By BP Staff
NASHVILLE (BP) — Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist Convention national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 3.25 percent above the year-to-date budgeted projection, and are 4.97 percent above contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Frank S. Page. The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2014-15 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
As of January 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget totaled $64,702,035.77, or 103.25 percent of the $62,666,666.67 year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist Convention ministries globally and across North America. The total is $3,066,250.90 more than the $61,635,784.87 received through the end of January 2014.
The Convention-adopted budget is distributed 50.41 percent to international missions through IMB, 22.79 percent to North American missions through NAMB, 22.16 percent to theological education, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget, and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
In accordance with their Convention-assigned ministry responsibilities, IMB reported supporting more than 4,800 fully-funded overseas missionaries who, in conjunction with their work with national partners, reported nearly 6,200 new churches and more than 114,000 baptisms; NAMB reported more than 2,600 fully-funded, jointly-funded and student missionaries and 936 new churches planted; the seminary presidents reported more than 19,000 students enrolled for ministerial training through the Convention’s six seminaries; and ERLC actively engaged hundreds of pastors, churches, elected officials and the courts and more than 1,200 “strategic media contacts” on numerous issues of biblical ethics, public policy and religious liberty, according to the 2014 SBC Book of Reports.
According to the budget adopted by the SBC at its June 2014 annual meeting in Baltimore, if the Convention exceeds its annual budget goal of $188 million dollars, IMB’s share will go to 51 percent of any overage in Cooperative Program allocation budget receipts. Other ministry entities of the SBC will receive their adopted percentage amounts and the SBC operating budget’s portion will be reduced to 2.4 percent of any overage.
Designated giving of $39,448,889.72 for the same year-to-date period is 6.31 percent, or $2,343,218.34, above gifts of $37,105,671.38 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities.
The Cooperative Program is a program of giving through which a local church is able to contribute to the various ministries of its state convention and to the various missions and ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention with a single contribution.
January’s CP allocation receipts for SBC work totaled $19,508,055.06. Designated gifts received last month, meanwhile, amounted to $27,967,681.81.
State and regional Baptist conventions serve as collecting entities for Cooperative Program contributions. They retain a portion of church contributions to the Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist Convention national and international causes. The percentage of distribution from the states is at the discretion of the messengers of each state convention through the adoption of the state convention’s annual budget.
CP allocation budget receipts received by the Executive Committee are reported monthly to the executives of the entities of the convention, to the state offices, to the denominational papers and are posted online at www.cpmissions.net/CPReports.
The end-of-month total represents money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of each month. Month-to-month swings reflect a number of factors, including the number of Sundays in a given month, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions and the timing of when state conventions forward the national portion of their CP contributions to the Executive Committee.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com).
Baptist Press (BP) is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention and provides news to the 42 state Baptist papers. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists’ concerns nationally and globally.
