State Baptist conventions will be expected to handle more responsibilities with fewer resources if the Feb. 22 “progress report” is implemented — and some believe it will cause some state conventions to retain higher percentages of Cooperative Program (CP) missions money, leaders of one state convention said in an open letter to the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force.
“The preliminary report of the GCR Task Force seemed to indicate that state conventions might be called upon to take on more responsibilities (e.g., CP promotion, adopting pioneer state conventions, etc.) with fewer resources (due to such factors as the possible elimination of cooperative agreements with the North American Mission Board),” said the letter from the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia convention. “More than once, it was voiced that state conventions could simply retain more CP monies to enable them to shoulder these added responsibilities … The last thing we want to do is retain a higher percentage of CP resources.”
Partnership, not turf wars, is what will move the Christian mission forward, the letter said. “The heart of state partners is to give more so that the peoples of the world might come to the feet of Jesus. Ongoing cooperation between partners such as NAMB and the state conventions is part of what will enable us to do this. It is imperative that we avoid fostering a turf mentality in which each entity endeavors to ‘cover its bases.’ Collaboration is the order of the day, not competition.” (BP)
Share with others: