SBC won't take money from new Missouri group
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___NASHVILLE, Tenn.--The Southern Baptist Convention will not recognize a new state Baptist convention in Missouri or accept Cooperative Program gifts from that convention, according to Morris Chapman.
___Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, wrote a letter to founders of the new Missouri convention Jan. 25 advising he will not recommend that the SBC recognize the second Missouri convention.
___The final decision on such recognition rests with elected members of the SBC Executive Committee, who seldom deviate from the recommendations of Chapman and other administrators.
___And were the issue to be debated formally among Executive Committee members, agreement with Chapman's position likely would be expressed by
Missouri representatives. One of the Missourians serving on the Executive Committee is Roger Moran, a layman who has led the fundamentalist charge to capture control of the existing Missouri Baptist Convention.
___It is this turn of events within Missouri--in which state convention leadership has been changed and more restrictions have been placed on affiliated churches--that prompted formation of a new state convention.
___The new convention, to be called the Baptist Convention of Missouri, is slated for launch in April. Among its organizers is Jim Hill, who last year resigned as executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, saying he no longer could work with the fundamentalist leadership controlling the convention's work.
___A Jan. 17 meeting to discuss formation of a new convention drew representatives from 104 Missouri churches that together gave more than $4 million to the Cooperative Program in 2000, Hill said. Should all those churches follow through and become part of a new convention, their aggregate membership would be 109,927.
___That would make the new Missouri convention larger than 21 of the 41 existing Baptist state conventions that relate to the SBC, Hill said.
___Organizers of the new state convention have said they intend to create multiple Cooperative Program giving options, with a heavy emphasis on funding the SBC's worldwide missions and ministries. Under their plans, for example, it would be possible for a Missouri church to send the same amount of undersigned money to the SBC as they previously did through the Missouri Baptist Convention.
___But the SBC will not allow that to happen, Chapman said in his Jan. 25 letter to Hill.
___"Granting the permission you requested would afford the new Baptist Convention of Missouri the same status as the existing Missouri Baptist Convention," Chapman wrote. "While I appreciate your desire to associate this new group with the SBC, it is not enough that a group of Baptist individuals or churches create a Baptist state convention. The SBC must believe its interests will be served before it agrees to a relationship as serious as that between a regional body and itself."
___Chapman's position on recognizing a second state convention in Missouri runs counter to the SBC's response to new state conventions recently formed in Texas and Virginia.
___When fundamentalists broke away from the Baptist General Convention of Texas to form the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the SBC immediately recognized the new convention and accepted contributions from it. The same was true when fundamentalists broke away from the Baptist General Association of Virginia to form a new convention.
___In a statement released through the Executive Committee's Baptist Press, Chapman said the Missouri situation is different from what happened in Texas and Virginia.
___"In two other states, a second state convention was formed only after the original state conventions had corrupted the historic meaning of the Cooperative Program," Chapman said. "In this instance, the original state convention, the Missouri Baptist Convention, supports national and international missions and ministries exclusively through the Southern Baptist Convention. There is no compelling reason to receive Cooperative Program gifts through another state convention in Missouri. The churches already have the means by which to do that, the Missouri Baptist Convention."
___Chapman was traveling and could not be reached for additional clarification. Bill Merrell, the Executive Committee's vice president for convention relations, said he could not offer any additional clarification on differences between the Missouri, Texas and Virginia situations.
___BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade objected to Chapman's assertion that the BGCT had corrupted the Cooperative Program.
___"To say that the Baptist General Convention of Texas 'corrupted' the meaning of the Cooperative Program is disingenuous," Wade replied. "The Cooperative Program historically was built on mutual trust and shared vision, not a contractual arrangement.
___"When the Southern Baptist Convention deliberately excluded a sizeable number of supporting churches, they cut that nerve of trust and vision. The BGCT has made every effort to build trust by recognizing that churches have choices and by honoring the right of churches to give in a way that reflects their convictions."
___In his letter to Hill, Chapman asserted the SBC's sole right to determine who is authorized to collect funds on behalf of the SBC. Further, he affirmed affiliation with a single convention in each state as "the ideal" and says there must be "a compelling reason to vary from the status quo."
___Since the Missouri Baptist Convention continues to be supportive of the SBC and its leadership and acts faithfully as a collector of missions contributions, there is no need to recognize a second convention in the state, Chapman explained.
___He declared the new convention will not be "in friendly cooperation" with the SBC, referencing the broad requirement that has united state conventions with the national body for more than 150 years.
___While the SBC "is not perfect," it is moving in the right direction with the right leadership and confession of faith, Chapman wrote. "To allow a group that is so openly in disagreement with the SBC to collect our Cooperative Program gifts from the churches implies some kind of endorsement of the group's point of view. We do not wish to send mixed signals to the churches in Missouri."
___Chapman strongly disagreed with statements Hill made in another context about why a second convention is needed in Missouri.
___"Many of the current leaders in the Missouri Baptist Convention are elected leaders in the SBC," Chapman noted. "They are faithfully supporting and leading their churches to support the Southern Baptist Convention."
___On the other hand, Chapman added, those who oppose the Missouri Baptist Convention's new leadership "are the same ones who have been opposing the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in recent years and who have been attempting to dissuade churches in Missouri from supporting our work."
___Further, the new Missouri convention's intention to create multiple giving tracks is "contrary to the best interests" of the SBC, Chapman wrote. "We have not nor do we desire to enter into new relationships that do not see the SBC as the exclusive beneficiary of national Cooperative Program gifts from the churches."
___For the SBC to have a relationship with the new Missouri convention "would tend to confuse the churches and complicate their financial support of the SBC," Chapman also wrote.
___"The Missouri churches do not need another avenue for getting their support to the SBC. If they are truly desirous of supporting the SBC, the Missouri Baptist Convention can forward their gifts for the SBC as it has for years. ... Furthermore, if some churches do not want to send their Cooperative Program gifts through the Missouri Baptist Convention, they can send it directly to the Executive Committee."
___Chapman closed his letter by telling Hill he is "saddened by your personal conflicts with Missouri Baptist Convention leaders."
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