Chapter 24
Relational
Model — Pyramid Vs. Molecular
Do
you remember diagramming sentences in school? It may have seemed like a confusing waste of time, but it did force
students to visualize how a sentence gets put together.
Ever
diagrammed your church? How
about how your church relates to other churches and other groups — like
conventions, associations, and ministries?
Baptists
place great emphasis on freedom —and its necessary corollary of
responsibility. Baptists value the phrase “local church autonomy.”
That is a principled way of describing that Baptists reject the idea of
outsiders meddling with our internal business.
At the same time, your church wants effective and efficient ways to do
missions and offer successful programs.
Pyramid.
Reflecting the American business model of most of the 20th
century, your church easily moved into a pyramid model of church and
denominational relationship. In
SBC life, this pattern traces to the 1891 founding of the Baptist Sunday
School Board (now Lifeway) and the 1925 start of the Cooperative Program.
The SBC,
at the top of the pyramid, provided programs and initiatives and phrases
that held together a growing and sprawling collection of churches.
We used a common Sunday School literature from the Sunday School
Board. We sang from the same
hymnal produced and sold by the Sunday School Board.
We promoted the same programs and offerings.
Genuine
old-timers remember phrases like the push to baptize “a million more in
’54.” Also, they may recall
the Sunday School growth campaigns such as “8.5 [million] by ’85.” Many were moved to vocational and volunteer mission service by
“Bold Missions Thrust.” These
initiatives came from the top of the pyramid.
State
convention leaders met in December of each year in
Those
state leaders sponsored training for associational leaders and workers
within each state.
The local
association’s Director of Missions offered training to church leaders in
Sunday School,
It was a
clean, easy, and efficient way to serve thousands of churches.
In return,
each church provided financial support. They bought materials from the Sunday School Board (now Lifeway)
and WMU. They gave a small
percentage of undesignated receipts to the local association. They gave a larger percentage (often 10 percent) to “the
Cooperative Program.” The
state convention kept one half to two thirds
for state use. The other one
half to one third was passed on up to the Southern Baptist
Convention level.
The
SBC funded missionaries, seminaries, and other programs that then began
the cycle again.
It was
easy and it was efficient. Southern
Baptists had and still have an operation the envy of many denominations.
In times of trust there is nothing wrong with this model.
There are
at least three flaws with this pyramid for the early 21st
century with Christian denominations in
1.
We are no longer in a time of trusting denominations.
2.
We no longer believe the notion that “one size fits all”
when it comes to church programming.
(For example, find out how many different publishers the churches in
your own Baptist association used for VBS materials just this past
summer.)
3.
We are in a rapidly changing culture — not somewhere else
but right in our own community. Businesses
start, merge, downsize, outsource, and re-locate.
Ethnic groups who were once “over there” are now next door. New technologies both entice and frighten us.
The old
pyramids do not work in the 21st Century.
Molecular. Each
and all of these factors mean your church is now practicing a different
model whether you realize it or not. It is a molecular model. This
model puts your church where, as a Baptist, it belongs — in the center.
Your
church under the Lordship of Christ — not any outside group —decides
who can best help your church meet the needs of the people who need Jesus
in your community and offer programs that meet needs of your congregation.
Here are
examples of those your church might relate to:
-
Local Baptist association
-
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
-
Ministerial
-
State Convention
-
Southern Baptist Convention
-
Habitat For Humanity
-
-
Here is
how that would look in a molecular model:
The
groups your church can partner with are endless! The only limiting factor
is your church. Your church
under the Lordship of Christ decides with whom and how extensively you
will partner with any one group.
The
molecular model reflects a healthy understanding of local church autonomy.
Your church, after prayer and discussion under the leadership of the
Holy Spirit, makes decisions that impact your church and your community.
Where Do You Fit In? Talking about
church partners can be tough. These
are “head and heart” issues. Your
head tells you that some groups now are not the same as they were when you
were younger. Your heart tugs at
you because certain labels and phrases have provided valuable markers on
your spiritual and church journey.
One
Example.
In 1980 Jimmy Carter was the best-known Southern Baptist deacon and
Sunday School teacher in
Practical Test. Consider these questions that will let you assess where you and your church might be more comfortable:
1.
You get on an airplane for a cross-country flight. There are two seats — one next to Jimmy Carter and one next to
Jerry Falwell. Where do you
choose to sit?
2.
Your pastor will be out of town in a few weeks and you are
responsible for finding a supply preacher for the day.
Whom would your church want to contact to “fill the pulpit” —
Jimmy Carter or Jerry Falwell?
If
you opt for Jimmy Carter, you would feel “at home” — with your head
and with your heart — as part of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
If
you opt for Jerry Falwell, you would feel “at home” — with your head
and with your heart — within the Southern Baptist Convention.
There
is not a right answer for this test.
It provides one easy way to decide where you and your church might
best “fit.” Your church must
decide its identity, what God wants you to be, and then look at the
Baptist partners who can best help your church succeed.
Follow Up.
Using your church’s budget, diagram your church’s partners with a
molecular model.
Postscript. The
Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention continues.
For those who cannot grasp what has and is happening it is easy to
label the Controversy as just some sort of “preacher fight” that is
too complex for regular church members.
The Controversy has been solved on the national level. The only
curiosity is what group or organization will be targeted for censure or
boycott by the Convention in any given year.
The
Southern Baptist Convention had calm meetings each year with uncontested
elections from 1991-2005. But
that Fundamentalists need to have an enemy, to distrust others, and to
root out “heresy” is rearing its ugly head anew.
In 2006 there are signs the Fundamentalists are turning on
themselves. It will be
interesting to see who is the next to be targeted as “liberal,”
“heretic,” or “infidel.”
The
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is maturing as an organization.
Early on, some people might say they liked the Fellowship but wondered
if it “would make it.” It has.
The
struggle has turned to the state conventions. Only the Texas
and Virginia
state conventions have survived the political assault waged each fall as
Fundamentalists mobilized enough messengers to show up to elect a
pre-selected candidate as convention president who would use the same
appointment process that the national presidents had used. The process is
similar in your state, and often in your association.
For events
that present the damage of “the Takeover” to the Southern Baptist
Convention, state conventions, and associations, visit www. SBCTakeover.com.
For CBF
responses to SBC attacks, visit www.truthaboutcbf.net.
For
information about Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, visit www.thefellowship.info.