February 17, 2003
Chapman seeks to influence Texas churches
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___In a letter mailed to thousands of Texas Baptist pastors and lay leaders, Morris Chapman uses the death of three missionaries in Yemen as a rallying call for greater giving to the Southern Baptist Convention and reduced giving to the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___This is the third consecutive year Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, has written to pastors, deacon chairmen, church treasurers and other local-church leaders in a direct appeal for giving. A similar letter in 2001 was believed to be the first time an SBC official made a direct appeal for Cooperative Program giving to Texas churches while bypassing the state convention.
___The appeal is necessary, his letter and accompanying literature explain, because the BGCT is promoting an Adopted Budget that reduces funding to SBC causes.
___The BGCT's Adopted Budget for 2003 actually restores funding to the Executive Committee, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and six SBC seminaries--reversing funding caps enacted two years ago.
___Chapman's letter and literature do not mention this fact. Instead, they highlight the fact that the BGCT's Adopted Budget for 2003 will keep a greater percentage of funds for Texas ministries, forwarding 21 percent of undesignated gifts to the SBC rather than 27 percent as before.
___Only about one-third of BGCT churches use the Adopted Budget. The remaining two-thirds create their own giving plans, as allowed by BGCT policy.
___Chapman's letter encourages churches to use this flexibility to give more money to the SBC and less to the BGCT. The mailing includes two illustration sheets, one for giving through the BGCT and one for giving through the rival Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
___The mailing was only sent to churches affiliated with the BGCT, however, said Becky Bridges, director of communications for the BGCT.
___A prominent illustration on the BGCT sheet suggests that churches check the "Church Designated Cooperative Giving Plan" on the BGCT's gift remittance form. It then suggests churches fill in the blanks with 50 percent of the money going to the SBC and 50 percent going to the BGCT.
___Even before the BGCT began experiencing political and theological conflict with the SBC, the BGCT never sent 50 percent of its money to the SBC. Rather, Chapman's suggested percentage split reflects the practice of the SBTC as a model for BGCT churches.
___Chapman's literature claims the BGCT's reduction from 27 percent to 21 percent in giving to the SBC takes "all" the reduction from support for international missions.
___He arrives at this conclusion by calculating the percentage of an undesignated gift through the BGCT's Adopted Budget last year that would have made it to the IMB versus a similar gift this year. That turns out to be a 6 percent-point difference.
___The BGCT's change from sending 27 percent of undesignated Adopted Budget gifts to the SBC last year to 21 percent this year, while also a 6 percentage-point difference, does not specifically target the IMB, however.
___Further, the BGCT's change actually increases overall funding for missions, countered Bridges.
___"The change in percentage also reflects moving some worldwide missions programs into the BGCT portion," she said. That includes River Ministry, the Minnesota-Wisconsin partnershp, Mission Service Corps and partnership missions.
___"The other changes that were made, including restoring funding to SBC agencies and removing the seminary funding cap, were done so churches can see that the BGCT is trying to become neutral and move away from the political fray.
___"In a courageous move, the BGCT removed the divisive elements of that budget and actually gave the Executive Committee more money."
___In his letter, Chapman makes repeated reference to the need to support international missions and to the three IMB missionaries who were slain at Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen by an Islamic extremist. His letter does not mention that the IMB soon after turned over the entire hospital to control of a Muslim-run charity.
___"Your church's decision to give through the Cooperative Program makes possible the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth," he wrote. "Not many of us may make the sacrifice of losing our life in a martyr's death. Certainly, none of us would do less than make a sacrifice of bountiful, abundant, extravagant giving."
___BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade urged Texas Baptist churches not to be persuaded by Chapman's letter. Many BGCT churches still strongly support the SBC and the International Mission Board, he said, noting that last year the BGCT sent $32.3 million to support SBC causes.
___"The BGCT wants to move away from the political fray," Wade said. "The Adopted Giving Plan is evidence of that. There are 10 million unchurched people in Texas. We are growing in diversity faster than any other state. The needs are too great for us to be slowing down on Texas missions."
___Bridges said she estimates the cost of printing and mailing Chapman's letter to be at least $10,000.
___"That's straight out of the money we just gave back to them in Cooperative Program support to the Southern Baptist Convention," she said. "That's a lot of money that could have gone to international missions."
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