A motion offered by South Carolina Baptist Convention president Brad Atkins at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention would – if embraced by SBC seminaries – free up additional Cooperative Program funds for international missions.
Atkins’ motion, which he made June 19 from the floor at the convention’s annual meeting in New Orleans, called on SBC seminaries to consider allowing their portion of the CP allocation budget to be reduced from 21.92 percent to 21 percent and request that the SBC Executive Committee allocate the remaining .92 percent to the International Mission Board.
The motion was referred to the Executive Committee and all six seminaries.
Atkins said his motion was a “follow-up” to Recommendation 11 of the SCBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report, which was adopted by South Carolina Baptist messengers last November. Recommendation 11 called on the SBC Executive Committee to “consider adjusting the budgets of the seminaries & other SBC entities as a means of increasing funding to the IMB.”
Atkins and SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin presented Recommendation 11 to the SBC Executive Committee at its February meeting in Nashville, Tenn. The Executive Committee responded by stating that it would “exercise due diligence in weighing the request – over the next several years.”
But the EC also noted its responsibility “to maintain the level of funding necessary for each entity to provide the ministries assigned it by the SBC through its ministry assignments.”
Atkins, referencing his New Orleans motion, said he hopes seminary presidents and trustees will “prayerfully consider if they should send [a portion of] of their CP allocation – to the IMB.”
“This would give enough funding to immediately send dozens of missionaries to help penetrate the darkness and reach those in the unreached people groups,” Atkins told the Courier.
“State conventions and the SBC executives, under the visionary leadership of Dr. Frank Page, are already doing more to get as much money to the mission fields around the world by streamlining their budgets,” he said. “This gives the leadership of the seminaries an avenue to see if they can join us all in this effort.”
Last fall, South Carolina Baptists, in adopting the Great Commission Resurgence report, approved sweeping reductions in funding to their seven affiliated institutions (three universities, a children’s home, two retirement communities, a state Baptist newspaper and a foundation), as well as to South Carolina WMU and the ministries and programs of the Baptist building, all in order to free up $400,000 in additional support for the International Mission Board.
The state GCR report also calls for moving toward a 50/50 split of state Cooperative Program revenues with the SBC within five years.
In New Orleans, SBC messengers offered 19 motions during the opening day of the annual meeting. All but one were referred to SBC entities or ruled out of order.
– With reporting from Baptist Press.