Updated Friday, May 16, 2008

Churches reconsider bypassing BSC with mission funds

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

Some churches that for years bypassed the Baptist State Convention (BSC) by sending large portions of their mission money directly to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are rethinking that strategy - and saying the BSC's conservative direction is prompting their move.

The 2007 SBC annual lists 83 North Carolina Baptist churches that sent $1.3 million directly to the SBC. Those funds are not counted as Cooperative Program gifts for purposes of representation, but they are disbursed by the same allocation formula as funds received from states through the Cooperative Program channel.

Had that $1.3 million - which reflects gifts received by the SBC in its 2005-06 budget year - come through the BSC, it would have retained for North Carolina ministry $871,000 and forwarded for national SBC causes $429,000, based on a 67-33 division of gifts between the two conventions.

Some of the churches that send money directly to the SBC felt the amount retained for North Carolina ministry was too great a portion. They support the pattern evident in the past four budget years of increasing the percentage of CP funds being forwarded for national and international ministries.

Pastors of churches which accounted for nearly a half million of the $1.3 million listed in the 2007 annual indicate that their churches have already directed their giving to come through the BSC or are considering it. Some are large enough that the change will catapult them into the BSC's top 10 giving churches.

Had the $161,858 that Village Baptist Church in Fayetteville sent directly to the SBC come through the BSC, the church would have been in the top three CP giving churches in North Carolina.

Village pastor Bruce Martin is well aware of the math. He said during an interview in November 2007 that sending money directly to the SBC was an intentional effort to get more money to foreign missions.

Martin felt the BSC priorities were misplaced when "there was more money going to colleges than to foreign missions."

Now Martin believes BSC Executive Director-treasurer Milton A. Hollifield Jr.'s "emphasis on new work and evangelism are priorities we can connect with and support."

"When lost people become our mission I want to be on board with that," he said.

As of January Village Baptist sends all of its cooperative missions giving through the BSC Cooperative Program Giving Plan A. Earlier it sent half of its cooperative missions giving to the BSC, through Giving Plan D, the other half to the SBC.

"With the changes taking place in the Baptist State Convention we wanted to express our support and register our desire to unite with the BSC fully in their ministry to win this state for Christ," Martin said May 15.

Change already made

West Asheville Baptist Church is listed in the 2007 SBC annual report as having given $25,500 directly to the SBC. New pastor Stan Welch, BSC president 2005-06, says that practice was stopped before he became pastor and the church now gives 100 percent of its cooperative missions gifts through the BSC.

The church just voted to increase its CP giving one point from three percent to four percent and intends to continue doing that "every year for awhile," Welch said.

"We've always been a flagship church and we ought to be giving more," said Welch. "The congregation applauded the idea."

Years ago Lander Heafner, pastor of First Baptist Church in Crossnore came home from an annual session of the BSC upset after hearing messengers "talking about cutting the percentage to the SBC." He led his church to support only the SBC through its mission giving, redirecting almost $80,000 around the BSC.

Now they are "in the habit" of giving that way, said Heafner, Crossnore pastor for 25 years. But if the BSC "keeps going like it is," his church will "probably switch back" to giving through the BSC and "let them distribute it."

"I feel very good about the state convention right now," said Heafner, who admits at one time he lost all interest.

Members discussed distribution of mission funds during Crossnore budget deliberations this year, Heafner said. He expects it to come up again with possibly a different outcome.

Bill Sanderson, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, said his church sends only half of its approximately $100,000 annual missions giving through the BSC, with the other half going directly to the SBC. That practice started after North Carolina Baptists adopted yet another giving plan in 1999, but might be coming to a close.

"We're looking at sending all the money through the BSC if it comes back to one giving plan," said Sanderson. "If the BSC comes back to one plan, we'll be the first one to jump on the ship."

Ed Yount, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Conover, is chairing a committee studying all aspects of Cooperative Program giving plans and distribution. The committee includes persons whose churches utilize all plans.

While competing interests - easily accommodated in multiple plans - would make design of a single giving plan extremely difficult, Sanderson said the elements of a good, single plan for him would include "maintain help toward Fruitland; increase percentage to the SBC to something on the order of 60/40."

As Sanderson is leading his church to increase Cooperative Program giving a half percentage point each year toward a goal of 15 percent, he "wants to see evidence that the BSC is working on the percentage, year to year" of increasing the amount given to the SBC.

And, he said, churches should be giving a "tithe through the Cooperative Program, at least as a minimum."

"It's important that individual churches really support what we claim to be a part of, which is the Baptist State Convention," he said. "If we're committed to it, we need to support it."

The $33,512 Alexis Baptist Church sent directly to the SBC is in addition to the 19 percent of undesignated receipts it sends through the Baptist State Convention.

Pastor Sandy Marks said, "We really wanted to get more money to the mission field. There is nothing negative about the state convention, this is just a burden we have to do extra for missions."

Allan Blume, pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Boone and chairman of the BSC board of directors, led his church in 2007 to end its 12-year practice of splitting its mission gifts 50-50 between the BSC and the SBC. Today the church sends 100 percent of its approximately $140,000 through Cooperative Program Giving Plan D.

His concern, following the adoption of a third giving plan in 1995, was that "money being directed away from the Southern Baptist Convention because of new giving plans needed to be replaced."

He was not being negative about the BSC, he said, just concerned that SBC seminaries and mission agencies not be damaged.

More recently, he said, his budget committee "wanted to affirm our appreciation for the direction of the state convention and our leadership."

Mike Creswell, senior consultant at the Baptist State Convention responsible for Cooperative Program promotion, said, "The Convention absolutely affirms the autonomy of the local church and respects each church's decisions on how they support missions. Our job is not to question their decisions, but to demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperative giving so clearly that churches will see the Cooperative Program as the best way to accomplish the goal of reaching our state and world with the gospel and love of Jesus Christ."