Do As I Say, Not As I Do
by David R. Currie,
Coordinator

The choice of John Bisango, pastor of First Baptist Church, Houston, as special assistant to Foreign Mission Board President Jerry Rankin “to promote foreign missions in churches, conferences and other speaking engagements” is certainly interesting. Why? Very simply, you would think they would want someone who strongly supported the Cooperative Program involved in missions promotion.

We do not want to be mean. Let’s just look at the facts. First Baptist Church, Houston is not a strong Cooperative Program church. They gave 2.9 percent to the CP in 1994. If all our churches gave that small a percentage (the average church in Texas gives around 10%), the SBC would probably have three seminaries instead of six, and 2,000 foreign missionaries instead of over 4,000. That is the truth.

They do give fairly well to mission offerings. According to the 1994 BGCT annual, FBC, Houston gave $1,342,036 to all mission causes out of total receipts of $11,816,666. That equals 11.36%, which is fair.

But the Foreign Mission Board might have been better to have chosen Daniel Vestal or Jerold McBride. The church Vestal serves had total receipts of $5,942,809 and gave $483,980 to the CP, and just over $1,000,000 to missions (and I do not believe that includes gifts to CBF which were not counted by the BGCT in 1994 ) .

First Baptist Church, San Angelo, whose pastor is Jerold McBride, gave 36.24 percent of its total receipts to missions last year.

First Baptist, Houston, is not alone among large fundamentalist churches. In fact, they do better than most. Second Baptist Church, Houston, whose pastor is former SBC president Ed Young took in $21,141,560 in total receipts and gave only $105,000 to the CP, and a total $1,059,952 to all mission causes. Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, whose pastor is Jack Graham took in $12,365,046 in total receipts and gave only $211,700 to the CP, and $740,992 to all mission causes.

Those three churches took in over $44 million dollars last year and gave only a little over $500,000 to the Cooperative Program and only $3 million to all mission causes. Do you realize that these three churches took in more money than the entire budget of the Baptist General Convention of Texas?

I do not walk in these men’s shoes. But I cannot imagine how they spent $41 million dollars on their own ministries. They have the right to do so. Each local church is autonomous. I am not questioning that right. But I do believe that if you are going to promote something with your words, you should back up your words with your actions.

October 1995