Richard Harris, Bill Mackey and Jerry Rankin

Just ahead of  the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando last week, Bill Mackey, the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s executive director, participated in a panel discussion on Great Commission priorities with Jerry Rankin, the outgoing president of the International Mission Board, and Richard Harris, the interim president of the North American Mission Board.

Click on the arrow below to hear the audio of their 15-minute discussion:

If the embedded player is not showing on the device on which you are reading this post, you can also access the audio by clicking the link below. This link will also allow you to download the audio file.

GCR Roundtable Discussion with Bill Mackey, Jerry Rankin and Richard Harris

Here’s a summary of discussion highlights from the North American Mission Board:

ORLANDO, Fla. – International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin, Kentucky Baptist Convention executive director Bill Mackey and interim North American Mission Board president Richard Harris took part in a brief roundtable discussion on future trends in missions during the SBC annual meeting in Orlando.

The roundtable was one of four hosted by NAMB during the SBC meeting in Orlando. Other discussions included “Reaching Cities in North America,” “Church Planting in the 21st Century” and “Reaching People Groups in North America.” Audio of each roundtable discussion is posted at www.namb.net/orlando2010.

Mackey said reaching the increasing numbers of internationals settling in Kentucky is an issue challenging him. “We are seeing a great influx of Hispanics, a tripling to 300,000 since 2000. We’re trying to respond by urging the churches to consider the opportunities in their neighborhoods.

“We’re working with journeymen who are coming out of seminary who are experienced with working with people groups throughout the world. We need them to address the people groups moving into Kentucky. For example, we have seven dialects spoken by Indians in Louisville.”

Rankin agreed that “the world is coming to us. You no longer have to go overseas to do foreign missions and reach unreached people groups. All of us recognize that it won’t be the state convention, IMB or NAMB that reaches these people groups. It will have to be a grassroots movement of Christians witnessing anywhere, everywhere to anyone. IMB’s role would be to mobilize, train and equip these grassroots Christians, churches and associations to reach the peoples coming to their communities.”

NAMB’s Harris said, “You have to identify these folks and find them: where are they and what are their interests? What is their heart language? What are their needs?

“One area we need to do more in is on university campuses,” said Harris. “We have to get more career, MSC and summer semester missionaries on campus – to get in there and engage students with campus ministries and try to reach them. They’re the ones going into leadership positions.The college campus is a great opportunity.”

The three men also discussed the advent of “participatory missions” – whereby more of today’s Baptists want to take a hands-on approach to missions, rather than leaving it just to missionaries.

“There’s a massive challenge of reaching billions of people overseas,” said Rankin. “We’ll never have enough missionaries to reach them all. But if we could mobilize the 16 million Southern Baptists and 45,000 churches to be strategically involved, God has raised up the necessary resources to fulfill the Great Commission.”

story by Mickey Noah, North American Mission Board

–Robert Reeves

Dr. Bill Mackey

Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, released a column today in the Western Recorder newspaper as well as on his own blog, Partners in the Mission, regarding the upcoming report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force to be received by messengers to Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, June 15-16. Here’s a re-post of his thoughts:

GCR Challenges

The report from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force includes some great challenges for Southern Baptists. As we think about these challenges and recommendations, I believe the original GCR motion provides an excellent framework to help us.

The original motion commissioned the group to bring a report and any recommendations “… concerning how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

One part of that challenge asks how we can be more “faithful.” Southern Baptists have always been committed to the Great Commission, and we must not forget that we are a missionary people. When I think about the Great Commission, I immediately ask how I can be more faithful. I am sure that the Task Force members have done the same. At a minimum, I believe this involves tithing through one’s local church as well as living and sharing the Gospel for a lifetime.

The motion also asked how we can be more “effective.” There is no question about the need for every Southern Baptist, church and denominational entity to be more effective. Too much is at stake for our work to be conducted in any manner other than the most effective way possible.

This is an opportunity to make significant adjustments. State conventions have been challenged to absorb the costs of missions work funded through cooperative agreements with the North American Mission Board. (At present, state conventions and NAMB share these costs.) If approved, Kentucky will need to absorb $1,017,000, along with insurance benefits for missionaries. At the same time, state conventions are being challenged to increase the percentage of Cooperative Program funds designated for Southern Baptist Convention causes.

NAMB has been given a big challenge to lead the way in church planting, evangelism, discipleship and leadership development to reach North America for Christ. Under the proposed plan, NAMB will have about $50 million more to work with by ending the cooperative agreements with 42 state conventions. However, it will also have fewer missionaries and fewer total funds to leverage due to the loss of the agreements with the states.

NAMB will also need to enlist and train church planters and other staff, and to seek out other partners. The leadership at NAMB and the new president deserve our prayers and best support.

Another challenge in the motion was for Southern Baptists to be more faithful and effective “together.” As we seek to move beyond a season of debate that has sometimes involved harsh words and uninformed statements, we must rely on God’s grace in order to move forward together. This will require much humility and prayer by everyone.

We must recognize the challenge to stay in touch with the silent majority in Southern Baptist life who just want to do missions. If their concerns are ignored over a long period of time, they are more likely to vote with their pocketbooks. We need to make sure all Southern Baptists and all size churches are represented.

I encourage Kentucky Baptists to read the report for themselves and to vote according to their convictions in Orlando. This is not a time to pick sides and question motives, but rather to trust our sovereign God and move forward together, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Regardless of how you may vote and how the vote goes in Orlando, I pray we will all determine to grow more faithful and effective in our service to Christ. After all, this is what we should be doing even if there had never been a GCRTF.

–Robert Reeves

We’ll have to wait until Monday to know what changes may have been made to the committee’s original progress report and whether any adjustments represent changes in substance or only in wording. Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, recently wrote about his hopes and prayers for the revised report in his column in the Western Recorder and on his Partners in the Mission blog. Here’s that column:

Great Commission Hope

Dr. Bill Mackey

By Bill Mackey

I have been asked on numerous occasions about the progress report issued in February by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. I have certainly had some concerns but I am encouraged by the response of the task force to feedback and look forward to the release of the final version on May 3. I am prayerful that new language in the report will relieve concerns and permit a little more flexibility in its implementation.

Southern Baptists certainly support the call to renewed commitment to God’s mission through the Great Commission. I am grateful that the task force has placed such a strong emphasis on prayer and spiritual vitality.

I am also appreciative that the committee has invited feedback from Southern Baptists. The task force graciously invited various leaders, including state executive directors, to present in person and have conducted conference calls with large groups.

One of the report’s recommendations deals with phasing out cooperative agreements between the North American Mission Board and state conventions. These agreements guide the way state conventions and NAMB share expenses in the common work of spreading the Gospel. NAMB would use the savings to help fund an aggressive church planting process in the unreached and underserved areas of North America, especially the largest cities.

Some executives in the “old line” state conventions (the larger Southern state conventions that originally formed the SBC) have expressed to me their willingness to absorb the cost of ending the cooperative agreements for their states provided that NAMB continues to have a strong supportive role with new work state conventions. I am hopeful that the final report will lengthen the phase out time of the cooperative agreements to seven to eight years rather than four in the old line state conventions.

I believe the final report should also place a stronger emphasis on the Cooperative Program as the preferred and primary way of funding Southern Baptist missions and ministries. Hopefully, the updated report will remove concerns that a new reporting category called Great Commission Giving will hurt CP giving. The SBC’s Executive Committee also needs to have a strong coordinating role, along with state conventions, in promoting CP.

I would also like to see the final report reflect NAMB as the primary coordinator of strategy to reach North America. This strategy can be supported by International Mission Board personnel as requested to reach international people groups.

The final report would also be strengthened by including a strong spiritual emphasis on Biblical stewardship. A national emphasis on increased Cooperative Program support through local churches will result in more support for all mission causes — especially world missions.

If all mission partners, churches, associations, state conventions and the SBC will seek the Lord as never before, I believe Southern Baptists can experience a Great Commission Resurgence under the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

–Robert Reeves

Dr. Floyd’s presentation followed by just a couple of days a meeting that he and several other members of the task force had with a number of state convention executive directors, and he talked about how the committee had been carefully listening to Southern Baptists since the release of its progress report in February. He reiterated that the progress report was just that — a progress report — and I came away with the feeling that there might be some changes or adjustments to the final report. I have no way of knowing if this is the case or if any possible changes will be wording adjustments or substantive modifications of the original recommendations in the progress report.

I do have a wish list, though, and here’s what I would love to see:

Allow greater flexibility for NAMB in strategic planning with state conventions.

Cooperative agreements are essentially the written guidelines that the North American Mission Board have with each state convention that spell out how the organizations will work together and share expenses in the effort to reach the lost and serve churches in the areas covered by the conventions. Each agreement is somewhat different, which takes into account the needs and goals within each geographic area. For instance, in the “old line” Southern state conventions that originally formed the Southern Baptist Convention, joint positions are typically funded with the state convention picking up the majority of the costs while in the new work state conventions, NAMB may cover the majority of the costs. In Kentucky, for instance, the state convention picks up 60 percent or more of the costs of jointly-funded positions with NAMB covering the remainder. This is just for those positions that both organizations agree are needed to help reach common Great Commission goals. The agreements are thorough and clear.

The progress report recommended phasing these agreements out within four years as a way of freeing up funds for an intensive church planting effort focused on the larger cities of North America. The idea for strategic focus on church planting is a good one and it is in making recommendations for broad strategic direction that I think the task force best serves Southern Baptists. I’m not real sure that it really helps to try to get overly specific with the details, though.

Much has already been written about the devastating impact that ending cooperative agreements will have on state conventions, especially those in the new work states. I am also concerned about the impact the loss of the agreements will have on NAMB. None of NAMB’s current assignments were eliminated in the recommendation so I am assuming this means the organization will be asked to carry on with those responsibilities in addition to adding the church planting initiative. Eliminating cooperative agreements will mean that NAMB will lose a substantial portion of the force it currently counts as missionaries at a time when expectations for progress will be rising.

I would prefer to see the task force recommend goals and establish strategic direction in terms of a national church planting movement but then allow NAMB to work in conjunction with its state convention partners to develop a joint cooperative agreement. One way to do this that would differ from the current system is for NAMB to develop a unified strategic plan for the nation rather than individual agreements with each state convention. Right now NAMB staff travels to each state convention to work with leaders there to develop individual cooperative agreements. Under the new system, state convention executives would meet as a group with NAMB staff for the purpose of developing the national cooperative agreement. This would help the state conventions to feel more a part of the national strategy while better enabling NAMB to deploy its missionary force in the manner it feels is most effective. Sub-sections of the national strategy plan could deal with issues that may be specific to each state convention.

Strengthen support for the Cooperative Program.

One of the beautiful things about being Southern Baptist for me has always been the Cooperative Program. By giving cooperatively we are able to support all kinds of great missions and ministries and to do so in a way that ensures funding for endeavors that may not be as glamorous as putting missionaries on the international field but are important nonetheless.

Two of the recommendations in the progress report have the potential of seriously damaging the Cooperative Program. The first is to create a new giving category called “Great Commission Giving,” which would be used to elevate and celebrate designated giving in a way that I believe will diminish the Cooperative Program. The second is a recommendation to shift the coordinating responsibility for the promotion of the Cooperative Program and stewardship from the Executive Committee to the state conventions.

Let me say here that I am not opposed to celebrating Great Commission giving. I do think that churches who give strongly to the International Mission Board, NAMB, a seminary or other worthy Baptist causes should be celebrated and commended. We should all thank these churches heartily and rejoice at how the Lord is working through them. The problem comes in creating a special giving category that aggregates this kind of designated giving and lifts it up as being the same as cooperative giving. Some missions and ministries simply have more emotional appeal for Southern Baptists than do others and the tendency with a new category for designated giving is going to be for those causes with more marketing resources to increasingly receive more of the funding pie while other worthy Baptist causes languish.

I think the answer is not to create a new giving category but to find ways to celebrate designated gifts more fully. Let’s do more to celebrate our top designated giving churches for each specific cause rather than aggregating the gifts. For instance, let’s find new ways to celebrate churches that give big to Lottie Moon or who stretch to help fund a church planting effort. That will allow more churches to receive recognition while at the same time lifting up the particular cause the church was supporting.

I would also like to see the SBC Executive Committee retain its coordinating function for Cooperative Program promotion as well. The state conventions already do a vast amount of the work of CP promotion but it is helpful to have a centralized office as part of the Executive Committee to help coordinate efforts. More importantly, however, is the need for every organization that receives the benefits of CP giving to be integrally involved in promoting the unified budget plan. My concern is that if the Executive Committee no longer has responsibilities for CP promotion, there will be a drift away from seriously supporting it as Southern Baptists’ primary missions funding mechanism.

Be specific about NAMB’s lead role in North America.

A third wish for a revised report is for it to spell out more clearly that NAMB is to have the lead role in directing our strategy in North America. I think it’s a great idea to involve the International Mission Board in helping to reach some of the people groups in the United States that it is already working with overseas. Having IMB missionaries who are on stateside assignment working with the people groups they are familiar with serving abroad makes perfect sense.

It’s always important to have someone in the lead role for directing strategy, however, so I think it will be essential for NAMB to play that role. Otherwise, we may have the two organizations unintentionally stepping on each other.

Of course it will be interesting to see how many resources IMB would actually be able to devote to North America. Although much of the impetus of the GCR was the desire to see more funds reaching the international mission field, the report’s recommendations actually send relatively few additional dollars to IMB. Eliminating the cooperative agreements with NAMB will make it more difficult for state conventions to increase the percentage of CP giving they send to the SBC which makes getting more dollars to IMB even harder. Despite the rallying cry of helping international missions, the primary impact of the GCR recommendations in their current form will be to simply reallocate funds within North America.

Please pray for the Great Commission Task Force.

I have been and will continue to be in prayer for the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. These dedicated individuals have spent many hours studying, talking and thinking about these topics. They have been asked to essentially become experts in all things Southern Baptist in the space of just a few short months and a few meetings. Given this and given the great diversity of thought in Baptist life, it’s no wonder that not everyone is happy with every aspect of their report. I am praying for them to have wisdom and discernment from the Lord in the days ahead!

–Robert Reeves

Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb briefs the 10-member medical team.

Please be in prayer for a 10-member Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief medical team that should be in Haiti by now if all is going as planned. The team left Louisville early Sunday morning and arrived in the Dominican Republic later that day. Today (Monday, Feb. 1), they were making an arduous nine-hour or more bus ride into Port-au-Prince.

The team is connecting with a similar team from Mississippi and teams from other state conventions are scheduled to arrive later this week. The doctors and other medical personnel on the teams will be providing vital life-saving services for the people.

The team will be staying in a mission house operated by the Florida Baptist Convention as part of their 15-year partnership with Haiti Baptists and working in makeshift facilities in Port-au-Prince.

Here’s more information about the medical team supplied by the Kentucky Baptist Convention:

LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief is sending a medical relief team to Haiti from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8 to provide relief to those affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The 10-person team, which has been on standby for nearly a week, will travel to Atlanta, Ga., to join with another medical team from Mississippi and two Florida Baptist volunteers, said Kentucky Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb. From there, the teams will fly into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and then travel by bus across the island to Haiti.

According to Webb, the volunteers will be providing relief in a hospital setting in Port-au-Prince, though the exact location is yet to be confirmed.

Glenn Hickey

The KBC’s team will be led by Glenn Hickey, a specially trained member of the KBC’s international response team. Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville, will serve as chaplain.

Additional teams will be sent as plans are confirmed. Southern Baptists anticipate a long-term response with teams going regularly for months or even years, said Webb.

Those desiring to help are encouraged to give monetary donations through the KBC’s fund designated for the Haiti relief effort. Contributions may be sent to the KBC, P.O. Box 856300, Dept. 124, Louisville, KY 40285-9900. Please note “Haiti Earthquake” in the check memo. Online donations are also being accepted at www.kybaptist.org/dr.

Trained Kentucky Baptist disaster relief volunteers interested in serving on a team are being asked to express their interest by emailing cindy.henderson@kybaptist.org. Volunteers should indicate their availability, contact information and what type of volunteer work they are able to do.

Kentucky Baptists are part of a larger network of Southern Baptist volunteers trained to respond to disasters by manning mass feeding operations, using chainsaws to clear downed trees and limbs, clear mud out of flooded homes and more. Together, Southern Baptists comprise the third largest relief organization in the United States.

To learn more about Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief, go to www.kybaptist.org/dr.

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, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.tist volunteers trained to respond to disasters by manning mass feeding operations, using chainsaws to clear downed trees and limbs, clear mud out of flooded homes and more. Together, Southern Baptists comprise the third largest relief organization in the United States.

To learn more about Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief, go to www.kybaptist.org/dr.

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, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.

This post continues the GCR Myth Buster series I introduced earlier. Find links to the other posts released so far at the bottom of this one.

One of the statements I sometimes read within the Great Commission Resurgence discussion is that Southern Baptists do not understand how their Cooperative Program funds are being used. This usually shows up in a tweet or within a blog post with the implication that if Southern Baptists did understand how their money is being spent, they would somehow be disappointed. I disagree with this sentiment, however, and feel that in general most Baptists do understand that they have put into place an extremely accountable and transparent system for managing their missions giving through CP.

It’s true that many Baptists in the pews do not know as much about their church budgets or the workings of their association, state convention or national convention entities as they could. Most churches have only a small fraction of their members show up for business meetings and fewer still attend association, state convention and Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings. I also think it is safe to say that most Baptists have little specific knowledge about the budget and staffing of an organization like a seminary which may not even be located in their home state. My impression from talking to pastors and being in churches during the past year is that awareness of even this GCR discussion, while of much interest to those of us who are engaged in it, has not penetrated very far in most churches.

There are number of reasons for this. First, it’s only natural for people to focus most on the local. Most of us live very busy lives and have enough going on in our own local church that it’s easy to hit information overload. As I think back to the days before I served with a Baptist organization, I know that I didn’t pay nearly as close attention to all that was going on in Baptist life as I do now.

Second, many churches have moved away from discipleship training on Sunday nights and missions education programs for children, which is where Southern Baptists of past generations largely learned about the Cooperative Program and their Southern Baptist entities. I’m not advocating trying to recapture the past from a programming standpoint but I think it’s important to realize that many churches have never found another way or time to effectively focus on this kind of important information.

Finally, I think that the folks in our pews generally have confidence in their pastors and the elected leadership throughout the SBC and, therefore, don’t necessarily feel a need to keep up with all of the details. In a sense, this is a good thing. When the sanctuary is full for a business meeting, it usually means something has gone wrong. But, of course, it’s never a good thing to become lackadaisical about God’s work so we want people to be engaged.

I think that those Baptists in leadership positions and/or those lay people who do pay attention find that information and ways to be involved in directing CP giving are readily available. As usual, I can only speak with authority about the process in Kentucky but I think this is generally true across all of our state conventions and national entities as well.

Here in Kentucky, we work to help people understand how their Cooperative Program gifts are being used. In addition to Web pages and blogs such as this one, we put out a variety of printed and video-based materials. We also regularly send Mission Board staff members to speak to churches and finance committees and answer any questions they may have.

Each year, we also put out a brochure that has all of the numbers for the current budget as well pie charts showing the allocations of funds between the state mission board, our Baptist entities and the SBC. This piece is sized to fit as an insert into a standard church bulletin and we offer to send churches as many as they need free of charge. The print order for these well-received brochures usually starts at about 80,000 and it is not unusual for us to have to reorder during the year to ensure we have enough to distribute. For churches that want more detailed information, we even run reports that show how that specific church’s gifts were divided and distributed.

Beyond just putting the information out there, however, Kentucky Baptists also have the opportunity to be engaged in the process of allocating the Cooperative Program in several key places. Our Kentucky Baptist Mission Board is one of the most representative of any in the SBC in that we have about 170 members who represent the associations and regions of our state. The members are pastors and lay people and come from small, medium and large churches. Most of these individuals are elected on the association level by the churches’ messengers to their association meetings. (For those who want to be hands-on in this process, associations are usually looking for good individuals who would like to serve.)

It is from this Mission Board that the Business and Finance Committee, which reviews the budget proposal each year, is selected. Messengers from the churches themselves approve the CP budget goals during the annual meeting.

In terms of oversight on a state level, the Mission Board and each KBC entity is audited annually by an outside firm. The Mission Board’s Audit Workgroup of the Business and Finance Committee also reviews the audits of each entity and reports its findings each year. All of the audit reports are included in the Convention annual and sent to all churches each year. The KBC’s Agencies and Institutions Committee also meets regularly with the heads of Kentucky Baptist entities to hear reports and serve as a sounding board on behalf of the Mission Board and the Convention.

The KBC is committed to being good stewards of the gifts that Kentucky Baptists provide so generously. To this end, the funding formula for the way CP gifts are distributed to the various causes that Kentucky Baptists have said are important to them is reviewed regularly. For the past several years, the Convention has been making incremental adjustments to increase the amount sent to support missions causes on the SBC level. And, Kentucky Baptists have indicated that they approve of the CP allocations. Messengers have approved budget goals overwhelmingly in annual meetings and Mission Board members have overwhelmingly approved the detailed budgets.

A survey of pastors and laity in Kentucky Baptist churches in 2006 conducted by J. David Schmidt and Associates also showed strong support for the Cooperative Program allocations. In that survey, 84 percent of the pastors said their church was committed to participating in CP the way it is structured. Only 7 percent said the way the CP is structured was not a good fit for their congregation. (This included both pastors who wished to see more funds directed toward the SBC as well as some who wished to see less.)

As we all know, clear communication can be difficult and I know we will have to continually be looking for new and better ways to make sure Southern Baptists are informed and engaged in their churches, associations, state and national conventions. I strongly encourage everyone who reads this to do what you can to inform your congregations about the Cooperative Program, the way it works and about how the gifts are allocated. Please let me know as well if you have ideas about how we can better share from both an informational and inspirational perspective about how God is at work through Southern Baptists. The word “cooperative” is the operative word in Baptist life and we need to all be well informed and deep in prayer if we are to make the best decisions about moving forward to fulfill the Great Commission!

– Robert Reeves

Previous Posts in this Series:

• Great Commission Myth Busting
• State Conventions Stretched, Not Bloated
• State, National Missions Also Important

CBS News screen capture of Haiti damage from Baptist Press.

I am sure everyone is already in prayer for the people in Haiti and the chaotic situation there today but let me give you a few specific items to add to your prayer list in the wake of this terrible tragedy.

First, pray for the Southern Baptist assessment teams that are going into Haiti this weekend and on Monday to determine how our disaster relief volunteers can best be of help in the coming weeks and months. Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb will be part of a team of five that is flying in on Jan. 18 and will spend four to six days on the ground.

Additionally, the Florida Baptist Convention has an assessment team going in this weekend. Please be in special prayer for this team as 18 of the 21 Haitian employees of the Florida Baptist Convention are still missing. The Convention has received word from a third party that the FBC’s mission center there has been destroyed. Florida Baptists have a 15-year partnership with Baptist in Haiti and have helped plant 890 churches during that time.

“They are like our family,” Craig Culbreth, director of Florida’s Partnership Mission Department who has traveled to Haiti for the past 11 years, told Baptist Press. “They have been in our homes and we have been in theirs. We have laughed together and we have cried together, we have walked side-by-side and shared our vision for the nation of Haiti to come to Christ. They are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters and they are hurting right now. Many of them have small children. Some of their homes may be damaged and they are sleeping in the streets. It is a desperate situation there.”

Thirdly, be in prayer for Haitian congregations here in the United States as their members worry and seek to contact loved ones. We have four Haitian congregations in the Kentucky Baptist Convention. The Convention has been in touch with each pastor and there are numerous families still awaiting word on the fate of family members and friends.

Finally, be in prayer for God’s leadership in how we can best respond in the months and years ahead to bring physical and spiritual healing to this incredibly poor nation. Right now the effort is still on finding survivors in the rubble, getting water and food to a people still in shock, helping people find shelter and dealing with the public health issues that are associated with so much death and destruction. The U.S. military, the United Nations and relief agencies around the world are responding in massive ways to deal with this initial situation.

But we all know that this outpouring of emergency aid will be only the beginning of what is needed in the months and years to come. This is where Kentucky Baptists and Southern Baptists will be able to do the most good. We are known for being there not only when the cameras are rolling but when the hard work of rebuilding goes on and on. Pray that God will use us for His glory and that many will come to find new life in Him out of this tragedy.

Here’s the latest release about the assessment team’s trip from the Kentucky Baptist Convention:

Webb Scheduled to Leave for Haiti Jan. 18

Coy Webb

LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb is one of five team members scheduled to travel to Haiti on Jan. 18 to assess how Southern Baptists can help those devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

According to Webb, the team is planning to stay four to six days. Their primary goal will be to “determine when Southern Baptist teams can arrive and what they can do to help once they are there,” he said.

Webb will joined by four other representatives from a variety of Southern Baptist organizations, including: Jim Brown, U.S. office director for Baptist Global Response; Don Gann, disaster relief coordinator for the Mississippi Baptist Convention; Bruce Poss of the North American Mission Board; and Ralph Shealy, medical consultant for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

Two additional representatives from the Florida Baptist Convention are scheduled to travel separately and coordinate with the team’s efforts upon arrival in Haiti.

According to Webb, the entire effort is being led by the Florida Baptist Convention, which has had ministry relationships for more than 20 years and has staff members stationed in the country.

After the assessment takes place and a more detailed plan is in place, Webb said Kentucky Baptist disaster relief volunteers will be needed to help with the disaster recovery. Teams could potentially be needed within a few weeks, but there is no way to know for certain at this point, he said.

Kentucky Baptists desiring to help are encouraged to give monetary donations through the KBC’s fund designated for the Haiti relief effort. While many have already offered to donate supplies and goods, Webb said “there is no good way to get those items into Haiti right now, so monetary donations really are the best way to help immediately.”

Contributions may be sent to the KBC, P.O. Box 856300, Dept. 124, Louisville, KY 40285-9900. Please note “Haiti Earthquake” in the check memo. Online donations are also being accepted at www.kybaptist.org/dr.

Trained Kentucky Baptist disaster relief volunteers interested in serving on a team once opportunities become available are being asked to express their interest by emailing baptistmen@kybaptist.org. Volunteers should indicate their availability, contact information and what type of volunteer work they are able to do.

Kentucky Baptists are part of a larger network of Southern Baptist volunteers trained to respond to disasters by manning mass feeding operations, using chainsaws to clear downed trees and limbs, clear mud out of flooded homes and more. Together, Southern Baptists comprise the third largest relief organization in the United States.

To learn more about Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief, go to www.kybaptist.org/dr.

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, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.  For more information, visit www.kybaptist.org.

– Robert Reeves

The Kentucky Baptist Convention has just announced its plans for a major media buy in conjunction with the “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelism initiative set for this Spring. The media campaign will allow us here in Kentucky to reach approximately 85 percent of our state’s adult population with a gospel message an average of three-and-a-half times during the three weeks leading up to Easter this year.

One of the things that I find exciting about this particular Great Commission push is the way it demonstrates the power of Baptist cooperation. In terms of implementation of “Find it Here,” we have nearly every area of Baptist life engaged in a coordinated way to share the gospel.

Local churches have worked with their own directors of missions to literally mark the road maps of their association to divide the geography and make sure volunteers who will deliver a plastic bag containing a gospel message are assigned to those areas. (Some 50,000 church volunteers are expected to participate in prayerwalking and gospel distribution of just about our entire state.)

Layered on to this work at the grassroots level is the coordination, materials production and promotional support being provided by state conventions and the North American Mission Board. Nationwide, NAMB and the state conventions are expected to spend more than $1.8 on the media campaign alone.

The funding of “Find it Here” also demonstrates Baptist cooperation in a big way. Here in Kentucky, “Find it Here” is being made possible by funds from the Cooperative Program, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and the Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions.

Here’s the story from the KBC on the media campaign:

Find it Here Advertising Campaign to Reach 85 Percent of Kentucky Adults

LOUISVILLE  – An advertising campaign that is part of Kentucky Baptists’ “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelism initiative is expected to reach approximately 85 percent of the adult population in Kentucky with a Gospel message this spring.

The statewide campaign will use a 30-second TV spot produced by the North American Mission Board for three weeks leading up to Easter to direct viewers to the FinditHere.com Web site. The Web site features the stories of people who have found hope, purpose, peace and life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Radio spots and billboards will also be used in some locations.

“Kentucky Baptists are pulling out the stops to reach our state this spring,” Kentucky Baptist Convention Communications Director Robert Reeves said. “In this time of recession, war and cultural confusion, we have an important message of hope for people and are looking forward to this opportunity to connect with the people of our state.”

Reeves said Southern Baptists will be spending more than $182,000 on the campaign in Kentucky, using funds from the KBC, NAMB, Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union and Baptist state conventions in states surrounding Kentucky that will impact the border areas.

The advertising campaign will provide important “air support” for the 50,000 volunteers from Kentucky Baptist churches who will be delivering a bag containing a brochure that uses the “Find it Here” theme to more than 4.1 million Kentucky households starting in March, he said.

Reeves said the campaign was put together by the Van Winkle and Associates advertising firm of Atlanta. The firm was contracted by NAMB to handle an advertising buy which will exceed $1.8 million nationwide.

In Kentucky, the campaign is designed to reach 85 percent of the adult population with the message three and a half times on average during the period. Reeves said the number of times any individual sees the spot will vary based on their specific location and viewing habits.

Viewership in Eastern Kentucky may be somewhat higher due to a $30,000 grant for media provided by Kentucky WMU. Those funds, made possible because Kentucky WMU exceeded its $1.1 million goal for the Eliza Broadus Offering last year, are being used to supplement the broadcast television purchases with a cable television buy.

Part of the advertising buy is also being used to purchase billboards and radio time in Spanish to help reach Kentucky’s Hispanic population.

“One of the greatest things about the entire ‘Find it Here’ emphasis is the way it demonstrates the power of Baptist cooperative efforts in putting love in action,” Reeves said. “Baptists are getting to see their Cooperative Program, Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions directly at work in their own communities in a very direct and tangible way which is exciting.”

Reeves said the total advertising campaign is also expected to be strengthened by churches that have TV and radio ministries of their own and incorporate the “Find it Here” spots into their broadcasts. The spots are available for free download by churches in the “God’s Plan for Sharing” section of the oneMISSION.tv Web site.

The “Find it Here” TV spot features three people telling snippets of their life stories – a woman whose husband died, a man who lost his job and another man who still felt empty despite success and wealth. Each shares that they finally found peace through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The spot ends by directing the viewer to the “Find it Here” Web site.

At the site, which is available in English and Spanish, visitors will be able to read more about the Christian faith, use a search feature to find a Southern Baptist church near to them, access a phone number to call for spiritual help or download a free e-book.

More information about the “Find it Here” evangelism initiative in Kentucky can be found at www.kybaptist.org/findithere.

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, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.

I’ve never heard anyone say specifically that missions work in the United States is less important than international missions work but I’ve certainly come across some who, in their commendable zeal to support our international missions effort, imply it.  If I understand correctly, their thinking seems to be that since we have many existing churches in the United States — especially in the South — there’s no real need for a cooperative effort among Southern Baptists through associations, state conventions and the North American Mission Board to reach the lost here at home. The churches and individual Christians, the logic goes, should be all the missionary force we need here in the United States so all missions giving should therefore go for work outside our home country.

To a certain extent, I can understand and sympathize with this thinking. There’s a sense among some Baptists that having organizations to coordinate missions work at home becomes a crutch for churches and individuals who would rather simply give money from behind the walls of their church buildings than actually get out there and “be” the church by ministering and witnessing in their home communities. They believe that without these broader organizations, churches would come closer to realizing that reaching our communities will take the personal involvement of every Christian.

Probably all of us have at one time or another been guilty of the sin of not sharing our faith. I know that I have certainly failed to take advantage of opportunities to share the Gospel and for those failures I feel ashamed. As many have said already, a true Great Commission Resurgence isn’t going to be about organizational structures or Cooperative Program allocations, but about all of us as individual Christians getting our hearts right, our feet in motion and our tongues wagging about Jesus.

Even so, I believe it is very important for us to use every means possible for reaching those here at home as well which includes making use of various missions and church strengthening organizations to help us be more effective as individual Christians and churches.  To me it’s a matter of recognizing the need and then trying to come up with the best approach possible for meeting that need.

First, let me address the need. All any of us who live in the United States needs to do, no matter where we live, is to drive around our communities, read a newspaper or turn on the television for 15 minutes to see that our nation is far from being reached for Christ.  Even in an old-line Southern Baptist state like Kentucky we see all kinds of lostness.  We see the lostness of individuals who have not grown up in Christian families and whose greatest exposure to Christianity is in driving by church buildings or clicking by TV preachers. We also see the lostness of individuals who have some cultural connection to Christianity, i.e. “Momma used to go to church” or “Granddaddy was a preacher,” but who have no real relationship to Christ themselves because they see themselves as “good, decent people.” We also see the lostness of individuals who are what we call here, the “de-churched.” These are individuals who were once in our churches and have probably “heard” the gospel but for various reasons, real and imagined, have drifted away and show no fruit indicating that they know the Lord.

This lostness is not imagined. It has been documented in a variety of ways. According to research conducted by NAMB, some 251 million people in the United States and Canada — that’s three out of every four — are lost. Here in Kentucky, according to research conducted by the Barna Group on behalf of the KBC, nearly 1 million Kentuckians are unchurched with another 650,000 not committed to the church on whose roll their name appears. The Association of Religious Data Archives estimated that nearly 1.9 million of Kentucky’s 4 million population in 2000 had no affiliation with any religious group. No matter how you want to cut it or whose numbers you want to use, the point is that there is a great need for missions on our own continent and in our own country and state.

So, if there are a lot of lost people all around us, isn’t reaching them the job of the local church? Yes! Definitely! Of course! Communicating to the lost who surround us is the responsibility of each Christian and each local body of believers. This means that I have a responsibility as a Christian to share personally with those in my family, neighborhood and other spheres of influence. My local church has a responsibility to share directly and as effectively as possible with all of those in its local field.

But this doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t also work together on association, state and national levels. Some strategies work best by pooling our resources. Disaster relief is a good example of this. Our volunteers go out wearing the yellow shirts to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of the people who are served. Sure, a single church can go and do a disaster relief project. But I think we all have seen that we can be much more efficient when we pool resources and coordinate our efforts.

Or, for an even more directly evangelistic example, think about the Find it Here evangelistic emphasis in which Kentucky Baptists are currently engaged. I’ve never seen a more cooperative evangelistic effort as pastors have worked through their associations to divide the geography to ensure that every household we can possibly get to will receive a gospel presentation from Southern Baptists in the weeks leading up to Easter this year. Churches, associations, the state convention, the Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union and NAMB are working closely in a coordinated fashion that leverages the strengths of each organization for maximum effectiveness on this project.

None of this diminishes the importance of international missions though. We have a world of some 6.7 billion people out there who also need to hear about Jesus so we definitely need to draw attention to this and do all we can to reach everyone. But we’ve got to get beyond wrestling among ourselves for limited resources (which I think is really the bottom line of this myth) and seek instead to enlarge the pot.

For instance, right now on average here in Kentucky, 93 cents of every undesignated dollar that a person puts into the offering plate, stays in the local community for local church operations, ministries and missions. That leaves 7 cents to be divided among the state conventions and Southern Baptist Convention for all of the other work that takes place across the nation and world. And where we’ve ended up in part with the GCR is a scramble for how best to divide up that 7 cents. At times it reminds me of football players trying to recover a fumble on a muddy field.

But what I am most reminded of right now is Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000. When we serve a Lord that took five small loaves and two fish, fed 5,000 men (plus women and children) and then had the disciples collect 12 baskets of leftovers, why are we so worried over the finances of missions? Isn’t our God rich enough to supply the funds needed to meet all of the needs?

I believe SBC President Johnny Hunt got it right when he called all Southern Baptists to a special day of prayer on Jan. 31. And I hope the praying goes on and on and on because I am convinced that when God senses that our hearts are truly broken for the lost and that we have all given up on striving for our own agendas or defending turf, He will open the floodgates of heaven and show us His power in a way that none of us can imagine.

That’s when we’ll know that missions is international, national and as local as the house next door.

–Robert Reeves

Previous Posts in this Series:

• Great Commission Myth Busting
• State Conventions Stretched, Not Bloated

In contrast to the myth that state conventions are bloated bureaucracies, most are actually finding themselves having to do a lot of belt tightening as they seek to serve their churches.

This post begins the GCR Myth Buster series I introduced earlier. Several posts on this topic will follow in the days ahead although I’ll also be posting other items as needed.

As a communicator, I have to say right up front that part of me hates to even talk about the “bloated bureaucracies” myth because simply writing the words tends to reinforce them. It’s kind of like telling a person not to think of an elephant. The mere act of reading those words forces you down that thought path whether you want to go or not. This myth has been so repeated, however, that it’s necessary to deal with it right off the bat in this series of posts.

Of course, the origin of the myth is no secret. When the original Great Commission Resurgence document was first presented, it contained the following statements:

“… our denominational structures have become bloated and bureaucratic at every level, from local associations to state conventions to the SBC itself. We believe our ministry effectiveness is being strangled by overlap and duplication, poor stewardship, and a disproportionate amount of Cooperative Program dollars being kept by the state conventions.”

The statement was probably meant as hyperbole inserted to help make a point. The authors realized the choice of words was unfortunate almost immediately, however, and quickly softened the language. Unfortunately, calling the words back has been kind of like trying to recall a hand grenade. The damage was done and I often still hear the phrase “bloated bureaucracy” bandied about. In fact, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own as one of those phrases associated with the GCR conversation.

The purpose of this post isn’t intended to criticize anyone. It is so easy to get caught up in the moment when you are passionate about a subject and go farther than intended. I know there have been many times when I wished I could somehow reach out and grab the words that just left my mouth before they reached listening ears.

But on to the myth itself. The two operative words, of course, are “bloated” and “bureaucracy.” From a technical standpoint, there’s nothing wrong or inaccurate at all with the second word. Every organization has (and should have) a bureaucracy in that it has rules, systems, policies and procedures under which it operates and people who help to implement its mission within a framework. State conventions certainly are bureaucracies in this sense as are our Baptist seminaries, our international and North American mission boards, our executive committee, our associations and even our churches — especially our larger ones. It takes a level of organization, or bureaucracy, to keep everyone on the same page and moving toward the goal together.

The word bureaucracy has taken on a negative connotation over the years, however, in that the word tends to be associated with excessive official routine administered by a “bureaucrat” who simply applies the rules of his particular department without exercising much judgment. I know that when I hear the word, I tend to think immediately of large government agencies with sad employees loudly applying rubber stamps to large stacks of paper.

This certainly doesn’t describe any Southern Baptist organization of which I’m aware, though. In the case of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, I know from experience that we have some of the most professional, committed, passionate and hard-working Christians that you will find anywhere in the world. A number of our Mission Board staff have come to us from the international mission field and very successful pastorates. They are well-educated, work hard to stay up-to-date on the latest techniques for strengthening churches and do an excellent job of communicating their knowledge through consultations and training conferences. They are always willing to go above and beyond to meet the needs of Kentucky churches, work long hours and travel many miles to be in the churches when they are needed.

The professionals who serve within state conventions do so out of a sense of God’s call even though many could be earning more by using their expertise in a large church or in a secular field. They are people of God who spend much time in prayer seeking God’s will and who are sold out in seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. Their work is that which has been identified by the churches themselves through their elected mission boards as being useful and helpful to keep the convention moving forward.

I suspect these could be said of those who are on staffs of our other Baptist “bureaucracies” as well. People who teach at the seminaries or serve on the mission field or serve churches do so because God’s love compels them to serve Him in this way. We need to be very careful about saying anything that disparages such calls.

The adjective “bloated” is the word that really makes this statement a myth. When I think of this word, my mind immediately goes to something so large and cumbersome that it can barely function anymore. According to the dictionary, the word can also be used to describe someone who is swollen with vanity or self-importance or someone who is overstuffed with rich food.

Even though I have to admit that after this holiday season, this latter description might be somewhat accurate in reflecting my weight gain, I definitely don’t see the application to state conventions. Admittedly, I am not familiar with the details of each but I’m very familiar with the KBC and can say categorically that “bloated” is not a word that should be associated with this organization. And since Kentucky is one of the “old line” state conventions that was in place before the Southern Baptist Convention itself, it is probably fairly representative of state conventions in the South. (It’s even more inaccurate to use the word in connection with conventions in the West or Northeast where a very few employees have to wear a lot of different hats to try to meet the needs of the churches.)

Here in Kentucky, even in the best of times, we only have about 75 full-time Mission Board employees to meet the needs of nearly 2,400 churches. Other part-time, contract or temporary workers are also used to help out but their roles are by budgetary necessity very limited.

When you think about the number of areas in which churches might need consultation or training assistance, there’s not really any fat in these numbers. For instance, the Sunday School Department is made up of one person who receives secretarial support from one ministry assistant. That same ministry assistant also serves the one person on the Mission Board staff who focuses on discipleship and assimilation for the entire state even while he serves as a general church development strategist for one of our regions. Likewise, there is one person focused on youth ministry in our state. One person focused on partnership missions. In my mind, given the importance all of these areas are to church health, having one expert in these areas on a state level is certainly not “bloated.”

And so it goes throughout the Mission Board staff. In fact, the single area with the most employees is Baptist Campus Ministry but that is only because we seek to have a campus minister on each of the major college campuses in our state. Given the importance of reaching college students with the Gospel today and the opportunities that colleges provide us to do international ministry by reaching international students while they are in the United States, this seems to me to be a very wise investment of resources.

Discussing the division of Cooperative Program is a completely legitimate and important process but as we do so, please keep in mind that, at least here in the KBC, we are working with fewer dollars than in the past – not more. In the nearly 12 years that I have been with the convention, CP giving has never matched the inflation rate and we have seen the average percentage of undesignated giving from the churches to the Cooperative Program decline from 9.3 percent in 1998 to just under 7 percent last year. At the same time, the Convention has moved regularly to increase the percentage it sends to the SBC.

And this year, due to the downturn in the economy, the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board is working on a spendable budget that is less than the budget approved by messengers. The number of staff has also been reduced during the past 10 years and, again due to the recession, we have some positions that are going unfilled right now.

In Kentucky, CP gifts through the churches are basically divided three ways. The largest piece of the pie (just over 37 percent) goes to the SBC followed by a slightly smaller slice (36.5 percent) that goes to the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board for its work. Then the smallest piece of the pie (26.4 percent) goes to Christian education and KBC entities such as our children’s ministries, camps, foundation, etc.

In addition to supporting SBC mission causes through the CP, Kentucky churches are also supporting the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board through the special offerings. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering from Kentucky was more than $4 million this past year and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering was almost $2 million which effectively doubles what the SBC mission boards receive from Kentucky churches.

Every state convention, seminary, national SBC entity, church and individual Christian should always be looking for better ways to serve and to adapt to the missions and ministry needs of the times. I’m grateful to be a part of a state convention and national convention that is willing and even eager to examine itself and do just that.

I’m just not sure that there is really a lot of fat out there to cut. In the end, the key to GCR from an organizational standpoint is not going to be so much in reallocating very limited resources but in recommitting ourselves to giving at greater levels.

Previous Post in this Series:

• Great Commission Resurgence Myth Busting