The state conventions in the south (and, counting some border states one might take sixteen of these which would account for ninety percent or so of all SBC metrics – churches, members, money, CP giving, mission giving, etc.) have been around for a long time, many preceding the founding of the SBC in 1845. Some SBC history nerd can inform me as to which state convention will be celebrating their bicentennial soon. My state, Georgia, has a state convention that was founded in 1822. Likewise, several institutions that are or have been connected with the GBMB and which are funded in part by them have very long histories. It’s not a criticism to apply the term “legacy” to these.
Here in the Peach State, new leadership for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is attempting to manage declining revenues; thus, a study of two decade’s worth of annual audits over the period 1999-2019 has been done. Here are a few results:
- It is admitted that there has been “a longstanding practice of consistent cash overspend for nonbudgeted items.”
- The two Georgia Baptist conference centers had losses totaling over $23 million during this period. Ouch. No fraud or malfeasance, just a willingness to subsidize losing facilities. There are other examples.
- Thankfully, after decades of losses new leadership concludes, “We no longer have the ability to underwrite related party losses.”
- Cooperative Program giving has declined. No surprise there.
- Unrestricted investments held by the GBMB declined by 96%.
- The overall position of the GBMB is that previous years “have brought the Georgia Baptist Mission Board to a current reality of a 100 percent decrease in cash and cash equivalent” resources [emphasis mine]. A “100 percent” decrease in a sum means you’re reduced to zero, right? We’re out of cash?
- As a consequence, the GBMB is cutting stuff including staff benefits and retiree benefits. The one remaining conference center is being shut down and is for sale.
- We have real estate for sale: An antebellum mansion in Atlanta that has accounted for the loss of millions, a few hundred acres in south Georgia, a house in another south Georgia location, and, our sparkling GBMB headquarters in a desirable metro Atlanta location. Our greatest asset seems to be real estate.
Might one be forgiven for questioning the leadership in this state, both staff and Executive Board, for where we are? Anyone brazen enough to blame COVID or the economy?
Make a note: The GBMB has always kept around 60% or more of every Cooperative Program dollar. Money from the pews, from the churches has steadily flowed into the hands of state convention leaders. Georgia is one of the top states in CP revenue. The state leadership has had 60% of those millions to spend.
Let us consider the unassailable point that is the great flaw in our fabulous system of cooperation, The Cooperative Program. Once it is made routine that churches will allot a percentage of their revenues to the CP and that the state conventions consider it a birthright to keep the majority of these funds in state, and that legacy institutions are accustomed to receiving considerable sums out of this, then incentive for change is removed. Institutional inertia. It’s easier to just rock along with spending deficits than to make entities justify their existence and prove that they are capable of operating without being a drain on mission money.
That will be the result until revenues reach a crisis point and changes have to be made.
One thing I liked about Ronnie Floyd’s time as SBC president was that he addressed such issues in a general sense in his blog. He said,
“Weighty, needless structure prohibits immediate response to the churches,” he said. “We need to rid anything in our state conventions, anything in our associations and even our national entities that slows down our responsiveness to the churches.”
Here’s another thought: pastors and churches have long been ambivalent about state convention work and as a result Cooperative Program giving has steadily declined. The fewer Georgia Baptist pastors and churches that understand how 60% of their CP gifts remains between the Chattahoochee and Savannah rivers the better. The fewer that know only small slices of their CP giving gets to IMB or NAMB or the seminaries, the better off the state convention is. Bryant Wright, he of the Great Commission Baptists moniker change, notably said that the state convention should keep more like 25% of CP. I agreed with him then. Probably moreso now.
Ours is the state, you know, where population has grown explosively but baptisms have declined. Until a short time ago, I think we had a running decline of a decade or so. During this time the state convention has rebranded, reorganized, downsized and many other things. With tens of millions to spend each year in this state, exactly what is being accomplished?
Maybe new leadership has a different plan. I do commend the new leader for plain speaking. At the present, I’m not optimistic the state can make drastic strategic changes other than to just do less of the same stuff we’ve been doing and live within our income.
I’ve watched this too long not to be skeptical about state conventions accomplishing much, but I am persuadable.
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Few people will read this in it’s entirety. Ho hum and bah humbug on us all. But then, churches and pastors have discovered how to send money directly to IMB and NAMB and local ministries, so the state conventions aren’t at the top of our list of worries.
No one will read it but this isn’t too bad on state conventions.
That building pictured above is our magnificent albatross HQ. We’ve declared it up for sale for a decade or so now. Is it time to refamiliarize ourselves with a bit of Shelley?
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. No need for pessimism about that.
One name: Robert White. You know that to be true as well as I.
If we want the “albatross” to sell we may have to give up the desire to control what the buyers do with it.
Post Christian Society? Secular Society? Unfortunately, it seems the day of camps and conference centers are over!
Well said. The more transparency we have in how our State conventions utilize Cooperative funds the better. Maybe that would build more support in the local church for why they should contribute to a fund that they don’t readily see the results of.
I think people do see the results of Georgia Baptist convention dollars and that’s why they’ve continued to give. Many people have utilized the conference center and very favorable rates. If memory serves me right more than half of the Georgia Baptist of Georgia Baptist mission board dollars goes to student ministries including Baptist colleges. My guess is that the vast majority of seminary students from our state were involved in Baptist collegiate ministries or students in our Baptist colleges during their college years. We can jettison all of that. But where will our Future Leaders come from? More funding… Read more »
Memory doesn’t serve you well. Far less than half of the GBMB in-state budget goes to the three colleges and BCM. But, a good bit of the CP money does go to these and that partly makes my point that legacy spending stifles innovation and change. Our three colleges will always have a claim on several millions even though one of those has been on life support for years with scandal and past debacles to boot. The BCM puts a presence on college campuses around the state with uneven value for money spent. If Norman Park and Toccoa have value,… Read more »
I read it and agree with all. Alas, “how to perform I find not.”
“The two Georgia Baptist conference centers had losses totaling over $23 million during this period. Ouch. No fraud or malfeasance, just willingness to subsidize losing facilities.” I have never stepped foot on a GA Baptist conference center but I will wager a “Roll Tide” t-shirt that over the last 20 years, thousands of children and students have been born again and thousands others have surrender to the ministry and missions. Two facilities that have lost $23 million over 2 decades is roughly $575,000 annually. I would vote to continue subsidizing our conference centers. IMO, nothing we do as state conventions,… Read more »
I might agree, and there’s a case that can be built for some entities being subsidized. It’s not as if there aren’t alternatives. It may be that the popularity of these facilities declined considerably yet the SC kept bailing them out. Every legacy institution has a constituency that makes change difficult. How much per participant was the gbmb kicking in? Lots of questions. Obviously, it was thought that money was available to do this. No longer
One word here: Ridgecrest.
“The South Carolina Baptist State Convention became the first Baptist convention in the South when it was founded in 1821 at First Baptist Church, Columbia, under the leadership of Richard Furman.”
sources: https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/south-carolina-baptist-state-convention/
https://www.scbaptist.org/south-carolina-baptist-history/
Over that same period of time they had a capital gain of over 50 million in the building. I don’t think that’s such a bad financial performance. it’s just like all the complaints with the IMB spending money that they had to keep missionaries on the field. We don’t give the money for them to keep in the bank. OnWe give the money for them to invest in the kingdom. I’m glad we had a conference center to send young people to. I’m also glad that two of our colleges seem to be turning around and building a better campus… Read more »
We’re not in the real estate business.
Those of you that think we should not be in the real estate business need to go to your church and recommend they sell their buildings immediately! You should also ask the church to immediately stop funding minister housing allowances because surely the church should not be investing or enabling clergy real estate! It’s time for more open dialogue with Baptist lay persons on the matter of whether to sell the final conference center! The Executive committee is dominated by clergy. There is great wisdom across our State among our business men and women. When was the last time we… Read more »
Aren’t the colleges and universities that belong to the state convention training centers for future pastors and missionaries? If the money that goes to support them is for the purpose of keeping the cost down as a result of having that as its mission and purpose, then I don’t see that as “legacy” spending. On the other hand, even with the subsidies from the Cooperative Program, the Baptist colleges and universities in Georgia appear to be prohibitively expensive. A middle class working family would have to take out massive student loans to put a student through. What’s the Cooperative Program… Read more »