SBC RECOMMENDS REORGANIZATION
— CONSOLIDATION: RAISES MANY QUESTIONS

The SBC we once knew continues to change. A study committee is recommending that the number of SBC agencies be reduced from 19 to 12. Some agencies will be merged with other agencies, and some will be dissolved and their task assigned to other agencies.

Change is not necessarily bad. Often restructuring can produce efficiency, cut red tape, and reduce bureaucracy. All of these results can be good.

Our concern about this plan probably rests in our perspective. We do not trust SBC leaders. We have a fifteen year track record to base this distrust upon. That track record includes forced terminations and broken promises.

It is obvious that the plan consolidates power around the Executive Committee and a few agencies. The Executive Committee assumes the work of the Southern Baptist Foundation, and promotion of the Cooperative Program.

The Home Mission Board will become the North American Mission Board and bring the Brotherhood Commission and the Radio and TV Commission under its authority.

The Foreign Mission Board will become the International Mission Board. The interesting thing here is that they will now focus on “people groups,” rather than nations. That is what Keith Parks has been doing all along with the Fellowship.

The Annuity Board will be limited in which Baptists they may serve. They will no longer be able to serve someone related to the Fellowship, even though the Fellowship is composed of members of the SBC. Since Texas Baptists Committed staff have their retirement with the Annuity Board, where will this leave us?

The loss of the Historical Commission is also a great concern. The fundamentalists have shown quite a talent for revising history to what they want it to be. Sadly, even if the commission survived, with fundamentalist trustees they will sooner or later have a person in charge who would write history with a fundamentalist slant.

Make special note of the article which speaks of a current SBC Christian Life Commission staff member saying former CLC executives “did not believe the Bible.” Another tragedy of the takeover is someday young people are going to read about their grandparents, who were SBC leaders during the 1960’s and 1970’s, who “did not believe the Bible.” It will not be the truth, but it will be written as if it was.

THE REAL DANGER AND GENIUS OF THI8 PLAN I8 THAT IT MAKE8 UNNEEDED THE WORK OF 8TATE CONVENTION8! THAT I8 WHAT THI8 PLAN I8 REALLY ALL ABOUT! READ IT CAREFULLY!

Notice these points: The WMU is not given a program statement. Women's ministries go to the Sunday School Board. Mission promotion is the responsibility of the Mission Boards, not WMU. WMU is not needed.

All the seminaries are given permission to offer undergraduate programs. This is to replace our Baptist universities, most of which are not controlled by fundamentalists.

Most importantly, this plan is an attempt to make state conventions a thing of the past.

After fifteen years, learn to be discerning. Power is the name of the game in the SBC. It is the heart of this reorganization.

April 1995