Pastor, how about a month off?

"You bet," sayeth most all of us at one time or another.

Ah sabbaticals. I'm on one now but had to retire to get it. The usual route to a sabbatical for most of us is to (a) resign, (b) get fired, or (c) retire.

Back in 1999 Baptist Press did a piece on a small town, average sized church pastor who took a sabbatical. It was a story most of us could identify with:

“I was not overworked; the church was not asking too much of me. That was not the problem,” he said. “The problem was that I needed a freshness of purpose in my life and in the church’s life.”

The solution agreed upon was five weeks off, unheard of among SBC churches unless the church is a mega or large church.

I like the concept but am not certain that many churches would grasp it.

I can hear the conversation now,

"Brethren, I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted" the pastor might explain to the deacons, "could we work out a sabbatical, a month or so when I could be away?"

"But pastor," one of the deacons might respond, "you only work one day  a week anyway. How could you be exhausted?"

Megachurch pastors can be exhaused. Large church pastors can be thought to deserve a sabbatical every few years. But average sized churches? Probably not.

Bring up the idea of ministry burnout to your church and you're probably toast in their minds from that point on.

Be open and vulnerable and disclose that you are mildly depressed to the church and you are likely viewed as damaged goods to them, worthy of whispers in the hallways.

 Bryant Wright is on sabbatical right now. I don't begrudge him that.

Johnny Hunt gets every August off and two years ago notably extended that through mid-September.

I'm guessing that average sized and smaller churches do not love their pastor any less than a megachurch loves theirs but I'd speculate that smaller churches would look askance at a request for a sabbatical.

Here is one smaller church pastor's story:

On June 4, 2006, I drove to the church for evening worship intending to announce my resignation.  After 21 years as a pastor, and 27 years in professional ministry, I had hit a wall.  I was not only exhausted; I was empty.  My faith had not wavered, nor had my commitment to ministry or my church.  Like a car that had run out of gas, I just stopped.  Fortunately, by the time I pulled into the parking lot, I had reasoned myself out of such a drastic act.  When pastors run out of steam, they generally do one of three things:  they move to another church; they get sick; or they do something stupid.  I came very close to my stupid!  Instead of resigning, I walked into the service and announced that I was prepared to teach, but I was unable to teach, and that I would see them next week.  The congregation witnessed what I had been fearfully anticipating for several years – a total shutdown

His church gave him five weeks off.

Many pastors could identify with the problem, depression, burnout, shutdown, but few could identify with the solution, a sabbatical.

One of the ways that associational missionaries, state convention workers, denominational press, and SBC leaders could help the tens of thousands of workaday, average church, average pastors is to regularly promote the concept of an occasional sabbatical even in smaller churches.

Money is tight all around at every SBC level but I bet that there would be a lot less profitable ways for state conventions to budget money than to put a sum aside for grants to churches who wanted or needed to give their pastor a month or so sabbatical. This would give the idea a modest push among smaller churches.

I can envision a state convention program whereby churches were told, "We will fill your pulpit at no cost to you if you give your pastor a sabbatical month off." State conventions and associations would benefit by having an extended opportunity to share some of their work in a church over an extended period. Such an incentive would be persuasive to many churches who fret over finances and supply honoraria if the pastor is out.

In the past I have been pessimistic about the idea of sabbaticals being realistic in average and smaller sized SBC churches but I think it is doable and is certainly worth encouraging.

Some pastors might need to start thinking and praying about it, although you could just act like a fighter pilot and stubbornly believe that others may crash and burn but not you, you've got the right stuff.

I wouldn't risk it.

Great Commission vs Cooperative Program Giving

When the SBC approved the new giving category, Great Commission Giving, an aggregate category that includes giving to the Cooperative Program, state convention, local association, plus any direct gifts to any SBC entity, great weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued in some quarters. Dire predictions of negative effects on the Cooperative Program were made.

2011 was the first reporting year for GCG but I don't know that much can be learned by it, since nothing can be viewed comparatively; nonetheless, here are some figures for the top giving churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention:

First Woodstock (Johnny Hunt's megachurch):
Total gifts   $1,194,200
Total CP            866,170
Total GCG      3,144,120   

Woodstock is the top Cooperative Program giving church in the GBC. Their CP gifts were 27.5% of their total Great Commission Giving meaning that they gave a lot more directly to SBC causes than to the CP.

Hebron, Dacula (formerly Larry Wynn's megachurch):
Total gifts    $902,640
Total CP         840,905
Total GCG      944,882

Only Woodstock gave more to the CP than Hebron last year. Hebron's CP gifts were 93.1% of their total Great Commission Giving indicating that their main channel for SBC giving was the CP.

Johnson Ferry (Bryant Wright's megachurch):
Total gifts     $566,079
Total CP          566,079
Total GCG       793,315

Johnson Ferry's CP gifts were 71.4% of their total Great Commission Giving.

Clearly, Woodstock and Hebron have different giving philosophies.

Local church autonomy at work.

I haven't asked but it looks like Johnson Ferry chooses to report differently than the other two. Fact is, the Great Commission Giving total for any church would be a voluntarily reported figure supplied by the church that is comprised of components that could not be easily checked. I'm not alleging anything here about JFBC, just saying that a simple comparison of GCG statistics may not be valid.


I first heard Adrian Rogers make the statement that "Dollars pay the bills, not percentages," an assertion made to counter the complaint of megachurches giving smaller percentages to the Cooperative Program than other churches. Of course he was right and that assertion is manifestly true.

Here in Georgia, Woodstock First is the top CP giving church in total gifts - $866,170. That amount is over six times larger than the aggregate Cooperative Program giving of the top five churches in the GBC in percentage Cooperative Program giving (and who average giving 39% of their total undesignated giving to the CP).

All deserve praise for their support of missions through the Cooperative Program. None deserve criticism.

My view has been that the new Great Commission Giving category will merely reflect the reality on the ground rather than generate any new giving trends. While it may be useful for comparison of candidates for SBC offices, it is beginning to look like it may be a fuzzier figure than originally thought.

But, for SBCers who are numbers junkies, here's something to chew on.

One notable, relevant thing about Fred Luter

Fred Luter (image from BP) is expected to be elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in just a few weeks in New Orleans. If I am there (and it's not looking like I will be) I would be unhesitant in casting my vote in his favor. His election will be notable because he will be the first black president of the SBC.

That's good.

But there is something more notable about Fred Luter that is acutely relevant to the SBC. He is a megachurch pastor and would be the latest in a long string of megapastor elected president of our convention. But he is a megachurch pastor whose church gives an above average percentage to the Cooperative Program. 

This is unusual as these things go.

Fred Luter's church gives about six percent, not a large percentage but quite healthy for a megachurch. His six percent is more than given by our current president, Bryant Wright, whose megachurch is in the 4% range. Previous megachurch pastors who were SBC presidents, Johnny Hunt, Jack Graham, and James Merritt were in the 2% range (although Hunt notably increased his church's CP giving in recent years).

Fred Luter will be the first megachurch SBC president whose CP giving is above the SBC average since Jim Henry back in the mid-1990s.

That is notable.

For all the laments about the decline of the Cooperative Program (we have gone from an average above 10% a generation ago to under 6%) when messengers meet in our annual session they rarely find a megachurch pastor that they are unwilling to elect as president, regardless of the low giving to the Cooperative Program.

Wright was easily elected in 2010 even though alternative candidates far surpassed him in their church's CP giving. That is the usual scenario. I can think of only one megachurch pastor, Ronnie Floyd, whose CP giving was so low (around 0.3%) that it cost him the election (he has since raised it to around 5% last time I checked).

If Southern Baptists are genuinely concerned about falling Cooperative Program giving, one of the ways we ought to express our concern is to consider unelectable any candidate for major denominational office whose church gives less than a threshold percentage. Five percent is a good number, though I made an exception for Bryant Wright who was a little under that.

One of the more ridiculous things regularly heard about the SBC is all the  complaining about megachurches having undue influence, when we regularly elect them to the top SBC office in spite of their low CP giving. 

I hope that Fred Luter's election establishes a precedent in ways other than related to his race. Such would be good for us all.

SBC presidents and the Cooperative Program

What shall we say about SBC leadership and their support, or lack thereof, for our grand Cooperative Program?

Here is a summary of the past SBC presidents and their Cooperative Program support over the past 32 years:
Less than 4%: Rogers, Smith, Stanley, Vines, Young, Elliff, Merritt, Graham, Hunt, Wright.
Above the contemporary average: Draper (7%), Chapman (11%), Henry (10%), Welch (15%), Page (12%).

Between 1979 and 1992, the year the Conservative Resurgence was effectively over, seven men were elected president. Only two of those were significant CP supporters, Draper and Chapman, and only Chapman’s church gave greater than what was held out as the standard at the time, 10%. I don’t recall either of them being elected on a platform of cooperation or CP giving, but rather on a platform of continuing the conservative takeover. For the entire period up to 2010, sixteen presidents have served. Only six of those gave average or above to the CP.

Since 1992, the convention has happily elected leaders who are not known for their outstanding CP support. Only Henry, Welch, and Page were above average, while Merritt, Graham, and Hunt were down in the 2% range. I don’t think you can find a greater contrast than in the election of last year where Bryant Wright, in the 3% range, defeated a candidate who was in excess of 10%.

Since the convention elected people whose CP levels were very, very low (Bailey Smith, 1% or so, Ed young the same, Stanley, Vines, Merritt 2% or so), one has to say that the Cooperative Program was clearly not an important factor for the Conservative Resurgence. Even in the years since the CR was completed, the convention has been quite comfortable in electing leaders whose CP levels are way below average.

I summarize these things because I keep seeing people who are dissatisfied with the giving of current leadership incorrectly interpret the SBC’s history of the past three decades. I think an honest view of the past would lead to the conclusion that the CR was not a boon to the concept of cooperation and to support of the Cooperative Program. The most salient of CP statistics, that churches give less and less of undesignated giving through the CP, is partly the result of the success of megachurch pastors like Rogers, Stanley, and Young in being elected to the SBC presidency in spite of low CP giving percentages.

For my part, a presidential candidate who shows strong support for NAMB, the IMB, and whose CP percentage is above the threshold of 3-4 percent is fine by me. In my book Bryant Wright is a very strong supporter of our cooperative work as Southern Baptists even though he may not meet the CP litmus tests of some. If we dismiss pastors like him and churches like his we will be a much weaker convention.

A future question to be considered: Why has the average church CP percentage been dropping for decades when almost all SBC pastors (87% in a 2007 survey) report that they are generally satisfied with the CP?

Before we get too depressed about the Cooperative Program...

...Southern Baptists, both pastors/laypeople in churches and denominational employees in their offices in Nashville, Alpharetta, Richmond and the states, might remind themselves of a few things.

1. The Cooperative Program, though steadily declining as a percentage of church offering plate dollars, and the decline spans a couple of generations, is still an enormous funding engine. Sure, it has dropped some millions or so the last couple of years but is still gigantic. We are the envy of others in this.

2. Nothing on the horizon makes me think that the CP is going the way of the ivory-billed woodpecker, the most famous extinct American bird, last seen in 1944. Churches will continue to give to the CP, although I see nothing on the horizon that will stanch lower percentages from the churches.

3. Consider our moderate brethren, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Their latest round of double digit percentage budget cuts leaves their national organization about the size of a single SBC megachurch. Their survival is a legitimate question. The same cannot be said for the SBC or any of our entities.

4. Some mega-SBCers are making mega CP moves. Johnny Hunt's church, FBC Woodstock, will give nearly a million dollars to the CP this year, almost doubling what they did last year. The thousands of average-sized churches may not be persuaded to follow the example but megachurch critics will at least have to acknowledge Hunt's move as positive for the CP.

5. The cuts made by some SBC entities are real and severe; however, the CP, along with the two major mission offerings, give the SBC an enormous capacity to absorb financial blows. Even the troubled North American Mission Board has survived major debacles along with the recent recession and still has $140+ millions of our dollars to spend.

6. Whatever the flaws, I find no other funding mechanism that makes as good a sense as the CP.

So, Plodder will hold off the CP obituary for awhile.

Don't Touch My Junk et al

What some SBC state conventions are saying to the GCRTF: “Don’t touch my junk”, the new anthem of the modern man (Krauthammer), although in SBC life protecting your revenue stream is nothing new.

Patsy of patsies: Nearby Georgia State University is in its inaugural year of college football, the in-town Atlanta school never having had a football team until now. They agree to a game with powerhouse Alabama for a few hundred thousand dollars and get slaughtered 62-7, Alabama being merciful. It’s all about the money, of course.

Big science news: Scientists have trapped an “anti-atom” and have been able to study the elusive particle…for about 1/10th of a second. Wonder what they learned? Most SBC pastors need only about that amount of time to form not one but several opinions about any subject.

Our fair city has a new business, a tattoo parlor, the first such establishment locally. I don’t get it about tattoos.

One in five Americans, and almost one of every four women, had some form of mental illness last year, so sez one interest group. While the diagnoses can be extremely fuzzy, I wouldn’t challenge the figures. Johnny Hunt acknowledged depression and anxiety among other things after returning from 11 weeks off. Good for him. Sadly, most SBC pastors would receive an unlimited amount of weeks off if they broke the taboo of acknowledging some form of mental illness.

A family in St. Petersburg, FL is already camping out in front of a store to get Black Friday deals…that’s nine days early. Get a life.