Georgia Baptist Convention surprises

A pleasant surprise
John Waters was elected GBC president with about 53% of the votes. I had the feeling that he was the underdog. Waters' opponent, Fred Evers, had some very heavy hitters backing him, including the host pastor. He also had by reason of his position a prominent place on the convention program and platform.

My guess is that Waters gained votes as a result of his extraordinary commitment concerning appointments to key GBC committees. To be candid, most folks attending the meetings are outsiders like me (though the so-called GBCInsider tweeted support for Waters during the meeting) and I couldn't see much difference between the two candidates, other than the appointment business.

The GBC has some difficult days ahead. Waters has my prayers.

An unpleasant surprise
In between the time the GBC staff printed the convention Book of Reports for the meeting and this week, revenue projections for 2012 came in and the GBC had to cut an additional $1.7 million from the proposed budget. Both the SBC and the GBC took a haircut on that. Debt service escaped unscathed, not that there was a choice about that.

A semi-pleasant surprise
I wrote earlier this year about a confusing aspect of GBC accounting. In this state GBC staff likes to state that the GBC "shares each Cooperative Program dollar equally" with the SBC. This is an accurate statement but only because the GBC has created an artificial category they call "Shared Responsibilities" into which a pile of expenses are tossed, sufficient to make up about 20% of the entire GBC budget. After doing that, staff can tout 40% SBC, 40% GBC, 20% shared, even though over 60% of those CP dollars never make it north of the Georgia-Tennessee border.

Let's be frank: We don't "share equally." But there is a new wrinkle, one that says that the GBC recognizes the negative perceptions of this accounting technique.

Part of "Shared Responsibilities" has included debt service on the GBC's sparkling and expensive building, about $1.7 million. I was surprised to see that the GBC gurus create an entirely new budget category called "Capital Debt Service." There's no way to describe it as being in any sense "shared" with the SBC.

However....the gurus made an orphan budget category for the debt service rather than to include this in "Georgia Baptist Convention Causes" which it certainly is.

Memo to my friends at the GBC: I commend you for recognizing a problem here but we still don't "share equally" with the SBC, creative accounting notwithstanding.

An unexpected surprise
Most of the program personalities were younger pastors. Nothing wrong with youth and inexperience.

No surprise at all
Virtually all of the GBC staff who had platform time, almost all of the presenters represented were, uh, middle age or older gray hairs. Nothing wrong with age and, hopefully, wisdom, although I hear that older folks are more likely to...uh...die. Well, you get the idea here.

Another unpleasant surprise, and probably the most salient of all.
Dr. White, GBC leader, stated that churches were giving around 8% of their offering plate dollars through the CP in 2000 but that this had dropped to about 5.5%. That is a staggering 31% decrease in a decade.

There are some challenges. May God guide us as we meet these.

The GBC presidency - Will it make any difference?

I've been a pastor in Georgia for almost 15 years. It's home. I like the Georgia Baptist Convention. I like my fellow pastors. I like the GBC staff that I know and have worked with. The ones I don't know are probably great folks. I have no big complaint about things here.

We have two outstanding GBC pastors, Fred Evers and John Waters, campaigning furiously for the presidency this year, and that even though the moderates and liberals in this state have long since departed GBC life. So far as folks like me in the GBC hinterlands know, there isn't any scandal afoot nor any unsavory characters lurking around.

No Visigoths are at the gate in this state convention.

For reasons previously offered I plan to vote for John Waters for GBC president, not that my vote is anything other than one hacker and plodder's vote. But bloggers like to do stuff like this, just in case someone else might be paying attention. Happy to do my part. If John Waters loses and Fred Evers wins, I will still be a happy GBC guy.

But what I'm ruminating on about the whole business of GBC politics is this: Does it really matter? The answer that I hate to give is - probably not.

There are matters of concern. The GBC is at the budget level we were at a decade ago and employs scores fewer employees that we did a decade ago. The state convention as a moral influence and a significant force in the state is likely lower than it has been in generations (the latest example may be found here).

So, does it matter which successful pastor is our president? In a way, no.

The GBC does yet have a good pile of Cooperative Program money to spend. It's a falling sum but still quite significant. Replacing one group of decisionmakers with another will likely not change much. We may tweak a bit here, shift a little there, and replace this program with that one. Some employees may be ushered out and new ones hired. A new regime would probably only nip at the margins, since we have heavy fixed investments in buildings, programs, schools, and ministries. No one will change much.

We can rearrange the deck chairs on this ship but not do much else? Perhaps. The ship isn't sinking, of course, just shrinking.

God can certainly move things much faster, more dramatically, and permanently. I don't see that He is tied to any state convention election, budget, or personnel issue.

On the other hand, the GBC president is a person in a good position to take steps to see that GBC ownership is shared and greater participation is encouraged. Control of convention budgets, entities, and programs has been rather tightly held by a well-meaning few. It cannot but help to broaden the base of GBC supporters. Such will not be swift or dramatic, but it will be a positive move.

But does it make any difference who is elected? Probably not in the short run. But if commitments to expand convention leadership and ownership are studiously kept for the short and medium future the base of GBC supporters cannot but be expanded.

Both GBC presidential candidates have stated that they would involve new (the word 'and younger' is usually affixed here) people. Good for them both.

To my way of thinking John Waters alone has offered some very specific and concrete commitments about this. He has also explicitly stated he would like to be held accountable for this.

That's good enough for me, whether it makes a lot of difference or not.

Old fashioned Baptist politics is alive and well in Georgia, for good or ill.

In less than a month the Georgia Baptist Convention will have their annual meeting and elect a president. In thirty years as a pastor I have never seen as vigorously contested an election as this one.

There are two candidates, Fred Evers and John Waters. Both are good men. Both give heavily to the Cooperative Program. Both are outstanding pastors.

Fred Evers has a website.

John Waters has a website.

Starting back in August, I began to receive emails from former GBC presidents touting Fred Evers. His wife even has a mass email promoting his candidacy.

Both men are holding meet-and-greet sessions. I don't know Waters' schedule but Fred Evers stated that he was having fifty, that's five-zero, of these meetings aroung the state.

Fifty? That's several per week. Serious campaigning.

Georgia is and has been solidly conservative. There is no moderate group active in the Georgia Baptist Convention. Manifestly, that doesn't mean that intra-inerrantist politics cannot be white hot.

So, here we go...for good or ill.