Where does the money go?

I'm feeling sick. I've been doing a little research on the Internet lately, and the more research I do, the more sick I feel.

The topic of my research has been my beloved denomination and how the various denominational entities at the local, state and national levels use the funds that get contributed to them. I am a Southern Baptist. I've been a Southern Baptist all my life. I remain a Southern Baptist because I have become one confessionally. I think those great historic Southern Baptist confessions are still the best. Confessions like the Abstract of Principles of 1858 (of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), or the New Hampshire Confession of 1833, or the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. And for the record, I'm ok with the BF&M 2000. I am a Baptist. And more specifically, I am a Southern Baptist. And I am very thankful. But I am also sick.

From just my online research, I have found that my state convention's budget is somewhere around $42,000,000. I haven't been able to determine the SBC overall budget, but best I can tell, the International Mission Board's (IMB) is somewhere around $300,000,000. Here's where I start getting queasy. We've currently got somewhere around 16,000,000 members on roll at Southern Baptist churches, and we are currently fielding somewhere around 5300 missionaries (don't know if that is IMB + NAMB or just IMB). But let's just say for the sake of conservative argumentation we double that number just in case its just IMB numbers. Say we've got 10,600 missionaries. That would mean that just 0.06625 of 1% of my denomination's membership are missionaries funded by the SBC. Now that is a sobering statistic.

Now I realize that this is not the fault of the Convention. Local Southern Baptist churches are ultimately responsible for not being more missional than they are. But what concerns me is what I will call the "machine" that we Southern Baptists have built. I'm just an average joe. But common sense tells me that something is dreadfully wrong with our system. How much of the IMB's $300,000,000 budget actually gets to the mission field? What do they do with the rest of it? I'm not insinuating that anybody is trying to hide any of this information, I just can't find it online. How does the $42,000,000 in my state convention's budget get spent? What about my local association - the Montgomery Baptist Association? Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic here, but it sure sounds like, smells like, and looks like alot of pork. I am just one man, but this man wants to be sure that his tithes and offerings are being invested well in the Lord's kingdom. Lord willing, I'm going to start making some phone calls Monday morning.

I sure hope that Dr. Ascol's resolution gets presented and taken seriously at this year's convention. I think it would be a healthy first step in the right direction.

A delectable little morsel from C. S. Lewis

In reading Has the Church Misread the Bible? by Moises Silva (Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 1987), I came across this C. S. Lewis quote I just gotta share (pp. 65-66). Oh, for some of the mastery Lewis had of our language!

Of the cursing Psalms I suppose most of us make our own moral allegories... We know the proper object of utter hostility - wickedness, especially our own. From this point of view I can use even the horrible passage in [Psalm] 137 about dashing the Babylonian babies against the stones. I know things in the inner world which are like babies; the infantile beginnings of small indulgences, small resentments, which may one day become dipsomania or settled hatred, but which woo us and wheedle us with special pleadings and seem so tiny, so helpless that in resisting them we feel we are being cruel to animals. They begin whimpering to us "I don't ask much, but", or "I had at least hoped", or "you owe yourself some consideration". Against all such pretty infants (the dears have such winning ways) the advice of the Psalm is the best. Knock the little bastards' brains out. And "blessed" is he who can, for it's easier said than done.
C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1958), p. 136.

Entire dependence upon God

Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. (Revelation 4:11)

As we anticipate the arrival of our pastoral candidate, nothing could be more important than for us to have the mind of Christ. As I have been seeking to obtain this in my own life I have set myself on the consideration of the humility of Jesus as our Master and example. The day and time of my departure from this life is firmly fixed - oh, how I want that hour to find me ready for it in joyous slavery to my Lord!

As I consider biblical humility, it seems to me the proper place to start is to look to Jesus in order to determine what the principles were which he lived by when he was here. If he is indeed my example in his lowliness, I must understand the principles in which that humility was rooted and own those principles myself.

Jesus repeatedly acknowledged his own dependency upon the Father (John 5:19-20, 26, 36; 6:27; 12:49-50; 13:3; 14:10). If Jesus recognized his dependence upon the Father, how much more so should we as his disciples? As you meditate on Revelation 4:11 today, consider that God, in his creation of the universe, made man, the creature, a partaker of his blessedness and perfection. He revealed himself in and through us by communicating as much of his glory and goodness as the creature was capable of receiving. But this life which God bestowed was not imparted all at once; rather, each moment continuously by his mighty power. From the nature of this relationship between the Creator and the creature we see that humility is properly defined as total dependence upon God. It is the first virtue and the highest duty of the creature and its enemy, pride, is nothing more than the loss of it. Man lost his right relationship with God in the Garden of Eden – he lost his humility. Jesus came to bring humility back to earth and saved us by way of his own humility.

There is nothing more natural, insidious, difficult or dangerous than pride and we possess in ourselves alone no ability to cast it out. Let us look to Christ and study his character until we are broken down under a sense of our own pride and our souls are filled with love and admiration of him and his lowliness. Let us ask God for a determined perseverance in discovering how lacking we are in the grace of humility and for grace to see how powerless we are to obtain what we seek. And let us believe and ask Jesus Christ himself to impart to us this grace of humility as a part of his wonderful life within us.

Ingratitude

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:21-23
Honor and thanks are due God. How grateful are you to God for the abundance of blessing he has toward you? Paul shows here ingratitude as the sin which opens the door to all manner of wickedness. He who has ears, let him hear.