Relocation, $40 million budget approved

Relocation, $40 million budget approved

By Jennifer Davis Rash

The Alabama Baptist

Approving the relocation of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ (SBOM) office and a flat $40 million Cooperative Program (CP) budget for 2017 topped business items addressed by messengers during the state convention annual meeting Nov. 15–16. Messengers also approved the 2015 SBOM audit and 2017 goals for the convention’s five special offerings.

In what is being described as an “exchange of keys” with Baptist Health, the SBOM office will move from Montgomery to Prattville over the course of the next year.

The proposal for the relocation includes Baptist Health taking possession of the current SBOM facility, located at the corner of Narrow Lane Road and East South Boulevard in Montgomery — immediately next door to Baptist Medical Center South, which is in need of expansion.

SBOM leaders have been reviewing ways to move the Baptist Building to the Prattville area for almost a decade.

State convention messengers approved the first steps toward that end in 2007 and several ideas have been considered through the years.

As recent discussions developed, it was learned that Baptist Health owned acreage facing Alabama Highway 14, just off Interstate 65 exit 181 in Prattville.

SBOM and Baptist Health officials agreed that Baptist Health would construct a building to SBOM specifications on a little under four acres of the land.

Once construction of the new SBOM facility is complete, the two Baptist organizations would essentially exchange keys and the complete relocation — which should be finished by Jan. 1, 2018 — would happen without any indebtedness.

During the August SBOM board meeting, Bobby DuBois, SBOM’s chief financial officer and associate executive director, said, “Since 2008 the SBOM has been debt-free and is committed to remaining as such for the future.”

‘Geographic center’

SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance said at the same meeting, “The proposal would position missions personnel and resources closer to the geographic center of the state. This would provide more accessibility for Alabama Baptists to utilize their State Board of Missions facility as a Great Commission Ministries Resource Center.”

The size of the new building would be 39,900 square feet versus the present Baptist Building’s 87,500 square feet.

DuBois said in August, “This is in line with the right-sizing of our staff that has been underway since the arrival in 1998 of Dr. Lance as our executive director. After Dr. Lance joined the staff, our full-time employee count was 121. Today we have 67 full-time employees.”

A new facility would likely have fewer maintenance issues and lower utility costs, DuBois added.

Lance told convention messengers Nov. 15 that the value of the proposed building and acreage is in line with the appraised value — $7.6 million — of the current Baptist Building.

“We need to anticipate the future and this is one good way to do that,” he said.

And while Alabama Baptists giving through the CP may be a little shy of the $40 million budgeted amount for 2016, Lance noted SBOM is projected to end the year under budget.

Messengers unanimously approved the 2017 budget to remain the same but with a change in the breakdown.

The percentages for 2017 are 52 percent ($20,808,238) for Alabama Baptist causes and 48 percent ($19,191,762) for Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) causes. The percentage for 2016 was 53/47.

The 1 percent adjustment remains in line with Alabama Baptists’ “parity plan” publicized in 2015, Lance explained at the August meeting.

‘Parity’ with SBC

In November 2015, Lance told convention messengers meeting in Daphne, “We are moving more and more to the point of parity by 2020 with the SBC.”

Since 2012, Alabama Baptists have adopted budgets that increase the SBC allocation by an average of 1 percent annually and plan to continue until parity with SBC is reached.

All allocations proposed for 2017 remain the same for state convention entities and SBOM’s ministry efforts with the exception of Samford University in Birmingham. The largest of the three Alabama Baptist schools will give up $400,000 of CP funding. This is the second of four years of this plan, with that money going toward the parity.

And all gifts coming in above the $40 million goal will be allocated equally between SBC and Alabama Baptist State Convention ministries.

During the SBOM meeting Nov. 14, board members heard a report that a loan from SBOM to Good Shepherd Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, had been forgiven.

Good Shepherd Baptist was a church plant more than 20 years ago, said state missionary Rick Barnhart. Through CP giving Alabama Baptists assisted the church in several ways including a land grant to assist it in purchasing property and mobile chapels for approximately 10 years, he explained.

In 2006 the church received a low interest loan to assist it in the building of its first unit. The church has struggled in the last five years with a change in the restructuring of its previous loan from the North American Mission Board. The SBOM has chosen to assist this church that has been faithful in its CP and associational giving by forgiving the balance of its $50,000 loan which is $20,032.47, Barnhart said.

‘Pacesetters in giving’

In presenting the 2017 special offering goals of $22,200,000 to convention messengers Nov. 15, Craig Carlisle, pastor of Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Rainbow City, near Gadsden, said, “Alabama Baptists are pacesetters in missions giving, CP giving and supporting missions across the nation, state and world.”

The approved special offering goals are:

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — $11,600,000

Annie Armstrong Easter Offering — $6,100,000

Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $2,700,000

Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering — $1,000,000

Alabama Baptist World Hunger Offering — $800,000

Also during the SBOM report, state missionary Mike Jackson presented three pastors with the Troy L. Morrison Leadership/Church Health Award (see photo, this page). And state missionary Scotty Goldman presented Jerry Sims, a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, as Missions Volunteer of the Year (see story, page 8).

Immediately following the annual meeting Morgan Bailey was elected SBOM chairman and Mike Goforth was elected vice chairman. Bailey is pastor of Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer. Goforth is pastor of Sardis Baptist Church, Boaz.


Alabama Baptist State Convention

2017 CooperativeProgram Budget

(Approved Nov. 16, 2016)

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION MINISTRIES

SBC Executive Committee — $18,392,424

SBC GuideStone — $799,338

Subtotal for SBC Ministries — $19,191,762

STATE BOARD OF MISSIONS MINISTRIES 

EVANGELISM/DISCIPLESHIP (34 full-time employees)

Evangelism 106,938Sunday School and Discipleship — $307,862

Collegiate and Student Ministries — $96,427

Evangelism/Discipleship Salaries/Housing — $1,640,839

Evangelism/Discipleship Travel/Field Services — $164,345

LEADERSHIP RESOURCE  (11 full-time employees)

LeaderCare/Church Health — $315,866

Worship Leadership/Church Music — $86,140

Leadership Development Salaries/Housing — $523,462

Leadership Development Travel/Field Services — $51,867

MISSIONS MOBILIZATION (14 full-time employees)

Associational Missions & Church Planting — $756,652

Global Missions — $211,869

Missions Mobilization Salaries/Housing — $679,485

Missions Mobilization Travel/Field Services — $67,325

MISSIONS SUPPORT (29 full-time employees)

Executive Director

A. Director’s Office — $48,427

B. Disaster Relief — $1,000

C. Supplemental Aid — $1,000

D. Strategic Initiatives

D. Partnerships — $1,000

Financial/Facility Services

Director’s Office — $424,752

Accounting & Human Resources — $2,135,383

Church Compensation Services — $14,561

Facility Services — $1,418,914

Cooperative Program & Stewardship Development — $32,390

Communications & Technology Services — $323,090

Missions Support Salaries/Housing — $1,604,124

Missions Support Travel/Field Services — $158,943

Subtotal for State Board of Missions Ministries — $11,172,660

STATE CONVENTION ENTITY MINISTRIES

Christian Higher Education Ministries

A. A. Earl Potts Scholarship — $111,761

B. Board of Aid to Students — $254,110

C. Judson College — $936,870

D. Samford University — $3,551,231

E. University of Mobile — $2,385,366

Other Entities and Commissions Ministries

A. Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $253,625

B. Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center — $544,943

C. The Alabama Baptist — $552,673

D. The Alabama Baptist Retirement Centers — $186,125

E. The Baptist Foundation of Alabama — $132,251

F. The Christian Life Commission — $24,475

G. The Education Commission — $3,230

H. The Alabama Baptist Historical Commission — $127,775

Auxiliaries and Other Ministries

A. ALCAP — $65,354

B. Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union — $505,790

Subtotal for Convention Entity Ministries — $9,635,578

TOTAL BASE BUDGET — $40,000,000

SPECIAL OFFERING GOALS

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — $11,600,000

Annie Armstrong Easter Offering — $6,100,000

Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $2,700,000

Alabama Baptist World Hunger Offering — $800,000

Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering — $1,000,000

Total for Special Offering Goals — $22,200,000

 

GRAND TOTAL COOPERATIVE PROGRAM BUDGET AND SPECIAL OFFERING GOALS — $62,200,000