By Pastor Ron Madison
Special to The Alabama Baptist
It is difficult to stake out a position that is different from my former pastor and much-respected friend, Jay Wolf, regarding this new leader of the International Mission Board (IMB). (See Sept. 4 issue p. 2 or visit www.thealabamabaptist.org to read Wolf’s guest editorial).
In addition, taking such a position could be interpreted as suggesting I know better the will of God than the committee that spent hours and hours in prayer, forming a profile, interviewing candidates and ultimately determining that God had chosen David Platt.
My theology of the will of God, however, enables me to affirm that his elevation to this position may very well be God’s will. It may be God’s permissive and not direct will to allow our denomination to experience the logical outcome of decisions made over the last 30-plus years.
During that time the most significant litmus test for leadership in our denomination has been commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture. Other qualifications have paled in comparison to the importance of this one.
As a subscriber to belief in biblical inerrancy, I have had no difficulty with the insistence that those who lead and serve us would hold this same conviction.
Cooperative Program
At the same time there has been a consistent devaluation of the importance of demonstrated support for the genius of the Cooperative Program (CP) that has provided the lifeblood of resourcing for the work we have done together as Southern Baptists in missions, ministry and theological education. As a pastor dedicated to leading the churches I have served to support the CP at healthy levels (my current pastorate does so at 12 percent of the budget) as well as give generously to special offerings. I lament the failure to prioritize such demonstrated commitment to this God-given funding mechanism as a requirement to lead, especially an entity that receives 51 percent of the national CP budget.
Failure to support
While I take at face value the acknowledgement by David Platt that his failure to support the CP in the past was a mistake that he intends to correct (although I don’t know how he can correct such a failure since he will no longer be leading a local church) such failure raises questions regarding his knowledge of and appreciation for CP as one who grew up in Southern Baptist life and benefited from CP, both as a student and professor at one of our seminaries.
How did he miss the importance of this channel of support that has enabled Southern Baptists to prosper as no other denomination has?
Great Commission giving is a relatively new identification among Southern Baptists when it comes to measuring support for our cooperative work. While I have no opposition to such identification, if the lion’s share of Great Commission giving is not through the CP then our state conventions will continue to be weakened, our national convention will be underfunded and our mission boards will move ever closer to a return to the 21st century version of societal missions support.
I have struggled with determining how I should respond to this new leader and how I should attempt to lead my church. I have determined the following:
1. Share my heartfelt convictions as a loyal Southern Baptist even when they are different from those of the majority.
2. Pray for David Platt.
3. Continue to lead my church to support our work as Southern Baptists by giving through our historic channels, including CP and special offerings.
4. Pray that it will not require election to places of denominational leadership before a younger generation of pastors and laity recognize the importance of the CP and begin to support it at levels that reach 10 percent of local church budgets.
I remain a lifelong conservative Southern Baptist pastor, supportive of my denominational family. I pray my thoughts will be received as such by those who read them.
Ron Madison is pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, and serves as an Alabama Baptist member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
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