Decision time

Can there be any doubt that Southern Baptists have come to a crossroads in support for our cooperative ministries? Without a change in our attitude toward missions, the Southern Baptist Convention will be diminished in ways none of us will find to be an improvement.

It is an attitude toward missions we are discussing, not just one about the how or who of missions support. The path leading toward highly personalized and locally controlled missions has the potential to dissipate the effectiveness of our corporate work. The more traditional path of CP missions has enabled growth and strategic thoroughness in our denominational work. Yes, some churches can do both well. Not all do so and in the balancing act of church budgeting one thing must take precedence over others. It seems observable that the rise of locally controlled mission projects has been at the expense of a more comprehensive missions strategy.

In a nutshell, we’re becoming independent churches with benefits. As the giving trend for an average SBC church drops into the 5 percent range the benefits will fade.

Seminary education will become too expensive and the institutions may become so dependent on other funding channels that their accountability to the denomination becomes more nominal. Scholarships will be inadequate to the need of students who need training so that they have to leave or take 10 years to finish a degree. As a result, the trend toward staff ministers with no theological training will become more pronounced?as will the trend toward pastors trained by other faith traditions.

Southern Baptist missionaries will fall further behind the goal of reaching the world with the gospel. We will once again have a situation where missionaries are called and appointed but unable to go because the funds aren’t there. The last time this happened it startled us. It can happen again. No local initiatives in partnership missions can make up for the absence of resident missionaries. Even these volunteer trips will become more difficult and rare as host missionaries are overburdened and fewer in number.

As our infrastructure ages we’ll one day have a national disaster that Southern Baptists cannot address in a coordinated manner. The difference will be evident for volunteers and victims if not to the rest of us.

Southern Baptists, all evangelicals, will face increasing opposition from an anti-Christian culture. As CP ministries lose ground, our educational and advocacy ministry at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission will be overrun. Our denomination will be absent from significant debates regarding religious freedom in the U.S. We’ll be an army without scouts.

It takes little imagination to see these changes in our future. In fact, that future is not far off. Either our commitment to cooperation will be revitalized or we will see changes like these and worse in the next decade. Jim Richards said back in June that we will face a crisis within the next 20 years. I think he was being optimistic by half, assuming things go as they have for the past 20 years.

Those who read this probably care about these ministries. Many who don’t will not be convinced by anything short of an e-mail from their favorite anti-denominational guru. A crossroads is often a parting of the ways. Sadly, this one will be just that.

Of course, God doesn’t need money. The SBC is a body made up of churches that make decisions, under him, regarding what they will bless and what they will not. If churches decide that denominational structure is not worth their support, whether their decision is led of God or not, the structure will collapse.

The SBC is not a thing that stands or falls without regard to the will of its affiliated churches. It is us. The ministry we nurture or neglect is our ministry. Any of us of an age to lead anything or preach to anyone are now responsible for how we affected the health of the institutions we hand off to our children.

Friends, the story is good, the information is available in any medium you prefer, and the cause is worthy of your support. If your people or your children don’t know what Cooperative Program means, or that your church is Southern Baptist to begin with, why?