I'm confused which may come as no shock to some. Can someone tell me the benefits of being in the SBC. I believe in the theology of the SBC. I support the BFM 2000. I'm grateful for the great education I got at Samford and Southwestern Seminary. I'm thankful to be serving at a church that supports the mission of the SBC. But what is our mission? What makes a person a Southern Baptist? I always thought it was cooperation in missions. Unfortunately, I haven't witnessed much of that recently. As the pastor of hard working people who freely give 10% of their tithe to the SBC, I feel the SBC owes us an accounting of what is going on. I admit that I and other younger pastors share in the blame because we have not been involved in the past. We saw enough back room politics growing up that we decided just to serve God in our local church and support our missionaries with our money and sending groups to experience missions for themselves. I look back at what I exerienced growing up in the SBC-- this is what I have seen: 1. At least "six" (6) church splits. 2. Two of my Seminary presidents either fired or pushed out. 3. A Denominational employee going back on their word which affected our "church plant." 4. My University (Samford) leaving the SBC. 5. The SBC splitting at a national level and in various states. 6. A Godly friend "released" by the IMB for no good reason. 7. A reduction in pay of the entire staff of my former church. (I am at a great place now!) 8. Most recently: Guidestone rejected us for health insurance! What is our future? Will the SBC be viable when my children are older? Will I be able to afford to send them to an SBC school? Are we going to scare off qualified missionary candidates? Are we going to frustrate our present SBC M's that they quit? Will Guidestone give us insurance? I'm confused. What makes a Southern Baptist? My dream is that we are cooperative with each other and other like-minded individuals and denominations. I dream that we won't look at others as competition but as "co-laborers." I pray that we can clean up our act. Thanks to some Godly friends and new friends I am becoming involved. I pray that our church can know for certain that the money we give will be given to missions as we intended it.