September 16, 2002

NAMB president & BGCT see two situations differently
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___A Baptist General Convention of Texas committee and the Baptist Standard have misrepresented the positions of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, according to NAMB President Bob Reccord.
___In a statement issued to Baptist Press, Reccord criticized the report of the BGCT's Missions Review & Initiatives Committee. That committee admonished NAMB to change its stance on withdrawing financial support for the District of Columbia Baptist Convention.
___In a separate two-page letter to the Standard, Reccord complained about a recent news story detailing a proposed new cooperative agreement between the BGCT and NAMB.
___Reccord told Baptist Press he was "saddened and disappointed" that the BGCT made statements about the D.C. situation with what he considered inadequate information.
___Earlier this year, NAMB notified the D.C. convention it will cut off nearly $500,000 in annual funding because the D.C. convention refused terms of a new agreement proposed by NAMB.
___According to the BGCT report, which was based on first-hand testimony and published accounts of the negotiations: "NAMB not only sought to control the editorial positions of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention state paper, but also made continued financial support contingent upon placing a mission board employee on the District of Columbia Baptist Convention staff who would have supervised all jointly funded personnel and guided programs receiving NAMB funding. This would have required the District of Columbia Baptist Convention to surrender its autonomy and would have restricted its ability to select and supervise its own personnel and carry out its local missions vision."
___Reccord, however, described NAMB's proposal to the D.C. convention as creating a "win-win" solution to enhance cooperative missions work. NAMB "in no way called for the District of Columbia convention to surrender their autonomy," he insisted.
___Negotiations with the D.C. convention commenced in response to a motion by a NAMB trustee that would have immediately defunded the convention, Reccord reported. Instead, NAMB administrators launched a review that led to their proposal for changes, he explained.
___The executive director of the D.C. convention has on several occasions insisted that NAMB's demands were not a "win-win" proposal from his perspective and that the convention saw no option but to reject NAMB's proposal.
___Regarding the proposed new cooperative agreement between the BGCT and NAMB, Reccord took issue with an article in the Aug. 26 issue of the Standard that said NAMB contributed "a small monthly stipend" to the support of jointly funded missionaries working in Texas.
___"The truth is that NAMB provides much more than a 'small monthly stipend,'" Reccord wrote in his letter to the Standard. "NAMB provides 51.7 percent (mean average) of all salary for jointly appointed missionaries. The median average is 52 percent, and the mode average (that which occurs most often) is 100 percent. Any way you cut the financial pie, NAMB is the largest contributor to the salary of most jointly appointed missionaries."
___However, an analysis of data from the BGCT shows a different financial picture than the one painted by Reccord.
___The average financial support from NAMB going to Texas missionaries jointly appointed by the BGCT and NAMB is $417 a month, reported E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the BGCT's church missions and evangelism section.
___Further, 15 of the 23 jointly funded missionaries in Texas receive less than $200 per month from NAMB, Brooks added.
___The average compensation of a jointly appointed missionary serving in Texas is $3,213 per month. That means the average jointly appointed missionary in Texas receives only 13 percent of his or her compensation from NAMB.
___NAMB also provides health and some life insurance coverage for jointly funded missionaries. However, those benefits are not considered salary.
___The salary statistics Reccord cited in his letter might be true on a national level, Brooks said. But Reccord's numbers do not accurately reflect NAMB's work with the BGCT, he said.
___In his letter, Reccord also took exception with this sentence in the Standard story: "However, for the first time, the proposed cooperative agreement acknowledges that the BGCT is retaining missions funds that otherwise would have been routed to NAMB and then sent back to Texas."
___Beginning this year, the BGCT is retaining from the SBC's portion of Cooperative Program gifts about $1.2 million--an amount equal to what NAMB would have sent back to Texas for jointly funded projects. The retention affects only NAMB and does not reduce funding for any other SBC entity.
___The change was recommended by a BGCT study committee to reduce bureaucratic entanglements and get money to the field faster. The BGCT and other state Baptist conventions repeatedly have complained that NAMB's processes are cumbersome and inefficient.
___From Reccord's perspective, the BGCT's action is not merely a retention of funds but a partial "defunding" of NAMB.
___"It is not the state's money that is returned to the state," he wrote. "Instead, it is funds representing the gifts of Southern Baptists all over North America who are contributing to a coordinated mission strategy for the continent. In addition, those funds are not the states' but that of the churches of the state, channeled through the state convention."
___Brooks responded that BGCT leaders never have claimed the money being retained was "Texas money owed back to Texas. What we're saying is we're retaining in Texas the Cooperative Program funds that would have come to Texas.
___"For Dr. Reccord to indicate that the BGCT is defunding NAMB is a play on words. Those funds are already allocated by NAMB to Texas. There are no less funds for North American missions than before. NAMB just doesn't have to send any funds to Texas Baptists that they receive from the Executive Committee," Brooks added.
___"It is true that, with this arrangement, NAMB cannot withhold funds from Texas Baptists or reduce the funds allocated for mission work in Texas. This does limit NAMB from reallocating these funds."
___However, Brooks continued, "Texas has indicated and is committed to using the funds retained in Texas in ways that will complement the strategy of the North American Mission Board. Each year there will be a strategic planning with persons from NAMB and the BGCT to share strategic missions concerns."

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