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Is there a spontaneous movement of God occurring among Southern Baptists in response to recent news that our International Mission Board was required recently to curtail missionary appointments due to lack of support?
- Missionary kids at the IMB’s Missionary Learning Center decided they would do their part, reasoning that if all 16 million Southern Baptists would give one dollar the shortfall in funding would be erased. Sixty-three kids raised more than $100. (See July 31 Florida Baptist Witness).
- Prompted by the sacrificial giving of the kids, a Louisiana pastor sent a letter to the editor to this newspaper affirming the dollar-per-member strategy. (See July 31 issue.)
- A bivocational pastor of a small Florida Baptist church in Gulf Breeze became convicted that he should initiate a "Radical Response" to the IMB funding crisis, began an e-mail- and letter-writing campaign calling on individuals and churches to take-up the cause. (See July 24 Florida Baptist Witness.) Shane Tucker continues to urge every Southern Baptist church to give two dollars per member before September 30, 2003, exceed last year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering by one-third, and increase Cooperative Program giving by one percent in 2004.
These and other expressions of concern are prompted by the news that 100 candidates for long-term missionary service cannot be sent this year and the number of short-term personnel has been cut by 30 percent. Although Southern Baptists gave a record high LMCO last year, it fell $10 million short of the $125 million goal for 2002. (The goal for 2003 is $133 million.) The IMB also has cut 61 stateside jobs and discontinued publication of The Commission, its flagship magazine. (See June 19 Florida Baptist Witness.)
Thus, at a time when record numbers of Southern Baptists are responding to God’s call to preach the Gospel across the globe, giving, although up, is not keeping pace. Florida Baptist Witness has been reporting this crisis for many months now. As far back as December 19, 2002, we warned of a possible missionary cap.
The IMB, however, is not alone in Southern Baptist life with respect to funding challenges. Other Southern Baptist Convention agencies regularly report that funding is not keeping pace with needs. For example, the six Southern Baptist seminaries have expressed this concern, resulting in a special study committee of the SBC Executive Committee. The committee, chaired by Clearwater’s Bill Anderson, is expected to announce its findings and recommendations later this month.
At the state level, the Florida Baptist Convention has tightened its belt, including several phases of staff reductions, in the last two years. Other Florida Baptist State Convention agencies have their own financial challenges. Further, most Baptist associations are under-funded in their work for local, cooperative ministries.
These funding challenges come at a time when Southern Baptists have been supporting the Cooperative Program at greater levels, but not enough to keep pace with escalating expenses in Southern Baptist missions enterprises. On page one this week, we report that while CP giving is keeping pace through the first six months of 2003, FBC leaders are concerned that giving may not meet budget through the second half of the year.
A recent study by evangelical pollster George Barna may explain what’s going on. Barna found a 62 percent reduction in the number of tithers among all adults last year, dropping from eight percent in 2001 to just three percent last year. Although evangelicals (including Southern Baptists) are more faithful to give a tenth of their income, only nine percent of them fit the biblical pattern of stewardship by tithing.
Barna pointed to demographic shifts affecting giving: "We are losing many of the people who have a habit of tithing — people in their sixties and beyond - while the proportion of homes headed by younger adults, who have never tithed and don’t plan to, is growing."
A Special Report on tithing in last week’s Witness featured Barna’s study. In that package, we also reported that experts believe that half of all church members give nothing, while 30 percent account for only 20 percent of all giving and the remaining 20 percent are responsible for 80 percent of all giving.
These statistics demonstrate that there is staggering level of disobedience among our people (even if other adults are three times as disobedient). In fact, it’s very likely that among those who are reading this editorial, a large percentage of you are failing to live according to God’s pattern of financial stewardship.
Whether it’s a "Radical Response" or simply doing what the Bible clearly commands of us, let us recommit ourselves to be truly missionary Baptists by supporting all our mission offerings, including Florida Baptists’ Maguire State Mission Offering next month. Even more importantly, we all must recommit ourselves to faithful, robust support of the Cooperative Program — the lifeblood of all Southern Baptist mission work at home and around the world.
Let not God’s indictment on Israel preached through His prophet Malachi be laid upon Florida Baptists: "you are robbing God" (Malachi 3:8). Instead, let us be characterized by faithfulness to God’s pattern for obedient stewardship:
"‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows’" (3:10).