Tell Me about Your State Convention

Why would any state convention vote to increase their Cooperative Program giving when stewardship is questionable based upon multimillion Cooperative Program money invested in Glorieta Conference Center given away for $1.00 by $700,000 a year SBC entity executives?
State conventions should call for an audit to expose waste before supplying more money to cooperative program. Pray for revival in the hearts of SBC entity executives who have moved toward money over mission interests!

I’m not sure where to start… 😉

The Georgia Convention doesn’t have any controversy. What I noticed yesterday at the convention: – Declining CP revenues have dominated the conversations here for several years. The GBC likes to talk about how we are “operating at 1998 levels” these days although we still have a not inconsiderable $40 million budget. I’m not seeing any optimism that the CP will increase. Since NAMB changed their system to no longer kick back considerable sums to legacy state conventions like the GBC (at it’s peak the GBC received nearly $1 million from NAMB), there seems to be more emphasis on the separate state mission offering and ministries that have been and will be supported by it. It is an easier “sell” to the churches since that offering supports a variety of mission projects rather than debt service, staffing, and administrative stuff as does the CP. We will see how successful this is. – Georgia has about a 60/40 CP split but prefers to say that “the state convention continues to forward 52.63 percent of all gifts to the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville for distribution to missions worldwide.” What that means is that when you add in Annie and Lottie and Global Hunger, the GBC sends the 52.63%. While an accurate statement, this is another way of presenting the numbers and not say that we keep 60 cents of every Cooperative Program dollar in our state. Churches recognize that they aren’t giving to the GBC when they promote and receive the special mission offerings for IMB and NAMB. It’s a bit odd for GBC leadership to speak of “forward[ing]” and use those sums in the context of division of funds between state and national. The GBC is the routing agent for the mission offerings. – 50/50 split? I’m reading the tea leaves here but the word is that even though “The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report urged state conventions to move toward a 50/50 percent split…Georgia has operated at that level when SBC/GBC shared costs are included”. So, here in GA we are at 50/50 even though the numbers are 60/40 in favor of the state convention. We don’t speak of a “true” split here. There are legitimate reasons offered for this way of accounting but… – The host church, Ingleside in Macon, was just super in every way. – Had a long chat with one of Dave Miller’s BFFs from… Read more »

I didn’t attend our SBC of Virginia meeting just because I didn’t have time to make the trip this year, but I did follow several on twitter and watched the live feed of two conventions as well. I can give my social media impressions.

North Carolina – This was an active convention as far as social media. It left the impression of a broadly united and encouraging meeting. #greaterthingsNC

SBC of Virginia – I hope the meeting was more exciting than the hashtag. This one had very little social media engagement, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There were some quotes of speakers mainly. #SBCVhomecoming14

BGAV – This hashtag was pretty active but I didn’t feel like I got much of a feel of the meeting from the tweets. The speakers that were quoted seemed to be heavy on trying to be missionary engaged with very little focus on conversion or definition of what the gospel actually is – more of a “we accept everybody and we’re all on a journey” kind of mushy stuff that doesn’t appeal to me one bit. Sorry if that’s a misrepresentation, its just the feel I got from the twitter feed. #BGAV14

Louisiana Baptist Convention – What a mess. The Louisiana College issue was front and center. Jay Adkins was determined to not be shut down by the chair – he was going to do everything he could to make people aware of the issues he’s witnessed and ask for the convention to take action to end undue influence of David Hankins over the college’s board of trustees.

After some parliamentary wrangling, Adkins did finally get to speak and did a great job in a short period laying out the issues and pleading for the convention to take a different direction, to no avail. There were a few people who spoke with Jay and did a good job as well. #LBC14

I’m interested to hear about some of the other meetings. You guys fill us in.

In Florida, we had some discussion about the shared funds that were negotiated with the Ex Com. But the highlight was Ted Traylor’s message about the Cooperative Program. Here it is on vimeo. http://vimeo.com/111559291

I doubt any state convention had a better Pastor’s Conference than what we had in the Show-Me State. The theme was Fanning the Flame without Flaming Out.

Here, let me show-you: http://mobaptist.org/annual-meeting/videos/

If I had to recommend only one to watch, it would be Jeff Iorg’s message. His Wednesday morning message to the Convention is also worth watching.

In the great state of Mississippi there was very little in the way of controversy, there seldom is. Our convention elected Matt Buckles, pastor of 1st Baptist church Vicksburg, for a second term as president. I know you will rejoice in hearing that Larry Young, pastor of Spangle Banner Church, was elected to the position of second vice president. He is the first African-American to serve as a convention officer for the MBC.

Our 2015 budget is a $31,284,567. This is a 1% decrease from the 2014 budget. Our state exec, Dr. Jim Futral, led our convention to increase the SBC portion of our 2015 budget by 1%. This now brings our convention to a 62-38 split. I am grateful for Dr. Futral’s leadership in accepting Dr. Paige’s 1% challenge and providing this increase.

Resolutions were passed on gender identity, the family and appreciation for 1st Jackson, which hosts our convention annually. I wonder how many states have their convention in the same place each year? One matter left me scratching my head. A motion was made asking that somehow our convention handle the matter of the state flag of MS. (I can’t remember what the action called for but it was a motion and not a resolution.) We voted on the matter as a motion. The next morning it was said that motion was more of a resolution so the previous day’s vote was sat aside and the matter referred to the resolutions committee. Our president then took a point of personal privilege to read his own statement about racism. The resolutions committee in the next business session then sat aside the resolution that was presented to them earlier concerning the flag and replaced it with Dr. Buckles’ statement on racism. I question our parliamentary procedures used but we are a family and we arrived at a satisfactory place on this issue.

Finally, let me say that David Miller preached the final message in our pastor’s conference Monday night. Few pastors attend the pastor’s conference in MS anymore. David Miller did an incredible job. Certainly David Miller is a 5 pointer but he demonstrated a spirit that made put everyone at ease and feel appreciated. This is the exact spirit I feel needs to permeate the SBC and our discussions.

In Mississippi,

The MBC/SBC split was raised .98% to 63/37.

There was no controversy at all, there is never any controversy.

Also, I remember that Dean Stewart lamented one day on Voices about our convention picking a bi-vocational pastor of the year. They did that again. The convention gave him a plaque and put him on the front cover of The Baptist Record. I agree with Stewart, if the convention is going to pick a bi-vocational pastor then they need to recognize our full-time missionaries that have left everything behind to spread the gospel.

Good convention, I especially liked the Bible Treasure moments. This year the guest preacher was Herb Reavis.

Thomas

We had a great convention in Oklahoma, no controversy. There was a drawn out process over a resolution on homosexuality that some wanted to make tougher. After 30 mins, amendments, and some more procedure, the original resolution passed.

In Financial news, the BGCO moved to a 60/40 split. This was not really a move, but rather an acknowledgment of what we were actually doing. Shared costs and all that, but before we tried to call it 50/50. We finally just got honest about it.

I pastored in texas for a while, and I never felt much unity in the convention there. We were dual aligned I think, and that was part of the problem.

I love the BGCO bc OK is small enough that when something happens everyone is all together at once, and there is great unity. I wonder what other conventions are like in that regard.

Tom Elliff spoke at the Pastors Conference, telling the story of sitting and watching his wife go through chemo recently. He sat there looking at her, in tough shape, and God said to him “Mine or yours?” A great sermon as always from him.

And great reports from all the organizations in the BGCO. Childrens Home, Disaster Relief, Missions, Sunday School, OBU, Foundation, etc. All doing great work.

I’d like a short survey. How many of you when going to convention sit and listen to all the reports, and how many spend most of the time in the exhibits hall? Or some split of the two. Just wondering!

In Alabama, our theme was S-E-R-V-E which stands for:
STARTING new churches
EVANGELIZING the lost
REVITALIZING churches
VOLUNTEERING to be on mission
ENGAGING the culture with the gospel

Alabama continues to slash our budget, this year by another $500,000, in order to do our part in sending more to the nations. State staffing has been further reduced to 78 from a one-time high years ago of 119. Even more reductions are anticipated. Dr. Lance reported that almost ten percent of all Southern Baptist CP gifts come from Alabama.

Below is the split. If one assumes that it is only fair to split 50/50 the “shared ministries” like CP promotion and the “no longer funded by NAMB” ministries that states had to pick up, then your two figure split would be: 48.5% SBC and 51.5% ABC. The three figure split is: 43.5% SBC and 46.5% ABC and 10.0% Shared—with any surplus split straight 50/50.

One other act of great statesmanship on the part of Samford University is that Dr. Westmoreland, in a step of faith, is voluntarily cutting back, over a period of five years, approximately half of the budget funds currently earmarked for Samford in the State Convention budget. This is a reduction from $4 million to $2 million.

I will say it again. Our budgets may not look exactly the same from one state convention to the next, simply because of the unique history, relationships, partnerships and promises that have been made. But we are all doing our part—even though these budgets may look a little different.

“Shared costs” is sophistry. So is calling almost every state staffer a “state missionary.”

Montana convention is always a blessing. Church planting dominated the meeting.

One of the real blessings of a convention of 140 churches stretched out over the 4th largest land mass state in the union is the opportunity to fellowship with guys you have not seen since the last meeting.

Ronnie Floyd and Jeff Iorg were our guests.

One of the several bright spots in our convention is the progress of our college Yellowstone Christian College….coming along very well.

Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. We call our annual meeting a homecoming, and for good reason. It is more like a gathering of a family than it is a business meeting. We do the business that we must do – but we are mostly all in once accord so its pretty much perfunctory. “A bold commitment to the great commission” was the theme. Church planting and reaching the nations were major focuses as well – they always are. We have the benefit of being able to “reach the nations” right here in our own state with Northern VA…great and strong focus on Arab and African people groups – evangelism and church planting among Muslim peoples. We are a small convention with a small budget as compared to many of the “mega conventions” that have been shared about here. We never have any controversy. Elections went as normal – those avail for reelection were reelected. Allister Begg spoke twice and Eric Geiger once – both brought outstanding messages about the simplicity and power of the word of the God and the gospel! Brain Autry our Executive Director continues to be top notch – all staff were sitting with the messengers and fellowship the hallways between sessions. A great thing about smaller convention is that most staff know most pastors by face if not by name – and they speak. Of course our decentralized structure helps with that – staff live and work out of their own homes in the region they are working with …no big office headquarters (except a modest office space for ED, treasurer, and administrative assistants…there is also meeting space for executive committee/other group meetings.) Our Ministry Investment Plan (AKA budget) was approved and we remained at a 51-49 split favoring the SBC. Frank Page was in attendance and was as always a joy to have around. He is, to me anyway, seems to be an excellent model of one who gracefully disagrees with his brothers on many issues and yet keeps his focus on the prize of the upward call of God in Christ, and seeks to marginalize no one who loves Christ, preaches the gospel and seeks to reach the nations. He truly seems to be a good man and not a flame thrower of any kind. I truly am happy to have him at the top post at the SBC Executive Committee. We also had… Read more »

At SBTC, in addition to a number of exciting developments:

1. We continue to forward 55% of our CP receipts to the Executive Committee, using real math.
2. We finalized a review of our Constitution & Bylaws.
3. We had a very encouraging emphasis upon prayer and revival spearheaded by SBTC President Jimmy Pritchard.
4. The preaching was amazing.
5. I rotated off the Executive Board, which met this morning without me. At the opening of the meeting, they said, “Bart Barber is not here,” at which point Jared Wellman led the entire board in a standing ovation (true story).
6. We re-elected Jimmy Pritchard and Dante Wright to their offices and elected Sookwan Lee as our Vice-President. Sookwan pastors Seoul Baptist Church of Houston. Last year they baptized 253 people (114 adults).

The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma elected Hance Dilbeck as their president. Hance is a good choice for just about anything.

Alabama Baptists adopted the BFM2000 officially and applied it to trustees and ministries. Not quite sure what precipiated doing it now or if there was a backstory, but it passed overwhelmingly.

Resolutions were passed on issues like orphan care, opposing pay day lending, ministering to illegal immigrants in word/deed, and prison reform. I was encouraged by the resolutions committee helping Alabama Baptists speak to our state on issues affecting the quality of life here. I hope we see more of that.

Alabama Baptists are paring down their overhead and state staff and are trying to get more money to the CP. They are also trying to plant 220 churches by 2020 and that was a big emphasis. Lamar Duke is heading up that campaign and he is working hard with a lot of energy.

I was not able to stay for the elections today, but I heard that Travis Coleman, pastor of FBC Prattville was elected president. John Killian did a good job this year. I was impressed with his leadership from what I could see.

These are great reports. I am proud of all our States from what I can see. I really like John Killian in Alabama! A great brother.

I did not attend the Tennessee Convention, but I read where we elected an African American as President.

I also read that Tennessee agreed to move toward a 50-50 split, but the move is contingent on receipts so that the State money is not jeopardized.

My friend who attended said that the debate about whether to move to a 50-50 split contained some really odd comments. Some of the speakers insinuated that their churches (not plants) or areas actually get some of this money. One speaker in particular mentioned children in Tennessee Baptist churches who would no longer get the money they had been getting. What could he be talking about? (btw, he was not talking about the Children’s Home.)

Another speaker said that we should take care of Tennessee first, before sending more money overseas.

The TBC staff handled things quite well. The Executive Director, Randy Davis, is a great guy. His predecessor was awful. So awful, even the BGCT wouldn’t have him probably.

Our church is a part of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and has been for a very long time. Through the years, the BGAV has helped our church in many ways which created a sense of allegiance. I do not agree with everything that happens in the BGAV, as I am sure you do not agree with EVERYTHING that happens in your state convention. In fact, there are some things that I disagree with rather strongly. However, I purposed in my own mind before heading to Hampton that I would allow myself to rejoice in the kingdom work that is taking place among Virginia Baptists without focusing my energy on criticizing. As a result, I was able to enjoy the worship, the reports of mission work being done, and the messages delivered even though they were far from expository. Some things of significance: 1) Last year the BGAV voted to change its governance structure from a very large mission board to a smaller newly formed executive board which receives insight and counsel from the newly formed mission council. This year we approved a new constitution and bylaws based on these changes. This has effectively done away with the acronym VBMB (Virginia Baptist Mission Board). We are now solely the BGAV. 2) We continued to hear reports from our partners in Ghana about the “More than Nets” program which is providing mosquito nets to people in Ghana to open a door to sharing the gospel and planting churches. Statistics were shared concerning the number of nets distributed, drop in cases of Malaria, and number of churches planted. We heard directly from one of the Ghana Baptist leaders of this project. 3) When the treasurer gave his report, we learned of increases to LMCO and AAEO gifts given through the BGAV. I was interested also to discover that there was a decrease in gifts to the CBF global missions offering. Finally, on the last day, one messenger stood to speak to the association when the slate of nominees for the newly created executive board was presented. Our theme this year was “Sail Fast” with the idea of sailing fast into tomorrow. This messenger said that based on the list of nominees and the affiliation of many of their churches with the CBF as opposed to the SBC, it seems that the BGAV is sailing fast toward the CBF. This certainly seems… Read more »

I won’t say much other than please pray for the state convention of West Virginia.

Kind of a related question – has anyone besides me ever noticed that some of those who deplore the spending habits/policies of “mega churches” so often favor and defend such of “mega” state conventions?

Michigan Baptist can use your prayers…while the Pastors’ Conference, Prayer Meeting and Convention began a process of healing after sever years of mistrust, there is still a long way to go. The constitutional changes that have been on the table the last few years still linger…some feel they are the only way to move our convention forward, others feel they are being forced down their throats. There are justifications for feelings on both sides, the truth probably does not lie with either extreme.

On a bright side, our elected officers have real potential to be used by God to bring healing.

Also please pray as we seek a new Executive Director and seek to fill several other positions which are being left open until a new ED is chosen.

Dear SBC Voices,

My name is Lee Edward Enochs and I am the student from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who blew the whistle about the non-Christian student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and contacted Wade Burleson about it. I have many concerns about the SBC and how many state conventions in the SBC are being controlled by the followers of Paige Patterson. In my up coming book on a major crisis currently transpiring in the SBC, I will address Paige Patterson’s undue influence in the SBC and more.

Sincerely in Christ,
Lee Edward Enochs
SWBTS Alumnus, Class of 2014

http://theologyx.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-i-oppose-paige-pattersons-southern.html