The changes allow the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to rescind motions it planned to bring to messengers to the SBC 2022 Annual Meeting in Anaheim to allocate up to $5 million of any overage from the 2021-22 budget to cover SATF recommendations and related concerns.
In a special called Zoom meeting June 8, the EC’s Committee on Convention Finance and Stewardship Development voted to recommend that the EC rescind the motions previously passed that would have sought the allocation of funds directly from Cooperative Program giving, committee chairman Archie Mason told Baptist Press.
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“We are thankful for the commitment to reform and care shown in this gesture by Send Relief,” Mason said. “As a result of this funding commitment, the Committee on Convention Finance and Stewardship has met and will recommend to the full SBC Executive Committee on Monday, June 13, that we revert to the previously passed CP Allocation Budget for FY23 and not amend the current CP allocation FY22 budget. We celebrate how Southern Baptists from across the Convention have come together to resource the reforms proposed by the Sexual Abuse Task Force and are again thankful for Send Relief, IMB, and NAMB for their support of abuse survivors and their desire to better equip pastors and churches to eliminate abuse in our churches.”
EC Chairman Rolland Slade announced plans to inform the EC of the intended action in advance of the EC’s regularly scheduled June 13 meeting.
“This is a unifying recommendation that prayerfully the messengers in Anaheim will fully support,” Slade told BP. “I’m thankful we can come together to create a way to fund the recommendations of the TF without CP dollars.”
Send Relief’s contributions are in keeping with its foundational priority of protecting children and families.
“Doing so is not a distraction from our mission – it is an integral part of it,” the joint statement reads. “Southern Baptists are grieving for survivors of abuse and are seeking ways to better safeguard children and families. Send Relief wants to be part of the solutions outlined by the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force.”
Slade agreed the move was in alignment with Send Relief’s ministry goals.
“Send Relief focuses on people and that is the focus of this recommendation,” he said. “I fully support it as an SBC church pastor, messenger and as an SBC EC member.”
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The SATF recommendations followed an independent investigation, ordered by messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville, into the EC’s handling of sexual abuse complaints spanning 2000-2021.
The report, conducted by Guidepost Solutions, and the SATF recommendations statements are available here.
Send Relief’s full statement follows:
Dear SBC Family,
Send Relief is the compassion ministry arm of the Southern Baptist Convention of churches. From its beginning, Send Relief has put a priority on protecting children and families; doing so is not a distraction from our mission — it is an integral part of it.
Southern Baptists are grieving for survivors of abuse and are seeking ways to better safeguard children and families. Send Relief wants to be part of the solutions outlined by the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force.
