With the first half of 2013 in the books, Cooperative Program support from the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s 2,100-plus churches is running 6.83 percent short of budgeted needs.
Through June, CP giving from churches was $13.28 million, nearly $1 million short of budgeted needs of $14.25 million, according to figures released July 1 by Pam Carroll, the SCBC’s chief financial officer.
The June giving report marked the second consecutive month that CP giving declined. At the end of May, giving was 2.29 percent behind budgeted needs for the year.
“While giving typically tapers off during the summer months, we must keep in mind that ministries funded through the Cooperative Program continue throughout these months,” said SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin.
“One such new initiative is the final week of our SummerSalt youth camp,” Austin said. “This year the summer camp will be conducted in Atlanta [to assist] church planters in their efforts to plant churches within the I-285 loop.”
CP gifts from South Carolina churches provide funding for the SCBC’s $28.6 million 2013 operating budget.
At the national level, year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are $1,075,153.03, or 0.76 percent, above the year-to-date budgeted goal and are 2.33 percent below contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Frank S. Page.
The total includes receipts from state conventions, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2012-13 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
The Cooperative Program is a channel of giving, begun in 1925, through which a local church is able to contribute to the various ministries of its state convention and to the missions and ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention with a single contribution.
As of June 30, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget totaled $142,075,153.06 or 100.76 percent, of the $141 million year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The total is $3,383,892.51 less than the $145,459,045.57 received through the end of June 2012.
“For the past two years, the Southern Baptist Convention has demonstrated its wisdom in adopting a fiscally responsible Cooperative Program allocation budget goal,” Page said. “The folks at LifeWay tell us that church giving generally lags behind the economy by 18 to 24 months. We see encouraging signs that the economic health of our churches is slowly rebounding and remain confident that Cooperative Program giving will increase over the next several years.”
— With reporting from Baptist Press.