DALLAS (ABP) — Leaders said blogs accusing the Baptist General Convention of Texas of escrowing funds from the Lottie Moon Offering to improve its cash flow were erroneous and result of a record-keeping glitch.
Officials at the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and the Texas convention confirmed the BGCT has forwarded nearly $10 million in the offering, which funds missions through the SBC International Mission Board, since Jan. 1, and those gifts have been wired to the SBC Executive Committee for distribution on a monthly basis as the state convention has received them from churches.
“Each month, we send the designated gifts we have received for all the SBC institutions to the SBC,” BGCT Treasurer Jill Larsen said. “We follow this same timeline for any institution on whose behalf we receive designated gifts.”
BGCT records show wire transfers of designated gifts — which include Lottie Moon Offering funds — on Jan. 15, Feb. 6, March 23, April 14 and May 20 totaling $10.18 million.
“With wires, SBC receives it the same day we send it,” Larsen explained.
By February, the BGCT had sent more than $6 million in designated funds for the IMB to the SBC Executive Committee. The problem arose in March, when the SBC Executive Committee reported no designated gifts to the IMB forwarded by the BGCT. In fact, the BGCT had sent the money but without the necessary remittance form indicating how it was to be distributed.
After the matter became a topic of public discussion in the blogs and after being contacted for comment, the IMB issued this statement:
“The IMB is thankful for the gifts of Southern Baptists to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering flowing through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. There was a temporary delay in the receipt of funds related to the installation of a new software system in the BGCT offices. Funds were received from BGCT prior to that delay and have been received since the implementation was completed. We remain grateful for the sacrificial giving of Southern Baptists to reach a lost world for Christ. ”
That reporting error — and apparent discussion of it by unnamed sources associated with the IMB — prompted an entry by Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, on his blog — praisegodbarebones.blogspot.com — titled “BGCT Refusing to Release Lottie Moon Funds, Sources Report.”
“Sources within the International Mission Board report that the Baptist General Convention of Texas is escrowing Lottie Moon Christmas Offering funds to safeguard BGCT cash flow,” wrote Barber, whose church in recent years withdrew its affiliation from the BGCT and affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
“Although the official BGCT budget has shown increasing hostility toward SBC ministries since the 1990s, this event would constitute a rare occasion of BGCT’s taking action to blockade funds designated by BGCT churches to SBC causes.”
Barber’s entry subsequently was posted on other blogs.
However, in the comments section, Barber’s blog also includes a detailed explanation submitted by Clark Logan, vice president for business and at the SBC Executive Committee, explaining the circumstances of the reporting error.
In his comments, Logan characterized the initial blog entry and some subsequent comments as “inaccurate and unfair to the BGCT, the IMB, and the SBC Executive Committee.”
“Apparently the implementation of new software at the BGCT complicated their ability to compile and issue the needed distribution report until after April 1. Therefore, even though the SBC Executive Committee was in possession of the designated fund sent on March 23, ‘$0.00’ was reported because the proper application of those funds had not been verified by the BGCT,” Logan wrote.
Since the paperwork was not received until after the end of March, the amount received was not posted until April, he explained. The April report included both the April gifts and the gifts tendered on March 23.
“For these reasons, any claim that the BGCT ‘held money’ is erroneous,” he wrote.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.