Baptists debate whether 'Great Commission Giving' undermines CP

UPDATED April 23, 2010

NASHVILLE?When Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt took the stage at the first listening session of the newly-appointed Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, no one doubted his desire to see the 22 members put any idea on the table to "discover how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission."

Nor did it take long for critics to emerge, fearing change that would wreak havoc with the Cooperative Program. As recently as 2007, SBC messengers affirmed CP as "Southern Baptists' unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and the SBC missions and ministries."

GCRTF critics predicted that any alteration to the definition of CP would return the convention to a pre-1925 era of societal missions when mission boards, seminaries and other entities competed for funds.

Instead, the fifth component of the progress report released by the task force on Feb. 22 and posted online at pray4gcr.com reaffirms the Cooperative Program as the preferred means of giving, placing it under a new umbrella of Great Commission Giving.
The recommendation as stated in GCRTF Component 5 states:

"We believe in order for us to work together more faithfully and effectively towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission, we will ask Southern Baptists to reaffirm the Cooperative Program as our central means of supporting Great Commission ministries; but in addition, we will ask Southern Baptists to celebrate with our churches in their Great Commission Giving that goes directly through the Cooperative Program, as well as any designated gifts given to the causes of the Southern Baptist Convention, a state convention or a local association."

Responding to charges that the new giving platform signals a return to a societal form of financing missions, GCRTF Chairman Ronnie Floyd asked critics to consider the diversity of task force members.

"No one in our whole task force believes in societal giving or else we wouldn't be giving to the CP," Floyd said in an Apr. 13 conference call hosted by the Network of Baptist Associations. "Again, I want to say that I don't think there is anybody who understands and evaluates the ultimate personalities involved in GRCTF. We have eight ? who live on Cooperative Program dollars. There is no way in the world they would ever agree to that nor would we ask them to agree to ?"

During the hour-long conference call, Floyd and other GCRTF members affirmed the task force's belief in the Cooperative Program as the preferred giving mechanism for the SBC.

"No one in our wildest imaginations has any dream that there is a better way than the Cooperative Program," Floyd said.

Responding to charges that a new giving category will diminish participation in the Cooperative Program, SBTC Executive Director and GCRTF member Jim Richards directed attention to the task force recommendation to put Cooperative Program promotion in state hands.

"If all the proposals are carried out, Cooperative Program promotion will be done by the state conventions with support from the Executive Committee. There is no group more committed to the Cooperative Program as an undesignated giving channel than the state executive directors of which I am one," Richards said during the conference call with associations. "I can assure you that the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention will continue to highlight and promote the Cooperative Program as the way for Southern Baptists to participate in cooperative ministries."

However, Richards also said he does not consider gifts made by SBTC churches to Southern Baptist causes outside of the Cooperative Program as detractions from the Cooperative Program.

"We have churches that give designated gifts to various Southern Baptist ministries, and we appreciate, recognize and honor them for their giving," Richards said. "So the Cooperative Program will remain as the singularly highlighted method of support for the SBC's cooperative endeavors."

GCRTF member Ted Traylor said the recommendations to give Cooperative Program promotion to the states and to institute a new giving category will only serve to highlight the Cooperative Program.

"I think all this talk is going to heighten Cooperative Program giving in the days to come," said Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., during the Apr. 13 conference call. "As far as the death of the Cooperative Program, that is certainly not our goal. We've got to understand we've got to highlight Cooperative Program giving. We've watched it in the decrease of the percentages coming from our churches. Another 20 years of what we've done the last 20 years, we are well on our way to death. We've got to turn that around."

Traylor said the task force is committed to reversing the trend of Cooperative Program shortages through local church involvement.

GCRTF member David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., explained the rationale behind the new category when he spoke last month to faculty, students and area Southern Baptists.

"We are not taking away our commitment to the Cooperative Program. Since 1925 it has been the genius and the glue that has helped hold us together in so many ways," he said.

Dockery also explained why the task force chose not to redefine CP.

"There is nothing better we can find ... to work cooperatively in our shared work, our shared mission, our shared funding than the Cooperative Program." In fact, state conventions would play a greater role in promoting stewardship and CP at a time when the average portion churches give to CP from undesignated receipts has slipped from around 10 percent in the 1980s to 6.08 percent in 2008.

Explaining the proposed addition of a new category for designated funds, Dockery said, "We want to add some icing onto the cake perhaps and that is to celebrate Great Commission Giving."

By way of illustration, he cited the preference of some churches "to give directly to the North American Mission Board without giving to anyone else" or those that choose to fund the International Mission Board efforts through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. In his state, Dockery said local churches might favor particular Southern Baptist-related causes such as the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home or Union University and see those gifts counted as "Great Commission Giving."

Floyd echoed these thoughts on April 13 in the associational conference call.

"The only reason the Great Commission giving aspect was brought up ? is this whole element that we really believe churches need to be celebrated for what they are already doing through the SBC. We're talking about Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. We're talking about our associations. I mean these are critical Great Commission venues that we are highly committed to. "

GCRTF member Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said the term "Great Commission Giving" is intended to more clearly define the purpose and destination of mission gifts. He rejected criticism that the term "elevates designations and devalues the Cooperative Program."

Instead, White said, the proposal seeks to "acknowledge, with gratitude, all that our churches are giving to kingdom causes through our convention."

In Dockery's words, "We are not asking Great Commission Giving to replace Cooperative Program giving, but asking Cooperative Program giving to be enhanced by, augmented by those who would choose to give differently."

Numerous Southern