May 21, 2001

Two SBC leaders respond to report;
no answers given to listed concerns
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Two Southern Baptist Convention leaders have criticized the report of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Missions-sending Agencies Study Committee but have not provided answers to specific concerns cited by the Texas committee.
___Comments were released through Baptist Press May 16 from Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board, and David Hankins, vice president for Cooperative Program at the SBC Executive Committee.
___Two weeks after the report was made public May 3, the SBC's International Mission Board has not publicly acknowledged its release in any way or responded to the six concerns cited by the BGCT report.
___The Texas committee has recommended no change in relationship or funding with the IMB but has recommended that the BGCT retain about $1.28 million in funding for NAMB--the equivalent of what NAMB would send back to Texas for missions work.
___The report cites six concerns about the IMB's work, including several related to the agency's new strategy, called New Directions. This strategy moves the IMB away from supporting institutional ministries such as seminaries and hospitals to focus almost exclusively on church starting.
___The report also cites six concerns about NAMB's work, with an underlying tone of frustration with NAMB's efficiency and effectiveness in relating to state Baptist conventions.
___Chief among the concerns cited about NAMB is the lack of a current cooperative agreement statement between NAMB and the BGCT and accusations that NAMB has violated the 1991 cooperative agreement document by funding work in Texas in competition with the BGCT and by unilaterally changing the requirements for joint missionary appointment.
___Cooperative agreements are formal documents spelling out areas of cooperation and joint funding between the SBC and state Baptist conventions. The most recent cooperative agreement between the BGCT and SBC was negotiated with the SBC's former Home Mission Board, of which NAMB is a successor agency.
___Reccord responded that "NAMB and all state conventions and fellowships have continued to work under the pre-existing agreements" and that a process already has begun to "restructure" those agreements.
___He did not respond to the Texas committee's assertion that NAMB has violated the 1991 cooperative agreement by funding work with the competing Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and by requiring missionary candidates to affirm the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith & Message.
___"NAMB will continue to follow the Lord's leadership in helping SBC churches start new churches and reach our continent for Christ," he said.
___The Texas proposal to retain an amount of funding equal to what NAMB has been sending back to Texas is "a misinterpretation of the nature of our partnership," Reccord asserted. This is true, he said, because the funds NAMB sends to Texas actually come from the gifts sent to NAMB from all over the United States.
___Hankins, of the SBC Executive Committee, picks up this theme in his statement as well, charging that "this proposal is very seriously flawed and has potentially devastating consequences for the Cooperative Program."
___He expands on Reccord's concern by saying the retention of $1.28 million in funding for NAMB would negatively impact all SBC agencies and institutions. This would result in a loss of $600,000 to the IMB, he asserts.
___Hankins' assertion differs from the precise wording of the BGCT committee's recommendation. The committee report states that this change in funding "has no relationship to remaining Cooperative Program or designated funds."
___As envisioned by the BGCT committee, the $1.28 million would be deducted from the amount of Cooperative Program money given through the SBC to NAMB. All other SBC agencies would be funded at current levels.
___BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade did not respond to Hankins, but he characterized Reccord's statement as "inaccurate and misleading."
___"The truth is, Texas Baptists give more than other states for missions efforts and church starts," Wade said. "Texas also provides 47 percent of all Mission Service Corps personnel in the SBC."
___Further, "the proposal to retain funds that are coming back to the BGCT is patterned after a similar plan used by the Mississippi Baptist Convention," he said. "The approach apparently has worked well for Mississippi Baptists and NAMB for several years."
___In related news, NAMB trustees during a May 9 meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., unanimously approved a motion affirming Reccord's leadership in all relationship between NAMB and Baptist state conventions as well as his response to the Texas funding situation.
___"We fully support the firm stand he has taken regarding the recent Missions-sending Agency Study Committee report that will soon be presented to the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas," read the motion introduced by trustee Bill Streich of Wichita Falls.

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