nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

432 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
come averaging $344. Recent studies of available information reveal that by
1940 the average salary has risen to $1,000 per annum. Salaries are now
averaging above $1,000; yet, even now, thousands of our pastors receive utterly
inadequate salaries. The worthy pensioning of these meagerly supported
preachers must await the development in their churches of a spirit of liberality
toward all missionary, educational, and benevolent activities of their denomination.
When the missionary, educational, and benevolent causes systematically
receive worthy offerings, then, and not until then, is it likely that the pastors of
these churches will really "live of the Gospel." Such pastors are, of necessity,
doing secular work in order to provide a support for themselves and their
familes. It is altogether probable that not a few of the churches falling in the
category above mentioned are fairly moribund and need to be merged with
other churches which enjoy the advantage of better locations and stronger
memberships.
Further vitally important preparatory steps in the direction of a great
Southern Baptist work for the care of aged and disabled preachers, missionaries,
and the widows of such" were taken beginning with a spontaneous discussion of
the need of such work at a regular session of a Baptist pastors' conference.
Here is presented excerpts from the historical statement vividly and accurately
written by the late Dr. Allen Fort, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Nashville,
Tennessee, and published in Veterans of the Cross (1921).
"It was at a session of the Nashville Baptist Pastors' Conference, on a
Monday morning in the autumn of 1916, that the present movement among
Southern Baptists for Ministerial Relief and Annuities was started.
"At the session of the Nashville Conference, on that particular morning,
there was no special business before the body. The usual reports of the pastors
had been given, and a motion to adjourn was about to be made. Dr. William
Lunsford, pastor of the Edgefield Church, Nashville, asked if he might speak a
word on a matter of general interest. The permission was readily granted, and
Doctor Lunsford, who was the senior pastor in point of years of service in the
city, addressed his brother pastors on a subject which had been on his heart.
"Doctor Lunsford spoke with great feeling and greatly stirred the hearts
those present. When he had finished several short talks were made by the
pastors present, and they were a unit in the belief that the word of the chief
speaker ought to be heeded.
T "? ev ? ral members of the Nashville Pastors' Conference, along with Doctor
Lunsford were members of the Sunday School Board. The board was at this
time without a secretary, Doctor Frost having died a short while before this
discussion on ministerial relief. Dr. I. J. Van Ness was acting Corresponding
Secretary of the board (he was made secretary at the New Orleans Convention,
May, 1917), and he, too, had been giving serious consideration to the need of a
larger and more adequate plan for the work of ministerial relief. Several
members of the Sunday School Board, ministers and laymen, had been thinking
along this same line. The matter was mentioned informally at the next board
me ,f l n $' a , nd A a u S dls f«.ssed by the members of the board as they met one another
and talked of the affairs of the denomination. Acting Secretary Van Ness, in
his recommendations to the board at the January, 1917, meeting, recommended
that the board set apart $75,000 to start a fund for the purpose of ministerial
relief, and that said sum be reported to the Convention. On motion of the
writer the amount was changed from $75,000 to $100,000; the recommendation
as amended was unanimously and enthusiastically passed by the board. The
Orleans as follows^ ' S m * tS &nnUal reP ° rt t0 the convent ion at New
" 'At the January meeting the board voted to request the Southern Bantist
Convention, at its coming session, to consider the appointment of a commfsrion
to examine the various plans now being operated for ministerial relief in the
various states and, pending the submission of this recommendation to the Convention
and the report of such a commission if appointed, the board set aside
the sum of $100,000 to be held intact as a contribution to such a fund when
established. The board has no special plan for advancing this work nor is its
gift connected with any other movement of this kind. When the Matter wa=
first suggested, we had no information of any other action along similar lines
We have been glad to hear that various state conventions have taken action and
will present memorials at this meeting.