by Baptist Press Staff
NASHVILLE (BP) — Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist Convention national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 7.19 percent above the year-to-date budgeted projection and 1.46 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 2015-16 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
As of Feb. 29, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget through the first five months of the SBC’s fiscal year totaled $83,293,559.57. The total is $5,585,226.24 above the $77,708,333.33 year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist Convention ministries globally and across North America and is $1,195,455.23 more than the $82,098,104.34 received through the end of February 2015.
According to the budget adopted by the SBC at its June 2015 annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, if the convention exceeds its annual budget goal of $186.5 million dollars, the International Mission Board’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 $97,411,658.13 for the same year-to-date period is 4.91 percent, or $4,555,640.85, above gifts of $92,856,017.28 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 directly to SBC entities.
February’s CP allocation receipts for SBC work totaled $17,354,857.83. Designated gifts received last month, meanwhile, amounted to $55,161,127.22.
Each SBC entity and the Executive Committee have been given specific ministry responsibilities by the convention’s messengers. These ministry statements are listed in the SBC Organization Manual.
Each ministry assignment begins with the phrase “Assist churches.” The statements include such duties as “Assist churches…:
— “… by programs of master’s level theological education for ministers” (Seminaries);
— “… in the ministries of evangelism and making disciples” (NAMB);
— “… in sending and supporting Southern Baptist missionaries and volunteers by enlisting, equipping, and enabling them to fulfill their calling” (IMB);
— “… in ministries to college and university students” (LifeWay);
— “… in their moral witness in local communities” (ERLC); and
— “… through relief to Southern Baptist ministers and Southern Baptist denominational employees” (GuideStone).
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 through the convention’s six seminaries, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. GuideStone Financial Resources and LifeWay Christian Resources are self-sustaining and do not receive CP funding.
The Cooperative Program is a program of giving through which a local church is able to contribute to the various ministries of its state or regional Baptist convention and to the various missions and ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention with a single contribution. State and regional Baptist conventions 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. The totals in this release reflect only the SBC portion of Cooperative Program receipts.
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.
