My take on the ABA

Well, the week is over and my brethren have posted the proceedings...see pastor matt gholson's blogosphere for the most detailed report. I guess it is time for me to put it all in perspective and give my take. Now I fully understand that my take and 50 cents is worth exactly 50 cents but I wanted to share my viewpoints on a few issues.

First concerning missions.
I agree that no raises across the board was the right thing to do. However, when you find out that a missionary on salary through our work will make a minimum of $40,000 a year, which does not include housing allowances or health insurance that the sponsoring Churches give, it is a little hard to swallow. I do not know many pastors in our work that make that kind of salary. Am I pouting because I don't make this much...of course not! I do think that if we start going deeper in the hole every year that sponsoring Churches should take up more of this load and stop leaching off the system. Sadly, the reality is that many Churches will NEVER be able to pay this salary and, as a result, will pause at organizing.

Another issue was the situation concerning a Renato Ramboa. This brother is serving the Lord in the Philippine Islands, in a very destitute place. The sponsoring Church was asking for $700.00 per month, which was high above normal salary for that area (a registered nurse makes $250.00 per month by comparison). The problem was that they needed the money to support ministries. The sponsoring pastor should have stayed quiet but our work does not pay for ministries it pays salaries. It should remain this way.

Finally. the issue was debated concerning divorced and remarried missionaries. The principle is that they be placed for designated funds not salary. A motion was made and seconded to not allow divorced and remarried missionaries to be a part of our missionary work, designated funds or undesignated. I felt like they should all be voted on separately b/c their could be different interpretations for different circumstances. This isn't my problem. My problem was instead of voting on the issue...they voted to postpone the motion indefinitely thereby killing all debate and dealing with this issue. I believe that we be brethren and while we may not agree...at least we can deal with things and not sweep them under the rug.

Concerning the Camps:
a motion was presented to give Pine Springs Baptist Camp to the MBA of Texas and to give Bogg Springs to the state work of Arkansas. This motion failed and I am glad it did. For example...more Churches use Bogg Springs than only Arkansas Churches. If Arkansas had possession of the camp then the Churches in LA and OK and TX and all over the states would have no say in the work of our camps.

Concerning the work of the Baptist Sunday School Committee:
they voted to increase the rates by 5% and add a 5 cent "tax" to each piece of literature. This would go into a fund that would be used to buy equipment. This carried with some opposition. It was guesstimated that this would result in $60,000 per year. Of course this is contingent on sales.

It was also reported that here had been a decrease in the fund balance due to slow sales and the general state of the economy. However, instead of following the lead of the Missions, they asked for and recieved a 3% cost of living increase for the business manager and editor in chief. This met with considerable opposition but nevertheless passed. I feel like wisdom, should have been used and instead of adding more strain on the Churches in rate increases these raises should have been not given this year. If things are better next year...double it then but not now.

These were the three main areas for me to pay attention to. I enjoyed the fellowship, the booths and the preaching. Until next year's ABA in West Virginia that's my two cents and that's worth two cents.