SBC Today - Three Blind Mice

The “Three Blind Mice” over at SBC Today are now decrying, of all things; “Great Commission Giving”.

Are you kidding me? I wish I were making this up… but, sadly it is not April fool’s Day, and I am not making this up. Today Tim Rogers posted a lengthy screed entitled “Great Commission Giving–The Dumbing Down of the Cooperative Program”

Apparently Tim is deeply concerned about the Great Commission Task Force recommendation to give the local Baptist Church the authority to direct its mission giving to the Southern Baptist causes it deems are the most important and worthy of receiving their missions offerings.

Just how Tim equates this recommendation of the Great Commission Task Force with the “Dumbing Down of the Cooperative Program” is anyone’s guess. Personally, I think Tim is just spewing inflammatory rhetoric here, but that is nothing new. Beyond the absurd title, Tim goes on in this article to make the ridiculous claim that this recommendation actually “mutes the Cooperative Program while quashing local church autonomy.”

Yes, Tim I can clearly see how actually giving local churches a voice in the SBC as to how their mission dollars are being spent would quash the Baptist Principal of local church autonomy… NOT!

Tim tries, unsuccessfully, in this article to build his argument against this recommendation by bringing in charts and comments from other bloggers and by saying over and over that this will dumb down the Cooperative Program. As if saying it over and over will win the day. It will not.

Reading this article through it is not difficult to discover what has set Tim off… He writes:

“The combining of the CP with other designated mission monies has not seen this problem in the past. Why? Churches were not supposed to be wooed by entities to give for special projects. No one knows when this changed but it did and we are reaping the bad fruit from this practice. Now we have churches giving more of their funds directly to various entities.”

O the tragedy of it all!!! Southern Baptist Churches have had their local autonomy quashed… Local Southern Baptist Churches are in ever increasing numbers deciding (of all things at the local church level) just where their missions giving will go. This must not be allowed to happen in the Southern Baptist Convention!!! --- [Sarcasm Intended]

To truly understand what has the Blind Mice over at SBC Today so upset with this recommendation, one only need to realize just WHO these local churches in ever increasing numbers are NOT sending their missions offering to, and the fact that under this recommendation direct giving to entities would be counted toward qualifying churches for sending messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Contrary to Tim’s opinion, this recommendation is a huge step in the right direction for building a brighter future for the SBC… It is in my opinion long overdue and is something that will in practice build greater cooperation throughout the SBC by getting the local churches directly involved in the work of the SBC (something sorely missing today). And just the opposite of what Tim says; by keeping these decisions at the local church level it will empower and undergird the autonomy of the local church… not quash it. Any claim to the contrary is absurd at best, and perhaps even disingenuous.

Grace Always,