State conventions should add value, not guilt, to churches

...the value of a state convention will not be determined by the size of its staff, its building, its budget, or its programming. Value will be determined by one metric alone—investment in the local church. When we bring value to the church, we bring glory to God.

The quote above is not mine, although I have made many such statements over the past decade or so. These words are from the chief executive of one of our largest state conventions - Tommy Green, Executive Director-Treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention.

There have been times when it has seemed to me that the only tool in the toolbox of state convention staffers and leaders has been a single, blunt club whose design was to bring a feeling of guilt onto church pastors and laypeople over their level of Cooperative Program giving. That has proven to be an ineffective tool in the long haul, CP giving by churches declining slowly, steadily, relentlessly over the past several decades.

Thank God for a fresh, new approach to promoting one's state convention to the churches: bringing value to the local church.

SBC presidential candidate J. D. Greear has a blog, Conventional Futures, in which has this timely article by Tommy Green: Bringing Value, Not Guilt, to Local Churches: The Role of the State Conventions. I have found the articles and podcasts on Conventional Futures to be interesting and valuable in addressing things that will matter to SBCers now and in the years ahead.

It is not lost on many pastors that state conventions are in a tight spot, declining revenues, aging ministries and attendant physical plants, struggles to define mission, difficulties in showing exactly how value is added to local churches through the millions collected, budgeted, and spent by the state organization.

The energy and innovation in state convention seems to be coming from either (a) state conventions that have started fresh and new (Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, possibly the SBC of Virginia) or (b) states that have made rapid and drastic changes in their approach to doing their work. The Florida Baptist Convention is an example of the latter.

In my own state convention here in Georgia drastic changes have been made but mostly as a result of revenue declines. If changes have added value to the churches I am at a loss to explain exactly where or how. State staff are to an individual, solid servants of Christ who desire to help pastors and churches and I have always appreciated that.

As to my state convention's value, I offer this positive example. I was asked recently by a church near me to conduct a review of the church's finances, policies, and procedures. The source for sample policies, recommended best practices, and other resources is one of the offices of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. I was able to meet with church leaders, show them the results of my review, but also hand them sample policies and other documents to help them implement the administrative structures and controls needed.

Tommy Green, again:

When it comes to CP giving, we do not guilt our churches. I have not initiated any individual conversations with pastors concerning their church’s commitment to CP. I fully believe that the local church decision must be valued and honored by our SBC. The percentage a church gives is not the litmus test for our involvement with that local church. As a former pastor of a local church, I fully understand the nuances of resources, commitments, and factors that impact a local church budget. The state convention exists for the church and not the church for the state convention. Our goal is to bring value and not guilt to the churches of Florida.

My state convention practices the same thing: the church with the most tenuous connection to the GBMB, the church that gives only a token amount to the GBMB will receive the best the state staff can offer. That's the way it should be.

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.