The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing in recent memory. Among the issues creating the most interest is a contested election for president.
By Kelly Boggs
Editor
The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist
Convention is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing in recent
memory. Among the issues creating the most interest is a contested
election for president.
Thus far, two men have announced they will be
nominated for the post of president of the SBC when messengers gather
at Greensboro June 13-14: Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church
of Springdale, Arkansas, and Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church
of Taylors, South Carolina.
Adding to the intrigue is a rumor indicating a third
candidate may also toss his proverbial hat in the ring. If the
scuttlebutt is accurate, it will only add to the debate that the
contested election has already produced. And that discussion centers on
the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ channel for supporting
state, national and international missions and ministry.
Make no mistake: Floyd and Page are cut from the
same theological cloth. What distinguishes the two men is their
church’s support of the Cooperative Program.
According to the most recent SBC Annual Church
Profile, Page’s church allocated 12.4 percent ($534,683) of its
undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program. FBC Springdale, on
the other hand, gave .27 percent ($32,000) through the CP.
Apologists for Floyd’s candidacy have pointed out
that the church designated $189,000 to SBC causes and its total mission
expenditures came to $1,637,503 – which represents 13.7 percent of the
FBC Springdale’s almost $12-million budget. Included in that figure is
$54,261 given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for foreign
missions.
If we use the same formula Floyd’s supporters
utilize in an effort to give a “more complete picture” of FBC
Springdale’s giving, we discover that Page’s church gave 34 percent
($1,461,950) of its $4.2-million budget to missions, including $161,521
to Lottie Moon.
The aforementioned figures are noted not in an
effort to impugn Floyd and FBC Springdale. Praise the Lord for every
penny they give to mission causes! The purpose in highlighting the
figures is to point out there is significant disparity in CP support
between Floyd and Page.
Floyd’s supporters have noted that CP support has
never been an issue in a presidential race and should not be now. They
can also point out an Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee has revised
a report that initially called for churches to strive to give 10
percent of undesignated receipts to the CP.
“The Committee’s report to be submitted at
Greensboro now will encourage churches to increase their giving through
the Cooperative Program but no longer will specify a 10-percent goal
for supporting the missions and ministries of state Baptist conventions
and the SBC,” Baptist Press reported.
The report will also “encourage the election of
leaders whose churches ‘are committed to increasing systematically and
enthusiastically the percentage of undesignated receipts given through
the Cooperative Program,’ again without mention of a 10 percent target.”
One thing Floyd’s supporters ignore, and the Ad Hoc
Committee now seems to be soft-pedaling, is the reality that the
Cooperative Program is in serious decline.
In 1984, the average Southern Baptist Church
allocated 10.6 percent of undesignated receipts to the CP. By
2004-2005, the average had diminished to 6.6 percent, a decline of 34
percent.
If the current rate of decline is not abated, we
will celebrate the Cooperative Program’s 100th birthday in 2025 with
the average SBC church allocating just a hair over 4 percent of its
undesignated receipts to the CP. The Lord only knows the devastating
impact that will have on our cooperative ministries.
Given the grave circumstance of the CP, can we really afford to have
leaders who do not support the vehicle that is Southern Baptists’ most
distinguishing mark?
“The Cooperative Program is the glue that holds
Southern Baptists together and helps them stick to the Great
Commission,” a Baptist from another era declared. If an individual is
not applying the “glue” in his local congregation, how can he influence
others to do so?
When a person in a position of leadership gives but
a token amount to the CP, the best he can do in helping change the
downward spiral of Cooperative Program support is to proclaim, “Do as I
say, not as I do.”
Nineteenth Century French politician Alexandre
Auguste Ledru-Rollin once said, “Ah well! I am their leader. I really
ought to follow them!” With that thought in mind, is it too much to ask
SBC leaders to at least follow the “average” in their support of the
Cooperative Program (which is 6.6 percent)?
Since there seems to be some reluctance in
establishing a benchmark percentage that leaders, or potential leaders,
are measured against, I thought I would toss out what the average SBC
church is currently giving to the CP. If for no other reason than to
stimulate discussion.
However, when one thinks about leadership average is
a word that rarely leaps to mind, and below average is usually not even
considered. When contemplating someone for a position of leadership,
words like exemplary and pacesetter are descriptions that normally come
to mind.
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way,
and shows the way,” leadership guru John Maxwell has said. Shouldn’t
leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention know, show, and go the way
of the Cooperative Program? When Southern Baptists cast their vote for
president of the convention at Greensboro next week, that is precisely
the question they will be answering.