Stories about money — where it's spent, how it's earned, who's got the most of it — are the stock-in-trade of newspapers, even (maybe especially) Baptist newspapers. You'll find plenty to read along those lines this week. If one definition of “news” is the unusual and the rare, then the report that the Baptist General Association of Virginia reached its budget goal this year certainly rates the front page treatment we give it — it's only the second time in almost a quarter of a century.
Why this year? Cynics will muse if you whittle a budget goal down far enough, eventually you'll meet it, and, they'll say, that's what Virginia Baptists have done. Perhaps they're right. I've been known to raise my hand when the roll of cynics is called.
And yet … there's more here than meets the eye. For the past 20 years and more, Baptists have wielded one weapon — money — when they've signaled their support or opposition to ministries and denominational agencies. If they liked it, they funded it; if they didn't, they withheld it — loudly. The almost $14.5 million that arrived this year in the BGAV's treasurer's office can only mean that an awful lot of people think Virginia Baptists are the presence of Christ in an awful lot of places — and they showed it by voting with their pocketbooks.
The sheer size of the increase over last year's gifts (nearly $500,000); the virtual halt to the trickle of churches leaving the BGAV for an alternative state convention; the “go for it” attitude at last month's annual BGAV meeting — it's hard not to feel a corner of some sort has been turned.
Not surprising, really — God is calling us on a journey and the vision that God is fleshing out among Virginia Baptists through Kingdom Advance is a compelling one. It's drawing many, many communities of his believers, hooked by the opportunities to partner with, say, a congregation in China that is building what may become the largest sanctuary in that nation, or with a college that is turning an old house into a haven for furloughing missionaries — both events that you'll find reported in this issue.
By the way, the best way to keep up with those opportunities is to hit our web site, which is now up and running. You'll find every bit of every issue there, usually by Tuesday of each week. It satisfies us to provide an additional channel to share the Virginia Baptist vision, and fulfills a dream long held by Mike Clingenpeel, our former editor. He waited eagerly for this day and deserves much of the credit for bringing it about. So bookmark www.religiousherald.org and check it out at least weekly. Just offer us a little grace as we get the hang of publishing in a new (for us) environment.