{"id":296,"date":"2010-07-26T05:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=296"},"modified":"2010-07-26T05:00:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T11:00:59","slug":"radically-redefining-the-cooperative-program-in-the-sbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"Radically Redefining Giving in the SBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“My granddaddy didn\u2019t have a seminary degree but even he understood you can\u2019t even spell SBC president without a C and a P.”\u00a0 With those inspirational\u00a0words, ringing out like a shot across the bow of the establishment candidates, (the late) Forrest Pollock ended his nomination speech for Frank\u00a0Page at the 2006 Greensboro convention.\u00a0 As one who was in the hall that day, I have no doubt that Pollock’s rousing\u00a0address\u00a0swayed enough messengers to cast their ballots for\u00a0Frank Page for\u00a0the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, handing him a stunning victory on the first ballot.<\/p>\n

One of the men that Dr. Page bested that day\u00a0was Ronnie Floyd (the other was Jerry Sutton.)\u00a0 At the time, Frank Page’s church, First\u00a0Baptist Church, Taylors, S.C., gave 12.4%<\/strong> of their undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program.\u00a0 In contrast, Ronnie Floyd’s church, First Baptist Church, Springdale, Arkansas,\u00a0gave .27%<\/span><\/strong> to\u00a0CP<\/a>.\u00a0 That is not a typo.\u00a0 The decimal point is in the correct place.\u00a0 Apparently in 2006,\u00a0 there were some who tried to spell SBC without a C and a P, but the majority of messengers were not\u00a0enamored with the new spelling.<\/p>\n

Fast\u00a0forward to Orlando 2010.\u00a0 Not only did\u00a0messengers\u00a0adopt the\u00a0Final Report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF),\u00a0but these same messengers also elected Bryant Wright, who led his church to DECREASE funding\u00a0for the Cooperative Program<\/a>, as President of the nation’s largest Protestant body.\u00a0 My what a difference a few years make!\u00a0 Both of these actions, whether the messengers realized it or not,\u00a0set the stage for President Wright’s call for\u00a0“a radical change in priorities in order to fulfill the Great Commission.” In a\u00a0previous post, I\u00a0addressed this radical reprioritization and redefinition of the SBC<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As important\u00a0as electing Bryant Wright as President of the Convention was for those who would seek to redefine what it means be a cooperating Southern Baptist, the even more\u00a0crucial event was the passage of an amended Component Three of the GCRTF.\u00a0 The Task Force, at the beginning of the debate on passage of the Final Report, made a calculated decision to go for broke.\u00a0 Instead of voting on each component individually, the Task Force implored the messengers to vote on the Report as a total package.\u00a0 To my knowledge, no effort was made to “divide the question” so that the messengers could have voted on each component separately.<\/p>\n

The only substantive debate surrounding the Task Force’s Final Report centered\u00a0on Component Three, which\u00a0dealt with the Cooperative Program and “Great Commission Giving.”\u00a0 If the Task Force\u00a0won\u00a0on this issue, then they would win the day on the entire report.\u00a0 And that is exactly what happened.\u00a0 The pertinent portion of Component Three originally read:<\/p>\n

That the messengers . . . request the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention to consider recommending to the Southern Baptist Convention the adoption of the language and structure of Great Commission Giving as described in this report in order to enhance and celebrate the Cooperative Program and the generous support of Southern Baptists channeled through their churches. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After spirited debate, a too close to call vote on an amendment, “loose” parliamentary procedures, and points of order from the floor,\u00a0the Task Force faced a do-or-die situation.\u00a0 With a political sleight of hand that would make Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid proud, the GCRTF hammered out “compromise” language that was inserted into Component Three.\u00a0 With the addition of these clauses, the Task Forced hoped that a majority of messengers would be\u00a0believe\u00a0that the CP was not only saved, but strengthened.\u00a0 With the\u00a0Task Force’s “gracious spirit of cooperation” on display,\u00a0the\u00a0messengers overwhelmingly approved\u00a0an amended Component Three with the following language added:<\/p>\n

\u201ccontinue to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe affirm that designated giving to special causes is to be given as a supplement to the Cooperative Program and not as a substitute for\u00a0\u00a0 Cooperative Program giving.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, these changes, while appearing substantive, did absolutely nothing to change the redefinition of giving that is embodied in the Final Report.\u00a0 In fact, the first addition is taken verbatim from the body of the Final Report (see Final Report<\/strong>, Component Three:\u00a0 Celebrating and Empowering Great Commission Giving<\/em>, page 9, paragraph 2).\u00a0 The second addition, which gave enough messengers cover to vote for this Component and the Final Report as a whole, does nothing to change the direction that\u00a0the Task Force and its supporters are moving the\u00a0Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 In reality, neither change served to save or strengthen the Cooperative Program, but the changes did serve the purpose of the Task Force to save their entire report from being rejected by the Convention’s messengers.<\/p>\n

The radical redefinition of giving within the Southern Baptist Convention must be viewed through actions that have already\u00a0taken place\u00a0and\u00a0future actions that will take place.\u00a0 Words are not sufficient.\u00a0 Indeed, the words of the Final Report relating to Component Three,\u00a0 when viewed through an unquestioning lens, seem to\u00a0clearly focus on the value of the Cooperative Program.\u00a0 However, if we view the actions of Bryant Wright, Ronnie Floyd, Johnny Hunt, and others (notwithstanding\u00a0Floyd’s and Hunt’s\u00a0recent increase in CP giving — after all, Floyd’s church had nowhere to go but up)\u00a0who share their philosophy,\u00a0“Great Commission Giving” will eventually replace CP giving as the standard by which leaders and churches within our Convention are measured.\u00a0 Churches like Wright’s will continue to designate around the “bloated bureaucracies” that some SBC\u00a0leaders believe our state conventions to be, further redefining what it means to cooperate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until Orlando, we have been a Convention of 45,000+ churches who cooperate together for missions and ministry.\u00a0 Since 1925, the Cooperative Program has served us well.\u00a0 Although not perfect — for we are not a perfect people — CP has stood the test of time. \u00a0 It has allowed churches of all sizes to give “equal sacrifices, not equal gifts.”\u00a0 Perhaps we need to take remedial English and relearn what Forrest Pollock’s granddaddy taught him:\u00a0 You can’t spell SBC without a C and a P.\u00a0\u00a0I hear they might even be offering a class next summer in Phoenix!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“My granddaddy didn\u2019t have a seminary degree but even he understood you can\u2019t even spell SBC president without a C and a P.”\u00a0 With those inspirational\u00a0words, ringing out like a shot across the bow of the establishment candidates, (the late) Forrest Pollock ended his nomination speech for Frank\u00a0Page at the 2006 Greensboro convention.\u00a0 As one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37],"tags":[3372,433,434,3393],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-cooperative-program","tag-gcr","tag-gcrtf","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-4M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}