In the face of declining church budget gifts, members of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, meeting Oct. 12 at White Oak Conference Center, approved a leaner state budget for the coming year.
The $29.5 million financial plan for 2011, which awaits approval by SCBC messengers in November, represents a reduction of more than 8 percent from 2010 and a decline of 13.6 percent from the SCBC’s high-water budget mark of $34.3 million in 2009.
The scaled-down budget reflects a continued slippage in budget receipts from SCBC churches in 2010, down 5.5 percent through September of this year. (Church budget gifts were down about 6 percent the previous year.)
The Cooperative Program portion of the proposed budget calls for forwarding 41 percent of CP receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention (up from 40.4 percent) and retaining 59 percent for in-state ministries.
The 2011 proposed budget anticipates receipts of $29,400,000 through the Cooperative Program and $140,000 from cooperative gifts.
If messengers adopt the proposed budget in November, it will mark the second consecutive year that South Carolina Baptists have reduced their budget, something that has not happened in recent history. In fact, since 1970, the only time South Carolina Baptists cut their budget was in 1993. (From 2003-2006, the budget was steady at $32.2 million.)
“We are living in serious times,” Bill Gaines, chairman of the budget, finance and audit committee, said in an SCBC news release. “Many state conventions, including our own, as well as Baptist institutions and agencies, are being forced to come to terms with a leaner economy as Cooperative Program giving shrinks to levels not seen in nearly a decade.”
Gaines put South Carolina Baptists’ budget issues in context with other state conventions, noting that North Carolina’s budget is down 17.5 percent since 2009, Georgia’s is down 13.9 percent since 2008 and Florida’s is down 18.5 percent since 2008. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, he reported, has reduced staff by 34 percent since 2006 and cut its budget three of the past five years.
The South Carolina Baptist Convention office has also experienced a reduction in staff. “Since November 2009, we have had nine resignations, two retirements, and numerous reassignments, usually involving additional staff responsibilities,” Gaines said in the convention news release. “We have eliminated six positions, with half of these being combined with other positions, but, to date, we have experienced no layoffs due to the lean economy.”
In 1999, Gaines said, South Carolina Baptist churches gave 8.6 percent of undesignated gifts through the Cooperative Program. By 2009, the percentage had dropped to 7.6 percent. That slight drop, he said, represents a total decrease of 12 percent in giving – or $4 million less to the Cooperative Program.
“We as South Carolina Baptists need to turn this giving percentage around,” he said. In July, Gaines, said, the budget, finance and audit committee became “convinced we would not receive the 2010 budget receipts” needed, as Cooperative Program giving through that time was down 6.2 percent. The 2010 projected decrease from 2009 is expected to be 5.5 percent.
The committee did not consider a pay increase for convention staff in 2011. Staff did not receive a pay increase in 2010 or 2009. Health insurance premiums will increase by 7.2 percent for convention staff in 2011.
Gaines praised the convention staff for its work in the budget process, reducing its budget by $548,642 from its initial requests. White Oak Conference Center reduced its budget by $59,725, or 10 percent. White Oak Conference Center also reduced its request for 2011 Cooperative Program dollars and has budgeted a repayment of $62,000 to the convention’s fund balance.
Following approval of the budget, Gaines made a recommendation from the committee that the SCBC’s contingency reserve be used to meet budget shortfalls in 2010. The expected 2010 receipts shortfall may end up at 5.7 percent below budget. An amendment from the floor to keep any budget overage in South Carolina for statewide causes was defeated, and the initial recommendation was approved.
SCBC president Fred Stone said the International Mission Board was chosen as the recipient for any overage. “Our South Carolina institutions and Executive Board work will be taken care of this year,” he said. “There are 1.6 billion unreached people in the world. We need to help fund the IMB as much as we possibly can.”