for Columbia Metro Baptist Association.
The task force (also referred to as “committee”) released the following statement after its inaugural May 6 meeting:
“The committee cannot speak officially for the Executive Board or the South Carolina Baptist Convention without a majority vote.
“We are praying, reading and waiting for the SBC action. South Carolina Baptists will have to make decisions in response.
“The attitude of the SC GCR committee is ‘upbeat and positive.’ Impact studies will be completed when applicable information is made available.”