The signs should be clear to any who are watchful of and interested in the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Change is in air, and it will test us as a denomination.
KirklandWe are in a time of testing. We will gain an accurate measure for good or ill of our wisdom to make the right decisions about our life together as Baptists and the work we do collectively.
The times we are in will gauge our resolve to stick by our mission to “take the whole gospel to the whole world that all may be whole.”
The times and our response to them will provide a barometer that will give a precise reading on the level of our love for our Lord and each other — a love that is expressed through a cooperative spirit sweetened by our humility.
This journey of faith of ours, which began in 1821 with the founding of our state Baptist convention, has encountered both challenge and opportunity in 2010. Two recent gatherings of South Carolina Baptists held only a week apart offer ample evidence of this.
The larger of the two meetings took place on Aug. 24 at the White Oak Conference Center near Winnsboro. There, more than 500 pastors and other church leaders rallied for a “Great Commission Resurgence Conversation.”
Many no doubt sought answers to questions about the impact of the GCR on the SCBC. The answers never came. Still, the “GCR Conversation” gave us much to think about, to pray over, and finally to act upon.
The Great Commission Resurgence, voted into existence at the June meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, is in the critical stage of development and implementation. The well-intended initiative is in the hands now of the state Baptist conventions. They — we — must decide what to do about it. To do nothing about it is not an option. It is, after all, the Great Commission. The resurgence might have been unnecessary if Southern Baptists had first experienced a Great Commandment Resurgence. South Carolina Baptists will, in the days to come, wrestle with some very practical issues: What should we do? How should we do it? What will it cost? Do we have the money for it? Where will the money come from?
For South Carolina Baptists, difficult decisions lie ahead. Our denomination is, in the minds and hearts of many, identified by its institutions. We support through Cooperative Program funding three universities, retirement facilities, a children’s home, a newspaper and a foundation whose investments support Baptist causes.
Convention president Fred Stone has asked a crucial question: Can we continue to support seven institutions?
Cooperative Program contributions are on a downward trend. The new plan for contributing to Southern Baptist causes — called Great Commission Giving — places designated giving on a par with CP contributions. It is impossible to predict how this will affect the Cooperative Program. The architects of the GCR say the intent of Great Commission Giving is to complement the Cooperative Program. There is a greater chance it will cripple it.
Adding to the woes of the state conventions is the announced intention of the North American Mission Board to back away over the next seven years from partially funding missionaries serving state conventions in such roles as church planters. South Carolina has 66 such workers, including 43 church planters.
The Great Commission Resurgence recommends that more money be channeled out of the state conventions to the SBC to go primarily for international missions. A 50-50 split is viewed as ideal.
Where the Great Commission Resurgence is concerned, the plate is full for South Carolina Baptists. There is much to chew on.
The first indication of the response of South Carolina Baptists to the GCR initiative will be the budget for the new fiscal year. That budget has likely been completed. It will be unveiled at the Executive Board’s fall meeting in October and voted on by messengers to the SCBC’s annual meeting in November.
The new budget will be revealing. It will give a reliable indication of the direction of the South Carolina Baptist Convention as it relates to its institutions and other state ministries.
A previous meeting of South Carolina Baptists — this one on Aug. 17 — must be figured into the mix as our denomination plots its future course.
The Executive Board held a called meeting at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo following a series of listening sessions with SCBC employees conducted by Executive Board officers and the president of the state convention. The sessions were ordered in response to “undercurrents” of concern expressed by former SCBC employees.
Ed Carney is pastor at Riverland Hills and president of the Executive Board. In a released statement, Carney spoke of division among South Carolina Baptists over the leadership of the convention. He said, “The division is not 50-50, but between those who are struggling with our current leadership, those who aren’t, those who don’t know anything is going on, and those who don’t make this a concern of their lives.”
The administrative committee of the Executive Board, chaired by D.J. Horton, pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church in Moore, will take up this matter now. It is hoped the committee will have a report with recommendations to present to the Executive Board at its October meeting.
The intersecting of these two issues — implementing the GCR and concern over convention leadership — adds immense importance to the October Executive Board meeting and the November state convention meeting in Columbia.
For months, it seemed certain that the GCR would take center stage at the November convention. That may not be the case.
The administrative committee needs our prayers. Its members have their work cut out for them. This committee must move with caution — and wisely as well. Christian principles must guide its every step. At the same time, it must not be perceived as moving too slowly with indecision. The controversy over convention leadership may be new to some and perhaps to many. But it is not a new issue at all. It has been with us for too long. It must not be allowed to linger longer than necessary. It will impede our progress in kingdom work. It also will sap our spiritual energy.
The annual meeting of the state convention in Columbia needs to have a single focus on the Great Commission Resurgence.
The potential impact of the GCR on state ministries cannot be underestimated. Decisions made by messengers at the November meeting will involve money and will set the course of the SCBC for now and for decades to come.
Make no mistake about it, change is on the way. Some are eager to embrace such change. Others are likely to brace themselves against it.
Our mission must determine our methodology. Our mission as South Carolina Baptists is sacred. Our methodology is not. The purposes of God for his people are never changing. How we do the work of our Lord on this earth is ever changing.
The White Oak “GCR Conversation” brought together church leaders of varying ages, younger to older. It was an age-conscious moment for our denomination. There are marked differences in the perspectives of younger and older Baptists. This is especially true in matters of methodology — in how we do church.
But we must not allow age alone to define who we are as South Carolina Baptists. In our spirits we can find unity.
William Screven was 67 years old when he moved the church he had founded in Kittery, Maine, to Charleston to establish the first Baptist church in the South in 1696. That congregation is now First Baptist Church in Charleston.
The grave marker for Screven, who died in Beaufort, describes him as a “pioneer Baptist preacher.”
The dictionary tells us that a pioneer is “one who originates or helps open up new lines of thought or activity.” South Carolina Baptists, both younger and older, need a renewal of the pioneer spirit to accompany the Great Commission Resurgence.
Typically, Southern Baptists have not dealt well with change. That resistance has prompted this joke: “If the 1950s ever come around again, Southern Baptists will be ready.”
This is no laughing matter, however. The work that God has assigned to us as South Carolina Baptists is serious indeed. We are right to hold fast to what has worked well in the past and which can be counted on to produce the same results in the future. But we would be foolish to cling to outmoded methods that no longer are effective and only hinder our labor for the cause of Christ.
God is eager and able to do a new work in our convention as well as in our personal lives.
By God’s providence, times that are serious and even stressful are always accompanied by opportunity. We can, and should, seize this day for our Lord. We must not throw up our hands in despair, frustration or confusion over the obstacles to our continued service to our Lord, that of doing what he has instructed us to do — loving God and our neighbors and making disciples for Jesus everywhere. To accomplish that, we are now, and must continue to be, a “sent” people. And so we must go as pioneers, counting on God’s grace and guidance every step of the way. It is really not a new way at all; it is the old way revived.