A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
Moving on from the SBC: Bring the Money
By David R. Currie
Executive Director

It has become very popular in traditional Baptist circles to speak of “moving on from the SBC.” Marv Knox wrote about it in the Baptist Standard. Several people wrote “letters to the editor” praising this idea. I receive numerous letters urging me to talk about a future apart from the SBC.

I think this is a great idea, but there is one problem. Missions programs like WorldconneX, CBF Global Missions, and our BGCT missions enterprises; seminaries like the wonderful ones we have in Truett and Logsdon as well as other great seminaries in North Carolina, Mercer in Georgia, the one in Richmond, and please do not forget the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio; new church starts that will not affiliate with the SBC; Associated Baptist Press which is the only true Baptist press; magazines and journals like Baptists Today and Christian Ethics Today; ethics and religious liberty organizations that need to expand like the Texas Christian Life Commission, the Baptist Joint Committee and the Baptist Center for Ethics; and worldwide organizations like the Baptist World Alliance all have one huge crying need that must be met if we are going to move on to a glorious future: MONEY!!!!!

Last year Texas Baptist Churches sent over $14 million dollars to the Southern Baptist Convention PLUS what was sent for the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings. We cannot have a glorious future apart from the SBC if we continue to support the SBC when doing so denies scriptural teaching as well as Baptist principles.

Now I realize this is a sensitive, emotional issue. I am not naïve to the reality that even after 25 years; most members of our churches do not understand how the SBC has changed.

As a person who takes great pride in ranching in the same county my great grandfather David Blount Currie came to in 1879 and in banking at the bank where my grandfather was president from 1930 to 1962, I love tradition. I realize that everyone reading this considered themselves a Southern Baptist for many years and most still do. That tradition is difficult to leave behind.

But I am also convinced that unless we move on with our cooperative contributions, we will never fulfill the calling God has for us.

It is imperative that our pastors carefully and strategically explain to the congregations they serve that it is time to move beyond traditional support of the SBC.

This can be done in several ways.

1) Take advantage of teachable moments. When the SBC does something that opposes our traditional Baptist Distinctives, explain this to your deacons or your core church leaders on a Wednesday or Sunday evening.

2) Appoint a denominational relations committee and encourage lay persons to study the history of the last 25 years and then report their findings to the church. We have a denominational relations packet we will be happy to send to anyone requesting a copy.

3) Do a study or preach a series of sermons on Historical Baptist Distinctives. The articles by Dr. Bill Pinson that have recently appeared on the back pages of The Baptist Standard should be read by every deacon and church leader. Make copies and distribute these articles. (Articles are available online at www.baptistdistinctives.org. Click on “articles.”) Dr. Buddy Shurden’s book The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms is excellent for a Wednesday evening study. (To order call Smyth and Helwys at 800-747-3016 or order online at http:// www.helwys.com/books/baptist.html)

4) Explore our website, www.txbc.org. There are many excellent articles (click on “publications”) you can copy and distribute to your church leaders to educate them.

5) Do a study comparison between the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message and the 2000 version supported by the SBC. (A detailed comparison is available on our website, www.txbc.org. Click on “publications” and look in the right hand column.)

6) Learn the facts about the current Southern Baptist Convention. Here are some examples:

• Right now your church is probably taking the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Last year this offering received over $51 million with $4.73 million coming from Texas Baptists.

• Although promotional materials indicate that this offering supports over 5,000 home missionaries of the North American Mission Board, reports from the past several years indicate that fewer than 100 missionaries are fully funded by the SBC North American Mission Board. The rest are people they pay little to (or insurance only) or are Mission Service Corps Volunteers.

• Although churches may not be able to totally withdraw from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, individuals who are ready to move on certainly can. Instead give to something you believe in. I usually give to CBF’s Global Mission Offering during this time of year just as I do at Christmas because the Global Mission Offering supports both home and foreign missionaries.

• While a great deal of financial support went to North American missionaries, Texas Baptists sent almost as much money to the SBC seminaries last year. The $14 million dollars that was sent to the SBC by BGCT churches in 2004 included over 3 million dollars of support for the six SBC seminaries. Every year we are reminded of the large number of students these dollars train, but here are the facts:

• The last head count available from the Association of Theological Schools shows 10,668 students at the 6 seminaries. Of these the full time equivalency (full time students) totaled about 4,000 or about 39%. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth had a total of 3008 students but a full time equivalency of only 460 students (about 15%). That’s right. There are only 460 full time students at Southwestern Seminary. The reason it is one of the cheapest graduate degrees a person can get is because you pay for most of the education through the Cooperative Program.

Here are the facts on our BGCT related seminaries:

• The BGCT related seminaries also received about 3 million dollars in Cooperative Program gifts (of course, they’re not receiving CP dollars from states other than Texas although they do receive additional funding from CBF, direct donations, etc.) The Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons and Truett Seminary at Baylor had a combined enrollment of 425 students and a full-time equivalency of almost 80% or about 350 students.

• In addition to supporting CBF Global missions during this Easter season, I am also going to give to the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio. Last year they only received $460,000 through the Cooperative Program undesignated gifts. Our current BGCT president, Dr. Albert Reyes is president of this wonderful institution. He spoke recently at our Mainstream Convocation and said there is a crying need for 750 Hispanic ministers per year and yet they only have the money to graduate 50 or so per year. This is tragic. Put your money to good use this spring – consider supporting the Baptist University of the Americas. You can send checks to Baptist University of the Americas, Attn: Roxanne, 8019 S. Pan Am Expressway, San Antonio, TX 78224. If you have additional questions about giving to BUA, please call Roxanne at 210- 924-4338.

Now ask yourself, in fact pray about it – which seminaries had you rather support? Which seminaries do you think will produce the kind of pastors you would want serving in your church?

I want us to move on, but until our BGCT related churches stop supporting the Southern Baptist Convention we are not going to move very far toward a new future. In spite of this, the BGCT will always be fair. Your money will always be forwarded, even to the SBC, according to the directives of your church. But I dream of the day that not a single dime from a Baptist General Convention of Texas Church goes to support the Southern Baptist Convention. Then we will have moved on.

If you are ready for your church to MOVE ON, please contact us and we will help with the education process as much as possible.

April 2005