The officers of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) has amended a recommendation that the convention encourage the election of SBC officers whose churches give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program (CP).
The revision omits the 10-percent target but encourages the election of leaders whose churches “are committed to increasing systematically and enthusiastically the percentage of undesignated receipts given through the Cooperative Program.”
The move came amid scrutiny of the two announced SBC presidential candidates — Ronnie Floyd,pastor of First Baptist Church in Springfield, Ark., and Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C.
Reports show Floyd’s church gave a little more than one fourth of 1 percent of its undesignated receipts in 2005 through the CP. For the same period, Page’s church gave 12.4 percent of its undesignated receipts through the CP.
A second recommended revision encourages churches to increase their giving through the CP without specifying a 10-percent goal for supporting the missions and ministries of state Baptist conventions and the SBC.
Morris H. Chapman, president and CEO of the SBC EC, said the changes were needed because the mention of a goal was being misperceived as a mandate instead of the intended spirit of the report, which was to encourage greater support of SBC causes through the CP.
“The mention of a specific percentage in the recommendations has generated so much discussion … that we felt a revision would allow all Southern Baptists … to enthusiastically approve the report (that includes these recommendations),” Chapman said. “The members of both the Executive Committee and the [Ad Hoc] CP Committee strongly believe in the autonomy of the local church and fully understand that only a local church can decide what portion of their tithes and offerings will be given through the [CP].”
The recommendations came to the EC after approval by state executive directors who met in February in Canada. The report is the result of almost three years of work by the Ad Hoc CP Committee, chaired by Anthony L. Jordan, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Jordan expressed disappointment with the proposal but also confirmed the leadership role of Chapman and officers in making the decision.
The officers’ vote was made by teleconference May 25. The decision will now go to the full EC and, if approved, to the messengers at the upcoming SBC annual meeting, which will be held in Greensboro, N.C., June 13–14. The EC will meet the day before. (BP)
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