I confess that happenings in the Southern Baptist Convention are usually a bit of a mystery for me: somewhat akin to seeking to understanding the governmental structure of a foreign country.
This piece by Douglas Baker is a helpful summary of what’s going on with the Great Commission Resurgence, the Cooperative Program, and the political in-fighting as some try to protect their territory.
This, it seems to me, is the key::
By the numbers, it doesn’t look good. More than $300 million remains confined in the region of the American southeast, while a funding matrix that would make the federal government look simple is intertwined with the North American Mission Board. The amount of money directly involved with international missions is miniscule compared to the management and consultant enterprise that is funded by the Cooperative Program in state conventions and SBC agencies.
Overnight, this has made every denominational employee a missiologist. Intent on retaining the portion of funds allocated to the various agencies, the entire denominational superstructure has morphed into a public relations machine showing how their particular program or initiative is “mission critical.”
The tactics employed by men supposedly committed to theological unity have proved to be downright political. Blogs now rival the established denominational media as places where truth and accuracy are debated. Dissenting views are demonized as “unspiritual” and “fatuous.” Information is leaked to the press, and meetings thought confidential are now brought into the open. Given the current trajectory, it might well turn into the establishment versus the churches if things do not change very quickly.
Pray the God would give grace to the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and that the brightest days would be ahead for the world’s largest Protestant denomination.
