Most People Like Cheerleaders

My blog has been referred to by some as a "cheerleader for the BGCT." Guilty! I own up to it. I confess that I would much rather emphasize and cheer on the positive things about the BGCT than to harp on the things I have often criticized about it. I am not among those who feel the convention just cannot do anything right. Frankly, I have been able to maintain a few good contacts at the BGCT, and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the morale and the work going on there.

Since I was a teenager I have been attending conferences led by BGCT staff who were out there trying to help us. I started out by attending Palo Duro association Training Union Workshops led by T.C. Gardner and his staff from the BGCT. It was in those conferences that I learned to organize groups, plan programs and speak in public. My first public speaking was in a Baptist Training Union group as a fifteen year old. Little did I know in those days the path the Lord would have for me.

So, yes, I
am a cheerleader for the BGCT, and have been for a very long time. I am also a critic, but once having made the criticism I move on. I try not to ride it to death. I have never been part of any organization that did everything exactly how I thought it should be done, and I long ago learned that when one disagrees he should voice his disagreement, and then move on. No one owes homage to my criticism. They can listen or not. I confess I will still go on loving this convention. There are others who profess to love the convention who have a funny way of showing it. Some people can find nothing positive to say about the BGCT. I find that strange, in light of the many things the convention does to help churches. I have often heard people decry the fact that too much emphasis is placed on starting new churches and not enough on strengthening the existing ones.

When you think about it, all the various departments and programs of the BGCT are to assist the existing churches. Why else would there be a a Sunday school department or a church training department? All the consultants are there to assist existing churches. That comprises about 95% of the BGCT work. We should not overlook that. Most of the work done by the staff is to assist existing churches, and most of those churches are fairly small. There was a time when much of the staff came from the large churches to the BGCT. That is no longer the case. Much of the staff there now came from smaller churches.

I am a cheerleader because I believe in what the BGCT does. If that makes me a strange duck, then so be it. I will leave the hating and the snideness to others. I will let others choose to make statements that are outrageously mistaken, and never corrected when proven wrong.

By the way, having a third of the churches not giving in a twelve months period is not a new thing. As I recall, it has just about always been that way, and I suspect it is that way in just about every one of the older conventions of the Southern Baptist world. Yet, some want to make a sinister thing out that. When I retired from the BGCT in 1999 we had about 6,000 churches in the convention. That number has reduced about 500 now, but the BGCT is still a formidable force in Baptist life with her large number of "cooperating" churches. Frankly, I have always wished we would drop churches that did not give over a period of time, but we have no mechanism to do that. That was true when I was an Association al Director, also. In San Antonio, during my tenure as Executive Director, the only way we could drop churches is if they did not turn in an annual letter for three years in a row. In our association that would mean and automatic drop from the listing of churches. Each year we would spend inordinate hours calling a number of very small churches to tell them that if they did not send in a report that year they would automatically be dropped from the listing of Associational churches because that would be their third year of not reporting. I know of no such mechanism at the BGCT.

So, I accept the "cheerleader" role. It has been my experience that many people like cheerleaders somewhat more than they do constant critics. If you don't like the cheerleaders, you probably don't like the team they cheer for.