August 7, 2000
Increases in giving cited as approval for SBC changes
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Continued increases in giving to Southern Baptist Convention causes is evidence that Southern Baptist churches nationwide approve of the convention's more conservative direction and leadership in recent years, according to Morris Chapman.
___Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville, Tenn., toldmessengers to this summer's SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., that record levels of giving prove there is no need to seek reconciliation among divided Baptist groups.
MORRIS CHAPMAN
___He spoke in opposition to a motion made from the convention floor that would have created a committee "to work toward reconciliation and restoration among Baptist groups."
___In speaking against the call for reconciliation, he explained: "For seven consecutive years, we've set an all-time high in Cooperative Program giving. For seven consecutive years, we've set an all time-high in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. For seven consecutive years, we've set an all-time high in the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for home missions. We have more missionaries responding to the call of God to go overseas. We have more appointees going overseas. We have more baptisms overseas. We have more churches planted overseas. We are reaching the great cities of America ... as we've never reached them before. I think God would have us focus on those things we seek to do together for his glory."
___Likewise, newly elected SBC President James Merritt cited record giving to the SBC Cooperative Program as evidence that "the overwhelming majority of Baptists are extremely happy" with the convention's leadership.
___Asked in a news conference how the SBC should relate to state conventions that allow churches options in giving that are still considered Cooperative Program giving on the state level, Merritt said he is "a champion of" the SBC Cooperative Program.
___"It grieves my heart to see any state convention take any action that could hurt the Cooperative Program," Merritt said. "I would just make a plea to my fellow Southern Baptists that never has there been a better time to be a Baptist than today, to be proud that you are a Southern Baptist."
___Merritt's own church in suburban Atlanta has been increasing its giving to the Cooperative Program in recent years, according to public records of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
___First Baptist Church of Snellville, Ga., gave $210,000 to the Cooperative Program through the Georgia convention in 1999. That was 3.6 percent of the $5.91 million in undesignated receipts taken in by the mega-church.
___After several years of no giving to the Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon offerings registered in state convention records, the Snellville church in 1999 gave $15,000 to Lottie Moon and $25,000 to Annie Armstrong.
___The 3.6 percent Cooperative Program giving record for 1999 continued a pattern of increase for Merritt's church. In 1998, the church gave $170,385 to the Cooperative Program, 2.9 percent of undesignated receipts. In 1997, the church gave $61,180 to the Cooperative Program, 1.25 percent of undesignated receipts.
___Overall giving to Southern Baptist causes continues to climb each month. For the fiscal year to date, giving to the SBC Cooperative Program is 5.94 percent above the same period last year. At the end of July, a total of $148.7 million had been received, compared to last year's mark of $140.36 million.
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