GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Officials of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention say there's no way to know the potential impact of changing the convention's giving options to a single plan that forwards most of its national missions allocation to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Robert Simons, the convention's comptroller, said there might be positive and negative implications of doing away with the four current giving plans, one of which includes the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the SBC's moderate rival group.
“There's so many variables, it would just be playing a guessing game,” he said, during the last of six “listening sessions” on the plans April 21 in Greensboro. Messengers to the convention's 2003 annual meeting asked convention staff to set up the sessions to get feedback on the plans.
Conservative leader Bruce Martin, pastor of Village Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., has proposed eliminating the four plans in favor of a new plan. Martin's proposed plan is similar to the convention's existing Plan A that sends 32 percent to the SBC and keeps 68 percent for North Carolina causes. The new plan would also allow churches a “positive designation” of up to five percent for any cause approved by messengers to the state convention annual meeting.
Martin first presented his proposal April 15 in Rocky Mount, N.C., at the first of the sessions.
Most participating North Carolina Baptist churches use Plan A.
Plans B and C are similar. Both keep 68 percent for state convention causes and send about 10.9 percent to theological education in North Carolina Baptist schools, 10.6 percent to special mission projects and .5 percent to help retired North Carolina ministers in the SBC's Adopt-an-Annuitant program.
The remaining 10 percent under those plans goes to the SBC in Plan B, and the CBF in Plan C.
Plan D keeps 50 percent for North Carolina causes and sends 32 percent to the SBC, while forwarding five percent to the state's Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute. In addition, it uses 12.5 percent for special missions and sends .5 percent to the Adopt-an-Annuitant program.
Jim Royston, the convention's executive director, said at the Greensboro meeting that more than 900 of the BSC's nearly 4,000 churches send at least some money through plans B, C or D. Those gifts make up about $9 million, he said.
“The highest risk to us, income-wise, in my opinion is the Plan C churches, if you did away with the giving plans,” he said.
About $2.8 million came to the BSC through Plan C in 2003, according to BSC documents.
Allan Blume, a well-known conservative and pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Boone, N.C., spoke about Martin's plan at the Greensboro meeting. “It seems to me that we've said, 'Let's find a way to unite us,' and we've found a way to divide us,” he said.
Martin's proposal would instead give the BSC a single plan while still allowing churches to decide where to send part of their money, Blume continued.
John Butler, pastor of First Baptist Church in Matthews and president of the BSC General Board, said that he favors one plan, but appreciates the need for the existing plans. He said he thinks Martin's plan could take the state convention's controversy into churches by forcing them to decide where to send the five percent designation.
Blume said most churches might not choose to use those designations.
Ken Massey, a well-known moderate and pastor of First Baptist Church in Greensboro, responded to Butler's comment. “I don't think the Baptist State Convention needs to protect my church from talking about what to do with its money,” he said. Massey said he would be in favor of one plan if all the money went to the BSC. Churches could then decide how to send money to other groups, he said.
LeRoy Burke, pastor of East Lumberton Baptist Church and chair of the BSC Budget Committee, asked Massey to submit his plan to the committee. Burke described himself as conservative, but said he had met some “folks from the other side of the table” at the listening sessions.
“I appreciate you,” he said. “It's been good for me and hopefully it will be good for North Carolina Baptists. “When we come out on the other end of it all, we'll have something God has laid on our hearts and you'll be able to live with it.”
The budget committee is scheduled to meet June 7.
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