In re IMB



May 2, 2024 
 
Via Electronic Delivery 
 
Dr. Paul Chitwood, President 
International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention 
3806 Monument Avenue 
Richmond, VA 23230 
 
Dr. Chitwood: 
 
Next month in Indianapolis, Southern Baptists will gather for the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting where more than 10,000 messengers are expected to decide on significant changes to the SBC governing documents, consider recommendations from three major task forces appointed by SBC President Bart Barber, and adopt the SBC allocation budget that contributes more than 50 percent of Cooperative Program receipts to support the work of the International Mission Board. Two weeks from now, trustees of the International Mission Board will gather in Richmond, VA, to approve dozens of missionaries for appointment during the 2024 Sending Celebration to be hosted during the convention’s annual meeting. I write to request your prayerful consideration that the International Mission Board (1) encourage all missionary appointees slated for participation in the June Sending Celebration to seek election as messengers from their sponsoring Southern Baptist Churches and (2) make provision for current field personnel to attend the annual meeting in Indianapolis and conventions thereafter if their respective churches elect them as messengers. Allow me to explain my request.
 
Last year, as it does every year, the Executive Committee released through Baptist Press a demographic profile of the registered messengers for the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. Of the 12,737 registered messengers, 2.6 percent (or roughly 330 messengers) were also salaried employees of national SBC entities. As you well know, SBC entities spend a considerable amount of money to bring staff to the annual meeting, many of whom work in the Convention Exhibit Hall to greet messengers and interested attendees and provide information about the ministry priorities of their employing entities.  
 
Meanwhile, the International Mission Board assumes an additional cost by bringing to the annual meeting those candidates who have been approved for appointment during the convention program. Last year in New Orleans, the IMB brought 79 missionaries to the convention for appointment. In Anaheim in 2022, you brought 52 missionaries. In Nashville in 2021, you brought 64 missionaries. And in Birmingham, which was your first convention to attend as IMB President, the board brought 26 missionaries to the annual meeting for the Sending Celebration. 

Dr. Chitwood, I am concerned that considerable resources are being expended to bring missionaries to the national convention for a Sending Celebration, but that the IMB is failing to encourage these missionaries to actively and simultaneously participate in the annual meeting as elected messengers from their sponsoring churches. Believing as I do that our convention polity serves to PROTECT rather than DISTRACT our missionary force, I believe it is incumbent upon the Board to PROMOTE rather than DENY their full participation in the annual meeting as elected messengers also. 
 
With matters scheduled before the convention to include drastic changes to our governing documents and reports about the historic nature of the SBC’s cooperative framework and Great Commission commitments, it is all the more important that the very people for whom the Southern Baptist Convention was formed (and on account of whom it continues to exist) are given credentials at the annual meeting that their votes may be counted and their voices heard. By actively encouraging their participation as messengers, the IMB, which receives the lion’s share of Cooperative Program dollars, will help to ensure that the convention’s focus and cooperative framework remains true to our historic missionary priorities. I ask you to consider making this a matter of emphasis for missionary candidates who will attend the Indianapolis convention. 
 
Second, I have carefully reviewed the most recent audited financial statements of the International Mission Board, which are easy to locate on the IMB website, and I note that at the close of FY2022 the Board currently has more than $94 million in unrestricted investment assets and an additional $9.1 million in cash reserves. In recent years, IMB leadership has tapped these funds to assist other SBC ministry objectives, including Send Relief and the work of the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. 
 
I raise this point to ask you whether the Board has considered making provision for interested and credentialed Field Personnel to return stateside and participate in the annual meeting as messengers? Given the significance of votes scheduled for this year’s annual meeting, it seems all the more important that the Board (similar to the way our seminaries underwrite and/or reimburse travel expenses for professors and administrative staff to attend the annual meeting) determine whether or not Southern Baptists have contributed so generously to the work of the Board only to deny the very people they are funding the opportunity to participate fully in the convention’s business.

Will you consider asking the Board to allocate resources for our field missionaries to both attend the annual meeting on stateside leave, and that such leave not count against their accrued leave which would remain intact for their non-convention, personal use? Might you consider recommending a board policy that allows for field personnel, duly-elected as messengers to the annual meeting by their sponsoring churches, to be given latitude and funding to return stateside and participate as messengers to the convention that has funded their work? I am concerned that the inadvertent disenfranchisement of our field missionaries from full participation in the consideration of convention business runs counter to the expectations of the churches who generously support the IMB through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. 

For even if all 3,500 field missionaries requested leave to attend the annual meeting, fully funding their temporary stateside return would cost around $17.5 million, assuming around $5000.00 was allocated per missionary. It would doubtless cost much less, and almost certain that a fraction of our mission force would choose to leave the field for even a day to see firsthand how the denominational sausage gets made.  

Nevertheless, it seems the funds are available and such an appropriation would be consistent with how Southern Baptists have historically paid for other entity personnel to attend the annual meeting at little-to-no personal cost. The only thing lacking is a board policy to provide for their approved leave and the requisite underwriting that would make their participation as messengers possible.  
 
Thank you for your kind consideration of my requests. I look forward to your response, and I shall watch reports of the Board meeting later this month to learn whether this matter has been brought for their consideration.  
 
With appreciation…

CC: IMB Chairman Keith Evans

In re 990

April 30, 2024 
Sent via electronic delivery 

Dr. Adam Wyatt, Chairman 
Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development 
Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention 
901 Commerce Street 
Nashville, TN 37203 
 
Mr. Chairman: 
 
The Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship is presently considering your response to a motion offered during the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting by a South Carolina pastor, Rev. Rhett Burns of Traveler’s Rest, who seeks to bolster the financial transparency of Southern Baptist entities by amending the convention’s Business and Financial Plan. In accordance with SBC Bylaws, the motion was properly referred to your Committee, and you have now had nearly a year to formulate a response. At both the September 2023 and the February 2024 meetings of the SBC Executive Committee, members heard from entity leaders, legal counsel, Committee staff, and from Pastor Burns himself. 
 
I write for two purposes. First, I wish to echo Pastor Burns public calls for greater transparency and lend my support to messenger efforts to strengthen the confidence that cooperating churches have concerning the stewardship of more than $190 million in combined annual gifts to SBC entities. Second, I write to ask that your committee report to the convention that another year is needed to effectively address the growing calls for substantially increased financial transparency among SBC-owned boards, commissions, seminaries, and entities. I will briefly elaborate on each item. 
 
First, Pastor Burns has raised his concern in the only way that SBC churches may demand action by and disclosures from their entities. His church elected him to serve as a messenger. He sought recognition at an appropriate moment in the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting. He made a thoughtful, orderly, and carefully-worded motion. He has worked through all appropriate channels to facilitate the Executive Committee’s consideration of his motion, including attending meetings of the Committee at his own expense.  
 
Moreover, Pastor Burns has publicly and charitably explained the rationale behind his motion. He has responded courteously and persuasively to objections raised by employees of SBC entities and their trustee allies. He has been patient as your Committee prepares a response. He has given every benefit-of-doubt to his motion’s detractors. He has respected SBC polity at every turn. 
 
And Pastor Burns is not alone. His calls for greater transparency — particularly as it relates to executive compensation — have engendered growing support from like-minded pastors and churches across the convention. When pastors and laymen from among the SBC‘s roughly 47,000 churches learn of convention entity executives’ opposition to Pastor Burns’s motion, they are rightly disappointed. When they learn that post-1979 conservatives are the ones who ended the detailed public reporting of executive compensation and that SBC moderates routinely demonstrated greater accountability to the churches who pay the bills, they are rightly angry.
 
In fact, a review of Baptist Press news releases indicates the last time Southern Baptists were given details of executive compensation occurred at the hiring of Dr. Morris H. Chapman as President and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee in 1992.1 Just one year later, upon the election of Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., Southern Seminary’s trustee chairman “declined to state the terms of Mohler’s salary package.”2 Indeed, Dr. Mohler’s election marked a significant departure from the convention’s historic commitment to fiscal transparency regarding executive compensation. Thereafter, no executive compensation details have been disclosed to the people who pay the bills in Southern Baptist life. Even worse, duly-elected entity trustees are now routinely denied detailed information concerning executive compensation at the entities they are elected to govern.  
 
This trend is unacceptable, and a corrective measure is long overdue. Your committee must act decisively to reverse the trend toward opacity and non-disclosure that began in 1993 at the election of a new president for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
 
Second, I write to ask that you request more time from from convention messengers to undertake a much-needed revision of the SBC Business and Financial Plan. That your committee has been encumbered in this effort is understandable. The Executive Committee has had its own fiscal difficulties in recent years, seeing a substantial decrease in operating reserves as you sought to fulfill messenger expectations and underwrite an unprecedented disclosure of reprehensibly clandestine actions by some former Committee staff.

Additionally, the Executive Committee’s efficient response to referred motions has been understandably hamstrung by the absence of a permanent executive and significant trustee turnover. What’s more, the loss of messenger confidence in the Executive Committee’s attempt to revise the Business and Financial Plan under the direction of former EC President Ronnie Floyd resulted in an outright defeat of proposed amendments during the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting. It is notable that these revisions were openly opposed on the convention floor by at least one SBC entity executive. 
 
But things have changed. Next month, Dr. Jeff Iorg will assume leadership responsibilities for Committee staff and the day-to-day ad-interim administration of convention finances. The Committee has regained some of its footing after the departure of Dr. Ronnie Floyd, and there are indications of restored confidence in the EC‘s work among convention pastors and the congregations they serve. Also, the fresh crop of trustees comprising the Committee’s membership has given an opening to establish a better and more transparent course that is responsive to the messengers’ concerns on many fronts.
 
Simply put, updating the Business and Financial Plan and enhancing entity reporting requirements promises to restore a culture of fiscal competence and transparent stewardship that has eroded since 1993. That noble effort warrants a strategic and limited postponement to ensure a thorough response to Pastor Burns’s motion. To rush to the convention floor in Indianapolis at this moment with an inadequate and underwhelming response to the Burns motion would severely undercut the strides toward restoring messenger confidence that your Committee has made since Floyd’s departure.

Therefore, I ask that you seek the Convention’s permission to postpone a full response to the Burns Motion until the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas. In the providence of God, it may be that the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program provides precisely the context Southern Baptists have sought to implement needed improvements to our policies regarding entity financial disclosures. 
 
Submitted with a request for your prayerful consideration…

A denominational prince?

Photo credit: Dr. Jerry Vines…

Audio credit: SWBTS Libraries (reproduced with permission)

And never forget these unrelated links that we re-read tonight. And some pictures along the way:

https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/exec-comm-members-questions-aired-in-open-forum/

And remember who the EC Chairman was?

And remember when the Preaching Coach weighed in too?

Paige Patterson: . . . the Way Forward?

And remember when he was appointed to THAT resolutions committee:

Resolution On Integrity

And remember WHO put him on the committee?
http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/6785,28-Apr-1989.pdf

More to come?

Pressler’s latest victim?

Pressler’s power ensnares an unlikely victim, Al Mohler

“Poor Mohler. He’s debasing himself by throwing a long-dead “enemy” under the proverbial bus. Chafin, who cannot speak for himself, much less defend himself, is his foil. That cheap shot should be beneath the dignity of an esteemed seminary president/denominational statesman. But Pressler’s pull on Mohler has sucked him down to gutter fighting with a dead guy.” — Marv Knox

Closet conservatism?

“Mohler was always considered a closet conservative.”
“I don’t know where the Al Mohler of today came from.”

The entire transcript can be read here:
https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/documents/detail/1617798?item=1617807

The audio recordings can be accessed here:
https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/oral-memoirs-of-roy-l.-honeycutt-jr.-series-1-audio/1602622

Missing Mohler

Edward John Stetzer, Dean
Talbot School of Theology

2003 Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
1994 M.Div., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
1998-2001., SBTS Assistant Professor of Missions and Church Planting

Congratulations, Ed. Sorry RAMJr couldn’t be there to help celebrate this achievement by one of his first graduates of both the M.Div., and Ph.D., a former SBTS faculty member and one of his earliest hires, and a longtime ministry partner. Good to see Matt’s doing well. Tell him hi for us.

A retirement home, a resolution, and $25,000.00

On September 30, 2008, Members of the Southwestern Seminary Board of Trustees Executive Committee held their regular meeting via teleconference call. Trustee Chairman John Mark Caton, pastor of Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, TX, presided. In addition to Chairman Caton, trustees present for the meeting were:

  1. Geoffrey Kolander (TX)
  2. Harlan Lee (AZ)
  3. Mike Boyd (TN)
  4. Hance Dilbeck (OK)
  5. Anthony George (FL)
  6. Steven James (LA)
  7. Don O’Neal (TX)

Seminary officials present in the meeting were:

  1. Paige Patterson, President
  2. Craig Blaising, Provost
  3. Greg Kingry, VP Business
  4. Mike Hughes, VP IA
  5. Thomas White, VP, SS
  6. Jason Duesing, longtime Patterson Chief of Staff

During this September 2008 meeting, at a time when the U.S. economy was already experiencing collapse that resulted in the largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, SWBTS trustees took up three significant items of business. These, as reported in the official seminary minutes, are as follows:

Recommendation: The Prophet’s House

Background Information:

During the summer months, a 5-year pledged gift for the purpose of constructing “The Prophet’s House” on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has been given with the understanding, per the donor’s request, that the facility would serve as a retirement home for President Patterson in a lifetime estate for him and his wife. The president’s desire is for his library and other items ultimately to be transferred to the seminary upon the passing of he and his wife. The retirement date for the president has not ben set or discussed, but the donor wanted to begin the formalization of his gift. Since the construction of “The Prophet’s House” would not begin until the entire pledged gift, which is to be received over a 5-year period, as well as any other funds necessary for the construction, is in hand, there is time for planning its location and architectural design. All monies received for the project will be collected in interest-bearing account solely devoted to this project.

1. Proposed Recommendation:

That the designated and 5-year pledged gift for the purpose of constructing “The Prophet’s House” on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to serve as a future retirement residence for the current President be accepted with the agreement that such a home will not be constructed until the entire pledged gift is received.

Mike Boyd moved to adopt the recommendation in principle to be crafted further and presented to the entire Board of Trustees at the upcoming meeting in October 2008. Steven James seconded.

President Patterson removed himself from the conference call to allow the Executive Committee to have a free discussion with the President’s Cabinet.

Motion passed.

2. Recommendation: Resolution of Appreciation

Background Information:

As of August 1, 2008, President Patterson has served for five years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In recognition of his and his wife’s contribution to the Seminary, the following resolution is proposed to express appreciation and gratitude for these years of service.

Proposed Recommendation:

Board of Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Resolution of Appreciation for President Paige Patterson

WHEREAS, Dr. Paige Patterson has served as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary since August 1, 2003; and

WHEREAS, He has served as Professor of Theology and holds the L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism, the Seminary’s historic “Chair of Fire”; and

WHEREAS, He has led the seminary by modeling the position of servant-evangelist through his daily life, interaction with students, visitors to campus, lost people in the community and around the nation and world; and

WHEREAS, He has led the Seminary to adopt the new slogan conveying his vision for theological education as “scholarship on fire” from 2 Timothy 4:5, 13: “Do the work of an evangelist…bring the books, especially the parchments”; and

WHEREAS, He has advocated that if heaven is real and hell is real and if every one of the seven billion people on the face of the globe is going to spend eternity in one place or the other and the only way for him to avoid hell and gain heaven is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then nothing else on earth matters more than doing whatever it takes to get that message to every single human being in one’s lifetime, and that this is the essence and purpose of the Seminary; and

WHEREAS, He has led the seminary through its Centennial Anniversary Celebration with distinction attracting national attention and commendation; and

WHEREAS, He has led the Seminary regularly to affirm the confession of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Agencies and Sister-Seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention; and

WHEREAS, He has reinforced the importance of the Seminary’s Texas Heritage through advocacy of Western culture and history; the reestablishment of the Seminary’s longstanding relationship with the City of Fort Worth; and the expansion of relationships with the cities of Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Tyler, Lubbock, El Paso, and College Station; and

WHEREAS, He has built a world-class faculty uniquely known for its academic excellence and its missionary, pastoral, and evangelistic spirit, and its devotion to the local church; and

WHEREAS, He has, in addition to his administrative responsibilities, regularly taught courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels of the College and Seminary, and written essays, articles, and monographs both for the academy, the denomination, and the local churches; and

WHEREAS, He has, through his pastoral approach to the seminary presidency, restored a spirit of joy, fellowship, and friendliness to campus life and the student body; and

WHEREAS, He has revived the chapel hour as the central heartbeat and meeting time for the Seminary family as the “President’s Classroom” where he has led in modeling the components of the local church worship service chiefly through the regular exposition of the Word of God; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen the strengthening of the curricula and programs of the School of Theology, the School of Educational Ministries, and the School of Church Music; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen the establishment of the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, the College at Southwestern, and the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston, Texas; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen the expansion of extension programs including the William R. Marshall Center for Theological Studies in San Antonio, Texas, the masters program at Bibelseminar Bonn in Bonn, Germany, and various centers across Texas and neighboring states; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen the development, expansion, and growing influence of the Seminary’s Center for Theological Research, Center for Expository Preaching, Richard Land Center for Cultural Engagement, The Riley Center, and new programs in Biblical Archaeology and Site-Based Travel; and

WHEREAS, He has called for a renewed commitment to Baptist Distinctives in all programs and courses stating that “We will never be ashamed of our Baptist heritage or our Baptist name,” and a renewed focus on the primacy of local church ministry for the carrying out of the task of the Great Commission; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen consistent growth in student enrollment with the current semester marking the highest enrollment in six years; and

WHEREAS, He has cast a vision for a new chapel so that the entire student body can convene on campus, a building to house the new Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions and The College at Southwestern, and the development of an updated Master Plan; and

WHEREAS, He has overseen the development of a gas drilling contract to produce additional revenue for the Seminary, led the Seminary to see its highest ever one-year gain in net worth in 2006-2007, and a nearly $40 million increase in endowment assets; and

WHEREAS, He has established the reputation of the Seminary as a premier place for the training of “Special Ops” ministers who will serve as the next generation of Southern Baptist pastors, missionaries, church workers, and scholars; and

WHEREAS, His wife, Dorothy Patterson, has served with distinction as the Seminary’s First Lady, naming the President’s Home as “Pecan Manor,” and thereby making it the center of the Seminary’s ministry of hospitality; and

WHEREAS, His wife, while serving as Professor of Theology in Women’s Studies, has helped to formalize and expand the Seminary’s Programs for Women in unprecedented and pioneering ways, all without compensation; and

WHEREAS, His wife has assisted her husband in the advancement of the Seminary through the development of friendships for the raising of funds, most noticeably in the establishment of the Seminary’s newest building, the Horner Homemaking House, but also in a variety of current Capital, Endowment, and Scholarship projects; and

WHEREAS, His wife has raised through her writing, teaching, and mentoring ministry to women, both on the campus of the Seminary and around the world, a new standard of the pursuit, exemplification, and study of Biblical Womanhood as personified in Proverbs 31; and

WHEREAS, He has his wife have accomplished this five year period of service at the seminary during their 45th year of marriage thereby modeling the sanctity of marriage and the home, while advocating the preservation of complementarian gender relationships in home and church for students, faculty, and staff; and

WHEREAS, He and his wife have, through their five years of service, endured and persevered with humility and godliness a variety of trials, within and without the Seminary, brought in response to nothing of their own making; and

WHEREAS, He and his wife receive the steadfast support and encouragement from their son Armour Patterson and his wife Rachel, their daughter Carmen Howell and her husband Mark, and their granddaughters Abigail and Rebekah Howell; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the Board of Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary meeting on the Seminary’s Fort Worth campus, October 21-22, 2008, express sincere gratitude for the first five years of service of Paige Patterson as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Board of Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary express their commitment to prayer and hope to God for many more years of service from Paige and Dorothy Patterson at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Anthony George moved the adoption of the recommendation. Geoffrey Kolander seconded.

Motion passed.

3. Recommendation: Gift of Appreciation

Background Information:

As of August 1, 2008, President Patterson has served for five years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In recognition of his and his wife’s contribution to the Seminary, while refusing any salary increase, the following recommendation is proposed to express appreciation and gratitude for these years of service.

Proposed Recommendation:

That the Board of Trustees authorize a gift of $10,000.00 to be given to President Patterson in recognition and appreciation for five years of service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Anthony George moved the adoption of the recommendation. Geoffrey Kolander seconded.

Motion passed.

President Patterson returned to the conference call and reviewed some items that would be included in the upcoming 30 Day Packet of Materials for the Fall meeting of the Board of Trustees with the assistance of the President’s Cabinet.

Chariman Caton adjourned the meeting at 5:47 PM.

After meeting with the entire Board of Trustees on October 21, 2008, in the trustee’s Informal Forum, the Executive Committee voted to amend Recommendation 3 as follows:

Proposed Recommendation:

That the Board of Trustees authorize a gift of $25,000.00 be given to President Patterson in recognition and appreciation for five years of service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Motion Passed.

Signed by Harlan Lee, Board Secretary