March 11, 2002
Chapman appeals for full funding of SBC
___NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Morris Chapman has appealed for Texas Baptists to "return to the traditional and mutually supportive relationship between the SBC and the BGCT that has prevailed until recent times."
___Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, made the appeal in a March 1 letter to Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Chapman was responding to a resolution adopted by the BGCT Executive Board Feb. 26 that urged Chapman and other SBC leaders to "cease and desist from seeking to undermine the mission endeavors of state conventions."
___That resolution, as well as comments made by Wade to the Executive Board, was sparked by a letter Chapman wrote to leaders of BGCT-affiliated churches urging them to reduce their giving to the BGCT and promoting affiliation with an alternative state convention in Texas. Wade called Chapman's letter to Texas churches unprecedented and an attack on the BGCT's ministries.
___In his reply, Chapman asserted he had every right to address the matter directly with Texas church leaders, explaining that the churches "are not the possession of the BGCT or the SBC or any other extra-church body."
___He was compelled to write the churches, he said, because BGCT leaders have made it more difficult for Texas churches to support the traditional Cooperative Program unified budget administered by the SBC.
___"It has ever been our desire to have a trust-based, traditional partnership in the Cooperative Program with the BGCT," Chapman wrote.
___BGCT leaders, with approval from messengers at annual conventions, have restructured the Texas Cooperative Program to provide several funding options. The BGCT's Adopted Budget reduces or eliminates funding for some SBC entities and redirects that money to Texas Baptist missions and ministry efforts. Churches still are allowed to channel their missions money however they choose, though, including fully funding all SBC ministries.
___BGCT leaders claim the SBC has broken trust with state Baptist conventions in general and the BGCT in particular by what is taught in SBC seminaries and how other SBC agencies are administered. The BGCT has not changed it theology or mission, the Texas leaders contend, but the SBC has changed.
___Chapman's letter does not acknowledge these differences or make any offers to resolve SBC policies and procedures that are troublesome to Texas Baptists. His appeal is for full funding of SBC ministries.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook