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Mega Baptist Churches Leave Cooperative Program in Dry Dock By Bob Stephenson Over the past 25 years much has been made by the fundamentalist leadership that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) set up a fund in competition with the Cooperative Program (CP). Their lamentations gave the appearance that the CBF had committed an unpardonable sin by tinkering with the CP. Never mind that each church has the absolute right to give to whatever programs it wishes to fund at whatever amount it chooses to give. For the sake of this discussion, however, I will put a temporary hold on the issue of local church autonomy and pose the question of who really is “short-changing” the CP. In a small booklet entitled, “The Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention” by Rob James, some interesting statistics are given. For the twenty years between 1957 and 1977, the average annual percentage of receipts contributed to the CP from churches whose pastor was serving as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was 12.37 % . For the decade between 1979 and 1989, the average annual percentage of receipts contributed to the CP from churches whose pastor was serving as president of the SBC was a whopping *3.4 %. (See chart)
Mr. James selected one year (1987) to analyze the giving of megachurch presidents. His figures came from the 1987 state convention yearbooks. In 1987 the five megachurches led by takeover presidents gave a combined total of 1.2 million dollars to the CP from a combined total budget of 35 million dollars. That represents 3.4 % of their budgets. Had their giving matched the commitment of churches led by pre-takeover presidents (12. 37%), they would have given 4.3 million dollars. In other words, in 1987 the megachurch presidents “short-changed” the CP by about 3.1 million dollars when compared to the giving percentages of pre-takeover presidents. To get an idea of the financial impact that this “short-changing” by megachurch presidents has had on the CP, just multiply that 3.1 million by 25 years — the years since the takeover began. That’s a total of 77.5 million dollars — just from the churches of the presidents from the first decade of the takeover. Grasping the true enormity of this “short-changing” by megachurch presidents requires that we add the “short-changing” by the other megachurches whose pastors have presided over the SBC since 1989. There were seven presidents in that time and only one, Jim Henry, demonstrated commitment to the CP that registered in double digits. Ed Young’s church, on the other hand, gave much less than 1%. The decade of the 1990’s witnessed the greatest economic boom in American history and megachurch budgets mushroomed. While the percentage of giving by megachurches to the CP is undoubtedly similar — or lower, there is no doubt that the dollar amount that these megachurches have been “short-changing” the CP is considerably higher than the dollar figures for 1987. Still, even using the obviously low figures from 1987 as a benchmark, the amount that megachurches presidents have been “short-changing” the CP is astonishing. In 1987 five megachurches “short-changed” the CP 3.1 million dollars — an average of $620,000 per church. Add in seven more megachurches “short-changing” the CP at the “low” 1987 rate of $620,000 a year and you’ll get a base amount of 7.44 million dollars a year. Then multiply that figure by 25 years — the number of years that these megachurch pastors have been in power. That comes to a staggering total of 186 million dollars — and that doesn’t take into account comparable “short-changing” by dozens of other megachurch pastors who have not yet served as president of the SBC. So, even if one agrees with the SBC that the CBF is a competitor to the CP (and I emphatically do not agree), it is obvious from the data above that the SBC should encourage their megachurch leaders — past and present — to up their ante. Will they dare? Don’t hold your breath. Absolute power allows no dissention. In September 1997 Anthony Jordan, Executive Director of Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, wrote an editorial in THE BAPTIST MESSENGER, and made the following statement: “The Baptists of Oklahoma already flow as a tributary into a large river of Southern Baptists in preaching the word for Christ. The Cooperative program continues to be our method of choice in funding the worldwide mission enterprise.” With apologies to Dr. Jordan, I’ll expand his metaphor and say that very small, medium and large Baptist churches started the flow of CP dollars into rivulets, streams, and rivers and then the flow got dammed up by the megachurches. What flows downstream from them is just a trickle. If it weren’t for continual contributions from smaller churches and mid-size churches trickling on through, the CP would never be able to keep its ship out of dry dock! Will BAPTIST PRESS or any of the state papers controlled by fundamentalists ever question these megachurches? It is yet to happen, but shouldn’t it?
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Online since April 7, 1999
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