Virginia Baptist leaders responsible for new church starts say oversight procedures in place here make it very unlikely that church planting funds could be misued.
“Virginia Baptists do our church planting work together,” said John Chandler, team leader of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's courageous churches team, which coordinates new church starts. “Planters, associations, VBMB representatives, local leaders, and VBMB staff work in partnership to start new worshiping communities. There is high collaboration and high accountability because we do what we do in partnership.
““A three-fold cord is not easily broken and Virginia Baptists are ‘corded together' in this mission,” he continued. “You can trust that every Cooperative Mission dollar and every Alma Hunt dollar for church planting are going toward advancing the Kingdom.”
“Jessee Ramage, the board's evangelism and church planting strategist, agreed.
““Virginia Baptists have in place policies and procedures that govern their church planting dollars,” he said. “Applications for grants are submitted and reviewed by staff, then site visits are performed by VBMB staff, VBMB committee representatives and local associational leadership before they are submitted to the larger VBMB board for final approval.”
“Wayne Faison, another board church planting strategist who also is responsible for African American and ethnic evangelism, noted several protections:
“• “Final decisions regarding the approval and allocation of church planting resources are made by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
“• “Procedural systems are in place to minimize the risk of defalcation of funds budgeted for starting new churches and supporting new church planters.”
““Church planting policies and procedures serve as the basis for evaluating the appropriateness of a given request as related to the need in a given area, as well as the goals and purposes of Kingdom Advance.
“• “New churches are visited by a courageous churches committee member, a courageous churches team staff member and appropriate local missions representatives prior to final approval of requests for church planting resources.
“• “As a part of the overall VBMB annual audit, specific church planting transactions are randomly selected for further review.
“• “Monthly and annual monitoring procedures are currently in place for the disbursement of new church pastoral assistance.”
“Staff report