Make up difference in SBC cutback, Baptist World Alliance leader pleads

March 17, 2003

Make up difference in SBC cutback,
Baptist World Alliance leader pleads
___By Trennis Henderson
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--The survival of the Baptist World Alliance may depend upon a "Make Up the Difference" fund-raising campaign, BWA leaders said.
___The campaign was announced in early March by Alan Stanford, BWA's regional secretary for North America. The money is needed to offset the anticipated annual loss of $125,000 from the Southern Baptist Convention.
___The BWA faces "a crisis as a result of the controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention, along with the challenge we face with today's economic downturn," Stanford said in the letter to Baptist leaders worldwide.
___"Because of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's pending application for membership in the Baptist World Alliance, the Southern Baptist Convention's leadership has determined that they will reduce their current $425,000 annual contribution by 30 percent," he wrote. "This is very unfortunate, because the BWA wants to work with all Baptists."
___Action on CBF membership is expected to take place in July during the BWA's General Council meeting in Seoul, Korea.
___Citing an operating deficit of more than $600,000 as well as the proposed SBC cut, Stanford explained in an interview: "It is a very critical situation. We're talking about the survival of the Baptist World Alliance.
___"We don't want to do anything to inflame the situation. At the same time, we feel like it would be irresponsible to not ask people to make up the difference."
___The BWA Executive Committee, meeting in Washington, also approved a 20 percent cut in this year's budget, reducing planned expenditures from $2.11 million to $1.69 million. The annual budget funds BWA's work among 206 Baptist conventions and unions around the world.
___The proposal to reduce the SBC's financial support of the BWA came during last month's SBC Executive Committee meeting. The recommendation, which will be presented for action by SBC messengers in June, calls for the SBC to reallocate $125,000 from BWA support to initiate its own international network of "like-minded Christian bodies."
___In addition to seeking one-time financial gifts from individuals and churches, the BWA campaign includes a focus on enlisting "Global Impact Churches" to provide ongoing financial support.
___Churches that pledge to contribute at least $1,000 annually will be designated Global Impact Churches, and churches that give at least $5,000 annually will be William Carey Global Impact Churches.
___BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said his goal is to enlist 1,000 Global Impact Churches to undergird the BWA's long-term financial stability.
___At the BWA Executive Committee meeting, membership committee Chairman Ian Hawley publicly apologized to Morris Chapman and other SBC leaders for hurt feelings resulting from the committee's action to consider CBF's membership request.
___Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, has criticized both the process and the outcome of the membership committee's work. SBC leaders insist the CBF should not be allowed membership in BWA.
___"We did not anticipate at that time that the course of action we were taking with good intentions would end up in being an embarrassment in causing hurt to our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters," Hawley said. However, he also noted that the membership committee had "reaffirmed the process adopted on this matter" and the committee would present a recommendation on CBF membership to the BWA General Council meeting in July.
___BWA President Billy Kim said he hopes the BWA can continue to represent all the major Baptist bodies, including the SBC.
___"I have always been appreciative of Southern Baptists, of what they have done, and I will continue to appreciate their leadership," said Kim, a South Korean pastor. "Whatever they do, whatever we do and whatever CBF does, we all have to answer to God when we get to heaven. So I'm still praying that those two groups can work together, not necessarily on customs or theologies, but on reaching the world."

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