Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) meeting in Dallas on June 12–13 adopted a $194 million Cooperative Program (CP) Allocation Budget for the 2018–2019 fiscal year which begins Oct. 1. The budget is slightly more than a 1 percent increase over the current $192 million budget.
The annual budget, together with special offerings, funds the work of the SBC’s International Mission Board (IMB), North American Mission Board (NAMB), six SBC-related seminaries, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and the denomination’s Executive Committee (EC).
Almost three out of every four CP dollars received by the national body goes to missions agencies.
IMB receives 50.41 percent of the budget and NAMB receives 22.79 percent. The six seminaries divide 22.16 percent of the budget on an enrollment-based formula. ERLC receives 1.65 percent while the EC receives 2.99 percent.
The proposed budget was adopted with only a scattering of opposition after a motion to defund the work of ERLC was turned back (see story, page 8).
But encouraging reports can camouflage less favorable trends, said D. August Boto, EC’s interim president.
Pointing to information from the 2017 Annual Church Profile, Boto pointed out that local church giving to CP continues to decline. In 2017 only 4.86 percent of undesignated giving to churches was shared for missions and ministry beyond the local church through CP. That is down from 5.16 percent in 2016.
“In the last 18 years our national ministry receipts have improved just over $17 million. Our state ministry support has shrunk by over $41 million,” Boto told messengers.
Dependent on the Cooperative Program
“We cannot forget that missions and ministries at the state level depend on the Cooperative Program too,” he declared.
Outgoing EC chairman Stephen Rummage told messengers the search committee for a new EC president will receive recommendations through June 30.
The committee has already surveyed EC members, state executive directors, SBC entity heads and others as the committee attempts to clarify the kind of leadership needed in the position.
In other actions, messengers approved two changes in the denominational calendar recommended by the Executive Committee. The first changed the name of Orphan Sunday (the first Sunday of November) to Orphan and Widows Sunday. The second added the National Day of Prayer (the first Thursday of May) to the calendar.
During the EC report, the importance of ministry on college campuses also was emphasized. Josh Miller, who is leading a church plant at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said, “If we’re going to reach the 22 million college students in North America, we as Southern Baptists must all re-prioritize the campuses.”
At its final meeting of the year June 9 the EC also voted to withdraw fellowship from Raleigh White Baptist Church, Albany, Georgia. The church’s local association and state convention earlier withdrew fellowship from the church because of “overt racism” (see the April 18 issue of The Alabama Baptist).
“Southern Baptists are not only on record but strongly committed to standing against racism and prejudice. And if a church stands for racism and prejudice, then they do not stand with us and we do not stand with them,” Rummage said. (BP, TAB)
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