The long lament of SBC leaders concerns declining baptisms. The weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth was intensified last June when the lowest number of baptisms was reported since 1946, when Georgia's Louie Newton was SBC president. The drop was called a "freefall." Thom Ranier, LifeWay head said that "evangelism and discipleship are waining" in the SBC. Frank Page said that we should all "lament the poor state of our churches, our lack of evangelistic fervor, and our increasingly irrelevant programs." Indeed. We are accustomed to the June swoon of SBC leaders when the baptism figures … [Read more...] about There is clearly soteriological heresy in the SBC
More about satellite SBC annual meetings and remote voting: still a bad idea
Why wouldn't all of us be in favor of expanding participation for voting for the SBC Annual Meeting by having satellite meetings, perhaps at your local Baptist associational office, where folks who can't make the annual meeting in Dallas or Phoenix or Nashville or Indianapolis could cast their vote? It's tough to address some populist ideas because the presumption of greater participation always puts you on the defensive, having to explain why more people voting is a bad idea. Well, it is a bad idea but I offer a bit more about it. I have speculated about that as a way to increase … [Read more...] about More about satellite SBC annual meetings and remote voting: still a bad idea
A thriving Cooperative Program needs all kinds of churches on board
The Cooperative Program is our main funding mechanism. It puts more dollars than any other source into SBC state conventions and their assorted ministries as well as the SBC level entities (one proviso on this, though, is that direct giving puts more dollars into SBC level entities than does CP). Perhaps more important than the dollars is that the CP is our method of uniting churches, state conventions, and SBC level entities in cooperative ministry. Almost all of us desire a strong CP and most of us would think an increasing CP dollar flow makes us a healthier convention. While it would be … [Read more...] about A thriving Cooperative Program needs all kinds of churches on board
Things you probably need to know…
...and I'm happy to help. Squirrels, those rats of the forest with long fluffy tails, are being brought back from the 'dead'. Rodent CPR. Why? Complaints are being noised that our ERLC leader can't get into the White House. But we do have a few megapastors who seem to get there and end up being photographed standing beside prosperity gospel superstar Paula White. God bless Russell Moore. Don't worry about the world ending a week from Monday, National Geographic sez. Instead, plan for the usual Global Warming catastrophes. Seems that there has long been a conspiracy theory (Nibiru, … [Read more...] about Things you probably need to know…
A few stray observations about the Grand Old SBC these days
Seems that "objectify" is the term du jour in our circles. Many of the brethren need help understanding this. I suggest asking the closest female. Steve Gaines says we are at a "pivotal" time. In my best curmudgeonly way, I'd call it the wrong term. We are clearly in the midst of a generation change, and that whether the youthful J. D. Greear or the senior adult Ken Hemphill is elected. But "pivotal," is ridiculously overused these days. The SBC doesn't pivot. It shifts direction by tiny degrees and fractions of degrees. Regardless of the election outcome, we will change little. The new … [Read more...] about A few stray observations about the Grand Old SBC these days
How many churches give around the Cooperative Program?
This is a bit of a trick question and certainly a tricky question to answer. There has always been available to churches a manner by which they might bypass their state convention and give directly to the Executive Committee for distribution to the seminaries and mission boards and other entities receiving funds through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget. The church sends directly to Nashville and the EC what would ordinarily be sent to the state as Cooperative Program money. While this is cooperative in the sense that it joins with other churches in funding SBC missions and education, … [Read more...] about How many churches give around the Cooperative Program?
Great Commission Giving is a mess…but has usefulness
Great Commission Giving was intended to be a metric that lumped all SBC giving, Cooperative Program and societal, into one sum for each church. The latest figure for GCG was $646,017,306. That's a pretty good sum and being the veteran braggers that we SBCers are, it's a good figure to toss out there. But it is a flawed statistic. Consider the following. Baptist Press reported on the giving record of the church pastored by the announced nominee for First Vice President. For 2016 -- the last year for which data is available from the SBC's Annual Church Profile -- New Seasons classified … [Read more...] about Great Commission Giving is a mess…but has usefulness
CP is up by millions: Can we live with prosperity or mess it all up?
Our venerable Cooperative Program is doing well this fiscal year. Baptist Press reports from the SBC Executive Committee that National CP 4.9% ahead of mid-year projection. The $100,706,826.63 received by the Executive Committee for the first six months of the fiscal year, Oct. 1 through March 31, for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget represents 104.90 percent of the $96,000,000.00 year-to-date budgeted projection to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The total is $2,358,588.29 or 2.40 percent more than the $98,348,238.34 … [Read more...] about CP is up by millions: Can we live with prosperity or mess it all up?
Who “fully supports” the Cooperative Program?
Since no Southern Baptist church is forced to give to our wonderful, common, funding mechanism the Cooperative Program, how helpful is it to classify any church's percentage CP giving as fully cooperative or less than fully cooperative and more of an indicator of societal giving? My view is that in isolation, using a church's CP percentage as a measure of their cooperativeness or of their Southernbaptistness is ultimately harmful. Randy Adams, the Executive Director of the SBC state convention known as the Northwest Baptist Convention, an area covering Oregon, Washington, and northern … [Read more...] about Who “fully supports” the Cooperative Program?
Most SBC mission support is still Cooperative Program, not societal
Fears that the SBC may be returning to a societal method of mission support are unfounded if one looks at dollars given by the churches. While it is impossible to compile and categorize all mission giving by the 47,232 SBC churches, the data that is available seems sufficient to conclude that in spite of all the handwringing over the demise of the Cooperative Program, most church support for SBC causes is still through our venerable and wonderful Cooperative Program. Here are a few factoids: The total CP for 2015-2016 was $475.2 million. The total for the designated major offerings … [Read more...] about Most SBC mission support is still Cooperative Program, not societal