In no particular order:
“…while shared ministries are supported at all levels of Southern Baptist life, the phrase itself and the concept in general are no longer communicating the allocation of funds clearly, [Alabama Baptist State Convention Executive Director Rick] Lance explained. So going forward, the budget language in Alabama will only deal with state and national percentages.”
So, instead of the ABSC making a statement like, “we divide Cooperative Program receipts equally with SBC entities,” a technically correct statement, since the division was 45% state convention, 45% SBC entities through the allocation formula, and 10% “shared ministries” the ABSC will simply say (for the 2016 budget year): “We keep 53% of a CP dollar and send 47% to the SBC.
This accounting in state convention budgets that includes a vague category of “shared ministries” should end. It is confusing and deceptive, though not nefarious.
Rick Lance’s explanation reported in the article (link) summarizes the situation.
It is the right move to deep-six this confusing business in Alabama. Tell it like it is. All states should drop the fuzzy accounting business.
“We are a mission sending agency in Georgia”
Robert White, the CEO for our state convention, commenting on the “reinvention” of the Georgia Baptist Convention. The “reinvention” includes a public (but not corporate or legal) change of name to “Georgia Baptist Mission Board.”
Some were confused by this, thinking that the new GBMB was going to compete with our North American and International Mission Boards in appointing and sending missionaries. No.
The GBC administrative leadership has tried for years to brand state convention employees as missionaries, “Georgia Baptist missionaries.” While I value our state workers and while they are sent to serve us, there is considerable distance between consulting on church music, preschool, or student ministry with a Georgia Baptist church in Thomasville, Georgia, USA and serving in Tbilisi, Georgia, Asia. The GBMB will do the former, not the latter.
[Florida Baptist Convention] staff persons will no longer serve as interim pastors,
So stated Thomas Green, new CEO of the Florida Baptist Convention. He added the obvious reason for the change in policy: because serving a single church for an extended period of time prevents them from visiting churches every week.
Let’s see. A state’s churches pay a good salary to a state worker. He does his work during the week but on the Lord’s Day is in the one church that pays him a salary, and thus for six months or a year of Sundays. Get your workaday, average SBC pastor talking and this will be a sore spot. While state workers do well for some churches in a interim capacity, wouldn’t the bulk of churches and the state organization be better served if more churches were exposed to more state staff?
I still say that one good state program would be to provide state staff (at no cost) to fill in for smaller churches who would agree to give ther pastor a sabbatical of a month or more.
Thomas Green made a wise decision here. The legacy state conventions should follow his example and do the same.
[The Missouri Baptist Convention is] not primarily a provider of goods and services to [Missouri Baptist] churches
John Yeats, Missouri Baptist Convention CEO, explaining part of the MBC’s “reorientation.”
Yeat’s full statement, one of four numbered points under a list that elaborated the MBC “reorientation” plan, was: “A strategically driven staff. While we continue to counsel with church leaders and meet their needs, we are strategically driven to transform lives and communities with the Gospel. Therefore, we are not primarily a provider of goods and services to churches, but a strategic leader offering a clear, compelling, and cooperative vision for Missouri Baptists.”
Does this make the MBC a parachurch organization?
This is rather tricky and since I’m not in Missouri, perhaps some Missourian will, uh, show me, what this means if it is more than just corporate buzzspeak.
The Christian Index, the oldest Southern Baptist newspaper, stops the presses, disbands trustee board, and becomes the publicity arm of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
Well, circulation is down all over and the CI will go to a free online presence. The paper did some pretty good reporting in the past. I understand numbers and dollars (there is a considerable savings in Cooperative Program expenditures in this change) but I hope the CI will still have the independence to report on some hard SBC stories. You don’t often see a Baptist board of trustees vote themselves out of existence.
“In January, 2016 there will also be a second phase [of the IMB personnel reduction plan] – a “Hand Raising Opportunity” – for all personnel and staff to pray about whether the Lord is leading them to a new place of involvement in mission outside the IMB.”
I didn’t capitalize the Hand Raising Opportunity, that was from IMB. The HRO is to follow as phase two after the VRIs. This is a little obscure to me. Will certain personnel be given a hint that their positions will be terminated and they might want to pray about raising their hand? Will further non-retirement incentives be offered before the HROs? We will see soon.
Churches bypass state conventions with CP gifts less in 2015 than 2014
Some have suggested an alternative to the system where churches give their CP gifts to their state convention, state conventions then take a hefty slice of them (average of 62%) and then forward the rest to the Executive Committee for allocation to the mission boards, seminaries, etc.
The alternative is for churches to send direct to the EC and there is no denominational law against that. The EC will take the money. For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 about 3% of the EC’s CP receipts came direct from churches, by-passing state conventions. That dropped to 2.8% for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015.
This CP work-around isn’t going anywhere.
_________________
As always, I’m wide open to being told what I missed, misunderstood, or where I am off-the-wall.
As an MBC pastor since 1991, all I know our reorientation means so far is the MBC will have a lot fewer staff in 2016. Some have been let go, others have resigned, and several have retired. Those remaining have so many responsibilities it is hard to know how they will carry out any of them effectively. I am willing to ‘wait and see’ how it all works out. But I am troubled that our allocation SBC vs. MBC has only changed be 1/2 of 1 percent with all these changes.
Thanks for the response. State conventions are trying to find their place in the SBC these days. It’s tough.
“Therefore, we are not primarily a provider of goods and services to churches, but a strategic leader offering a clear, compelling, and cooperative vision for Missouri Baptists.” …This is the part of the MBC reorg that concerns me the most. I see this as saying, “If you want to do what we are doing we can help you”. This is the same concern I have with NAMB with its almost exclusive emphasis on Church Planting. As an SBC pastor this sounds like a ‘top down’ approach. “We can help you IF you want to do what we want to do” vs. “HOW can we help you?”.
NAMB devotes about half of it’s budget to church planting.
When you can’t see the forest because of the trees, chop wood or find your way out.
If I were a IMB missionary,
I would not appreciate them spiritually imploring me to seek God’s will about whether I should “retire,”
while at the same time they are pressuring me to leave.
Why not just be honest about it?
It’s not about a missionary seeking God’s will,
it’s about the IMB having to lay them off because of the IMB’s financial mismanagement.
David R. Brumbelow
When you’re right, you’re right! I do not always (often?) agree with you, but I always respect your reasoning, and this time, I agree with you. The spiritual aspect seems to be window dressing while the decisions are hard business ones–necessary perhaps, God’s will perhaps, but business decisions first and foremost phrased to appeal to “spiritual” people, whatever that means. It reminds me of a time when I had been at a church 7 or 8 years, and the chairman of the Pulpit Committee who brought me in said, “It might be time for you to seek a new church, you’ve been here longer than most anyone else has.” As a matter of fact, I agreed, had already sent resumes out, and not too long after a Pulpit Committee visited. I went there and preached, was called and announced my resignation. And the chairman of the committee at my church told me, “I didn’t mean you should really leave. I just wanted a Committee to be seen here so our people would realize we might loose you and appreciate you more!”
John
Thanks, John Fariss.
And you, and everyone here, have a
Happy New Year.
David R. Brumbelow
David R. Brumbelow,
Thank you for your comment. You have said exactly what I have wanted to say. As a former IMB’er in Japan, I just cannot accept what the IMB leadership has been telling the 50+ folks in the disguise of wanting them to resign or take early retirement.
I think this could be the beginning of the end for the IMB. They have brought this problem on themselves because of
mismanagement in many areas of mission work.
John, I don’t think he is right. Internal IMB communication has directed field personnel to put NO pressure on anyone to resign.
Of course, they could have gone thru and made strategic decisions about which personnel are most valuable but IMB leadership has decided to respect each missionary and allow them to make the choice.
Also, the source if the problem ultimately is not board mismanagement but Baptist priorities. We decided to keep it for ourselves or spend it on other things.
The mistake was refusing to face reality until Platt came aboard.
So, no, I do not think much of David’s statement merits an amen.
I have not followed this one very closely since the early days. Has a plan of action been announced if the number of volunteer resignations/retirements do not reach the budget balance level? Will missionaries stay in place is such does not happen? Also what phase are we now and what is it?
I had dinner recently with a family that took the VRI. They are kind and gracious and didn’t say one negative word about the IMB or our leadership there.
They did voice having trouble with exactly what David B is describing. They had trouble with someone asking them to pray about God’s call on there life for missions saying, “we kissed our children and a new born grandchild goodbye 3 years ago and someone asks us to pray if we are where God wants us.”
Imo, there was some window dressing to spiritualize this matter because prayer or not, volunteer to retire or not there is a # the IMB is going to reduce its employees to.
Not to mention that the plan itself contains a form of subtle persuasion, at the very least. They have been told, “This is the best retirement incentive package you will be offered.” I understand the logic of such statements—if future plans were just as good, what would be the incentive to accept the VRI right now, which is what the IMB wants many people to do.
But turning it down means less financial security for their family during their retirement years.
I don’t think they are applying “spoken” pressure. The action of the VRI incentive plan itself speaks louder than any such words.
Rick
What you say seems very clear and accurate to me…and that from a man who appreciates Platt a great deal.
So do you think a VRI has no place in a Christian organization?
Bill Mac
Didn’t say that. I am pondering the incept of “no pressure”. If the word is if we do not reach the desired reduction then we keep all personnel on board and go to a plan “B”. If the word is if we do not get the desired reductions by the first two phases which carry some financial benefit personnel will be “laid off” with much less or nothing, then I would feel pressure in such a situation.
oops “concept” not “incept”
“the source if the problem ultimately is not board mismanagement but Baptist priorities.”
It’s hard to understand this, since according to the IMB FAQ “Despite increased giving to the IMB over the last four years, the organization has consistently spent more money than it has received.”
The source of the problem is financial mismanagement by the leadership of the IMB and a lack of communication to the folks in the pews about the problem. Let’s not lay this at the wrong feet.
David
I think you are right about the lack of communication to folks in the pew being a large part of the problem. I believe the issue was mentioned two or so times at the SBC Annual Meeting but evidently not with passion or burning concern. I doubt that much of that even reached the pew.
I can speak only of the churches I pastored…in those the CP, Lottie and Annie were lay driven (WMU or such) not pastor driven.
I was not aware of the issue until the decision was announced about pulling back missionaries. I am fairly well plugged-in locally and pastors around here didn’t know.
I would hope that with clear information, a plan to get under budget, and a plea for additional giving during the transition our people would have responded generously. I know that I would have given more, as would most of the people I know…
All I can say is, I am incredibly thankful for David Platt and his leadership.
My point above was about the phase two “hand raising opportunity”. The VRI is over I presume. It was by definition, an incentive, positive pressure to move some personnel to retirement from IMB. The IMB is severely overstaffed.
I think this was and is the right course. After these few months since the reduction plan was announced, I have some criticism but towards the inaction that allowed the situation to come to this point, not for the actions taken by current leadership.
I wish Platt would have found other language other than ‘hand raising opportunity’. The concept is not clear to me although perhaps it is clear to current IMB employees.
Glad to see my colleagues didn’t stay up late last night and are up early today. You could have gone to bed when the score was 17-0.
I’m 99% sure that the first phase of the IMB staff reduction is over. Those who wanted to sign up for it had to indicate their intention to do so in December. Here we are on New Year’s day. The next thing we need to hear from the IMB is to what extent the VRI actually addressed to IMBs overstaffing and/or underfunding. That will set the parameters on any subsequent staff reduction.
I personally have no problems with what is going on with the IMB — except for the oblique phraseology being used to describe the process. I I don’t think the vague term “Hand Raising Opportunity” is very descriptive or appropriate.
Why is it when companies hand you a pink slip instead of saying “he was fired” they say “he is exploring other opportunities”. Or to put a Baptist slant on it the firing is described as “following the seeking the Lord’s guidance as to future employment”.
Instead of “we the IMB are cutting back on people through various separation packages”
it becomes
“we are giving staff an OPPORTUNITY [namely a “hand raising opportunity”] to leave the organization.
IMB leadership: Speak clearly!! Please, get out of the spin room.
Roger K. Simpson Oklahoma City OK
Sorry for such abysmal editing.
Delete text in brackets: . . . following the [seeking the] Lord’s guidance.
Roger
Auto Correct will be the death of us all!
Roger Simpson…or anyone else
I can’t seem to get an answer to my question. Maybe you can help me. In all candor, for a variety of reasons not germane at this point, I have not followed this story from primary sources. Most of what I know is from “Voices” and one or two other social media type things.
My question… do we know definitively what will happen if we do not get enough VRI’s or “hand raisers” to meet budget demands? Will there be more people cuts until that balance is reached or will those who do not fall into the above categories keep their jobs? I know there is talk but I do not know if to is speculation or if announcements have been made by IMB.
BTW your above comment is spot on.
Haven’t seen any numbers on VRI response. HRO is phase two. They have to get the numbers to a sustainable level and expenses are mostly personnel. Just like my church and any business, expenses and revenues have to align.
William T
Thanks for responding. I understand the need to reduce personnel and/or expenses. Your last line is an axiomatic premiss for any entity dealing with income/expenses, including a family budget. My question is…has any statement been made by IMB regarding action if the two phases do not produce enough personnel reduction. Will there be a third effort? Will there be “layoffs”. Will we carry with personnel in place and hop for the best?
I am sure we all have speculation about this possible scenario…my question is at the point, has IMB said anything definitive should this be the case.
DL et. al.:
To answer your question, “I don’t know”. I don’t know anything regarding the “downsizing” that is not in the public domain. However, I follow this very closely. If there is a press release, a video with a talk by Dr. Platt [or anyone else] or Q & A’s up on the IMB website, etc. then I have dissected it 20 ways from Sunday trying to get the whole story.
The IMB is handling this very close to the vest. I guess they are just like any other enterprise. They want to stay “in front” of rumors but still release the bare minimum of information. For example, they have not released “pro forma’s” showing some possible scenarios such as:
X missionary units with an average of Y years of service will take the VRI
and
Z missionary units with an average of A years of service will take the HRO
then this would meet QQ% of the target for personnel related cost reduction over a period of B months.
If we had 5 or 10 scenarios like this then we could understand the terrain. If I was on the BoT of the IMB I’d demand this.
When I was in management in Silicon Valley we had to have metrics so we knew what was going on and be able to project trends to do planning. We had to have “n” number of contingency plans on the shelf.
There are some very good people running the IMB. But they are playing this too close to the vest. Since we are the stakeholders we need to demand a more transparent accounting. We need to see some tangible signposts showing that, so far, this whole thing in “on-track”.
Step #1 for IMB management is to answer this question for us: “Now that the VRI is over — how did it go”. We deserve this info before the middle of Jan at the very latest.
I read somewhere “You have not because you asked not”. Well, I, for one, am asking.
To be fair at least half of the disconnect is with people outside the walls of the IMB not paying attention. But the IMB should have noticed that everyone was asleep and turned up the volume. To use business lingo the IMB should have issued “negative guidance” in very clear terms — if we don’t enhance revenues by xx% for fiscal year 201x then we are cutting back on yy% of monthly staffing costs by the end fiscal year 201x + 1.
Roger OKC
I suspect that we will have some numbers by mid-January.
Roger
Thanks much…perhaps we will know more in a few days.
You know, in the last 2 years with the elections of Ronnie Floyd, Russell Moore, David Platt, and Jason Allen, I have never been more proud to be a part of the SBC. I see great things ahead in our future.
Tyler
For a point of reference what is you age bracket…in fact I do not know you. Would you mind sharing a little about yourself so we can be better acquainted.
D. L.,
I’m a little weary about putting a lot about me on the internet (the Ron Swanson in me!). But if you would like, Dave has my email and you are welcome to ask him for mine if you would like to contact me and I would gladly respond!
Tyler
Understand completely. We have dialogued some on “Voices” and I realized I did not know if you were a pastor, laymen student or what.
Hope you are having a good day and that your teams are winning. Even tho I have been in Montana for 23 years, having retired from NAMB two years back, my team is still Oklahoma…in much mourning.
D.L.,
I’m not a pastor, I’m a Masters student in Dallas. We’ll see where the Lord leads me in terms of ministry.
Haha! Well, as a TCU fan my quarterback seems to be not representing us very well. But I appreciate your dedication. That just means you don’t bandwagon. Good for you!
Seriously though, Dave has my permission to give you my email. I only ask that you don’t send it out 🙂
Tyler
When you finish, I would highly recommend Montana. In fact I can make that happen if it is OK with you and the Lord :-).
I followed TCU a little when I was at Southwestern. However 18 years in Oklahoma cured me of that 🙂
I didn’t realize you went Southwestern. I have a lot of friends who still go to school there! Dr. Steven Smith and his brother Josh are two of the best preachers in the Metroplex.
Now, as long as you are not near certain angry bloggers in Montana, I might have to take you up on that 😉
No sir, not close at all. If I were I would move…was that out loud?
Give Montana some prayer. It is the most rewarding ministry you will fine. We have several fantastic church planting spots. Since I retired from NAMB I am no longer a Strat, but the guy that is is really great to work with. I occupy my time as Dean of the Chapel and Instructor in Systematic Theology at Yellowstone Christian College.