By Staff, Baptist Press
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Cooperative Program ended its fiscal year 3 percent over budget and at 99.41 percent of last year’s contributions.
Church giving hopefully has dipped as low as it will from the U.S. economic downturn and may be ready to stabilize or climb, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank Page said.
“Those who research these things tell us that church giving usually lags one to two years behind the general economy,” Page said. “God’s people are not immune from the hardships associated with this life. … It should come as no surprise, then, that church giving has been deeply affected by the nation’s four-year recession.
“With that in mind, the Executive Committee sought to achieve a balance between faith and realism when it set this past year’s budget,” Page said.
The SBC received $191,678,994.28 in CP gifts during the fiscal year Oct. 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012, or $199,650.88 less than the $191,878,645.16 received during the last fiscal year. This year’s giving is $5,678,994.28 above the budget goal of $186,000,000.
“We finished 3 percent ahead of our budgeted goal and only slightly under last year’s CP total. This is hallelujah territory! To God be the glory,” Page said. “Based on our approved CP allocation budget goal, IMB will receive 51 percent of the $5.6 million overage, providing additional resources for reaching the nations with the Gospel. Our other ministry entities will receive their allocated portions of the overage as well, with the overage portion coming to the EC falling to only 2.4 percent.”
The CP is a channel of giving, begun in 1925, through which a local church can contribute to the various ministries of its state convention and the SBC through a single contribution. Monies include receipts from individuals, churches, state conventions and fellowships for distribution according to the 2011-12 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
The convention-adopted budget is distributed as follows: 50.2 percent to international missions through the International Mission Board, 22.79 percent to North American missions through the North American Mission Board, 22.16 percent to theological education, 3.2 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Because the convention exceeded its annual budget goal of $186 million, IMB’s share goes to 51 percent of the overage in Cooperative Program Allocation Budget receipts. Other ministry entities of the SBC receive their adopted percentage amounts while the SBC operating budget’s portion is reduced to 2.4 percent.