The Kentucky Baptist Convention announced position cuts among its Mission Board staff today as it shifts funds to national and international missions as part of the Great Commission Task Force plan approved by messengers to the annual meeting in November.

Here’s the Convention’s official release:

KBC Announces Staff Reductions for FY 11-12

LOUISVILLE – The Kentucky Baptist Convention Mission Board will eliminate five full-time and 19 part-time positions in its next budget in order to send a larger percentage of church gifts to Southern Baptist Convention causes throughout the nation and around the world.

The reductions are being made in response to a Great Commission Task Force report approved by KBC messengers at the 2010 annual meeting in November. The report recommended changing the formula for allocating Cooperative Program gifts to an even 50 percent-50 percent split between the state convention and SBC over 10 years with the bulk of that shift occurring in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Three of the five full-time positions being eliminated are already currently unfilled while the other two positions will become vacant due to retirements on Aug. 31. The 19 part-time positions are a mix of filled and unfilled contract positions. Seven other part-time contract positions will be reduced.

The staffing adjustments go into effect with the start of the new fiscal year on Sept. 1.

KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey told the Mission Board’s Administrative Committee Thursday that the part-time position reductions will come largely from two areas – the elimination of seven part-time campus ministry positions and the elimination of funding for the part-time consultant positions from the Worship and Music Department.

Mackey said ministry in these areas would continue.

“We regret having to give up these positions and the ministry that takes place through them,” Mackey said. “But we will do our best to meet these ministry needs through effective and faithful volunteers and assignments to current personnel.”

Evangelism Growth Team Leader Ross Bauscher said that in the case of several of the seven campus ministry position reductions, the persons currently serving will continue their work as volunteers. The college campuses affected are Ashland Community College, Berea College, Centre College, Elizabethtown Community College, Hopkinsville Community College, Mid-Continent University and the University of Kentucky.

The UK position eliminated is a vacant intern position. That school will continue to have a full-time campus minister. Ministry at Berea College will continue through the work of a ministry intern based at Eastern Kentucky University, Bauscher said.

In regard to the Worship and Music Department positions, Mackey said that the five consultant positions being affected will actually continue at least temporarily into the new fiscal year. The department director position is currently unfilled but will remain in the inventory to give the KBC’s next executive director flexibility in making decisions about the department. In the mean time, the funds from that unfilled position will be used to support the consultants’ work.

Mackey is retiring in May and a search committee is currently seeking his replacement.

Employees who will be retiring at the end of the fiscal year are Baptist Men on Mission Department Director Randy Foster and Missions Growth Team Ministry Assistant Linda George. Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb will be recommended to the full Mission Board to fill the department director position while his associate’s position will be eliminated.

Following retirement, Foster is expected to continue serving in a part-time contract position to support the department’s R6 mentoring ministry for ex-offenders, and Kentucky Changers, a popular ministry that engages high school students in repairing homes during the summer.

The department will lose Greta Wilson, part-time children’s missions consultant, and Gary King, a missions consultant who works with the R6 ministry. The Missions Growth Team previously eliminated its Mississippi River Ministry and cooperative ministries consultants.

Mackey said the staffing adjustments will result in a net savings of approximately $486,000. There will be a total of 90 full and part-time positions in the Mission Board’s job inventory at the start of the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Lowell Ashby, the KBC’s Business Services Team leader, said salaries of current staff will also be frozen for the new fiscal year at 2010-11 levels.

The CP allocation change is one of several funding challenges facing the Mission Board.

Additionally, the nation’s recession is now taking a toll on church giving. Ashby reported that CP giving for the current year is running just over 9 percent behind pace for reaching this year’s $23.5 million CP budget.

The convention is also absorbing a shift in the funding received for missions and ministries through the North American Mission Board of the SBC. Cooperative agreements with state conventions are currently used to share costs for some positions but NAMB has announced plans to end those agreements over the next seven years.

The Cooperative Program is the unified giving plan used by Southern Baptists to support its missions and ministries. Gifts through individual churches are sent to state conventions and then allocated to various state and national ministries according to an agreed-upon formula.

Currently, 38 percent of CP gifts are sent to the SBC while 62 percent are used for missions and ministries in Kentucky (36.4 percent by the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board and 25.6 percent by KBC agencies and institutions).

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Click this link to read coverage of the reductions in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

–Robert Reeves

2010 was a year of big decisions for Southern Baptists. In June, Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted to approve a report calling for a Great Commission Resurgence in the convention. That was followed by just a day a decision from the SBC Executive Committee to hire former SBC President Frank Page as its new leader to replace the retiring Morris Chapman. The North American Mission Board then selected Kentucky pastor Kevin Ezell as its new president.

Meanwhile in Kentucky, messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention voted to approve sweeping changes of their own to focus more resources on getting the Gospel to unreached people groups all around the world.

Whew! That was a lot but more is still to come. NAMB has begun a major transformation process that has caused it to shed about a third of its staff. The actual reorganization plan has yet to be revealed but will presumably come this year.

Meanwhile, the International Mission Board is still searching for a new leader to fill the shoes of the retiring Jerry Rankin. This search has been a drawn out process but will surely be resolved soon.

And here in Kentucky, a search committee is hard at work to find a replacement for Executive Director Bill Mackey who will retire in May. This new executive will have many challenges as he seeks to implement the plans approved in November.

With the volume and rapidity of the changes, it would be easy to just stand on the sidelines and gawk.

But with a new year now upon us, the real question isn’t about what is going to happen in one convention body or another but about what will be happening in our individual relationships with Christ. In the midst of all of the discussions about organizational change, there have been frequent allusions to the need for individuals and churches to rededicate themselves to a renewed passion for reaching lost family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

Kentucky’s focus on this call for revival is called “More for Christ.” In meetings, literature, blogs, videos and other communication vehicles, Kentucky Baptists will be emphasizing the need of all of us to direct more of our individual time, passion, talents and — yes, financial resources — toward fulfilling the Great Commission.

But while these reminders and encouragements are welcome and important, the key to success for any of this will really be what we commit to in our hearts. Will we, as Kentucky Baptists, say “ho hum, another emphasis,” or will we ask God to challenge us this year? Will we give lip service to the Great Commission or will we really share our faith on a daily basis? Will we risk being called a “nut”? A “religious radical”? Will we take on the responsibility of being salt and light in our world or will we push that responsibility over to “missionaries.”

This year we will be exploring what it really means to give “more” for Christ. I am praying seriously about what it will mean in my life. I hope you are too!

–Robert Reeves

KBC President Floyd Paris

New Kentucky Baptist Convention President Floyd Paris, in speaking to the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board last week, encouraged Kentucky Baptists to embrace the “More for Christ” campaign laid out by the Great Commission Task Force report approved by messengers to the Nov. 16 annual meeting.

The task force plan calls for the state convention to move to an equal distribution of Cooperative Program dollars between Kentucky Baptist ministries and Southern Baptist causes, including international and North American missions over the next 10 years. The largest single step up in the plan occurs next year.

In addition to the funding shift, however, the task force report also calls for Baptists to give more for Christ in terms of their own personal commitment of time, talents and financial resources. Paris said he wants to help Kentucky Baptists do that by providing practical opportunities to give more for Christ.

He outlined three giving emphases that will enable the local church to help all members become engaged in supporting missions at home, throughout the nation and around the world through the Cooperative Program.

“Three More for Christ” is “pew” for increased missions giving through the local church and the Cooperative Program, he said.  If 100,000 Kentucky Baptists were “to give three dollars more per week to their local offering … it will result in an additional $1.05 million to missions through the Cooperative Program,” he said.

The second proposal affirmed by mission board members is “Million More 4 Missions,” which is geared toward youth. Paris said church youth groups would be encouraged to set aside 15 weeks to raise funds for missions through the Cooperative Program. If youth groups in half of Kentucky Baptists’ 2,400 congregations participated and raised an average of $833 each, the effort would produce nearly $1 million, he said.

Through “Children Changing the World,” boys and girls would be encouraged to start collecting change each week, beginning April 10, 2011, which is Cooperative Program Sunday in Southern Baptist life, and conclude the collection at the close of vacation Bible school during the summer.

“We need a goal to teach children (about the) Cooperative Program,” Paris said, noting that the effort would help boys and girls connect their own actions to someone in another part of the world having the opportunity to learn about Jesus.

You can listen to Dr. Floyd’s presentation in its entirety using the player below:

–Robert Reeves

Dr. Hershael York presents the Great Commission Task Force report at the KBC annual meeting on Nov. 16.

Here’s a summary of the actions taken by the Kentucky Baptist Convention on Nov. 16 in adopting an amended Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report as reported by Baptist Press:

Ky. Baptists adopt missions plan
by Drew Nichter

LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)–Messengers to the 173rd annual meeting of the Kentucky Baptist Convention adopted a plan to better reach the nations for Christ and honored an executive director nearing the end of his tenure.

Kentucky Baptists embarked on a new course that eventually will lead the convention to an equitable division of Cooperative Program funds between state and Southern Baptist causes.

After nearly an hour of discussion, the report of the Great Commission Task Force containing four key recommendations was passed by nearly two-thirds of messengers Nov. 16 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. — but not without some last-minute adjustments.

Delivering the report on behalf of the task force, chairman Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort and a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor, announced significant changes to the task force’s second proposal.

In it, the group originally called for the KBC to move to a reallocation of Cooperative Program funds to an even 50/50 allocation between Kentucky Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministry causes within seven years.

That target date was extended by three years, aiming now for an even split by the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Click here to read the full story.

You can also watch the oral report of the committee to the annual meeting and the debate of messengers. Click here to see the report.

–Robert Reeves

Probably the most common questions I get asked these days as a Kentucky Baptist Mission Board staff member are something along the lines of “What is the Great Commission Resurgence?” and “What does it mean financially for Kentucky?” Although GCR has been discussed at great length in the blogosphere, written about extensively in the Baptist media and voted on at the Southern Baptist Convention, I have found that large numbers of Kentucky Baptists, including some pastors, are just now starting to become cognizant of this major movement in the SBC.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any quick answers as I am still struggling with that “elevator speech” that can somehow crystallize all that’s been going on over the past couple of years. That said, however, let me try to use the slightly more forgiving format of this blog to take a stab at providing at least a partial response to these questions.

In a nutshell, the Great Commission Resurgence is a movement with the best of motives — that of seeing Southern Baptists become more effective in taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Proponents look at the vast lostness of our planet and want to find better ways to reach people. While recognizing the spiritual nature of this problem, they partially correlate this with funding in that they look at places like the southern United States where the concentration of Southern Baptist churches is the greatest and suggest that we should be spending less of our missions dollars at home and more in sending missionaries to unreached parts of the world. With this in mind, GCR supporters have therefore pushed hard for a drastic redirection of Baptist funding away from state convention causes to Southern Baptist Convention causes in the belief that this will result in more people hearing the Gospel.

Of course, shifting more resources to one area means taking them from other areas, which gets to the heart of the question about the financial impact on Kentucky. The short answer is that unless Kentucky churches step up both to increase their own local efforts to reach their communities for Christ and give substantially more to support missions through the Cooperative Program and Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions, GCR will mean a lot less money will be spent in Kentucky on helping existing churches, starting new churches and reaching the lost.

I share this not to dispute the merits of GCR but simply to share the financial reality. From a financial standpoint, the Kentucky Baptist Convention is facing three major hits — two of them related to GCR and one unrelated. Here they are:

• Struggling economy – The first thing that’s impacting the state convention is the same thing that’s impacting most churches and most families. Times are just tough. The state convention budget for missions and ministries in Kentucky is shrinking through declining giving. Here in the first quarter of the 2010-11 fiscal year, we are already discussing budget cuts for state convention programs because CP giving is off to a slow start. This is also impacting KBC agencies and institutions (Campbellsville University, Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, Crossings Ministries, Kentucky Baptist Foundation, Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, Oneida Baptist Institute, Sunrise Children’s Services, the University of the Cumberlands and the Western Recorder) because not only is the amount being sent to them from the CP allocation less but endowments and other investments are not providing income at very high levels these days.
• Loss of NAMB cooperative agreement – One of the results of the approval of the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report at the SBC meeting in Orlando this summer is that the cooperative agreements that the North American Mission Board has had with state conventions are going to be phased out over the next seven years. In the past, the logic was that since NAMB’s mandate is to reach North America and the states are part of North America, it makes sense to combine some of the efforts of the state conventions and NAMB. This meant NAMB would spend some of the money it received through the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering on church planting, ministry and evangelization in Kentucky. The cooperative agreement spelled out how this would work. For instance, under the cooperative agreement, the KBC might pay 60 percent of a salary for a staff member or missionary while NAMB would supplement 40 percent. The new logic is that there are enough churches in Kentucky to reach Kentucky so it’s better to shift the funds that were being spent here to church planting and evangelistic efforts in other areas of North America. The practical impact of this will be the eventual loss of more than $1 million for joint mission work funded by NAMB. These funds are currently used to partially fund more than 30 ministry and missionary positions at the state and association levels and to provide resources for a variety of church planting, evangelism and ministry projects. The exact schedule for this phase-out of the cooperative agreement is not yet known.
• Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report – Assuming that the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report is approved by messengers at the annual meeting next week, the third hit will occur next September in the implementation of the first budget where funds are allocated on the basis of the new plan. The Kentucky report calls for moving our state to a 50/50 split of CP funds with the SBC within seven years. The bulk of the shift will be made in the very first year as the SBC percentage increases to 44.85 percent and the percentage for the KBC Mission Board and the Kentucky agencies and institutions listed above shrinks to 51.15 percent (plus 4 percent in shared costs between SBC and KBC).  Getting to this amount will require the elimination of KBC contributions to the annuity benefits for Kentucky pastors and church staff members, a 12 percent reduction in Mission Board personnel (expected through attrition and the elimination of some part-time positions) and sizable reductions in the allocations to Kentucky agencies and institutions. (All KBC agencies and intitutions will have allocations reduced by 6 percent with the colleges taking an extra 7 percent on top of that. Kentucky WMU will also take an additional 3.85 percent cut so that they will match the 9.85 percent reduction being taken by the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board.) The plan relies on an ambitious 3 percent yearly increase in total CP giving to get us the rest of the way to 50/50. More than 91 percent of all giving increases over the next seven years will go to SBC causes (International Mission Board, NAMB, SBC Executive Committee, six seminaries, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the SBC Historical Library and Archives). The total dollar impact on the KBC Mission Board budget will be over a million dollars shifted and trimmed from an annual budget of less than $9 million in the first year.

I share this simply as information without making a judgment on whether one direction is better to go than another. It is up to Kentucky Baptists to decide how the Lord is calling them to best use the resources He has provided. The decision ultimately comes down to individual beliefs and preferences about the right balance for funding between state, national and international causes.

The decision is certainly an important one, however. In fact, it is probably the single biggest decision made at a Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting in the lifetimes of almost all Kentucky Baptists. Every church should strive to have its full complement of messengers in attendance at the upcoming annual meeting on Nov. 16 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington in order to ensure that whatever decision is made, it is one that truly represents the desires of the majority of Kentucky Baptists.

–Robert Reeves

Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Director Bill Mackey used his column in this week’s Western Recorder to address some of the apprehensions being expressed regarding the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report to be presented at the KBC annual meeting next week.

Here’s his column:

Challenges and Opportunities

As we approach the upcoming vote on the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report, I’ve picked up on a number of apprehensions people are feeling about the report. Let me share and comment about a few of these.

One of the biggest apprehensions is with the shift in allocations between Kentucky Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention causes. The plan calls for shifting from a 62/38 percent split between KBC and SBC causes this year to a 55.15/44.85 percent split next year on the way to an eventual 50/50 split. People want to increase support to reach the world for Christ but are concerned about the size of the shift in a single year. I think the big first year shift was recommended because the Task Force felt Kentucky Baptists should have the opportunity to respond to a big vision for missions.

Another concern is about whether our churches will be able to increase support of missions through the Cooperative Program during difficult economic times. This will certainly be a big challenge as it will require the immediate reversal of a trend of reduced CP giving that spans more than a decade. Overcoming this challenge will be vital, however, because SBC and KBC entities and the Mission Board programs of work are also dealing with the reduction of endowment and other income.

As the KBC staff has looked at possible budget adjustments, it is clear that programs of ministry will need to be reduced, in addition to personnel reductions. The KBC staff is being very innovative to keep missions funded, and I am very grateful for their efforts.

Some are also apprehensive about the defunding of our cooperative agreement with the North American Mission Board. We know that absorbing the funding of state missions currently shared with NAMB will be an additional challenge.

It is my prayer that the significant sacrifice by KBC missions and ministries will provide an example for all Kentucky Baptists. This report provides an opportunity for individuals to reevaluate their stewardship commitment through their local church and for leaders to be energized to support of missions through CP.  If each KBC church increases its CP percentage by just a quarter percent each year, the projected budget will be met and the objective of 50/50 can be achieved.

If the budget established by this plan is met, Kentucky Baptists will see an additional $1,926,860 go to SBC mission causes. Additional funding will also be available to NAMB as the cooperative agreement is phased out.

It is my prayer that Kentucky Baptists will remain unified in genuine support of the Cooperative Program regardless of how you may vote or how you may feel about the GCTF recommendation. Adjustments can be made as necessary in future years, but for now, let’s move forward together.

Kentucky Baptist Convention churches are encouraged to send a full contingent of messengers to this year’s annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington on Nov. 16. It’s not hyperbole to say that this year’s meeting may very well be the most important held in the lifetimes of almost all Kentucky Baptists.

In addition to hearing important ministry reports, listening to inspiring messages and music, holding elections and conducting the usual Convention business, messengers this year will also cast ballots on the report of the state’s Great Commission Task Force issued in August.

If approved, the report will bring major change to the way Cooperative Program funds are allocated between state causes and the Southern Baptist Convention.

• Click here to read the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report.
• Click here to read the KBC news release about the report.
• Click here to find out more about plans for the annual meeting.

Messengers are individuals elected by cooperating churches that are affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention. They are entitled to vote in all business sessions of the annual meeting. Messengers vote their individual consciences as opposed to being given voting instructions by their church.

The following are the requirements for sending messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention as stated in Article III of the KBC Constitution:

“The membership of this Body shall consist of messengers from cooperating affiliated Baptist churches as follows:

• Two messengers from each church having 100 members or less, which is in friendly cooperation with this Convention: is sympathetic with its purposes and work; and has during the fiscal year preceding been a bona fide contributor to the Convention’s work.
• One additional messenger for each such church shall be allowed for each additional 250 members, or for each $250 contributed to the Cooperative Program during the fiscal year preceding the annual meeting, but no churches may be allowed more than 10 messengers.

Messengers’ cards will be sent, upon request, to individual churches who meet the above requirements, from the State Convention office.

Ballots will be issued to each messenger at the time one registers.”

Churches requesting messenger cards should call the Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Office at (502) 489-3374 or (866) 489-3374.

Messengers do not have to have registration cards in advance of their arrival at the annual meeting.

–Robert Reeves

Dr. Bill Mackey

Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, has shared his thoughts on the recent release of the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report on his blog and in a column for the Western Recorder newspaper. Here’s what he had to say:

I want to express gratitude to the members of Kentucky Great Commission Task Force who have served over the past eight months and to all Kentucky Baptists who have prayed for the committee members. I am grateful for the work of Dr. Hershael York in leading the committee, writing much of the report, and giving generously of his time in sharing the report personally with KBC entity heads, KBC staff and directors of missions.

I also want to thank Charles Barnes, chairman of the Mission Board’s Business and Finance Committee, for his days of work on the financial plan of the report. Once the task force had voted on the goal of moving to a 50/50 division of Cooperative Program receipts with the Southern Baptist Convention and certain reductions, it became his task to work with me and KBC Business Team Leader Lowell Ashby to come up with a financial plan that would move KBC toward the goals.

Given the recommendations, I think it is an equitable plan for absorbing the loss of funds from the anticipated phase-out of our cooperative agreement with the North American Mission Board ($1,017,000), managing reductions in CP allocations for Kentucky missions and ministries, and challenging everyone to do and give “more for Christ.”

The focus of the report is on the Great Commission and getting the gospel to the unreached people groups of the world through the Cooperative Program. We all know that more resources are needed to fulfill the Great Commission and this was a prime motivation for committee members.

A key element and the first recommendation of the report is a call for spiritual repentance and renewal that results in renewed commitment to the Great Commission. If the report is approved by messengers this November, we will have an emphasis called “More for Christ” that I hope will  permeate the soul of every Kentucky Baptist and every church. Each individual and church will be encouraged to seek the Lord on how they can do more for Christ in reaching people, increasing baptisms, developing disciples and supporting missions through CP.

The report’s second recommendation calls for the KBC to move to a 50/50 split with SBC of CP receipts within seven years after taking out 4 percent in shared expenses. This will mean increased allocations for the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, the six seminaries and other SBC ministries. At the same time it will mean reduced allocations for KBC missions and ministries.

The report’s third recommendation is to call on churches to increase the percentage of their giving to missions through CP so that we see a convention-wide increase of 3 percent each year for seven years. The report notes that this can be accomplished if each KBC church will increase its percentage by just one-quarter of a percent each year.

In these challenging economic times, the question has been raised about what will happen if the growth in CP does not come at this level. In such a scenario, the task force and Business and Finance Committee would need to consider a recommendation to either extend the time for reaching the even 50/50 split or further reduce the missions and ministries of KBC, or both. This is my biggest concern about the future and KBC missions and ministries.

The report’s final recommendation is to allow the task force to stay in place for the duration of the seven-year plan to enable it to monitor progress and report annually to Kentucky Baptists. I think the intent is for the task force to be actively involved in encouraging individuals and churches to take on the CP missions challenge to do more for Christ.

It is the hope of the task force that young leaders and others will be encouraged by this aggressive plan to shift significant funds to world missions and that they will respond to this opportunity to support missions through the Cooperative Program.

Obviously, the report calls for Kentucky Baptists to conduct a spiritual inventory to discover under God how we can all do more for Christ. If every church member and church will do more, implementing the plan will not be a burden on any one individual or church and it will be amazing to see how God uses us!

–Robert Reeves

The KBC Great Commission Task Force at work at the Kentucky Baptist Building.

Kentucky Baptists will move to an even distribution of Cooperative Program receipts with the Southern Baptist Convention and set an ambitious goal of increasing missions giving under a plan being proposed by the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Task Force.

The Task Force’s recommendations will be presented to messengers for approval at the Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington on Nov. 16.

The report was released today to give Kentucky Baptists adequate time to understand and react to four recommendations, said Task Force Chairman Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort and a former KBC president.

Here’s the text of the report:

Last year Kentucky Baptist Convention President John Mark Toby appointed a Great Commission Task Force. The 17 Task Force members appointed were:

• Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, Chair.

• Paul Badgett, pastor, First Baptist Church, Pikeville

• Charles Barnes, member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church in Louisville

• Joy Bolton, executive director-treasurer of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union

• Jeff Crabtree, director of mission, Warren Baptist Association

• Rusty Ellison, pastor, Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville

• Chad Fugitt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Monticello

• Greg Faulls, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Owensboro

• John Hale, deacon at First Baptist Church in Mount Vernon

• Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington

• James Jones, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Campbellsville

• Bill Mackey, executive director, Kentucky Baptist Convention

• Don Mathis, president, Kentucky Baptist Convention

• Jessica Milburn, member of Union Baptist Church in Union

• Sam Rainer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Murray

• Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville

• Dan Summerlin, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church in Paducah

Over the course of the past 8 months, the Task Force has met in prayer, deliberation, and commitment. Every member of the Great Commission Task Force agrees that this has been a significant spiritual milestone in our lives as we have seen God work among us and bring us to a unanimous consensus about our recommendations.

In order to reach our conclusions and recommendations, we first reached a consensus about our foundational guiding principles. The include the following:

Principles we believe

We believe that Jesus Christ is worthy of all our praise, honor, worship, and resources.

We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that explicit faith in Christ as Lord and Savior is necessary for all morally accountable persons to have eternal life.

We believe that faith in Christ comes only through the proclamation of the gospel applied by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that Jesus has commanded us to preach the gospel to every person on earth.

We believe that churches should evangelize the lost, baptize and disciple the saved, plant churches, and reach our nation and the world through commissioning missionaries, participating in missions personally, and giving a significant portion of income and resources to missions, especially through the vehicle of the Cooperative Program.

We believe in the value of Christian education as a means of equipping Christians to serve the Lord through cultural engagement, church membership and participation, and missionary service.

We believe that a new generation of Kentucky Baptists are not willing to settle for business as usual and that the Cooperative Program will diminish and perhaps die if we do not present a bold, sweeping vision for the future and a refocus of our energies.

We believe that we must devote a significantly larger portion of our resources to reach the 1.7 billion people of the last frontier who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We believe that to be a faithful steward of all that God has blessed us with that each Kentucky Baptist should be challenged to provide a legacy gift for the Cooperative Program and Kingdom causes. We believe that churches, assisted by the Kentucky Baptist Foundation and Mission Board, must lead in training and developing this stewardship vision for all Kentucky Baptists.

We believe that renewed vision and ministry will only result from renewed love for Christ and repentance for our selfishness as evidenced by our decline in witnessing, proclaiming the gospel, personal sacrifice, giving, and going.

We believe that our Kentucky Baptist churches must reverse the decline in cooperative program giving, even while we engage the lost, go on mission, and plant churches.

We believe that to reach our nation and the nations for Christ will require a continued paradigm shift for Kentucky Baptists. First, our churches must become more outwardly focused than inwardly. Second, the Kentucky Baptist Convention needs to shift to a paradigm based more on outreach, evangelism, and missions and less on advising particular church ministries. To do this would require the KBC over time to become more of a facilitator of shared advice, counsel, and experience among churches, pastors, and laity rather than a provider of those services. We recognize that certain ministries (disaster relief, ministry to pastors in transition, etc) are more effective when done by the state convention so we affirm the continued significance and need for the KBC. In fact, we believe that this shift will result in a greater connection between the ministry of the KBC and the churches. We furthermore believe that the local associations are going to become key partners in renewed emphasis on shared ministry, missions, and connections.

To that end and after intense study, interviews, deliberation and prayer, we propose that Kentucky Baptists:

1) Initiate a 3-year emphasis called “More for Christ,” an intentional time of repentance, renewal, and redirection for the future. Kentucky Baptists responded to the “Find It Here” campaign in record numbers and with great enthusiasm and excitement. Our prayer is that we might respond in the same way to a call to personal and corporate commitment to Christ and to the Great Commission.

More for Christ means:

More of myself

• personal surrender
• personal witness
• personal sacrifice

More of my family

More for the lost

More for the needs

More for the nations

We propose that messengers request the KBC mission board, staff, agencies and institutions to seek ways that we can implement this theme in every part of Kentucky Baptist life and that it become a clarion call to our churches and individuals.

Explanation: We recognize that we desperately need a recommitment of our lives, our churches, our families, and our resources. Our prayer is that these recommendations will result in a great movement of the Holy Spirit among Kentucky Baptists. We pray that “More for Christ” will be the theme of what Kentucky Baptists do and give for the future. We pray that such an emphasis will be used of God to remind us and motivate us to strategize, mobilize, and give toward that end.

2) Instruct our Mission Board to move to a reallocation of Cooperative Program funds that results in 50% of our annual Cooperative Program receipts (after shared administrative expenses) being given to the Southern Baptist Convention and 50% to KBC within the next 7 years. Beginning with the 2011-12 fiscal year, the Mission Board shall implement the attached GCTF-Ky CP Percentage Distribution Plan to achieve this goal.

Explanation: To illustrate the differences in this change over the next 7 years and estimating approximately 4% of the KBC budget as shared expenses and 3% growth in CP funds, the division of Cooperative Program receipts after those shared expenses would be:

1st year 2011-12: KBC 53.28% SBC 46.72%

7th year 2017-18: KBC 50%, SBC 50%

The basis for this change in the first year would include a 6% across the board reduction in the KBC budget; eliminating the KBC’s contribution to annuitants by $400,000; reducing contribution to the colleges an additional 7% (which means that the colleges still receive slightly more than they did prior to Georgetown’s departure from the KBC budget); a Mission Board staff reduction of 12%; a total Mission Board budget reduction of 9.85%; an additional WMU reduction of 3.85% ; meaning a total of 9.85%.

In years 2-7 the Mission Board would make further adjustments of $600,000 to achieve incrementally the goal of a 50%-50% allocation between SBC and KBC causes after shared expenses.

3) Set a goal to increase overall CP receipts from Kentucky Baptist churches and individuals at least 3% per year for the next seven years. This growth would be equivalent to each church increasing CP giving by at least 0.25% of undesignated receipts each year for 7 years.

Explanation: It would be wrong simply to reallocate cooperative program receipts and ask KBC ministries to sacrifice and cut back without also asking more from ourselves. As a tenet of faith, we believe that God has already given His people all the resources we need to do what He has commanded. We cannot deny that in the past 15 years Cooperative Program giving from Kentucky Baptist churches has declined from approximately 10% of undesignated receipts to less than 7%. We simply must reverse that trend and ask our churches and individuals to respond graciously, generously, and sacrificially.

If Kentucky Baptists respond and if we could reverse that trend by growing our receipts by 3% per year for the next 7 years, the results for missions would be staggering. Using the new seven-year reallocation with a 3% growth, the increase for SBC causes would be $23,786,274 meaning that over $11.8 million more would go to the IMB and put missionaries on the field.

This is attainable in several ways. If every church in the KBC increased their CP giving by just ¼% of their undesignated receipts every year for the next seven years, we could do it. If small churches that usually give a fixed amount rather than a percentage would up that amount, we could do it. If large churches that have tended to decrease CP giving in order to support their own programs, buildings, and missions would understand the global importance of the CP and reverse that trend, we could do it.

While designating missions dollars to the IMB or some other agency or effort may seem attractive, only the CP supports missions in North America and around the world, helps train pastors and missionaries through our seminaries, and speaks on moral and social issues through the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. While we encourage multiple mission efforts, we believe in the wisdom and strategic genius of the Cooperative Program which, after all, was born here in Kentucky.

4) Authorize the Great Commission Task Force to remain constituted for the next seven years, monitoring progress and implementation and reporting to the Convention and/or Mission Board each year, making any further recommendations as necessary. Each year the KBC president may appoint members to maintain between 10 and 15 on the committee.

Explanation: This work is significant enough that a single entity needs to work closely with the Executive Director and relate to all parts of the KBC to see how we are doing and make reports on our progress. We also believe that continuity is essential, especially after as extensive a study of all KBC entities as this task force has conducted. For that reason we ask that the current members remain on the committee and new ones be added only as natural attrition occurs.

Addendum

GCTF – KY  CP Percentage Distribution Plan

Fiscal Year (2010-11):

KBC:  62%, SBC:  38%

First Year (2011-12):

CP Percentages — KBC: 51.15%; SBC: 44.85%; Shared:  4%

Percentage of CP after Shared Expenses — KBC: 53.28%; SBC: 46.72%

Basis for Change: 2010-11 Budget = Base Year.  Shared Expenses 4% or $940.000; Reduction in KBC Budget 6%; Annuity Reduction $400,000; College Reduction 7% in addition to 6% KBC Budget, Total = 12.58%; Mission Board Staff Reduction 12%; Mission Board Total Budget Reduction of 9.85%, totaling $750,671; including $237,000 of the Cooperative Agreements absorbed by the Mission Board; WMU Reduction 3.85% in addition to 6% of KBC Budget; Total = 9.85%; and 3% Growth in CP divided KBC 33.1%/SBC 66.9% in years 1 through 7.

Seventh Year (2017-18):

CP Percentages — KBC: 48%; SBC: 48%; Shared: 4%

Percentage of CP after Shared Expenses — KBC: 50%; SBC: 50%

Basis for Change in Years 2 through 7: Mission Board absorbs in years 2 through 7 Cooperative Agreements Totaling $600,000 by Mission Board Additional Staff Reductions Totaling $600,000; $180,000 in NAMB Cooperative Agreements to be terminated; Total Mission Board Funding would be Reduced $1,350,691 or 17.72% the 7th year.

For more on the report and comments from Task Force Chairman Hershael York, click here to read the KBC news release on the report.

Click here to download a copy of the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report.

–Robert Reeves

Hershael York, Kentucky Task Force Chair

Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it meets today at Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. The meeting is a key one for the committee as it hones the report it will present to messengers at this year’s annual meeting.

Dr. Hershael York, task force chairman, said following the committee’s July meeting that he expected the task force’s report to be released sometime after this August meeting.

“We do anticipate releasing a report early enough for people to have plenty of time to digest it, pray about it and come prepared to act on it,” he told the Western Recorder, adding that the report will have a “spiritual basis and emphasis” that will call on Kentucky Baptists “to do more and give more for Christ.”

The committee was appointed at the KBC’s annual meeting in November after messengers approved a recommendation to form a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.

Members of the Kentucky committee are:

• Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church, Frankfort.
• Paul Badgett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pikeville
• Charles Barnes, member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church, Louisville
• Joy Bolton, executive director of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, Louisville
• Jeff Crabtree, director of mission for the Warren Association of Baptists, Bowling Green
• Rusty Ellison, pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church, Louisville
• Greg Faulls, Bellevue Baptist Church, Owensboro
• Chad Fugitt, First Baptist Church, Monticello
• John Hale, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Mount Vernon
• Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Lexington
• James Jones, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Campbellsville
• Bill Mackey, KBC executive director
• Don Mathis, 2009 president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and staff evangelist at Eastwood Baptist Church, Bowling Green.
• Jessica Milburn, member of Union Baptist Church, Union
• Sam Rainer, pastor of First Baptist Church, Murray
• Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville
• Dan Summerlin, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church, Paducah

–Robert Reeves