Stormy economic times were the theme of the day as the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention met April 14 at White Oak Conference Center.
In his report to the Executive Board, SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin encouraged South Carolina Baptist churches to seize the opportunity to offer help to others. “Hopefully, we will be able to look back on this time and say, in the words of Winston Churchill, ‘This was our finest hour,’ ” Austin said.
Helping others, however, will be much more challenging over the next several years in view of current economic conditions, reports indicated. Many convention entities and agencies depend heavily on investment returns to meet their yearly budgets, and those returns have fallen far short of expectations over the last several months.
The Richard Furman Scholarship Fund produced only $34,148 over the past year, making it necessary for the convention’s budget and finance committee to allocate an extra $50,000 to cover the shortfall so that deserving students could still be provided with significant scholarship amounts.
In the past, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home has depended upon 40 percent of its operating budget to be paid for by investment income. That won’t happen this year, next year or the next, according to children’s home president Ben Davis. “We’re tightening our belts, and we trust that God will provide all necessities,” Davis said.
Baptist Courier editor Don Kirkland reported that a challenging era looms for the publication, due not only to investment losses but also to the fact that the newspaper industry as a whole has fallen on hard times of late. Kirkland said advertisements in the paper have decreased, postage and printing costs have increased, and an ever-growing number of people have migrated to the Internet for their news. “In a culture of ‘free,’ people don’t expect to pay for what they get online,” Kirkland said. Courier staff members are working to come up with an economic model to combat this trend. In the meantime, Kirkland said he is confident that the Lord will provide. “As long as there is purpose in what we do, God will sustain it,” he said.
Baptist Foundation president Weldon Fallaw told board members that he has never seen more challenging economic times in his 27 years of service, but that a spending policy developed several years ago has provided a steady stream of income for foundation accounts. “Not all accounts have provided full distributions, but it is a blessing that we had policies in place that helped us make a distribution to all entities of the foundation,” he said. Fallaw reported that the foundation had a “fairly good year.” As of December 2008, the agency had distributed $1.5 million to Baptist causes and more than $1 million to individuals with trust funds, he said. The foundation also awarded more than $50,000 in grants in 2008, including surprise grants awarded to Baptist universities, and more than $18,000 in scholarships.
Proactive measures are being taken to meet some economic challenges head-on. Austin announced that an economic summit called the “Recession Obsession” will be held in May at Northside Baptist Church in West Columbia that will focus on teaching churches how to minister in tough economic times (see story on page 11).
Reports stated that spending is being reduced at the convention office and that staff members are doing the best they can to be good stewards. The Convention Staff Compensation Study Committee reported that no full-time employee needs to have his or her job terminated, or salary reduced, in response to the tough economy. However, adjustments may have to be made among contract workers or part-time employees, the committee said.
Financial woes notwithstanding, South Carolina Baptists are moving forward with projects centered around the Empower Kingdom Life emphasis. Austin reported that plans are in the works for Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt to hold a meeting in the state concerning his Timothy/Barnabas mentoring initiative. The meeting could take place as early as late August, Austin said.
Austin also reported that strides are being made in the area of church revitalization with the convention’s new CHAMPS (Church Health Assessment and Mobilization Planning Strategy) initiative, a program designed to mentor and develop leaders to help churches focus on their strengths and move forward in ministry.
In other news, Austin announced that the convention will place a Baptist Campus Ministry leader on campus at one of the state’s historically black colleges this fall. “We must be proactive and strategically focus on reaching minorities,” Austin said. – SCBC