Last issue this column told about a man — Henry Keeling Ellyson, the long-time executive leader of Virginia Baptists in the 19th century — and his vision: the planting of new church starts wherever the railroads placed depots. No matter how expansive and bold a vision, it can do little without money. Just as the old locomotives needed to be stoked with coal, the Virginia Baptist enginery needed to be fueled.
Fred Anderson
Charles Hill Ryland, a Virginia Baptist leader of the period and treasurer of “the Baptist school,” Richmond College, realized better than most folks that the General Association would never move forward without a great push. In 1881 on the floor of the BGAV annual meeting held at Grace Street Baptist Church, Richmond, Ryland presented a motion “that a committee of 22 (one from each District Association, if practicable) be appointed to inquire and report what plans, if any, should be devised for securing a more active cooperation between this body and the churches and District Associations of the State.”
For the most part, the district associations were weak, many of the churches unresponsive to the great challenges which were before Viriginia Baptists, most of the churches had no plan for systematic giving to the state association, and the various boards (Education, Sunday School and Bible) were competing for funds. As for the latter problem, Ellyson once remarked: “We do not complain that too much was given to the other Boards, but too little to this [one for state missions].”
The State Mission Board had 34 missionaries scattered across Virginia. They performed herculean work. In one year alone, they had organized four new churches, began construction on 15 houses of worship, preached 3,251 sermons and were instrumental in the conversion of over 1,200 persons.
Charles Ryland
The Mission Board seldom had sufficient funds to meet in a timely fashion the salaries of their missionaries. At the same 1881 meeting, Ellyson reported that the treasurer had a balance in hand of $963.50 and the board needed $5,272.80 just to pay the back salaries. Multiply those figures many times over to get some idea of what they mean in today's dollars.
In short, the churches were not giving to meet the very programs which their representatives had approved. Ellyson pleaded to the messengers: “You touch now only the tips of the fingers many of the 532 churches which are among your givers. You must get near enough to take hold of them with so warm a fraternal grip that they shall all feel through you the heart-beatings of the whole Baptist brotherhood and be drawn into closer union and more active service.”
Ryland's Committee on Cooperation was a giant leap forward. Baptist leadership across the state began to discuss the problem of adequate financing in light of mammoth needs.
In 1882, the General Association met at Warrenton Baptist Church. Ryland delivered the annual sermon and he used the opportunity to match vision with resources. The sermon was immediately recognized for its impact and importance. The Religious Herald published it in full.
Charles Ryland minced no words. He told his listeners that out of the 700 churches only 200 were responsible for most of the missions dollars. He called non-giving churches “parasites” living off the generosity of others.
“As long as the association can feed and clothe them,” he said, “they are willing to stand by. This association is no mint for the coinage of money. We are only the dispensers of what our people voluntarily contribute. Let us seek churches who give nothing and teach them that it is more blessed to give than receive… [and] train and develop our churches that are not now doing their duty.” One-third of the churches had absolutely no plan for collecting missions offerings!
Ryland's sermon text was Ecclesiastes 8:5: “A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.” He knew the time was right, and there was sufficient wisdom among Virginia Baptists for the task.
He pleaded: “Oh! Let us not persist in dragging the weak, impracticable, ineffectual methods of the past behind the car of progress. They have served their day. Praise them and let them go.”
As for giving money to the separate boards and not to the State Mission Board, Ryland urged: “Let the Association calmly consider whether there is not a demand for a separate department, an additional department, a board of collection … whose sole duty it shall be to cultivate the field of resources, to educate the churches, to increase your means.”
An immediate result of Ryland's sermon was the continuing of the Committee on Cooperation. Over the years it cultivated an awareness and a willingness to cooperate.
It was not that Virginia Baptists were small and without means. At the time six Virginia Baptist churches were among the 11 largest churches in the entire SBC. There just had been no plan for giving.
At the meeting of the Mission Board in October 2007, it almost seemed like time out of joint. The president announced that a committee was formed to study the relationships between the General Association and the district associations. The treasurer reported that 252 churches have given nothing in 2007 to the missions work of their state association and that 176 churches have chosen no plan for giving. The treasurer also has been given responsibilities for creating a development office for the General Association and its Mission Board. The executive director shared bold visions for new church planting. It is a vision which requires adequate resources. The current concerns sounded like the same challenges from an earlier century. Let's revive the Committee on Cooperation!
Fred Anderson may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.