Missions

A few days ago a friend of mine recommended I read a blog of a pastor who has recently announced he will be running for the office of president of the Southern Baptist Convention this year. His name is Bryant Wright and he is pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Georgia, a huge church where he has been the pastor for 28 years. What caught my attention, and my friend’s, was Johnson Ferry’s missions giving. It is Pastor Wright’s conviction, and mine, that to much of the dollars given to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention stays in the United States and not enough goes to International Missions. Here’s a portion of his blog entry:

For a good number of years, as God began to work powerfully in Johnson Ferry through Global Ministries, we have focused on getting a higher percentage of our mission dollars to international missions. Our missions leadership at Johnson Ferry began to realize that more than 60 percent of the dollars to the Cooperative Program stayed in the state and only 16 percent of each dollar wound up on the international mission field.

We became greatly concerned about the very high percentage of this fund focusing on state missions and the very low percentage of this fund going to international missions. As a result, we began to give half of our Southern Baptist mission gifts straight to the International Mission Board (IMB) through the Lottie Moon Offering and IMB special projects. We'd rather give the bulk of our Southern Baptist mission dollars through the Cooperative Program, but until a radical reprioritization of mission funds occurs and more of the funds make it to the international mission field, we will continue to give a big percentage directly to international missions.

It is also an important time in our denomination when three key leaders of denominational agencies will be appointed over the next year: President of the Executive Committee; President of the International Mission Board; and President of the North American Mission Board. These three leaders will have a huge influence in the fruitfulness of Southern Baptists reaching our world for Christ over the next 15-25 years.

You can read his entire post at bryantwright.com/blog. This under-funding of International Missions is of great concern to me as well. I’m encouraged to see a denominational leader who is interested in changing this imbalance. In another post he relates that in 2009 his church gave 4.4% of its annual budget to international missions through the IMB. 4% sounds like a paltry number, but it’s way more than most Southern Baptist church’s give to international missions. Last year I began to be concerned about Southside’s giving to the IMB. In 2009 our church only gave 1.6% of its budget to the IMB. In 2007 it was 1.1%. I presented my concerns to our finance committee which then recommended some changes in how our CP giving is distributed. Southside adopted these changes last fall, and in 2010 we will be sending 3.6% of our budget to international missions. I am proud our church has made these adjustments to better fund international missions, and I hope this becomes a trend that spreads among Southern Baptists.

Perhaps if Pastor Wright is elected as president there will be a greater emphasis on international missions. He has rightly noted above that Southern Baptists will soon select three key leaders that will greatly affect missions: the presidents of the IMB, NAMB and the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. I would add a fourth to that list, the president of the Convention itself. We need to be in prayer that God will put individuals in these positions who will lead us with the greatest effectiveness in ministry.