For the second time in three months, Cooperative Program giving from South Carolina Baptist churches has dipped below budgeted needs for the year.
Through September, giving fell 2.2 percent below budget projections for the year, according to information released by Pam Carroll, chief financial officer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Gifts from churches previously fell short of budgeted needs in July but rebounded into positive territory in August.
SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin expressed confidence that South Carolina Baptists will finish 2012 in the black.
“We trust that the year’s final quarter of giving will help us to catch up, and even exceed, our budget goals,” said Austin, “ensuring that all convention ministries are fully funded in their efforts to assist us all in experiencing kingdom life.
“We continue to thank God for the sacrificial giving of South Carolina Baptists,” he said.
Through September, churches had forwarded $20.9 million toward the SCBC budget, slightly behind last year’s pace of $21.4 million. The 2012 state convention budget, which runs through December, is $28.6 million.
Carroll noted in her report that although there were five Sundays in September, receipts from the fifth Sunday (Sept. 30) would be counted in October because the books closed on Friday, Sept. 28.
At the national level, the Cooperative Program ended its fiscal year 3 percent over budget and at 99.4 percent of last year’s contributions.
Church giving hopefully has dipped as low as it will from the U.S. economic downturn and may be ready to stabilize or climb, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president Frank Page said.
The SBC received $191,678,994.28 in CP gifts during the fiscal year Oct. 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012, or $199,650.88 less than the $191,878,645.16 received during the last fiscal year. This year’s giving is $5,678,994.28 above the budget goal of $186,000,000.
“We finished 3 percent ahead of our budgeted goal and only slightly under last year’s CP total. This is hallelujah territory! To God be the glory,” Page said.
The budget outlook comes at a time when the SBC is aiming to bolster the Cooperative Program in local churches. For the past two years, Page has challenged Southern Baptist churches to increase their CP contributions by 1 percentage point of their budgets. The “1% Challenge,” Page said, would generate an additional $100 million for kingdom work.
– With reporting from Baptist Press.