By Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director
Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer
People who attend conferences know that they should be prepared with a short speech describing what they do which can be delivered in the amount of time it takes to ride an elevator. Recently, while visiting with a few pastors, including one that is considering affiliating with the Baptist Convention of Iowa, a question came up that triggered an elevator speech: “What exactly is the Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI)?” BCI staff often answer something like this: “Over one hundred churches in Iowa with a similar understanding of the Bible have pooled their funds together to start an organization called the Baptist Convention of Iowa that employs staff like me to reach the people of Iowa for Christ by assisting churches to start new churches and to support existing pastors and churches.”
If there are a few more floors to go and the questioner seems interested in hearing more, we might add that we give away half our income to pool funds with around 50,000 churches to fund ministries to impact the world for Christ internationally (International Mission Board gets about half of these funds), to plant churches in North America (North American Mission Board gets a little less than a quarter of these funds), and to train leaders of churches and other organizations (six seminaries get a little less than a quarter of these funds). We also give about fifteen percent of our income to the best ministries that help the hurting people of Iowa. Finally, we use about thirty-five percent of the funds for BCI staff and ministry to assist churches with church starting and for ministering to pastors and churches in Iowa.
While I’m at it, another elevator speech that we often are asked for is, “What does a good BCI church partner do?” Our BCI staff normally answer this by stating that a partnership is less like a membership and more like a friendship. A membership mindset asks what the minimum requirement is to maintain membership status. A friendship mindset never asks what the minimum requirement is to remain friends.
At this point in the conversation, our BCI staff often mention that key leaders in BCI churches have many ways to connect with one another including our “family reunion” events like our Annual Meeting and Ministry Leaders’ Retreat. Attendance at these events is not a requirement to remain a partner. However, like any friendship, if too much time goes between significant interactions, the closeness of the relationship begins to fade.
The other issue that comes up when describing a good BCI church partner is the amount of financial contributions that are expected from the church to the BCI ministry. I think the best comparison for this question is the way a pastor might explain generous giving to their church members: “We’d like everyone to give generously but understand some people can give more than others.” A good starting place for a church deciding how much to contribute to the BCI is to consider the national average for an affiliated church to give to state conventions, which is between five and six percent of their general contributions.
These are some of the questions BCI staff often have to address. What other questions might people ask that we should address? Let us know.
Tim Lubinus
