Two years’ worth of listening, researching and writing culminated in a collective sigh of relief for a couple dozen Alabama Baptist leaders when messengers to the state convention annual meeting Nov. 13 approved a new “template for ministry and missions.” Convention messengers also approved the 2013 Cooperative Program (CP) budget, launched a prayer emphasis and honored a variety of pastors across the state.
Overall it was the much-anticipated proposal of five strategic initiatives dealing with the work of the convention as well as how to finance the work that captured the most attention during the two-day annual meeting at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery. With the approval of the report dealing with church planting, church revitalization, global missions, disaster relief and CP and stewardship development, convention leadership now has a general direction for how Alabama Baptists will focus on the Great Commission going forward.
“We believe this template for ministry and missions offers a win-win,” said Jim Cooley, chairman of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) and pastor of First Baptist Church, Haleyville. “It is a model for working with our national partners as well as keeping a presence within the borders of our state.”
Members of the SBOM’s executive committee made up the Great Commission Ministries FutureFocus Task Force, which drafted the report proposed to convention messengers. The task force was appointed by then-state convention president Jimmy Jackson in 2010 to determine how Alabama Baptists would address the Great Commission Resurgence goals approved by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) messengers in June of that year.
Jackson, pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville, was not present for the 2012 vote because of health issues but was encouraged by the report’s passage.
“I was very pleased to read the report of our task force. They did a thorough job of research and wise planning for the years to come for Alabama Baptists,” he told The Alabama Baptist. “Our people have always been leaders in carrying out the Great Commission. We now have a well-thought-out, balanced and proactive plan to follow as we move forward together to honor our Lord.”
While specific dollar details are not yet available, the CP and stewardship development aspect of the newly adopted template calls for Alabama Baptists to work toward a goal of 10 percent for shared ministries beginning in 2014. The remaining 90 percent would be divided 45 percent to the SBC and 45 percent to the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC).
By 2023 or before, SBC and ABSC should be able to evenly split all CP dollars remaining after the amount (up to 10 percent) is taken out for shared ministries, said Bobby DuBois, associate executive director of SBOM.
Shared ministries are ministries from which the state convention and national convention both benefit, he explained. Examples would be missions efforts in the state that have traditionally been encouraged and funded by the North American Mission Board, retirement benefits paid for pastors and church staff members through GuideStone Financial Services and Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). WMU remains the primary supporter and promoter of CP, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) for International Missions and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO) for North American Missions.
The first step toward the new percentages begins with Alabama Baptist churches, said Rick Lance, executive director of the SBOM.
“Frank Page, chief executive officer of the SBC Executive Committee, has challenged all Southern Baptist churches to engage in and be a part of the 1 percent challenge (of increasing giving through the CP by 1 percent),” Lance said. “This is a broad invitation … and in Alabama we are making (the increase of undesignated receipts) in bite-size pieces with 1 percent coming over four years.”
The challenge for Alabama Baptist churches is to increase their CP giving of undesignated receipts by .25 percent annually for the next four years.
Assuming Alabama Baptist churches accept and achieve the challenge, it would mean more than $1 million in new money the first year (2014) of the new template, Lance said. Of that money, the SBC would receive $500,000 and the ABSC would receive $500,000.
Also, because Samford University offered to draw down its CP funding, $105,000 more dollars will go to the SBC — an amount reallocated by the ABSC.
The SBC would receive 60.5 percent of new money raised by the 1 percent CP challenge with the ABSC receiving 39.5 percent. All of this, of course, is assuming Alabama Baptist churches give more through the CP in coming years.
“The more churches that buy into the 1 percent challenge, the quicker we can get to the 50–50 split between the SBC and the Alabama Baptist Convention,” Lance noted. “These … recommendations are fair and balanced, vetted by our partners at the SBC and task force and have been affirmed by the State Board of Missions.”
As far as the strategic initiatives dealing with the work of the convention, messengers voted to recommend the following:
- Plant new churches in the state at the rate of 1 percent annually. This would mean 32 churches at the current count of 3,200-plus Alabama Baptist churches.
- Plant “all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people” and work in partnership with local churches, associations and the SBOM to plant the churches.
- Provide a tool for churches to determine if they have areas needing revitalizing and provide coaching assistance for those churches who ask for help.
- Grow the Alabama Acts 1:8 Connections global missions strategy and develop security training (see the Nov. 29 issue of The Alabama Baptist for more information).
- Expand disaster relief training to include spontaneous volunteers and college students and promote the annual disaster relief offering.
“We are committed to cooperation” — to the churches, associations, state convention entities and larger SBC family — Lance said. “We are not junior members. We are not a farm team. We are part of the main team.
“We are ultimately committed to reaching Alabama, our missions field, but we also will do what we can to supplement the work of our North American missions and missions enterprises around the world,” he said. “Our greatest challenge and goal is to increase the population of heaven and decrease the population of hell.
“Do you believe that?” he asked the messengers as amens were voiced around the sanctuary. “Then we can work together.”
While the new ministry and missions template meant messengers had to think in terms of 2014 and beyond, other business kept them focused on the next 14 months with the adoption of a reduced Cooperative Program (CP) budget from $43 million in 2012 to $42 million 2013.
Lance reported in August that the budget proposal was reduced because the 2012 goal is going to come up short.
“We have to be reasonable and responsible,” he said in August.
The $1 million decrease in the budget will be absorbed by state convention ministries and entities and the SBC across the board.
Messengers also approved a SBC/state causes budget of $700,000 and a $1 million challenge budget for 2013. All dollars coming in over the base goal are divided equally between the SBC and the ABSC.
Special offering goals for 2013 also were approved by messengers:
- LMCO — $11,600,000
- AAEO — $6,100,000
- Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $2,600,000
- World Hunger Offering — $800,000
- Disaster Relief Offering — $200,000
In his report prior to the SBOM report, Lance officially launched the 2013 Praying Across Alabama emphasis.
“Great Commission Ministries are powered by prayer,” he said. “Without prayer, we can’t do anything.”
“There are 67 counties in Alabama and some have two courthouses. … Between the dates of Feb. 24 and May 2 … we are going to hold brief prayer services at every one of those venues,” Lance explained.
It starts with a day of prayer in the churches Feb. 24 and concludes with the National Day of Prayer on May 2.
“On the courthouse steps, in other venues, join with others in Alabama to pray for revival to ignite right here in Alabama, flame across North America and reach the entire world,” Lance challenged Alabama Baptists.
In other news:
- The auditor’s report for the SBOM for the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, was approved.
- The state’s top CP giving awards were presented to:
Danny Wood, pastor of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, for the top dollar amount — $737,472.
Harold Arnold, pastor of Pisgah Baptist Church, Selma, for the top per capita giving — $333.23 per resident member.
- Outstanding Alabama Baptist Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Ford Nixon.
- Troy L. Morrison Awards for Leadership and Church Health were presented to:
Jim Tate, pastor of Memphis Baptist Church, Dothan, for established work.
Scott Reynolds, pastor of North River Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, for new work.
Ralph Henderson, pastor of Oswichee Baptist Church, Fort Mitchell, for bivocational work.
In the only item of miscellaneous business during the convention, a motion requiring the convention’s Christian Life Commission to file an amicus brief against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was referred to the CLC. Tom Stacey, a messenger from Elkdale Baptist Church, Selma, offered the motion, saying Alabama Baptists should intervene in the suit because the act “(violates) our freedom of conscience by funding abortion, abortificants and birth control through requiring this insurance.”
ABSC President Mike Shaw referred the motion to the CLC, noting the standing rules of the convention called for automatic referral to that entity of any motion dealing with the internal administration and operation of a convention entity.
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