The costs from Hunt’s lawsuit have also essentially doubled because the Executive Committee agreed to pay Guidepost’s legal fees in any lawsuit based on its investigation, a process known as indemnification.
Hunt also played a key role in the Great Commission Resurgence, a 2010 initiative that cut the Executive Committee’s funding to give more money to missions.
Hunt’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Executive Committee leaders also spent $2 million on the Guidepost investigation and another $2 million on an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The longer answer to the fiscal woes is that the SBC is an inherently fragile organization. Though it boasts about 13 million members and more than 46,000 churches — which collect about $10 billion a year, most of which stays within those churches — the overarching SBC organization is held together by a volunteer committee, a tiny staff and a relatively minuscule budget.
In essence, SBC is a billion-dollar organization that spends almost no money on administration or oversight on a national level. Only about 3% of SBC funding goes to the Executive Committee, which runs the SBC in between its annual meetings, collects donations and handles the denomination’s legal affairs.
A combination of inflation, legal fees and the rising cost of putting on the growing annual meeting has strained the Executive Committee’s budget. In 2014, the meeting drew about 5,200 messengers, and last year’s drew nearly 11,000.
Most of the money donated to the SBC’s Cooperative Program — which funds theological education and mission work — goes to the SBC’s six seminaries and two major mission boards. Those entities hold hundreds of millions in reserves.
When Southern Baptists approved the Guidepost investigation, they also approved the idea of using Cooperative Program funds for dealing with abuse. However, the messengers did not approve an official budget for the investigation, and attempts to tap those funds stalled in 2021.
Iorg said there’s no way of knowing what future legal costs might be. However, he told SBC leaders he hopes the $3 million allocation and the eventual sale of the Executive Committee building will alleviate most of the current budget woes.
Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, said the Executive Committee is in an “unenviable situation.” SBC leaders followed the will of the messengers, he said, and that came with a cost.
