EDITORIAL: Sad farewell: Giving up on Texas missions & ministries

December 2, 2002

EDITORIAL:
Sad farewell: Giving up on Texas missions & ministries
___The other shoe has dropped in downtown Dallas. First Baptist Church voted to stop giving any missions money through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The action moved the historic church closer to a unique relationship with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which split from the BGCT in 1998.
___The first shoe fell in 1999, when First Baptist dually aligned with both Texas conventions. The church based that action on a study reportedly conducted by church leaders, which closely paralleled a litany of charges made by a group called the Missouri Baptist Laymen's Association. BGCT representatives exhaustively refuted those claims.
___The church's new decision to discontinue channeling any funds through the BGCT was made "in order to support our pastor (Mac Brunson) as he assumes an important leadership position as a member of the Executive Board of the SBTC," according to the motion approved by the congregation.
___Brunson blamed the decision on the BGCT. "The inevitable is coming simply because of the direction the BGCT is moving in. The BGCT is making it increasingly impossible for churches who want to be with the Southern Baptist Convention to remain

Churches that turn their backs on the BGCT walk away from crucial ministries that would die if the BGCT did not fund them, staff them and lift them up in prayer.

a part of the state convention."
___First Baptist enjoys a glorious tradition and has every right to make this and any decision. It is comprised of free Baptists who are fully autonomous. However, Brunson cites flawed logic.
___The BGCT allows churches infinitely more freedom in relationships and cooperation than does the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
___To begin with, the SBTC requires all affiliated churches to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith ^ Message statement. Three times, the BGCT has declined to affirm the 2000 BF^M, citing its function as a creed and its denial of several historic Baptist doctrines. The BGCT has affirmed the 1963 version of the BF^M, which was written to include rather than exclude faithful, cooperative churches. Still, the BGCT supports churches' right to affirm either document without fear of rejection or punishment.
___In addition, the BGCT allows churches tremendously greater cooperative giving freedom than does the other state convention. The 2003 SBTC budget offers churches only one giving option, which channels 52 percent to the SBC and keeps 48 percent for SBTC use. In contrast, the BGCT hands churches a blank check. In 2003, churches still will be able to allocate their cooperative gifts by absolutely any percentage they choose. And if they contribute to the convention-approved budget, the division will be 79 percent to the BGCT and 21 percent to worldwide causes, with the church selecting how that amount is disbursed among SBC, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and/or Texas causes. In fact, the new BGCT budget is even less restrictive than last years', because the convention-approved plan no longer caps contributions to the SBC seminaries or diverts funds from a couple of smaller SBC agencies.
___Critics contrast the BGCT's convention-approved cooperative giving split (79 percent Texas, 21 percent worldwide) with the SBTC allocation (48 percent SBTC, 52 percent SBC). They claim this shows the SBTC is more missions-minded. What they overlook is what the STBC overlooks--ministry opportunities that no one will accomplish if Texas Baptists don't take them on. And besides broken relationships, that's what's particularly sad about the decisions made by First Baptist in Dallas and other churches that have forsaken the BGCT: They may be angry with a few leaders of the state convention, but they are taking it out on the lost, the needy, the hurting in our state.
___You see, when a church pulls out of the BGCT, it doesn't really hurt the convention's elected and employed leaders. No, it hurts ministries in Texas the other convention doesn't even attempt to provide. The BGCT helps to fund and operate 23 institutions in the state. They include ministries to poor and hurting children and families; health-care systems; homes and ministries for the aging; eight universities; two seminaries; an academy; a school for Hispanic church leaders; a missions/education center. In addition, the BGCT operates River Ministry on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. It provides far and away the largest number of Mission Service Corps volunteers. It supports Texas Baptist Men, which conducts disaster relief in a heartbeat. It trains 35,641 university students, including a plurality of all SBC collegiate ministerial students. It also ministers to students on state university campuses. It operates Texas Partnerships and is forming a world missions network, both designed to enable Texas Baptists to spread the gospel around the globe. We're in the process of starting 777 churches in three years and are doing just as much to strengthen existing churches.
___So, churches that turn their backs on the BGCT walk away from crucial ministries that would die if the BGCT did not fund them, staff them and lift them up in prayer.
___In an unprecedented show of partisanship, Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, praised First Baptist Church for its decision. "I pray God will richly bless the ministry of First Baptist," he said. "Certainly, she has been found faithful."
___Perhaps he discounts almost $32.9 million BGCT churches contributed to the SBC last year. One cannot conceive that he would not value those millions of dollars of support.
___However, Texas Baptists are committed to the ministries they have conducted for decades. When churches turn away from those ministries, others will step up to provide more funding for Texas missions and ministries, so they will not perish.

--Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com ___

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