SBC restructuring unnecessary, Executive Committee chief asserts

NASHVILLE—A proposal to study a restructuring of the Southern Baptist Convention is not needed, SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman insists.

Chapman made his feelings known about a proposed Great Commission Resurgence Declaration, issued in late April by SBC President Johnny Hunt, in a lengthy Baptist Press column May 29.

The declaration will be presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in June. If approved, Hunt will appoint a task force to make recommendations on a Great Commission Resurgence and the structure of the convention.

According to Hunt, the 10 commitments called for in the Great Commission Resurgence document reflect “what we hear from grassroots pastors and grassroots leaders of local churches across America.” Hunt characterized the strongly worded declaration as a needed “shock” for an unhealthy SBC.

Chapman wrote that when he began reading the 10 articles in the Declaration, he “rejoiced in the strong affirmation of our convention’s biblical convictions.”

He noted, however, that he discovered that Article IX and “its commentary stood starkly apart from the other nine articles. It suddenly departed from biblical affirmations in order to address the reorganization of structure and methodology within our denomination.

“The article included several negative characterizations and unsupported judgments of the denomination,” observed Chapman,who has not signed the document. The original version referred to “a bloated bureaucracy” that needs to be streamlined.

Chapman acknowledged the language in Article IX was “revised within 48 hours when several leaders in the convention rightly expressed their concern and indicated they could not sign the document as written.”

The declaration has now been revised a third time that removes the reference to “restructuring” the denomination, Chapman wrote. The statement in the declaration now reads, “our convention must be examined.”

Even so, he added, “changing the language has not made the perceived intent any more acceptable.”

Chapman acknowledged periodic changes are necessary.

“But revival in our churches and appointing a task force to study convention structures are not two parts of one whole. They are two separate objectives that, if sought under the same banner, have the potential to cause both to fail. When the time is right, a successful study can happen, following established processes, as has occurred before. However, to put the two objectives together is like trying to mix oil and water.“

Chapman noted a premise of the Declaration is that Southern Baptists must unite around North American church planting, pioneer missions around the globe, and theological education. That has already been done, he asserted.

“The work of the Program and Structure Study Committee was completed in 1997 under the Covenant for a New Century. At that time, the Southern Baptist Convention was restructured so that 95 percent of all Cooperative Program funds received by the Convention were, and still are, directed to the very three priorities identified by the framers of this Declaration—our two mission boards and our six seminaries.”

Chapman wrote that although he constantly urges state convention executive directors to increase their CP allocations to SBC causes to 50 percent, he “cannot concur that the states are bloated or seeking to retain more and more CP money in the states.

“In fact, just the opposite is true. The slippage in Cooperative Program giving is at the local church level. If our churches still gave the same percentage of CP funds from the churches through the states as they did a decade ago (8.24 percent then; 6.08 percent now), the International Mission Board would have an additional $35 million dollars this year alone, not counting the money it would have received pro rata over the past decade. NAMB and our seminary funding formula would each have received approximately $17 million dollars more this year.

“While our annual dollar amount of Cooperative Program has continued to grow, we have reached a historic low in the percentage of CP funds forwarded by the churches, in spite of a restructuring that took place just over a decade ago and was hailed as the dawn of a new day for evangelism and missions. Reallocating our funds will not solve any perceived problems. But, a genuine revival might!”

While the document has been signed by some SBC agency leaders, Chapman has not signed the document. As of June 2, 3,043 people had signed the Declaration which is posted on the Internet at www.greatcommissionresurgence.com.