“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.”
-Hudson Taylor
David Platt, director of the SBC International Mission Board has the unenviable task of attempting to gain control of an SBC missions budget that since 2010 has spent $210 million more than what they have collected. Because of this, Platt said, they will need to cut 600-800 individuals from their payroll. It is clear the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church is lacking God’s supplies. 
IMB announces voluntary retirement incentive details
Assuming Hudson Taylor’s quote above to be accurate I am left to conclude that either a) God’s work is not being done or b) the work is not being done in God’s way.
There is one other option. May I be so bold as to suggest that Christ is judging His church? Look at this screen capture below. It contains just some of the SBC pastors who were sexual predators. For a full list visit this page of the Baptist Predators web site.
At the Southern Baptist National Convention in 2013 some delegates, weary of the continuing sexual abuse scandal in their denomination, tirelessly worked to successfully pass the resolution below:
Prior to the resolution passing the Baptist News Global talked with Pastor Peter Lumpkins, the author of the resolution and he had this to say:
“The Georgia preacher who proposed a resolution urging the Southern Baptist Convention to get tough on predators says Baptist leaders’ public support of an evangelical preacher accused in a lawsuit of covering up child sex abuse has tarnished all Southern Baptists.
What’s more, said Peter Lumpkins, pastor of Corner Stone Baptist Church in Waco, Ga., a show of support by Albert Mohler and Mark Dever for C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries sends a painful message to those who have been abused: that alleged perpetrators are valued over victims.
“Mohler and Dever make these victims appear that they don’t count,” Lumpkins said Monday in Houston, where he will be a messenger at the SBC’s annual convention Tuesday and Wednesday. “And because they are such high-profile leaders, they make Southern Baptists look like that, too.”
Should it make it out of committee and be approved by messengers, Lumpkins’ resolution would urge convention entities to enact more stringent and uniform anti-abuse policies, implore ministers and churches to more readily notify authorities anytime abuse is reported, and push convention officials and agencies to break ties with outside groups involved in abuse cases.
Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, have joined evangelical author and preacher John Piper and others who have expressed support for Mahaney, whose Sovereign Grace Ministries is the target of a multi-plaintiff Maryland lawsuit alleging multiple instances of child sexual abuse by various SGM ministers.”
– See more at: https://baptistnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/8572-sbc-should-support-sex-abuse-victims-pastor-says#sthash.eSPwFq0U.dpuf
Special attention should be paid to this paragraph:
“RESOLVED, That we encourage all denominational leaders and employees of the Southern Baptist Convention to utilize the highest sense of discernment in affiliating with groups and or individuals that possess questionable policies and practices in protecting our children from criminal abuse;”
This paragraph was written to specifically address several high level leaders in the SBC denomination, including Mark Dever’s and Albert Mohler’s ongoing ties to C.J. Mahaney. Mahaney was subsequently dumped from the 2014 Together 4 the Gospel conference.
But recently it has been announced that Mahaney will be rejoining the conference in April 2016. Sharing the stage with him, among others, are SBC members Albert Mohler, Mark Dever and David Platt. These men are blatantly disregarding the resolution passed in 2013.
Can God bless a denomination whose leaders are so callous towards their members wise resolution, a resolution which had as its intent the protection of children from sexual predators? Can God bless a denomination whose leaders choose to support a tainted friend while showing no concern whatsoever for so those victimized by sexual predators?
I think not.
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5 ESV)
Additional information:
Overall donations are down in the SBC. The article can be read in its entirety here. Below is the relevant section.
Stewardship Challenges. Are you aware that tithes and offerings given by church members to Southern Baptist churches have declined by almost 8 percent over the last seven years? Total receipts reported by our churches in 2014 are almost one billion dollars less—yes, that’s billion—than in 2008.
Though the average percentage CP gift per church has stabilized over the past four years (between 5.4 and 5.5 percent of undesignated offerings), when coupled with the decline in total giving to our churches, our SBC ministries received fewer CP dollars to send missionaries, plant churches, and train future leaders.
According to recent Annual Church Profile reports, we have no record of CP giving from more than one-third of our churches. We know some of them gave through their respective state conventions, we just don’t know which ones.
Then add one more underlying fact. The average American gives only 2.32 percent of his or her disposable income to charities. While we continue to have many tithers in our churches, overall giving through our churches mirrors that percentage.
Do you see a trend? Churches have significantly less money than they had before. Certainly there are exceptions for which we give praise to the Lord. However, overall trends show a disturbing lack of support for our churches. Therefore, when churches receive less, they tend to give less to missions and ministries beyond the four walls of their churches.
The Wartburg Watch weighs in on the problems of the IMB.
William Thornton, a retired SBC pastor ably writes on the problems of sexual abuse in his denomination here. He also writes on the financial woes of the IMB here and here.
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