March 5, 2001
BGCT committee won't recommend
change in Texas funding for IMB
___DALLAS--A missions study committee appointed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas will not recommend a change in funding for the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, nor will it recommend that the BGCT become a missions-sending agency.
___This preliminary report was given to the BGCT Executive Board Feb. 27 by Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and chairman of the BGCT Mission-Sending Agencies Study Committee.
___He noted the committee will not bring its full report to the Executive Board until May, at which time the BGCT's relationship with the IMB, the North American Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will be treated in detail.
___Denison said he could not yet address the full scope of issues studied by the committee but could state clearly the things the committee already has decided.
___"We can tell Texas Baptists today that we will not be recommending a change relative to the BGCT's budgetary commitment to the IMB and have never intended such a recommendation," Denison said.
___Further, he said: "Our committee has been asked if we will recommend that Texas Baptists become our own mission-sending agency. We have not discussed such an option and are not planning to make such a recommendation."
___He did not make any specific comments about NAMB or CBF.
___Denison acknowledged "many questions and concerns" have circulated around the state regarding his committee's work. The committee was created by vote of messengers at the BGCT's annual session in 1999.
___A similar committee was created at the same time to study theological education. After a six-month study, that committee recommended that the BGCT significantly reduce funding for the six SBC seminaries, an idea that was approved by BGCT messengers last October.
___Because of the action related to the seminaries, some have speculated the BGCT also would change its funding for the SBC's two mission boards.
___For several months, critics of the BGCT have circulated rumors that the state convention is planning to cut off funding for missions work supported by the SBC and that BGCT leaders are laying the groundwork to establish a Texas missions-sending agency.
___Denison said such talk is unfounded.
___Under the BGCT's current adopted budget, $12.23 million in Cooperative Program gifts from churches is projected to be sent to the IMB. That is 16.7 percent of the BGCT's budget of almost $75 million.
___The committee has no intention of recommending a reduction in this funding, Denison emphasized.
___The missions study committee's work, while intense, apparently has not been marked by the same level of difficulty encountered by the seminary study committee.
___The six presidents of the SBC seminaries, for example, refused to meet with the BGCT committee in Texas, instead requiring the Texas committee to travel to all six campuses. The SBC seminary presidents also acted as a bloc to demand that no individual seminary be treated differently than the others.
___In contrast, Denison reported that his committee has met with leading representatives from each of the sending agencies--IMB, NAMB and CBF. "Those leaders came to Dallas for extended separate sessions with us, and we are grateful for these dialogues," he said.
___A further difference, although not mentioned by Denison, is that the SBC seminary presidents presented a unified front in demanding faculty to sign to the revised Baptist Faith & Message statement. Those revisions, adopted by the SBC last summer, have been controversial in Texas because of changes in language regarding the nature of the document itself, scriptural interpretation and the autonomy of the local church.
___IMB trustees recently voted not to require missionaries to sign the revised Baptist Faith & Message, although they do intend to use it as a doctrinal guideline.
___The BGCT missions study committee is divided into four subcommittees, Denison said. The subgroup relating to the IMB is chaired by Ron Lyles, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena. The NAMB subgroup is chaired by Ophelia Humphrey of Amarillo. The CBF subgroup is chaired by Mitch Randall, pastor of First Baptist Church of Bedford. Betty Law of Fort Worth, vice chair of the study committee, has led a recommendations subcommittee.
___One other issue surfaced by the committee in the process of its work, Denison said, is the need to remind Texas Baptists what they already are doing in world missions. "It is an outstanding mission effort," he said.
___As a result, the committee showed the Executive Board a video demonstrating the scope of Texas Baptist involvement in missions at home and around the world. Executive Board members approved sending the video to more than 6,000 churches affiliated with the BGCT.
___In the video, Denison says: "Texas Baptists have always been--and always will be--committed to missions. Our missions support and involvement begins right where we are, in our own communities and across our own state, but it doesn't stop there. Through the years, we have given strong support to the national and international missions efforts of our denomination.
___"Texas Baptists have also been directly involved through our state convention and its institutions in the diversity of missions reaching throughout the world.
___"Missions is at the very heart of who we are as Texas Baptists. We are a missions people--and always have been. One of the major reasons the early pioneer churches in our state organized together was to more effectively accomplish missions. And we have been cooperating together for that purpose ever since."
___Based on reporting by Dan Martin of Texas Baptist Communications and Managing Editor Mark Wingfield
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