Adrian Rogers used to illustrate two parallel values in SBC life: doctrine and cooperation. He would take two hymnals and stand one on its edge vertically with the other lying flat.
“No train can run on these tracks,” he would state, meaning that the SBC has to have both doctrinal matters and cooperative matters working together or the Grand SBC Train runs off the tracks.
Michael Clary is an announced candidate for SBC First Vice President and is running on the Credo Alliance ticket along with SBC presidential candidate, Jared Moore. Moore used to write for SBC Voices. He had over two hundred articles here but demanded they be taken down a few years ago. Jared will nominate Clary.
From the BP article:
Clary is the founding pastor of Christ the King Church, launched in 2009, in Cincinnati. Christ the King gave $792 to the Cooperative Program in 2023 from undesignated receipts of $472,854, according to the 2023 Annual Church Profile. The church reported four baptisms, 127 members and an average worship attendance of 201.
Clary told Baptist Press of an additional $32,000 in Great Commission giving in 2023, asserting donations of $10,000 to plant Christ the King Church, a Southern Baptist Church plant in Eastern Hills, Ohio, and $817 in donations to the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association. He cited other donations of $4,200 to the 1520 Coalition global church planting ministry, $6,000 to Vision Nationals church planting organization based in Vishakhapatnam, India; $2,000 to the Acts 29 Network, and $3,000 to Cornerstone Church in Detroit (Acts 29), and several smaller outreaches.
Clary’s church is, seems to me, just barely a cooperating SBC church based on giving.
- 0.0016% Cooperative Program giving, based on BP numbers, $792.00 total.
- 0.0017% to the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association, $817.00 total.
Notice the subtle wording of the other giving: Clary “asserted” $32,000 in “Great Commission Giving,” our catch-all category of giving by a church to Southern Baptist causes. None of the organizations asserted to be GCG, save for the local association, qualify for Great Commission Giving: nothing to Lottle Moon, nothing to Annie Armstrong, nothing direct to IMB or NAMB, nothing direct to any of the six seminaries, ERLC, state conventions, etc. If BP reported erroneously, I’m sure giving to any of these SBC entities can be confirmed.
That’s not minimal SBC giving, it’s microscopic.
It doesn’t take much to call yourself a Southern Baptist church or Southern Baptist pastor but these numbers are the lowest I’ve ever seen in a candidate for SBC elected office.
Jared Moore on Clary:
“He believes that our trustees at our various SBC entities should submit 990-level financial disclosures at every SBC annual meeting,” Moore said. “And it’s not that he doesn’t trust the trustees – he trusts the trustees – but he wants to make sure that trustees trust Southern Baptists. And Southern Baptists have to be able to see that our money is being spent wisely. It’s God’s money.”
A question: If you had a church member who gave, literally, a token gift to your church budget yet made a lot of demands financially or otherwise, how would you view this? If that person wanted to be an elder or vice chairman of deacons, how would you view that? I’d do what one pastor did, have a meeting with the member. “Bubba, I don’t ordinarily check giving but I checked yours and you gave virtually nothing to the work of this church. I’ll answer all the questions you have but do you think you could give us a little more support? We would all appreciate it. Then you might have more credibility in making demands and wanting to be a leader here.” Every pastor has had to deal with that situation over the years.
I’m not all that familiar with the Credo Alliance. I’ve checked their site and read their information. They say the work with like-minded organizations. Like the SBC? Well, Jared Moore’s church gives above the SBC average to the CP and also gives to Lottie and Annie. He has both rails going – doctrine and cooperation, although I’d disagree with some points of doctrine. Michael Clary’s train is off the rails and in the ditch, although I freely acknowledge that giving is a local church matter. His church has to apologize to no one for their giving. God bless them in their work. But don’t expect to be put in a position of leadership.
I doubt Moore or Clary have much of a chance this year, although I find Moore’s level of cooperation above average. Clary’s is disqualifying in my opinion, at least for my vote.
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The SBC’s Great Commission Giving category is a garbage category. I don’t fault Clary for tossing a bunch of things in there even though it’s not what the GCR task force specified. Others have done it before. Credit to Baptist Press for diplomacy in using the word “asserted” in their story. BP reports, we read between the lines and decide.
If all this is part of a scheme to get the credos out there, good luck. Nobody actually reads all of these articles. You can thank me for the link, though.
As an aside, Clary’s background is with CRU, an important part of my spiritual journey way back decades ago. He gets a point for that.
And I’ll take all the votes anyone offers in amending the SBC business and financial plan to make 990-type information available to all SBCers, even fringe ones.
