SBC President Johnny Hunt plans to name a task force or study committee at the annual meeting in June to address the issues he raised in the call “Toward a Great Commission Resurgence.” Because nine of the 10 items in the declaration urge individual or local church action, they are likely to see little action. No task force, no matter how searing and insightful its report, can jump start a stalled Christian.

Most agonizingly frustrating to guys like Hunt and Southeastern Seminary President Danny Akin, the document’s primary author, is that most of us will look at their plea for commitment to certain principles of faith, family, church and doctrine and say, “That’s where I am now.”

Are we being honest with ourselves, and with God? The feeling increasingly is that we are NOT where we say we are. We are not who we say we are. If we were, our churches would look and feel different and our lives would bear the fragrance of fresh faith instead of the stink of stagnant belief.

So, it is the metal rod of article No. 9 in the document that naturally has attracted the most lightening. That article calls on Southern Baptists “through our valued partnerships of SBC agencies, state conventions/institutions, and Baptist associations to evaluate our Convention structures and priorities so that we can maximize our energy and resources for the health of our local churches and the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”

Of course, whose oxen gets gored depends on the definition, implication and results of the word “evaluate.” What Hunt and Akin want is for every denominational staffer — and there are thousands because Southern Baptists have a large and intricate system of delivering services to churches – to take a hard look at how they are doing their jobs and see if they are still necessary.

Maybe a job or a service that was in high demand two decades ago has been rendered unnecessary because of a change in consumer habits. If a study finds some jobs or services unnecessary will the organization in which they live be willing to shed or change those jobs and reassign personnel to focus on the three Great Commission elements that Akin and Hunt feel are essential and currently getting short shrift: church planting, pioneer missions at home and abroad, and effective mercy ministries?

Who is buying a Hummer today? They’re still around, still transporting people, but is it the efficient vehicle we need?

Sure Hunt and Akin are as “high profile” in SBC life as you can get. But should their perspective even be such a matter of discussion as it is across the country?

Well…yes.

Remember that one of the primary reasons they are willing to go to the mat for this NOW is their very current and very real understanding that the next generation of Baptist pastors – the guys sitting in Akin’s classrooms and attending Hunt’s huge conferences – do not support the state conventions and SBC as they currently perceive them.

According to Akin, these men think there is too much fluff in the formula.

A word for North Carolina. Since the traumatic downsizing of the North Carolina Baptist staff in 2003 that resulted in the elimination of 24 positions and the jobs of 15 people, any position that comes open is carefully evaluated to determine if it merits continuation. A position evaluation committee, comprised of members of the Executive Committee, hears recommendations from staff leaders and then makes their own recommendation back to the Executive Committee as to whether or not to continue the position.

Staff at every strata of Baptist life is afraid Article 9 is aimed at them. Akin has said he and Hunt are not so concerned about specific organizations as much as redundant services. One specific is the church planting services available at association, state and national levels.  The implied question is, “Why can’t these be combined to provide more money for Great Commission priorities?”

The natural follow up question is, “Where would you have the service reside?” Everyone can’t come to the North American Mission Board in Atlanta to investigate their calling. State conventions marshal resources to train church planters and support them in areas that cannot support their own. Large associations are in the heart of the matter and want to train their church planters in their context.

Those are issues for someone else to pore over. Church planting is only an example that Akin gave where potential redundancies exist. It’s neither the target nor the complete complaint.

In funding and tax terms, the Southern Baptist Convention is a very large not-for-profit organization. Gifts to its ministries are tax exempt. For five years I helped not-for-profits raise capital funds and I know donors pay a lot of attention to the administrative costs of any such organization.

I was on the staff of the Executive Committee, Southern Baptists’ administrative body, 1977-1982.  Current staff is going to think what follows is picking on them, but I’m only using something I’m familiar with to illustrate a point that Akin and Hunt are trying to raise.  

When I left the Executive Committee for seminary there were 17 people on staff, including the mail room and a janitor.

Layman Porter Routh, who retired in 1979 after 28 years leading the Executive Committee, worked hard to keep operating expenses to one percent of CP revenue nationally. These expenses included operating the annual meeting.

In 1976, according to the 1976 SBC annual report, page 70, the Executive Committee’s budget was $801,200 for general convention administration, general public relations and convention operations.

National Cooperative Program revenue during 1976-77 was $86,286,334. That means it took the equivalent of 0.9 percent of revenue to administer the finances, annual meeting and oversight of the Convention. It didn't actually require that much CP because the Executive Committee, then and now, has other revenue, primarily a contribution from what is now LifeWay Christian Resources.

The Executive Committee today has 38 staff members, including three custodial staff.

Its budget listed on page 59 of the 2008 SBC annual report is $9,470,373.  To arrive at a budget comparable to that of 1976 you need to back out the $1.4 million for Cooperative Program/Stewardship promotion, which had its separate commission in 1976, and $300,000 for the Baptist Foundation, which was not in the 1976 budget.  That leaves the cost of Executive Committee operations at 3.8 percent of the $205,716,834 CP budget listed on page 60 of the same annual report for 2008-09.  

Now, Baptists are like all other Americans. We complain about the size of government but we demand more services from government all the time. Government wants to be responsive, so they provide the services. We can’t demand the services and then complain about their cost.

If there is to be cost reduction in some areas, there will necessarily be fewer services. Many would say some of those services we can do without. Younger pastors find or create networks for resources that often bypass established routes.

The Executive Committee provides services not required 30 years ago. Retired pastor and former SBC President Bobby Welch, whose commitment, focus and energy I admire, is in the president’s office of the Executive Committee as strategist for global evangelical relations. Before the SBC left the Baptist World Alliance, those relations were a natural outgrowth of SBC participation in the world wide Baptist fellowship.

Ken Hemphill is in the president’s office of the Executive Committee to promote something called Empowering Kingdom Growth. He had been president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary before he got crossways with people who decide who occupies that chair. Now he speaks and writes books from the soft landing pad provided after his Southwestern tenure came to a premature and undeserved end.

I’m not picking on any person or the work they do. I'm sure every task is created in the crucible of perceived need. But Akin and Hunt are telling us they hear burbling from the next generation a real desire to examine the work and see if there are redundancies to combine, products and services that have lost currency, focuses to be fine tuned. If ultimately we find we’re doing everything as good as we can, and if Southern Baptists truly demand every service currently offered, fantastic.

If an evaluation finds ways to stretch dollars, and if the examination itself can encourage churches to trust and to give, all the better.

There is more hanging in the balance than some hurt feelings.