State conventions try to slow the dreaded denominational death march

Amuse yourself with over 28,000 articles on "death of denominations" and then do some sober thinking about the closest thing to a denomination to the average Southern Baptist pastor: his state convention.

Our beloved International Mission Board might be the latest to implement severe cuts in employment levels. Their August bombshell declared that 600-800 personnel would have to leave for the organization to have a viable future, one where the bills could be paid. This is an 11-15 percent cut in staffing.

That level of cutbacks looks pretty attractive to many state conventions. I'll just mention Georgia and Florida. While it's tough to get firm numbers on staff, I'll make a conjecture that 50% cutbacks are closer to the norm for state conventions. None of the SBC level entities have dealt with cutting their staffing in half.

Here in Georgia a "reinvention" is underway in which

• We change our name from the commonly used, "Georgia Baptist Convention" to "Georgia Baptist Mission Board." 
• Our leader declares, "We are a missionary sending agency in Georgia." 

I'm OK with changing the labels, although some may confuse us with NAMB and IMB in our identification as a "sending agency." The new GBMB has staff that serves GBMB churches and our common support "sends" these people around the state. Give me time to grieve the loss of the old "GBC" which rolls easily off the tongue and keyboard. "GBMB" is rather wooden, though just as toothy. I understand the desire to brand the GBC/GBMB as a missions enterprise. 

• We decentralize, sort of.

GBC workers are high-mileage travelers. I have no complaint about any of them. Several have helped me immensely. In the future there will be a centralized staff but one that is supplemented and multiplied by "field based personnel", clergy and church staff who are on a retainer to do stuff for churches. A suggested stipend of $1,000 per month, paid by the GBC, for a year's worth of consulting. Resumes from church staff are now inundating the state convention. 

The last time I needed guidance from a GBC expert on a specific church project I had to retain the employee on his spare time for a couple of thousand dollars. The GBC paid his salary, trained him, and gave him skills in demand of the churches. My church had to pay him to do the job. Maybe the field based people will do tasks like this for the churches without charging. We will see how this works out.  

• We sell the building, maybe.

The last grand hurrah of the showpiece, centralized, first class denominational office building is the Georgia Baptist Missions and Ministry Center in Duluth. No state has a finer one. We're closing it on Fridays and it "could" be sold for the right price to the right customer. The staff could move to more modest headquarters and excess funds put in trust for use in the state. 

• We give the SBC an additional 2%

The GBC had their $25 million building debt paid off, indirectly, through the sale of hospitals we used to own. Half of the savings on debt service will go to SBC ministries. IMB gets about a quarter million additional funds. We use the other half here.

In our sunny neighbor state to the south, Florida, The Florida Baptist State Board of Missions, is downsizing and decentralizing.

• Statewide employees will be reduced from 115 to 61.

This is serious business. The savings from paying staff will raise the...

• SBC share of Cooperative Program revenues will go from 45% to 51%.

I believe this will but the FBSBM ahead of all other legacy state conventions is the CP "split." I'm shocked at the rapid movement to give away CP revenues to the mission boards and seminaries. This is impressive. 

• State staff will no longer take interim pastorates.

The new executive says what should be obvious to every state convention leader: having state staff take interim pastorates keeps them out of other churches. Want to get the average, loyal, supportive SBC pastor riled up? Start a conversation about these interim jobs.  

• "Decentralization, regionalization and personalization" is the concept.

Some staff will live in various regions. The idea is a "new delivery system."

Will changes such as these slow the death of the state convention?

I hope it hastens the death of the centralized state convention. When you can ask pastors what their state convention means to them and immediately get a variety of concrete, positive answers, then perhaps the obituary state conventions can be said to be premature.

Cooperative Program and the new CEO of the Florida Baptist state convention

The only thing I invest in Florida is an occasional chunk of tourist money. The only thing I bring out of Florida is sunburn and a few fish. But I do think events concerning the Florida Baptist Convention are interesting, since it is one of the largest of the state conventions and one of the heaviest contributors to the Cooperative Program on the national level.

In 2014 FBC churches, through their state convention, sent almost $30 million to the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville to be allocated mainly to the mission boards and seminaries. In 2014 the FBC kept 58.63 percent of every CP dollar it received from FBC churches.

In the way most states present their accounting, they use certain traditional techniques to explain how a CP dollar is divided (often called the "split") between their state convention and the national CP allocation budget. The accounting always makes the split appear not to be as unfavorable to the mission boards and seminaries as it looks. I've always considered this accounting to be confusing if not mildly, though not nefariously, deceptive.

Florida has said that a 50/50 split is in the works. I have doubted it would ever arrive because of the accounting system, not that my doubts have any meaning south of the St. Mary's River.

But now Florida has a new Executive who is about a generation younger that their long-serving one who just retired. The new guy, J. Thomas Green, will present a budget this year to the FBC in session which, in his words, "will have a budget that gives away 51 percent and keeps 49 percent."

Goodbye, 59/50; sayonara, 50/50. So long, funny accounting. Hello, 49/51.

This reminds me of similar action taken by the new CEO in Iowa, a much, much smaller state convention. Their split was moved by a new CEO from 85/15 to a "true" 50/50" in one fell swoop. No more funny accounting there either.

Why the sudden shift? Why not slow and steady?

Green, who is 57, about two decades younger than his predecessor, said that the goal was in part to "get the 30-somethings and 40-something-year-olds back into the mix." He commented that the convention had been working towards a 50/50 split for five years and that "we need to do it immediately." He adds that the change is the right thing to do even if this doesn't accomplish what he expects or desires.

I would like the thinking of my new state CEO were I in Florida.

Here's a new executive who will start by having to cut funding in order to give Cooperative Program money away (not just toss it in the air but see that it gets outside the state and to the mission boards and seminaries) and do so in part because he thinks this will demonstrate serious change in thinking about the CP to younger FBC pastors who are not CP enthusiasts.

My anecdotal reading of attitudes is that younger pastors are general not engaged or enthused by the Cooperative Program and, when they find out how the accounting disguises the actual distribution of the funds, they move from mild apathy to cynicism and conclude that their mission dollars are better spent elsewhere. Perhaps others read the attitudes differently. I doubt that there are many who wouldn't recognize that the attitudes of younger pastors towards the CP do not bode well for its future.

Tommy Green, the new FBC CEO, may not have solved the problem but he has done something that will get the attention of his younger colleagues.

How much difference will it make?

No one knows but if I were a pastor in Florida, I'd like what I see.

____________

Interview of the new CEO in the Florida Baptist Witness: Tommy Green talks about everything...

Baptist21, younger dude Southern Baptist site interview: Beyond Fifty Percent: B21interview with Tommy Green

2014 Top SBC Stories, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

While you were reading the latest on Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the new Pope, these are some things of interest to Southern Baptists. You likely will not see these in any summary of the year's top Baptist stories in regular outlets.

Florida Baptist Convention Settles $12.5 Million Sex Abuse Case  

Background and summary of this game changing sex abuse case may be found here.

The reason this story is a top story is because it establishes a linkage in liability between a local church staff member and the association and state convention. The abuser was a Florida Baptist church planter who abused kids. Although he wasn't an employee of the FBC or local association, a local court held that these were liable due to failing to properly investigate the man's background. A jury awarded a $12.5 million judgment against the FBC which appealed and settled out of court. The terms of the settlement were not made public.

The salient point in all this is that our system of autonomy and non-connectedness is not absolute. The FBC was successfully sued over a sex abuse case involving a non-employee but an individual who was vetted by the FBC and who received some support from the convention. One hopes that our entities are paying attention here.

Baptist Press reports on sex abuse in local churches

Sex abuse by clergy and volunteers in Southern Baptist churches is a problem. If ignored it will not disappear. One can almost look in vain for any reporting by Baptist Press of such crimes among our almost 50,000 churches. One has to look elsewhere, Baptist News Global, and secular outlets for this.
BP finally got around to reporting on a case of sex abuse in one of our churches, here. BP didn't do any reporting on it, merely passed along the Alabama Baptist newspaper account.

Baptist Press may serve as the PR arm for our Executive Committee and do very little journalism; however, thousands of Southern Baptists rely on them for items of interest. BP should do a better job serving our churches and protecting children.

Twenty-three state conventions increase their Cooperative Program allocation

In a year-end story, Baptist Press reported that 23 states "increased the portion of Cooperative Program receipts forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries in moving towards the goal of a 50/50 allocation between in-state and SBC causes."

The Cooperative Program is a declining funding stream as a percentage of church receipts but the primary beneficiaries of the program, state conventions, are moving towards keeping less in-state and sending more to the SBC's institutions and agencies. Not all states are on board with keeping less. My own state convention here in Georgia has sacrificed greatly but is sending signals that they are already at 50/50, which being translated into normal arithmetic means 60% stays in state and 40% is sent on to the mission boards, seminaries, etc. Contrast that with the...

Iowa Baptist Convention moves to a true 50/50 Cooperative Program split, instantly 

New IBC Executive Director, Tim Lubinius, took a look at the convention's budget and saw that they kept 85% of every CP dollar. He proposed and the convention accepted a move, instantly, to a 50/50 split. Boom! It's done.

Designated Giving is Up, Cooperative Program Giving is Down

Check the figures here. For the second consecutive year, our Executive Committee received more in designated funds from state conventions that they did in Cooperative Program funds. In a few years, the Lottie Moon offering itself will be larger than all Cooperative Program money received by the Executive Committee. In spite of the long term trends, there seems to be little energy devoted to making the CP more attractive to churches.

Baptisms are down...membership is down

But...we had a task force look into the matter. Their report was that we're not baptizing enough, not evangelistic enough, not praying enough...

Florida Baptist clergy sex abuse case a game changer?

A church planter comes to Florida to plant churches affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention. He is not an employee of the FBC but is supported by the Convention through training, administrative services such as insurance and retirement, and is acknowledged through listing of Florida Baptist ministers. The local association assists the planter by giving him office space. The churches he plants are autonomous.

The planter is also a child sex abuser, though not one with any record of arrests or convictions.

While planting churches in Florida he abuses a minor, is arrested, and convicted.

The FBC is sued by the victim's mother and is awarded a $12.5 million judgment.

The FBC appeals, signalling confidence in its case that the man was independent and that they did not supervise the man and are not responsible for his actions.

Buried in a Florida Baptist Witness article of September 26, 2014 are a few paragraphs noting that the lawsuit has been settled out of court. Find the relevant passage beginning at the ninth paragraph in this news article.

The article notes that the settlement is confidential, will not impact the FBC's financial "bottom line," sets no precedent, and "no record will exist".

Little may be said publicly among Southern Baptist leaders and entities but it's hard to view this lawsuit, even as settled out of court, as not being a game changer for clergy sex abuse liability in the SBC, among our state conventions and various entities.

The insulation from liability that our convention structures have had as a result of local church autonomy is clearly weakened.

The sex abuse victim of an independent church planter and autonomous local church pastor sued the Florida Baptist Convention and won the suit and a large judgment. The convention settled, presumably with a monetary award and the predictable confidentiality agreement. Insurance companies were undoubtedly involved. Perhaps the FBC is not out any cash.

This isn't what a successful defense of autonomy looks like. The wall of separation between the individual pastor and the state convention (or, by extension a national SBC entity like NAMB) is cracked.

Here's what this may mean:

1. Lawyers for victims of clergy sex abuse will be encouraged to sue along the same pattern as this suit. Although the FBC was determined not to be the employer of the abuser, it did have some connectivity through background checks, training, and pastoral support.

2. Those who appoint, approve, support, and sponsor church plants and church planters have a responsibility to be thorough in vetting personnel, even if they are not considered employees. The abuser served previous churches where abuse was suspected and the FBC could have easily found this out by checking references. They did not.

3. Life is more complicated for autonomous Southern Baptists and it should be. If a church, NAMB, state convention, or local association sponsors, assists, encourages, or appoints any personnel they should be as thorough in vetting them as they are with those who are their formal employees.

The goal here is not to protect assets but to protect children from being abused at the hands of ministers, staff, and volunteers in our churches and entities.

One hopes lessons have been learned here. 

Is the $12.5 million judgment against the Florida Baptist Conv. a game changer?

The assessment of a $12.5 million judgment against the Florida Baptist Convention last Saturday, damages awarded to a victim of sexual abuse by a Florida Baptist church planter/pastor, is being called a "game changer" by the victim's lawyers and by advocates for clergy abuse victims.

The story is reported by ABP in this article: Florida Baptists to appeal abuse award

A subsequent ABP article with comments from the plantiff's lawyer: Lawyer: Abuse verdict possible game-changer

Christa Brown of Stop Baptist Predators and the most well known advocate of Southern Baptist clergy abuse victims has a commentary: Change is coming to Baptistland

The matter of clergy sexually abusing children in SBC churches is no small matter and certainly not a game. I would offer that the landscape has already changed in the way abuse is viewed at every level in SBC life; however, the judgment against the FBC does escalate things. If the judgment stands (the FBC expresses confidence that their appeal will be successful, no surprise there) it will be the first time a denominational entity has been successfully sued in such cases (save for one other occasion where an insurer settled to avoid high legal costs) and awarded damages for the action of a local church minister.

We Baptists do have this polity that we tout early and often, local church autonomy. In our system everyone knows that "Southern Baptist Convention" hires, supervises, and fires exactly zero local church ministers. Each church does that on their own, as they see fit. Critics maintain that SBC leaders "hide behind" this local church autonomy polity to avoid responsibility for the actions of local church ministers. SBC leaders respond that there is no material connection between an SBC church and the denominational machinery, since the Executive Committee of the SBC, state conventions, and associations have no control and power over any church or any church's ministers. 

But  we do have some hybrid arrangements where ministers receive funds from various SBC organizations other than their local church, where some ministers have some supervision by denominational entities, and where some have mandatory reporting requirements. Church planters, for example, are interviewed, trained, vetted, and selected by various people representing associations, the North American Mission Board, or other entity and some by joint arrangements among these. The failure of the FBC to check the abuser's previous places of service was the cause of the jury's decision in this case.  

I'm guessing that associations and associational missionaries, denominational executives, seminary administrators, state convention executives, and some pastors are pondering this matter now moreso than ever. 

Questions:

1. Associational Missionaries often handle resumes, try and place ministers seeking a church position, and provide references to churches asking about particular ministers. Will the association be held liable for negligence if an abuser with a history easily discovered is passed along to a church? Will associational missionaries just stop handling resumes altogether?

The common scenario for a clergy sex abuser is for him to leave a church where he has been suspected of abuse, either voluntarily or by forced termination, but without arrest or prosecution and relocate to another association or state where he is unknown and can start over with the same behavior. Associational Missionaries are the closest to the local churches, so they may be involved, unknowingly, in helping such a minister relocate and find another church. 

2. State conventions maintain online resume services. Will they continue or require more of those whom they permit to place a resume on their server? Will the state convention pastor relations staffer restrict or refuse to make referrals?

Most of us have been referred to churches sometimes in our career by state convention staff who assist in relocations. In my state a minister may create and place his resume on the state convention's website where church may access it and contact the minister about a position. I am unsure if state conventions are as helpful in placing ministers as they once were.

3. Will any SBC entity who provides funding, training, and supervision for church planters or other ministry positions tighten up their vetting processes?

The answer to this had better be 'yes' or we have cases of denominational malpractice. We would be severely ill served were our denominational staff not to have already done and be doing this.

4. Will churches or SBC entities that sponsor an individual as a church planter by providing funding be open to liability for his actions?

Take the mammoth and successful North American Mission Board's Send North America church planting program. Among other things, each planter must have a sponsoring or partner church, some local SBC congregation that commends him and is involved in some way with his church planting work. Does this expose that church to liability for the planter's actions? NAMB provides millions in funding for planters. Do they thereby acquire liability for each planter's actions?

5. What can be done?

The question of what Southern Baptists can do is a rather prickly one. We have in the past refused to establish an SBC Executive Committee level registry for convicted and confessed clergy sex abusers. Part of the reason for not doing this was, as I have heard, the question of liability. Even if there were such a registry, the abuser in this Florida case would not have been on it.

Should Southern Baptists establish an independent committee of professionals who would receive and maintain credible accusations against SBC clergy? This is one of the goals of Christa Brown and Stop Baptist Predators. The abuser in this case might have been reported to such a committee. Do SBC clergy wish to have an independent committee evaluating accusations against them and judging whether or not they are credible accusations? 

The long running Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal has caused the matter of clergy sex abuse in local SBC churches to undergo not a few changes. Many, perhaps all, church insurers require churches to have formal sex abuse policies and to do background checks on staff and volunteers. State conventions and otther entities have had such policies for years. I expect more change is coming. 

Perhaps our denominational brain trust could be roused to address this.

Whether the FBC award stands or not, now would be a good time to do something more than we are doing.

Florida Baptist Conv hit with $12.5mil judgment in sex abuse case

The Florida Baptist Convention plans to appeal a jury's decision to award $12.5 million in damages in a lawsuit claiming Baptist officials didn't check far enough into the background of a church planter convicted in 2007 of sexually abusing a 13-year old boy.

 Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press has the story on this: Florida Baptists to appeal abuse award. He has done more to publicize sex abuse in churches than any other Baptist I know of.

Baptist Press almost never carries stories involving sex abuse in SBC churches or involving SBC entities but they used the Florida Baptist Witness article on this one: Fla. convention to appeal jury judgment.

Another jury in May 2012 found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for running criminal, credit and background checks but neglecting to check references before helping Myers plant two now-defunct churches with training, financial aid and what the lawsuit termed implied endorsement by reporting news of his endeavor in the Baptist state newspaper.

The perp in the case was an officially sanctioned church planter for the Florida Baptist Convention who received funding, insurance, and other institutional support from the FBC and was working in an area where he was given office space by the local association. He started two churches there before he was convicted in 2012 of abusing a child.The damages were awarded after a second trial, completed this month.

I wrote on the original case back in 2012.

There are three things important about this case, aside from the main issue of children being abused by a miscreant Southern Baptist minister.

1. Local church autonomy and connectionalism is in jeopardy

It has long been the position, rightly so in my view, that associations, state conventions, and the SBC cannot be held liable for the acts of ministers hired, supervised, and fired by any of the almost 50k local SBC churches and missions. The Florida jury found the state convention to have liability because they failed to check the abuser's references and former places of service.

The perp has no money. The two churches he started in Florida are defunct. If there is any money to be found to award to victims it has to come from some higher level. The FBC has money. Although it is confident (read "slam dunk" in the comments of the FBC lawyer) it will win on appeal, I daresay that these are uncomfortable times for the state convention.

2. There are gaps in our autonomous system that make it rather easy for criminals like this man to move around without being caught and to victimize more children.

While the abuser was serving a church in Alabama, a deacon became suspicious when the pastor "surrounded himself with preteen boys" and on one trip made the boys swim nude. The concerned deacon took the matter to the church which split over the matter and the pastor left. 

But get this. The deacon who pushed the matter "asked his pastor to alert directors of missions in his association and two neighboring counties about his suspicions." God bless a deacon like that. There was no arrest, no confession by the perp,  and no conviction.  

Should Southern Baptists have some sort of arrangement whereby credible accusations could be referred, kept, and consulted? 

3. Those entities which provide funding for church planters and other non-employee positions should tighten up their vetting process. 

A few phone calls to former churches likely would have smoked this abuser out.

Somewhere, at some point, some SBC entity is going to be in the position of paying millions for a sex abuse case involving a local church. The FBC is confident this is not the case (the jury made a finding that the abuser was NOT an employee of the FBC, yet still assessed them for damages). 

Temporary setback in my 50/50 split predictions

Back in September I blogged and expressed skepticism (Skepticism, on this blog? Shocking, I tell you, shocking!) about the Florida Baptist Convention moving towards their stated goal of an eventual 50/50 split in Cooperative Program allocation. I said:

It looks like the FBC, with predictable regrets, may abandon the goal of a 50/50 split. It hasn't happened yet but the groundwork is being laid by convention leadership and the matter is being discussed. I suspect that a rollback from the 50/50 goal is as sure an outcome as is the rising of the sun over the Atlantic rather than the Gulf of Mexico.

Plodder dined on crow last evening; however, 50/50 is still years away so I will still stick with his prediction that the FBC will never get there.

At their annual meeting in the Sunshine State, the FBC did indeed continue on their route towards 50/50.

Baptist Press even headlined it: Fla. Baptists continue toward 50/50 CP split.

Messengers approved a 2013 Cooperative Program budget of $31.6 million, an amount identical to the 2012 budget. The budget, based on gifts from Florida Baptist churches through the Cooperative Program from June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012, will increase giving to the Southern Baptist Convention by 1 percentage point to 41.5 percent.

The increase in the SBC portion sustains a commitment by Florida Baptists to raise the percentage allocated nationally to an even 50/50 percent division of funds between the SBC and state.

"We are on track to be 50/50 in the next seven years," John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, told messengers.

I consider myself self-chastised over the matter...but we are still in the early innings.

The FBC is to be commended for continuing towards that goal.

There has been a major recalibration of state convention work the last few years, primarily as a result of dramatic drops in revenues. The response by many conventions is to react by incremental movement towards an equal division of Cooperative Program receipts with the SBC Executive Committee.

My thinking is that the changes are good, are positive, but that they will prove insufficient to motivate churches to increase the percentages they give from their offerings to the Cooperative Program.

Florida Baptist churches required to file the ACP?

In the Sunshine State it seems there is less sunshine on church statistics, since the Florida Baptist Convention reports that almost one in every six FBC churches fails to file their Annual Church Profile, the bane of pastors who hate administrative tasks. The Florida Baptist Witness reported that back in May and I thought it interesting.

I assume that my colleagues who are now serving have already done the 2012 ACP. If not, you had better get on it...especially if you are in Florida.

If you are a church in friendly cooperation with the Florida Baptist Convention you will soon be required to complete it or be considered to be, I suppose, unfriendly and not in cooperation.

Let's see, a FBC affiliated church can be theologically cooperative and financially cooperative but if they are not statistically cooperative and fail to disclose how many they baptize, how many members, how much giving, etc., they are in danger of being booted?

Sounds odd, but proposed FBC Bylaw Revisions spell this out. To wit:

The recommended Florida Baptist Convention bylaws define a cooperating FBC church according to four criteria: 

1) Theological:  ...the Baptist Faith and Message, revised in the year 2000, or any other declaration of faith which parallels the tenets of our historic Baptist faith, as the theological framework.
2) Declaration:  The church shall express its intent and commitment to cooperate with the Florida Baptist State Convention by delivering a written communication to the Florida Baptist Convention, Inc.
3) Financial:  The church shall annually make a meaningful financial contribution through the Cooperative Program.  A contribution of $250 or more qualifies the church to elect and send messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting. 
4) Statistical:  The church shall provide an annual church statistical profile (a/k/a an ACP) to the local association with which it is associated and/or the State Convention.

Hmmm, statistical cooperation?

Really? Right up there with the Baptist Faith and Message?

In fact, they bylaw revisions include measures for annual compliance which specify that a church is not in friendly cooperation unless they do two things (1) give money, and (2) files the ACP. Failure on either will cause the church to be "counseled" followed by being investigated and having "corrective action" undertaken.

I knew Baptists loved numbers but I'd like to see if the FBC kicks churches out for not filing their ACP.

Interesting.
 

Is 60+% of each CP dollar enough for state conventions?

Our wonderful Cooperative Program has done well in funding the panoply of state and SBC missions, seminaries, and entities over the last 87 years. It is not a perfect stewardship vehicle but is has been and is our main channel for cooperation. SBC life as we know it is unimaginable without it.

As it stands now, the state conventions keep, on average, about 62% of each CP dollar for their own use, a figure well within the 60 to 65 percent range that is the historic average. 

Question: How much of each undesignated Cooperative Program dollar should be enough for the state conventions?


[I am asking mainly about the legacy state conventions of the south, the ones with thousands of churches and millions of members, not of the state conventions outside of the south.]

After the Great Commission Resurgence there was a move to give more of the CP dollar to missions and, concomitantly, for states to keep less. A 50/50 split was the declared goal of many state conventions including the Florida Baptist Convention.

As I suspected/predicted almost two years ago when the FBC voted overwhelmingly for a 50/50 split, it is one thing to designate a 50/50 goal but quite another thing altogether to actually do what is necessary financially to get there.

It looks like the FBC, with predictable regrets, may abandon the goal of a 50/50 split. It hasn't happened yet but the groundwork is being laid by convention leadership and the matter is being discussed. I suspect that a rollback from the 50/50 goal is as sure an outcome as is the rising of the sun over the Atlantic rather than the Gulf of Mexico.

Baptist Press reported the other day about how 'Liquidity challenges' may loom for Fla. convention. 'Liquidity challenges' is a fancy way to say that the FBC cannot meet its current financial obligations. The story condensed opposing viewpoints of two Florida Baptist leaders (I do not think that the two opinion pieces in the Florida Baptist Witness are available online just yet). One view was that FBC spending must be cut to continue on the track to a 50/50 split while the other view implied that it was more important to keep CP dollars in Florida.

One FBC executive board member said,

 "... I don't want to see the Florida Baptist Convention come to a point where we can no longer do viable ministry here in Florida for the sake of sending monies somewhere else."

The proposed 2013 FBC budget keeps 58.5%, over $18 million, in the Sunshine State for  "viable ministry." in Florida where there are about 3000 churches and missions and a million members? That is better than many state conventions. 

No doubt the speaker supports international missions but differs on the funding proportion, implying that to do "viable ministry" in Florida requires the FBC to keep much more than half of every CP dollar.


One must acknowledge that state conventions have suffered far more in the last few years than other SBC entities. The FBC executive director claims that his state convention has suffered more than any other in this regard. Budgets have been slashed and then slashed again. Jobs have been cut. 

The question is whether or not churches value the work of the state conventions such that they are willing to continue allot over sixty percent of every CP dollar to in-state ministries or if this legacy allocation formula needs to be updated for the 21st Century. 


Since the Florida Baptist Convention is on a defined track to keep less in-state and give more of that CP dollar to SBC entities, mainly the mission boards, the question for churches is this: Do we believe that it is proper to cut international and north American missions funding to continue the same funding level for ministry expenses in our state?

Reading Baptist tea leaves is difficult but my sense about these funding decisions is that state conventions will do what is necessary to continue the historic funding proportions and we will never see anything close to a 50/50 split. As a result partly of that, churches will continue to give less to the Cooperative Program.

But to go back to my highlighted question above, just how much of each CP dollar should state conventions keep?

Update on Florida sex abuse liability case

A jury found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for the criminal actions of a church planter they trained and assisted. The jurors concluded that the FBC and local association did not do enough checks on this man who is a convicted child abuser.

Now, the Florida Baptist Convention requests verdict reversal in liability case and the Convention will appeal if motions fail. 

While the jury found the Convention liable for sexual abuse of a minor committed by a church planting-pastor, it also agreed with the Convention’s contention the pastor was not its employee.

“You can’t make a finding that we’re responsible for, in essence, behavior that is associated with someone who’s under my employ and then turn around and make a decision factually that the person was never under my employ,” said E.T. Fernandez III in a June 7 interview with Florida Baptist Witness.

“Legally, we call that an inconsistent verdict,” the Jacksonville-based attorney representing the Convention explained.

Fernandez has filed a motion for a new trial and a motion for “judgment notwithstanding the verdict.”

I read "slam dunk" between the lines of the Florida Baptist Convention lawyer's statements.

Nonetheless, one would hope that those in positions of responsibility have already tightened the procedures for vetting church planters that we may enlist, train, and support. It doesn't look good for Southern Baptists at any level to be putting child abusers in new churches.

We can do better than the FBC and Lake County Association did in this case. It will cost more money and take more time but has to be done.

A thirteen year old boy, in the eighth grade at the time, was selected and abused repeatedly over a period of six months by this man who convinced the kid it was a normal part of growing up.

The man had incidents but no convictions in two previous churches once authorities began to investigate.

A more thorough vetting process would have uncovered no prior convictions but would have found these prior suspicions and incidents.

Someone is at fault here and it is not the victim nor the church plant. The state convention and association should have strict rules and procedures in place to approve fund, and train church planters.

If state conventions and associations, along with churches, do a better job here and less kids get sexually abused in churches.

The changing landsape of clergy sex abuse in the SBC

We are autonomous; always have been and always will be.

Every church that identifies with the SBC, with any state Baptist convention, with any local association of Baptist churches hires and fires their own clergy and any crime committed by the pastor or staff is a local church matter, Responsibility and liability fall to the individual and perhaps the church.

Right?

Yes, maybe, sort-of. But not always.

Last month a jury in Florida held the Florida Baptist Convention and the Lake County Baptist Association partially liable for a pastor of two FBC church plants who was convicted of abusing a boy. (My blog on this case is here.) The FBC and association provided funding and training and were found to have been negligent in checking the perpetrator's former churches.

Damages were to be assessed and the case is continuing in that phase.

But just last week a pastor of a cowboy church in Alabama, affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention and the Marshall Baptist Association, was arrested on sex abuse charges for alleged crimes in Texas.

The pastor was a former convict with a long record. Evidently, someone in Alabama didn't do their homework.

No accusations have been made of crimes by the pastor while at the Alabama church but the Alabama cowboy church that he pastored has fired him.

The association's Director of Missions released a statement that refused comment due to "legal issues." No comment was reported from the Alabama Baptist Convention.

While further details weren't given, these cowboy churches almost always are congregations promoted, supported, and touted by state conventions and local associations. Were I with the Alabama Baptist Convention or the Marshall Baptist Association, I would be just a bit nervous. Who knows what the man might have done while in this church in Alabama.

Another month, another SBC clergy sex abuse report.

A few observations:

• The landscape for liability of SBC clergy has changed. State conventions, associations, along with the North American Mission Board and any other SBC entity have to be deliberate, meticulous, and thorough when finding, training, supporting, and placing clergy into churches or they may be liable for the actions of the clergy. Local church autonomy may no longer be a bulletproof defense.

• State conventions have to take the lead here, since most laypeople in churches and many associational missionaries are not sufficiently current on the legal issues in clergy sex abuse.

• NAMB has the resources to put internal controls in place immediately for their church planting program. If they have not already addressed this I would be surprised.

• It is not a bad development that Southern Baptists at every level have a strong incentive to be more careful in calling ministers. It has always been a scandal that SBC clergy who act unethically and sometimes criminally, have been able to move to new places of service with tacit approval of former churches, DOM's, and others who have knowledge but kept quiet because they didn't want to ruin a brother's ministry.

It is somewhat surprising to me that we loyal, dedicated, and supporting Southern Baptists have yet to hear from our denominational leadership on this matter.

Business as usual, where SBC clergy who behave badly easily move among our churches because of the silence of those who know, has to end. Would some denominational leader please take the lead in this? We are all harmed.

I have yet to read a syllable from the Executive Committee, Baptist Press, the Florida Baptist Witness, the Florida Baptist Convention, or other SBC entity on the issue.

We do have lawyers on the payroll, right?

Let's hear from them.

Annual Church Profile, RIP?

Well, no. It's not dead, just weathered with age and dying.

It is noteworthy that the Florida Baptist Convention reports that a significant number of their churches are not reporting data for the Annual Church Profile, that statistical summary of church attendance, finances, and other information.

An article in the Florida Baptist Witness reports that fully 15.6% of FBC churches have failed to provide such data "despite repeated efforts to collect the information."

To be frank, I came to look with some small degree of disdain at the ACP when the materials would show up in my church's mailbox each August or so. Nonetheless, I'd see to it that the information was provided, though in somewhat of a desultory manner. I confess that I got to the place where it seemed in some ways that the information was useful mainly for denominational statistical voyeurs and chest thumping ministerial braggarts who liked to see if anyone else was baptizing as many folks as they were.

Perhaps I was just a bit burned out on the thing.

Whatever the motivation or lack thereof, there is a general trend of churches tossing the ACP packet in the old garbage can and forgetting about it. It looks like 2011 will surpass 2010 and set a new record of low response rates.

Which raises some questions:

1. What will we do in associational meeting if we can't take the fresh statistics and see who's baptizing the most or who's not doing much? And, it has always been a part of evangelists' repertoire to declaim about how many SBC churches baptized no one last year. They will not know how many.

2. How will pastors searching for a new place of service know if a church that has their resume has enough money to pay them enough?

3. Great Commission Giving? Who would know? It would be extremely tedious, perhaps impossible, to go to each SBC entity and see what churches are giving directly to them.

I give credit to LifeWay and my state convention for simplifying the form and asking for less information the last few years but it looks like that will not be enough.

How about LifeWay offering a gift card to Outback Steakhouse for a completed form? That would guarantee full compliance, and quickly.

LifeWay's Ed Stetzer, our stat guru, said that the record low response rate...

"may be an indication that some churches no longer value their connection to the SBC, but I am guessing it is because many do not see how important the ACP is."

Stetzer further states that...

...“we measure points to what we value,” he added, “If we want SBC churches to grow, want new SBC churches to be added, want more individuals to be involved in Bible study and missions, and want churches to cooperate in Great Commission giving, we should be willing to measure our progress.”

Sorry, Ed, I'm not buying your second point. Filling out the ACP isn't much of an indication that we don't value growth or the progress of the Gospel. Let's go to Occam's Razor for this one. We're tired of it, or, reporting to denominational entities is not considered to have a lot of value. Stuff like that.


But even an 85% response rate is sufficient for adequate statistical analysis if we want to perform those but I might suggest that what we would really like to know is what certain individual churches and pastors are doing, or not doing.

Of course the gold standard is not the ACP, which may simply be made up numbers penciled in by whomever fills the form out in a church, but rather the state convention report of what money is actually received. Those represent real checks written to the Cooperative Program or to the various mission offerings. Attendance and baptisms, however, may or may not be real figures.

I'm a bit of a statistical junkie myself. I'd like to see full cooperation on the ACP though I fear that we will continue to set records for low compliance.

I'd take the Outback gift card, though, in an SBC triple-bypass heartbeat.

Game changer on sex abuse liability in the SBC?

A church planter who received support and training from the Florida Baptist Convention (FBC) was convicted of sexually abusing a thirteen year old boy in one of the autonomous churches he planted. The man is in prison for his crime and a jury has just found not just the church involved but also the FBC to be liable for damages he caused.

Is this jury decision that jumps beyond the autonomous church to both the local association and state convention a game changer in sex abuse liability for Southern Baptist entities?

I don't know the answer but the case is perhaps the single most significant development on clergy sex abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Here's a link to a news report of the case: Florida Baptist Convention found liable for former pastor who abused Eustis boy

The sex abuser was a pastor who planted two churches in the area with financial support from the Florida Baptist Convention and the Lake County Baptist Association.

Some of the facts of the case (from the news report):

Before Myers started his church work in Florida, the convention ran a background search on him, including a search of criminal cases, motor-vehicle violations and a credit check, according to testimony. However, none of the convention officials had checked his references or called the prior churches, according to testimony.

 [Lawyer for the FBC] argued that the convention is more of a support group for the affiliated Baptist churches and that Baptist churches are run independently. The convention doesn't maintain any kind of authority over churches, he argued.

"We had no right to control anything he did," [lawyer for the FBC] said to the jurors. "We didn't hire him. We didn't fire him. We didn't control him."

 However, the argument of the lawyer for the plaintiff proved to be persuasive to the jury:

[the sex abuser, Myers] came to Florida as a "church planter," and that the convention had a more direct role over him. Baptist churches may be independently run, but it wasn't a church committee that brought Myers to town, he argued to the jury.
Instead, Myers received his funding and training directly from the convention, was in contact with the convention's mission division and was included in church directories and Baptist publications as being affiliated, Weil argued.

"He wasn't a rogue. He wasn't on his own," Weil told jurors. "He was part of an affiliated church."

The Florida Baptist Convention did background checks on the man and found that he had no arrests or convictions. What the jury saw as negligent on the part of the state convention was their failure to check previous places of service where there was there was controversy over his behavior with young boys. 


If a Baptist pastor or staff member receives financial support, is included in denominational directories, is a recipient of training, and/or other types of support does this make the state convention or association liable for the independent actions of that pastor or staff member even though they do not employ or supervise him?

It does in this Florida case, so far.

If the verdict stands it could be expensive for the Florida Baptist Convention and catastrophic for the  Association. The latter could be easily bankrupted and the FBC with substantial assets could be hit hard.

The issue of how Baptists handle clergy is problematic. A man like the felon in this case may move from association to association, state to state, with impunity. That's not good for any of us. I don't know what the best solution to this is, but if the FBC has to pay damages in this case, the incentive should be sufficient for any SBC entity to ratchet up their level of scrutiny for all whom they fund and train.

A legitimate question out of this is whether or not state conventions and other Baptist entities are able to provide sufficient scrutiny for all the non-employees who may receive some funding and for all those who are involved in some level of training but who work in local churches.

For example, will the North American Mission Board, which is launching a major church planting effort as I write, one that will involve training and support for perhaps thousands of church planters, have to retool their vetting process? The same NAMB church planting initiative will employ a principle of not utilizing any planter or planting a church that is not related to a current SBC congregation. Does this relationship expose all those churches to liability even though they will not supervise the planter?

Will any of these SBC entities be able to thread the needle and support these people but without acquiring liability for their independent actions?

Serious questions. The answers should be formulated on the basis of what policy and procedures are best for protecting children and for keeping abusers out of our congregations. 

The solution proposed by some child protection advocates is a national, SBC funded, independent, objective review board to research abuse allegations. Even with that in place, this abuser would probably have not have had any record on such a board. No one can require churches to report unproven accusations. My thinking is that the vast majority of SBC churches are unlikely to send a report of local church gossip about a minister to any national board.

The holy grail for church sex abuse litigation among Baptist or other traditions where there is local church autonomy is to get liability moved up from the abuser's local church to one of the higher Baptist bodies.

As it stands now, this case has accomplished this. 

Is it a game changer?

I don't know but you can be sure every state convention, along with the Executive Committee, and SBC entities are looking at it closely.

So, how long do we have to wait for denominational executives and lawyers to address this with the greater SBC public?

Not long, I hope.

Autonomy? Baptist planet shakes a bit...

...after a Florida jury found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for a church planter that they funded and trained who later sexually abused a 13 year old boy.

Florida Baptist Convention found liable for former pastor who abused Eustis boy

Jurors decided that the  convention didn't do enough to investigate the background of Douglas W. Myers, who started two churches in Lake County after receiving funds and training from the convention.

At the same time the jury made a finding of fact that the man was not an employee of the FBC.

There is surely more to come on this but various convention entity lawyers are having a moment of anxiety today. 

Florida votes overwhelmingly for a 50/50 split but will they ever get there?

Good, honest question.

Answer to come in 4 to 7 years.

At least the Florida Baptist Convention but a timetable on it, however soft whereas the leader of the Baptist Convention of North Carolina said that their move to 50/50 may take a "protracted period".

The Florida Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to move “within 4-7 years” to a 50/50 Cooperative Program split with the SBC. The split is now 60/40, the 60% naturally staying in the Sunshine State for their use. The recommendation to move in this direction came as a result of a lengthy study and, after an hour and fifteen minutes of presentation and debate. Only a “small number” of messengers voted against it.

How does the administrative leader of the FBC view a move that would cut his revenue stream by about 17 per cent? Here is what John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, said:

“Let’s be sure we understand; we are not making budget decisions in this convention,” Sullivan said. “We are asking the SBOM to study these proposals; come back in the 2011 convention and report how we handle these recommendations.”

Sullivan said he has told the task force and the SBOM if the allocations change, it will require churches “stepping up to the plate and saying, ‘we are going to increase our Cooperative Program giving.’”

“I make this commitment to you,” Sullivan told messengers. “We will not allow the Florida Baptist Convention ministry to lose its integrity nor its effectiveness. This is an absolute essential. I do not have any problem going to 50/50. I do have a problem going to 50/50 and destroying the integrity and the effectiveness of this wonderful state convention.”

Let's do a little figuring here.

If the FBC had a 50/50 split on their present budget, rather than the 60/40 split, the International Mission Board would receive about an additional $1.5 million. If the FBC, in order to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of their ministries, puts the burden on the churches to just give more to the CP in order to implement the 50/50 split, then churches would need to give another $6.3 million to the CP. And that is with the assumption that the FBC can live on what they are living on now about a $31 million budget, an assumption that is probably not justified.

What will FBC churches do? I haven’t the faintest idea but if they felt strongly that overseas needs were a priority, why would they give $6.3 million in order to get less than a quarter of that, $1.5 million, to the IMB?

It seems to me that state conventions are responding positively to the Great Commission Task Force recommendations, but then, as John Sullivan pointedly said, “we are not making budget decisions” just yet.

Until then, it doesn't cost anyone anything.

We will see.