SBC Pastors' Conference: Who Pays and How? by Peter Lumpkins
His article (above) of 3/14 is about the funding for the Southern Baptist Pastor’s Conference, the pre-convention affair that showcases people the SBC elite want to be elected to office. Back in the day (I attend the SBC annual meeting about once in every three years or so and haven’t been to a Pastor’s Conference in many years) the PC was helpful in the Conservative Resurgence, Adrian Rogers always having a prominent preaching slot. I enjoyed it then.
I thought that the PC was funded by the offering received from attendees, plus some sponsorships from LifeWay or other businesses that wanted some exposure to a large gathering of SBC pastors.
Peter reports that the PC receives substantial funding from the SBC Executive Committee, $150,000 annually with the PC reimbursing $50,000 of that – net funding of $100,000.
Since ordinary SBCers are paying for a good chunk of the PC through the Cooperative Program, how about a little transparency on it? Frank Page, XComm CEO, thinks the same way and the XComm, according to Peter has “this year…passed a motion which requested the Pastors' Conference reimburse a larger amount of money to the EC including a detailed accounting of the gifts and expenditures for the Pastors' Conference.”
Peter’s understanding is that “no record to date has been given to the EC for monies received/dispersed at the Pastors' Conference.”
Huh? I can think of 100,000 reasons that the Pastor’s Conference treasurer ought to send, post haste, a full accounting of their revenues and expenses, line-by-line.
If Plodder may be presumptuous enough to offer Frank Page some assistance here, how about the following:
Memo to the SBC Pastor’s Conference:
Brethren, please send me a complete accounting of revenues and expenses of the 2010 Pastor's Conference and a proposed budget for the 2011 Pastor's Conference. If I do not receive this within seven days, you get no check from the Executive Committee.
Love in Christ,
Frank Page, President
SBC Executive Committee
2 comments:
Sorta feel like we've been lied to. If my memory serves me right and of the 20+ PC's I have attended, it seems that when the offering time was being announced that the PC was being funded by the offerings taken there, the CD / DVD sales and what remained the presidents church footed the bill.
Someone who may have a better memory (thats about everyone) can correct me.
jle
Wm,
Great piece and a very good complement to what I tried to say. I linked your contribution at SBC Tomorrow.
Grace, brother.
With that, I am...
Peter
P.S. One of these days, we'll have another Starbucks...
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