tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6643715.post1678773766020776345..comments2023-06-09T12:46:12.932-04:00Comments on The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia: An inward focus or an outward focusArthur Sidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03848508095612688493noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6643715.post-62870107159893174752012-02-15T12:17:46.301-05:002012-02-15T12:17:46.301-05:00Fair enough.Fair enough.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6643715.post-17094703818753297012012-02-15T09:10:47.604-05:002012-02-15T09:10:47.604-05:00Hi Anonymous
Not sure who you are or if you know ...Hi Anonymous<br /><br />Not sure who you are or if you know much about me but as a quick note my wife and I spent a lot of time in SBC churches and I used to pastor an SBC church, so I am pretty familiar with the different missions programs. If anything I think I was a little too soft on this issue,<br /><br />Let’s lump the two offerings together (Annie Armstring and Lottie Moon). At $200,000,000 for 45,000 churches, that works out to about $4400/church annually. Add in the $500,000,000 that goes to the CP (keeping in mind that a lot of that money goes to anything but missions work, a source of great controversy in the SBC. In 2008, $329,000,000 was kept in state conventions). Let’s pretend that of that $700,000,000 figure, all of it goes to actual missions work and not the reality that nearly half of it does not. Even at $700,000,000 for the 45,000 SBC churches, that works out to an average of $15,000 per year. Obviously some churches contribute much more than that and others far less. I would imagine that a relatively small number of very large churches contribute the lions share. Regardless, even at $15,000 that is far less than the salary of even a single full time clergyman. When I was employed as a bi-vocational pastor I made almost that much. Compare that rather dubious figure of $700,000,000 that goes to “missions” to the value of SBC real estate of over $40,000,000,000 and the enormous sums spent each year on salaries and buildings and I will unapologetically reaffirm that the SBC is far more inward looking that outward, focused in spending on the machinery of the local church. In fairness the SBC is far more missions minded than any other major denomination but that is not exactly a ringing endorsement when you look at the sad state of missions work and commitment exhibited by the church.Arthur Sidohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03848508095612688493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6643715.post-90106387726075438652012-02-14T20:00:10.817-05:002012-02-14T20:00:10.817-05:00Arthur, I agree with the spirit of your post. Howe...Arthur, I agree with the spirit of your post. However, there are a few things I'd like to pushback on a bit.<br /><br />First, the Annie Armstrong offering is for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and is used for missions in North America only. The Lottie Moon Christmas offering is used for international missions and is taken in adddition to the afore mentioned offering.<br /><br />In 2010 the Lottie Moon offering totalled 145.6 million dollars. Every dime of this goes to international missions. So add these two offereings together and you get more than 200 millon dollars toward missions.<br /><br />Second, these offerings do NOT include money that each SBC church gives toward the Cooperative Program which supports the admin of the SBC, seminaries AND missions. So to understand the whole picture you also have to take the Cooperative Program giving into account. In your state of Indiana ALONE about 2.1 million dollars was given to the CP. In 2010 about 500 million total was given to the CP.<br /><br />Third, each church also sponsors its own mission trips and local outreach ministries. This takes money too. Some churches even support missionaries not associated with the SBC. And each church itself is (or at least should be) a witness to its own community. <br /><br />So I'm not sure you have painted a totally accurate or fair picture in your post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com