Messengers to the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C., today approved a “revised” report of an Cooperative Program ad hoc committee.
Two of nine recommendations to strengthen the Cooperative Program, adopted at the February 16 meeting of the Executive Committee in Canada, were revised in late May, prior to being presented to messengers, according to an announcement by the president and officers of the SBC Executive Committee.
The amended report, which drew considerable discussion during the Tuesday morning session, removed a portion urging churches to “adopt a missional mindset as they contribute at least 10 percent” of their undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. Instead, the report now “commends” churches that are “giving sacrificially and proportionally a large percentage” of their undesignated receipts through the CP.
The amended report also encouraged each church to to give an increasing percentage of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program for five successive years, beginning in 2007.
A section of the report recommending the election of state and national convention officers from churches that give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the CP was likewise amended to read that officers are encouraged to “systematically and enthusiastically lead by example in giving sacrificially and proportionally.”
An attempt to restore the original wording of the ad hoc committee’s report failed on the floor of the convention after lengthy discussion.
Cooperative Program support has emerged as a hot button issue in the SBC presidential election, which is slated during the Tuesday afternoon session.
Media coverage of Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., has highlighted the percentage of his church’s giving through CP, that includes both state and national causes, 0.27 percent ($32,000) of undesignated receipts of $11,952,137.
The second candidate for SBC president is Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C. In 2005, the Taylors congregation gave $534,683, or 12.4 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $4,297,861.
In 2005, Two Rivers Baptist Church, Nashville – where Jerry Sutton, who announced his candidacy last week, is pastor – did not contribute through the Cooperative Program (0.0 percent of undesignated receipts), but instead designated a combined $183,482 in gifts to the state and national conventions to support CP missions from undesignated receipts of $4,104,377.
In 1984, the average portion of undesignated receipts given by Southern Baptist churches through the Cooperative Program was 10.6 percent. In 2005, the last year of record, the average had declined to 6.66 percent.