South Carolina Baptists — as individuals, as a conclave of autonomous congregations, as a denomination whose foundational purpose is missions — will answer one way or another the most vital question asked of any of us at any time: Where will faithfulness to God take us?
KirklandIn mid-January, the South Carolina Great Commission Resurgence Task Force — appointed by former convention president Fred Stone and modified to include the presidents of the institutions by a mandate of messengers to the annual meeting — will probably hold its first session.
The purpose of the panel’s work, which likely will take most of the year to finish, is best explained by Stone himself: It is to “develop a plan for how the South Carolina Baptist Convention will respond to the Great Commission Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
If that sounds simple enough, it is not.
The SBC’s strategy calls for sending more offering plate funds to international missions and to major metropolitan areas and Western states. To help pay for this, the GCR task force of the SBC urges state conventions to up the percentage of Cooperative Program money forwarded to the SBC.
At the November state convention meeting, messengers approved a budget 8 percent less than the current figure, but did increase the percentage of CP funds going to the SBC slightly — from 40.44 percent to 41 percent. This action reflected previous planning by the convention and pre-dates the GCR initiative.
The 2011 budget is more indicative of a weaker economy than of a heightened interest in the GCR.
Ralph Carter, pastor of Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors and chairman of the South Carolina task force, was quick to deny any “lack of love or zeal” for the time-honored Cooperative Program, which has been in decline for the last two years. Rather, he pointed out, “I just think we’re living in difficult economic times.”
His optimism remains high given the circumstances. “I believe South Carolina Baptists have a mission for reaching the world, and we have a good opportunity to try to accomplish that mission by bringing the GCR task force together and coming up with a plan that South Carolina Baptists can live with.”
The whole matter would be greatly simplified if the South Carolina Baptist Convention did not include its institutions — three universities, a children’s home, two retirement facilities, a newspaper and a foundation.
All rely on Cooperative Program funds for their ministries, and therein lies the rub. If Cooperative Program giving does not increase, how will the money be divided, and if the cause of SBC interests or South Carolina ministries suffer as a consequence, which will it be? Or, will the pie simply be cut into smaller pieces so that everybody gets some, but nobody enough?
In his blog, “Just the Right Words,” convention president Sonny Holmes wrote that much of the talk around the convention now is resulting in more heat than light and threatens to “frighten us into doing nothing or to construct a wall of defense around the work highest on our priority list.”
His point: The task force has not yet met, nothing has yet been reduced, no money re-allocated, no entity defunded.
So he appealed to South Carolina Baptists: “Can we give it a rest? I am asking everyone to turn down the volume a notch or two. Let’s permit [the GCR task force] to meet and deliberate before we jeopardize their work by our unhealthy talk.”
The issues before the convention have no easy solution. To suggest otherwise would be foolish.
As South Carolina Baptists faithful to our Lord, and ultimately with loyalty to no one else, we must, and will, examine the denominational structure to determine whether changes need to be made to enhance effectiveness for kingdom work. What should the South Carolina Baptist Convention look like, from top to bottom, in the future?
Will we, in effect, do no more than tip our hats to world missions and evangelism while undergirding ministries, worthwhile in themselves, that revolve more around ourselves?
Will we allow ourselves to become stressed and distracted over matters that are secondary at best and perhaps non-essential?
Will we be so connected with God (or reconnected, if need be) that our priorities will line up with His?
For most of my life, I have suffered from nearsightedness. My corrected vision, though, continues to be 20-20. Far worse for followers of Jesus is spiritual nearsightedness. Often we see clearly what is up close, but fail to see as clearly, if at all, what lies in the distance. Jesus calls us as individuals, as churches and as a denomination to see with His eyes, with spiritual insight, with an eternal perspective. It may be that “corrected vision” is called for within our denomination, within our churches, within individual hearts.
And this, above all else: No matter what changes are made in the denominational structure, if each of us, as a disciple of Christ, does not take seriously the Gospels and their claims upon our lives and promises for all who believe — including individual responsibility in the spread of the gospel each day — there will be no Great Commission Resurgence.
For South Carolina Baptists, this promises to be a year like no other. For the sake of kingdom work, it must be a year like no other. Where will the new year take the faithful? Who can say, except that it will be forward — if we are willing to go. What a journey! What a God!