By Message Staff
DALLAS (LBM) – D. August Boto, interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, gave a sobering report to messengers regarding the state of the health of all of Southern Baptist life.
Boto, who was named to leadership after a moral failing caused Frank Page to step down, reviewed the numbers for seminary students, missionaries on the field, baptisms, churches and Southern Baptist members. But it was his assessment of giving through the Cooperative Program that likely caused messengers to pause during his report.
Citing various sources, Boto said although membership had dropped, “the number of Southern Baptists is still very high and significant (just over 15 million)” and that the “number of cooperating churches seems large and healthy (more than 47,500).”
Also, he offered that “the number of baptisms, while still declining, was slightly more than a quarter of a million. He also highlighted a sign of some recovery, noting worship attendance had recouped about 120,000 from the 377,000 lost the previous year.
“With regard to the number of missionaries,” he said, “NAMB has reported 5,200 missionaries, and the IMB reports having more than 3,500 missionaries serving overseas.
“And all six of our seminaries are ranked among the top ten in the nation,” he added.
Cautioning that “the SBC is certainly not a sinking ship,” he described it as “a ship that is adrift” with particular emphasis on the declining health of the Cooperative Program.
LARGER SHARE OF DECLINING DOLLARS
Referencing a series of slides displayed on screens for messengers, Boto noted that national causes have been benefitting from voluntary sacrifices from states, explaining that in the last 18 years national ministry receipts “have improved by just over $17 million” while at the same time, “state ministry support has shrunk by over $41 million.”
Boto further clarified that this explains why CP reports from Nashville have been positive, while total CP receipts have dropped.
A review of historic CP giving by the Baptist Message shows CP total receipts hit an all-time high of $542 million in 2008, dropping to $463 million in 2017 — a loss of about $79 million in nine years.
Boto said the “take away from all this” is that “while national ministries are being well funded, state ministries are not, and our total CP giving is not doing well at all.”
The “domestic base” of the Southern Baptist Convention “must be supported,” he said, “and much of that work is done most effectively at the state level.”
“We can witness, and we can tithe,” Boto said. “If each Southern Baptist won just one person to the Lord this year, next year our baptism count would certainly set a record, but more importantly, over 15 million people would not suffer Hell.”
As for tithing, he said, “If we just tithed and did nothing more, we could afford five times the number of missionaries at home. We could support five times the number of missionaries abroad. Maybe have five times the college ministries to reach and strengthen students, perhaps a similar increase in the number of seminary graduates.
“By any estimate, we could certainly expect a gigantic increase in all or our present fruit,” Boto underscored. And if it resulted in five times the number of converts, I could live with that, couldn’t you?”
He brought his report to close with emphatic calls to action.
“We have to advance the Gospel. We have to get focused on our mission of evangelism.” He said. We have to get going.”
