SBCV Celebrates, Looks to “More Beyond”

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                      Vol. XIX, No. 9, Nov/Dec 2006

As I sat at my computer to report on the 10^th anniversary meeting of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, I asked myself how could I convey the essence of the meeting in just a few words. These came to mind: praise, gratitude, joy, worship, anticipation. Let’s take them one by one.

Praise: Uniformly, the messengers, speakers, musicians ... everyone present praised God for His blessings over these last ten years. Actually, more than ten because the SBCV did not just suddenly spring into being on 16 September 1996. We really began with three small groups of pastors and laymen who were meeting in 1985, but with no statewide organization or network. The issue at that time was survival of any biblically conservative Southern Baptist ministry in the most liberal SBC state, but see how God has worked out His purpose.

2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Gratitude: At the meeting there was a palpable air of thankfulness to the Lord for His many blessings. This gratefulness was expressed in the words of the speakers, the hymns and choruses, the prayers, the video clips, and the private conversations between messengers. How could we have anticipated what God would do with the SBCV? Truly, it was all of Him, not of us. As He blessed the children of Israel and brought them out of captivity, even so He has blessed us. Note the promise:

Jeremiah 30:19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

Joy: Psalm 5:11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

And so it was in Roanoke. Not a frivolous, silly kind of joy which is entirely inappropriate when we come before God, but the joy of His glory, His presence. Only His mighty hand could have brought to pass what we have seen and continue to see effected through the SBCV.

Worship: What is more essential in the presence of God than worship? Why do we worship God? Simply because He is Who He is. The very essence of worship is recognition of Who God is. We do not worship Him because of what He has done for us; that would be to put ourselves at center stage. We worship God because of Who He is. And that is what we did at First Baptist, Roanoke, during the SBCV meeting.

Psalm 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Anticipation: “More Beyond” Upon this solid foundation of praise for His blessings, gratitude for how He has used us, joy at simply being in His presence, and worshipping God for Who He is, a repeated emphasis was placed on what He would have us do in the future. The SBCV theme for this meeting and all 2007 is “More Beyond”. We are not merely to celebrate a wonderful past, but to build upon that foundation a future which will glorify God even more mightily. Service to churches and to the unsaved was emphasized throughout the meeting.

In fact, the very first event exemplified such godly service. It was a free hot lunch served by SBCV trained Disaster Relief volunteers from a DR food trailer. (If you are interested in serving folks in dire need, go to the SBCV website, click on Ministries on the left side, and then click Disaster Relief.)

Dr. Doyle Chauncey gave the Executive Director’s report. It is thrilling to note that the SBCV now consists of 479 churches, up from 158 at our first annual meeting in 1997, an average growth of 35.7 churches per year. Of these total churches, 435 are uniquely aligned with the SBCV and 44 dually with SBCV and BGAV. In Roanoke messengers approved affiliation requests from 9 churches for unique alignment, 2 for dual, and 2 moving from dual to unique status.

A major thrust of the SBCV has been to plant new churches. Since we began as a state convention we have planted 115 churches, plus 6 church revitalizations, and currently 13 “congregational assistance plants”, for a total of 135. This emphasis is also reflected in the 2007 budget where $1,826,498 is allocated for starting churches

Not surprisingly, as the number of churches has grown, the dollars given have also increased. In the year preceding our 1997 meeting SBCV churches contributed $2.1 million to the Cooperative Program. In 2005 $8.1 million was given, and in the first nine months of this year gifts have been 3% ahead of 2005.

The SBCV was the first Southern Baptist state convention to adopt the 50%-50% CP plan as proposed in 1925 when the Cooperative Program began. (In this arrangement the state convention uses half the CP funds contributed and sends the other 50% to the SBC.) Of course, a local church may design its own plan, but almost all our churches participate in the 50-50 plan.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee noted in its financial statement for the 12 months ending 9/30/06 that the SBCV with approximately 25% of the Virginia churches forwarded 65% of undesignated CP funds to the SBC. Among the 42 state Baptist conventions, the SBCV gives the second highest percentage; only the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention gives a larger percentage, 52%.

In 1993 the SBCV adopted a decentralization plan to serve churches better, reduce overhead, and disperse essential staff to ministry areas closer to our churches. This year we saw that program expand as the number of ministry areas grew from six to seven. Churches are encouraged to get acquainted with your ministry area representative and work with him. (To learn about your ministry area and the Church Enrichment Missionary and Church Planting Strategist, go to the SBCV website, click on “Ministry Areas” on the left side, and then click on your area.)

Officers: Our new President, elected by acclamation, is Dennis Culbreth, pastor of River Oak Baptist Church, Chesapeake, and the new First Vice President is Gene Primm, pastor, Bethany Baptist Church, Portsmouth, also by acclamation. There were two nominations for Second Vice President: John Pouchot, pastor, Poquoson BC, Poquoson, and Kevin Cummings, pastor, Fincastle BC, Fincastle. In the only ballot vote of the meeting, Kevin Cummings was elected. As Secretary we re-elected by acclamation Steve Markle, pastor, Life Community Church, Lorton.

Budget: The SBCV Cooperative Program budget for 2006 is $8,200,000. The newly adopted 2007 budget is $8,700,000, an increase of 6.1%. In addition to the CP budget, LifeWay Christian Resources sends a share of its profits to state conventions and the North American Missions Board helps fund certain activities. In 2007 we expect to receive from LifeWay $660,000 and from NAMB $60,000. Thus, the total SBCV 2007 budget is $9,360,000.

Special Messages: (In order of appearance.) Nashaat Ibrahim works in the D.C. area reaching out to Muslims and Hindus. Originally Egyptians, he and his wife escaped persecution and came to the U.S. Dr. Morris Chapman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. Rev. Carl Weiser, pastor, Hyland Heights BC, Lynchburg, brought the SBCV president’s address. Dr. Paige Patterson, President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke on “Should Baptists Eat Sausage.” Yes, really. And Johnny Hunt, Senior Pastor, First, Woodstock, brought an incisive sermon in his energetic, engaging style.

You can order cds or dvds of these addresses and other parts of the annual meeting see the box below.

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You may order DVD’s or CD’s of portions of the convention. These are available for all the main speakers and theme interpretations. The speakers who were videotaped are: Morris Chapman, Paige Patterson, Johnny Hunt, Doyle Chauncey, Carl Weiser, Kelly Burris, Neal Hawks, Naashat Ibrahim, and Eric Redmond.

Contact for DVD’s and CD’s is: Memories Videography, 804-273-9044, 3966 Springfield Road, Glen Allen, Virginia 23060, email: memvideo@aol.com.