Along the Shore

Can We really Change as a Denomination?

Marty Duren, over at SBC Outpost, is writing a thought and emotion-provoking series of posts entitled Re:Imagineering the SBC. It promises to be a no-holds-barred look at the re-thinking the structures and entities of the SBC. Marty has pomised to ask the “hard questions” and try to discern which of our structures may nave become “ineffective, archaic, … or obsolete.” The goal, it seems, is a fundamental change in our SBC structures and mindset.

Well, I wish my friend, Marty, the best of luck. But I think that he has, most likely, “bitten off more than he (or we) can chew.” As a almost-lifelong Southern Baptist (I was a Southern Baptist for seven years before I became a believer!), I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that, long before we Southern Baptists will fight “for” anything, “change” is the one thing in life that we will fight against … with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Just think about it. Think about all of the vestiges of the past that still haunt the rooms and halls of our 21st century churches. A walk through the doors of most of our churches is a lot like hopping a time machine back to 1955. If we have such difficulty changing things within the local church, how in the world can we hope to execute a significant, decentralizing change of the fundamental structures of the SBC?

I applaud Marty for his efforts and for spearheading this discussion. I would love to see change of an enormous magnitude in the SBC. I believe that we need a “DNA level” type of change in Southern Baptist life. But our systems are not designed for change. We do not operate “missional speedboats” in the SBC … smaller organizations that are capable of “turning on a dime” to meet needs and address Kingdom issues. Instead, we have a fleet of “battleships.” Lately, we’re finding out that some of them are more like “cruise ships.” And I fear that we may have a Titanic or two in the Southern Baptist fleet.

Compounding the problem of change is the issue of cash. Money. Cooperative Program money. Piles of it. Those who hold power over the spending and allocation of those dollars will, most assuredly, be relunctant to relenquish any of that power or any of those dollars. They will go to their graves grasping the structures that we currently have in place. Truly, the centralization of finances and power is the very root of our problems.

So, I believe that change in the SBC must come, as always, at the level of the local church. True change must originate within the giving, missions, and stewardship structures of the multitude of local churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.

I know that I will be attacked for saying it. In some circles I already have. Yes, I am about to commit the great “Southern Baptist heresy.” Pray for me. But I am convinced that the Cooperative Program, as we now know it and have known it for generations, is one of those obsolete structures that must be re-examined. It has been an incredible tool for the past 75+ years, but times have changed.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am, by no means, advocating that we “kill” the CP.  But I do think that we need to seriously reconsider who (or what) gets the CP dollars.  I am advocating a streamlining of denominational structure, rather than a continued centralizing of power and funds.

The reality is that our Southern Baptist churches are already by-passing the Cooperative Program in great numbers. The trend toward other structures has been reflected in the budgets of our mega-churches. We have seen it in Southern Baptist life as past SBC presidents (or candidates for president and other positions of leadership) hail from churches which have a CP giving record in the 1-3% range of their budgets. Their missions giving is still there … their missions programs are still strong … they merely have other mechanisms for giving beyond the traditional Cooperative Program.

I, personally, do not think that this shift is a bad thing. My generation is not motivated by giving to a “fund pool” that is managed (and sometimes, regrettably, mismanaged) by people they do not know. My generation is not satisfied to give 14%, 16%, or 20% to the Cooperative Program and sit back, in satisfaction, and think that they have fulfilled the Great Commission. My generation wants to do missions. My generation wants to go to the mission field. My generation wants to touch the hand of the person who receives their missions gifts. We are not satisfied to “hire out” the professionals to do our Great Commission work for us.

And the generation coming behind me feels more strongly about this than I do. It is the generation that has spent the past fifteen years of their summers doing short-term mission trips. Our missions mobilization efforts are about to “come home to roost” in SBC life. This next generation is the most hands-on group of Christians that we have ever known. A fundamental change in the hands-on mission involvement and giving patterns in Southern Baptist churches is coming … whether our leadership or our SBC entities and structures like it or not. It is coming. You can count on it.

Dare I say it … has the Cooperative Program actually served, especially in the past twenty years, as more of an excuse from personal involvement in missions than a tool for effective Gospel outreach? Is it now a Great Commission attempt “by proxy?” Has it, perhaps, served as a mechanism of laziness for the people in the pews? Unfortunately, I think that it has.

Let’s be a bit pragmatic. I know that when you approach a church or denominational issue from a pragmatic standpoint, you are automatically considered to be less than spiritual. But I believe that pragmatism is literally screaming at us right now.

Here’s the hard, cold, pragmatic reality … the growth in our Southern Baptist churches is not keeping pace with the growth in our population. Implication? This means that we are not even reaching our own children with the Gospel, much less the unreached, unchurched multitudes in the United States and Canada. We are closing the doors on thousands of churches a year in North America. And, finally, as our church pews begin to empty out as God calls the faithful senior adults who fill them to their Heavenly home, that rate of church closures is going to increase dramatically. And the CP dollars are going to wane.

Something has to change. We are not “getting it done.” So, maybe our fundamental approach of centralized giving, consolidation, and distribution of wealth is not nearly as effective as we have been led to believe.

What do you think? Can we look at the evangelistic non-results, the great numbers of our churches that are lost in a culturally isolated “time warp,” and the overall decline of our culture (at large) in the United States … and still proclaim what a wonderful, effective tool our Cooperative Program has been?

I don’t think we can afford any more “sacred cows.” Our freezers are too full of Baptist beef already. And, from the viewpoint of my local church, that includes the current Cooperative Program structure.

Just wanted to give everyone an update.  We’re back in Lima.  And we definitely sensed and experienced the fruit of all of your prayers today.

Matt Ladd, a member of our team from Crossroads Fellowship, and I were involved in a serious accident on the way back to Lima today.  We were about two hours out of Lima when we rounded a curve on the mountain highway to find a large bus about six feet into our lane.  Our IMB missionary and driver (I won’t name him, because there may be security issues … I’m not sure)  tried to turn harder and miss the bus, but it was raining.  We slammed into the side of the bus and seriously damaged the front of the mission vehicle.  Matt was in the front.  He sustained a little seat belt bruising.  I was just tossed about a bit.

We finally removed the vehicle from the highway and called Lima.  While waiting for an insurance rep and wrecker to come, the police showed up.   Our driver was “detained” for a statement.  I think that, being a “gringo,” he automatically received credit for the accident, despite the fact that the bus was occupying a dramatic portion of our lane.  So, he stayed put with one of our interpreters and waited for legal assistance, as we set out for Lima.  It was a horrowing 2-hour finish … but I think Matt and I were a little PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

But we are all well.  We are safe.  And we are returning home tomorrow night.  I’ll post my reflections on this adventure when I return home.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers.  They made all of the difference.

We did our training today.  It was a lengthy, informative orientation.  We finished around 3:00 this afternoon, then did a little shopping for supplies.  We ate dinner at (of all places) Chili’s!  It was excellent.  The best steak I have eaten in a long time.  We wanted to graze on some good, hot food because it might be a few days before we get another really good meal.  We’re hauling army MRE’s and Little Debbies into themountains with us.

We are leaving at 07:00 tomorrow for the Huanuco province to make contact with our people group, the Pachitea Quechua people in the area of Panao.  There are approximately 54,000 people in this group.  There are a handful of churches in the lower elevation pueblos.  We will be meeting with those pastors to see how we can come alongside them and work to carry the Gospel to the more isolated in the higher elevations.

The trip is going to be a greuling 10-hour trek.  We have to cross the first range of the Andes, and the continental divide, at about 15,000 feet.  The area where we will be working is around the 10,000 foot level.  I’m a bit concerned about the elevation.  I’ve had difficulty, personally, with elevation before.  I would appreciate your prayers for our entire group.

I will officially be “off the grid,” completely out of contact until Thursday night.  I will post about our adventures once I return to the IMB guest house in Lima.  Please pray that God will make His will clear for our church as we consider a five-year partnership to help facilitate a church planting movement among the Pachitea Quechua people of the Peruvian Andes Mountains.

We have arrived! We got into Lima right around midnight last night. We are currently staying at the IMB (International Mission Board) guest house. We’ll be doing our orientation and training today, then taking off on our 10+ hour journey to Pachitea to meet with some pastors and plot out our strategy for the coming partneship.

Exciting stuff! I’ll post more later tonight. Pray for us!

I’m leaving early tomorrow for Peru.  I’ll be leading a small mission team from my church to meet with the leaders of the Reap North Peru strategy.  The Reap North IMB team has an incredible partnership strategy.  They link individual churches from North America with unevangelized people groups in their area.  They ask for churches to make 5-year commitments as “missionaries” to a single people group, sending three or four small teams each year in an attempt to evangelize and facilitate a church planting movement within that group.

This is our first trip … our “vision trip.”  It is very ambassadorial in nature.  We are going to meet with the handful of Christians in the Ambo-Pasco Quehua indians high up in the Andes Mountains.  They are a tiny contingent of the family of God among a people who remain 98.5% unevangelized.   We are going to meet and see how we can assist them in reaching their people with the message of Jesus Christ.

Please pray for me and team members Matt Ladd, Ramona Alexander, and Kristina Gandy from the Crossroads Fellowship (SBC) in Cadiz, Kentucky.   I’ll try to check in sometime during the week if I can get access to the web.  If I’m not able to do so, I’ll be back on my blog on Sunday, January 28, with lots of stories to tell.

Mary Kinney Branson, the former Director of Marketing for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, has written a new book detailing (at least giving her version of) the inner struggles, politics, and abuses at NAMB under the leadership of Bob Reccord. It’s called Spending God’s Money.

This back of the book offers a pretty good summary of where she’s headed on its pages. I found this posted, also, on the book’s product description at amazon.com (which I have copied here).

What’s Happened to Our Contributions? A hundred years ago, collective giving seemed the perfect solution. What one individual or church couldn’t do, combined efforts accomplished with ease. National agencies sprung up, offering to spend on our behalf. And we embraced them. Flash forward to days crammed with emails, overtime, and endless commuting. Time is often more valuable than money, and the desire to delegate spiritual privileges and responsibilities is even stronger. Surely national agencies and the professionals who oversee them can carry out the Great Commission faster and more effectively than harried homemakers and stressed executives. But as our time shrinks, national ministries grow larger. What started as lean groups of roll-up-your-sleeves workers have become Paul Bunyan-sized agencies, with excess fat and an overload of middle men draining a big chunk of the money intended for spreading the gospel. Elaborate national headquarters have shot up across America, with presidential office suites rivaling those of top CEOs. And giving isn’t the same. Sending a check to a faceless organization doesn’t generate the same fulfillment as pressing money into the hand of a young person heading for the mission field. Now the only smiling faces are those of mega leaders. And recently, their smiles have been fading as disenchanted givers voice their displeasure with irresponsible spending. The author of this on-the-edge book proposes an answer. After opening readers’ eyes to the tremendous waste of their hard-earned dollars, she offers ways to bring joy and effectiveness back into giving.

I received my copy of the book from the publisher around 2:30 yesterday. Right now that seems to be the only way to get it. Anyhow, I started reading it immediately … and I couldn’t stop. My wife thought I was “possessed” or something. I finished reading it around 9:00. I don’t think I will ever look at Cooperative Program giving in the same way again.

Let me say on the front end that I didn’t particularly enjoy the overall flow of the book. I found it a bit difficult to follow at times. Branson introduced important “players” at NAMB, often only by first names. After a while all of the names of all of the VP’s (there seemed to be a whole lot of them) started to blend together. But, as a read account after account of waste, abuse, and even (so it seems) fraudulent use of our sacrificially-given Cooperative Program dollars, I found myself searching for a highlighting pen. The passion and personal experience from which she wrote this book are powerfully evident.

And let me be frank. I’ve had my own personal dealings with NAMB. I am not the organization’s biggest fan. I worked under a contract status, providing professional leadership for short-term mission projects at a department at NAMB for eight years. I was once “fired” by a NAMB associate from one such position through a message on my home answering machine … I got share that humiliation with my family in the room. More recently, I was “let go” because I wanted to start a new ministry that was somehow viewed as “competitive” with a similar ministry at NAMB … and all the while I thought that us Jesus folk were all on the “same team.”

But I found myself having an “out of body experience” as I read Branson’s account of the sheer scope of the wasteful spending of Cooperative Program dollars through our North American Mission Board. I won’t go into any details. You need to read this stuff yourself. But when I found out that, with a budget of $132 million, we were only able to fully fund and field 32 full-time missionaries in North America, well … that “sealed the deal” for me. But at least we have a really nice building full of “middle managers” to show for it and a warehouse full of useless, unsellable inventory … right? Sigh…

If these claims are true, and by all accounts that we have been made privy to up to now it seems that they are, I can’t help but think that there will soon be a radical change in the giving patterns of Southern Baptist churches. Especially when Southern Baptists learn about the boatloads of “loot” and perks that Bob Reccord and other FOBs (that’s the NAMB acronym for “friends of Bob”) made off with when they departed (or even if they never actually were on staff of) our mission board (if these reports are, indeed, true … but I think Southern Baptists should be informed if CP dollars have been used to “buy out” contracts) .

Branson’s thesis seems to be that the further God’s money gets from the hands that gave it (that’s us, by the way … Southern Baptists), the more likely it becomes that a significant portion of those dollars will be wasted, in one fashion or another. I tend to agree. It’s common sense, really. The larger a bureaucracy, the more waste involved. We see it in governments. The most effective, wisest-spending form of government is local. Likewise, it stands to reason that the most effective, most careful, thriftiest spenders of “God’s money” must be the local churches. There is accountability in the local church. There are “checks and balances.” Both the giving and the spending are “personal” in the local church. And, after all, good stewardship requires good accountability just as much as it requires generosity.

I must admit that as a pastor of a relatively young church plant (under five years), comprised primarily of new and young (twenty and thirty-somethings) believers with no historical or familial ties to the SBC, it is a difficult “sell” to convince them that we should mail our monthly checks to a faceless “Baptist fund in the sky.” They want to know where the dollars that they gave are going. They want to know how they are spent. They want to give to a “point of contact.” They want to fund our own home-church “missionaries” in our own mobilization endeavors. Now that I’ve read this book, I don’t feel quite so compelled to be a “CP salesman” and try to convince them otherwise.

Let me confess right now … I am pretty disenfranchised in Baptist life anyway at this point in my ministry life. In the last five years I have been “let go” twice by NAMB, accepted and then six months later kicked out of my local Southern Baptist Association, and seen my church listed in the Kentucky Baptist Convention report book under the auspicious title of, “Miscellaneous.” This “miscellaneous” group of unaffiliated Southern Baptist churches to which I belong (in Kentucky) has relatively little representation on our state board, even though we represent almost 10% of the KBC churches.

From my view, it seems that the only time anyone wants to hear from me or my church in Southern Baptist life is if our correspondence has a check included with it.

I’m tired of being one of what Branson calls the “16 million worker bees” financing the desires and whims of a chosen few. I’ve got a lot of searching, pondering, and praying to do.

I’m wondering. Is the day upon us … I mean staring us full in the face … when one’s level of Cooperative Program giving is no longer the “measuring rod” that defines what it means to be Southern Baptist? Is it time for a new generation to step out in boldness and faith and stop “hiring out” the work of missions and evangelism that we should be out doing ourselves?

The Cooperative Program was created in the early 20th century (though the foundations for cooperative giving were laid in the middle of the 19^th century). Things have changed dramatically in the past 80+ years. It’s not the same “world.” It’s obviously not the same Cooperative Program. And it’s definitely not the same Southern Baptists licking the stamps and mailing the checks.

I’m going to pray fervently about this while I’m on the mission field overseas next week. I’m going to talk personally with some IMB personnel to get their input and absorb their wisdom. I will analyze and write at length on all of this, and more, when I return. Meanwhile, I hope that I don’t miss out on the really good discussion and debate while I’m gone!

Today I received my copy (via snail mail) of Spending God’s Money: Extravagance and Misuse in the Name of Ministry by Mary Kinney Branson. The book is available through the publisher, Father’s Press. I just flipped through the book this afternoon, and have yet to find a page that does not have the acronmyn “NAMB” on it.

It appears to be a tell-all book from an “insider.” I think it may transform giving in Southern Baptist life, if enough people actually hear about it.

I plan to read as much of it as possible tonight. I will post a reaction tomorrow.

I posted a couple of days ago about some innovative methods that our church has employed as outreach strategies to the men in our community. Fellow pastor and blog buddy Tony Sisk challenged me on the notion. He tends to cast his “vote” against these demonstrations of manliness. He made a very thought-provoking statement …

My contention is that most men have abdicated their God-given responsibilities of prayer and service and until they reclaim those priorities, it does not matter how many Harleys you park in the vestibule or tree stands you hang from the balcony to encourage men to do those things. Killing a bear with their bear hands will not make more godly men out of them.

Tony might have a point. If such ministries and events aimed at men are the “end-all” of what churches are doing to disciple men, then I agree with Tony.  They fall way short of what our men truly need in their lives.  But if they are simply creative means to reach out to men and include them in a place and atmosphere of “manly” fellowship, then I think I tend to disagree.  Indeed, I think that events and ministries aimed at men … where they are … within their interests, are just what the “Great Physician” ordered.

Consider …

The Western Recorder, the weekly newspaper of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, ran a fascinating story a few months ago by Kristen Campbell of the Religion News Service entitled, “Getting Men to Church.”

Much of the article is an analysis of David Murrow’s book, Why Men Hate Going to Church.

Consider these interesting insights that Campbell noted and quoted from Murrow’s book:

• “My background is in marketing and advertising … the target audience of almost everything about church culture was a 50 to 55-year-old woman.”

• The theology and practices of Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam offer “uniquely masculine experiences. Every Muslim man knows that he is locked in a great battle between good and evil, and although that was a prevalent teaching in Christianity until about 100 years ago, today it’s primarily about having a relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally. And if that’s the punch line of the gospel, then you’re going to have a lot more women than men taking you up on your offer because women are interested in a personal relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally. Men, generally, are not.”

• On Sunday morning, “We’re going to sing love songs to Jesus and there’s going to be fresh flowers on the altar and quilted banners on the walls.”

Pretty heavy stuff. We have all recognized for generations the glaring absence of men fm our churches. Maybe it’s not because they’re simply not interested in spiritual matters. Perhaps they are just not engaged by the overwhelmingly feminine presentation of the faith found in most of our churches.

What do you think? Should we in the church, perhaps, share some of the blame for the apparent spiritual apathy and glaring lack of male leadership in so many of our churches? Should we reconsider the very presentation of our faith to this current generation of men?

I an privileged to serve as the pastor of Crossroads Fellowship in Cadiz, Kentucky. God allowed us to plant this church on March 24, 2002. We are rapidly coming up on our fifth “birthday” in the life of our congregation.

Many things have changed in that five years. We have changed locations four or five times. We have changed people. Some jumped on board with our vision early on but, for various reasons, did not persevere. Yet God has graced us with many wonderful, faithful followers of Christ. We have been blessed to see over sixty people come to the Lord in that five-year span and follow Him in New Testament baptism.

And we have changed in our numbers. We have grown as a church … not as much as I would have liked … but we have grown. We launched the church with a classic “large launch.” That was the method that Ed Stetzer taught me as Southern Seminary. We had 174 people in attendance on our opening day. That number dropped down to about 100 the following week and it has climbed, somewhat steadily, since that time. Over the past couple of years we have averaged about 160-170 people each week in our worship celebration, preschool time, and G-Force worship for elementary kids (all were held simultaneously). Sometimes we had more, sometimes less. We have penetrated the 200 mark only a couple of times in our short history. Our actual church membership is about 125 people. We are a Southern Baptist anomaly … we have more people in attendance that we have members. We’ve actually kept up with everyone!

Our biggest problem, though, has been the space. We have purchased a 39-acre property for our future “campus.” We have also purchased a small building (4,000 sq. ft.) immediately across the road from that campus property for our temporary home. 160 people a week pushed us to the max. It has been uncomfortably crowded.

I led our elders and our LIFE Group Shepherds (our equivalent of “deacons”) to study and consider a move to using our building twice … doing two of “everything” on Sunday morning. We took several months to discuss and cast the vision. Then, we called a “family meeting” of the entire body to discuss the move. Some were skeptical. They thought that the division of the worship would hurt the body. They felt that we needed a single worship hour. Others were supportive. But, in the end, the church agreed to follow me as their pastor, step out in faith, and see if God might grow us by dividing us.

We started our dual ministry hours two Sundays ago, on January 7. A new year with a new schedule. And guess what happened! Instant growth!

• January 7 : Total Sunday Morning Attendance – 254
• January 14: Total Sunday Morning Attendance – 239

We have broken through the 200 barrier! We grew by dividing. Most of us have known this simple concept for years … we once called it the “Sunday School Growth Spiral.” The way that you grow is to grow to the maximum in your current units, then divide into more new units, then continue the cycle of growth.

At Crossroads Fellowship we have learned that the concept works across the board. It works with regard to worship services, as well. The most difficult concept to grasp, if we truly desire to grow in numbers, is that it is “OK” not to know (intimately) every single person in the church. But, through our LIFE Groups and Ministry Teams (small groups) you can get to know a small group of people very well.

Sounds kind of like the second chapter of Acts to me…

There is a common problem that most of us suffer in our churches. The problem is our men, or lack thereof. Sadly, through much of church history, it seems that the women have taken the spiritual lead in many of our homes and most of our churches. Much of the ministry programs of the 20^th century were aimed at children and youth, with the idea that if you can reach the kids they you will reach the entire family. But that conventional wisdom has been proven to be untrue. Instead, what we have discovered is that if you reach the MAN of the family, then about 90% of the time you reach the entire family for Christ. So … it seems to me like we need to be designing our ministries to focus upon the men of our communities.

Some of the guys in my church have stumbled across a new ministry opportunity to reach men … paintball. It all started when one of the men in my church, John Fuller, and his son, Zach, set up a small paintball course in the field next to their house. Over time, the course has grown as they added more and more obstacles and cover. They have even extended part of it into some adjacent woods.

John talked to me one Sunday morning about the church officially backing their “Paintball Ministry.” He reminded me of our motto that we have repeated over and over since we planted the church, “Whatever it takes…” to design ministries to meet needs, create fellowship, and reach people for Christ.

I was intrigued. They invited me to play late that afternoon (we don’t have Sunday evening “services”), and I had a blast! There were thirteen men there, and six of them were not members or regular attenders at our church. John is convinced that this is a huge opportunity to reach out to the men in our community. We live in the hunting and fishing epicenter of the universe! And Fort Campbell is very close by. We have many military men within the vicinity of our church.

John’s passion and his obvious success in outreach to men have started us thinking. We are even considering adding a paintball battlefield on the “back forty” (back in the woods) of our 39-acre campus. We know that it is very different, and not very churchy. The more traditional churches in our area will probably verbalize a few negative comments about it. So what else is new? But if it reaches the men in our area, isn’t it worth it?

We have hosted several other outreach activities aimed at men: fishing tournaments, wild game fellowships, hunter’s education courses, construction projects (…yes, our “missions” activities often get men from outside the church involved!), and sports activities. In April we are leading our men on a five-day saltwater fishing retreat on the Florida Gulf Coast. 30% of the men going are from outside our church!

What do you think? Isn’t this the kind of “out of the box” thinking that we need for reaching our communities? What are some other creative, maybe even outlandish, ways that we could reach men? Please share your ideas.