The Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention has adopted a blueprint that will direct a larger share of the state’s Cooperative Program dollars toward Southern Baptist Convention causes while reducing funding for SCBC institutions and ministry partners.
On Monday night during its Oct. 12-13 fall meeting, the Executive Board unanimously approved the report of the Future Vision Committee, an ad hoc panel appointed in 2013 by then Executive Board chairman Tom Tucker.
The committee’s report calls for half of all state Cooperative Program receipts to be earmarked for the Southern Baptist Convention and the International Mission Board. Currently, approximately 41 percent of state CP receipts are forwarded to the SBC.
Future Vision Committee chairman Kent Smith, pastor of River Hills Baptist Church in Moore, had said previously that his committee’s desire was to “support global missions with what’s right, not what’s left.”
Smith’s committee suggested that the SCBC’s annual budget allocation for state ministries and institutions be established according to a set percentage basis, regardless of Cooperative Program income.
Under the new spending plan, which is slated to go into effect in January 2017, the convention’s affiliated institutions (ministry partners) and South Carolina WMU would receive a share of CP dollars allocated as follows:
— Charleston Southern University: 5.45 percent (down from 5.66 percent of current budget)
— Anderson University: 4.33 percent (unchanged from share of current budget)
— North Greenville University: 4.33 percent (unchanged from share of current budget)
— Connie Maxwell Children’s Home: 3.2 percent (unchanged from share of current budget)
— South Carolina Baptist Ministries for Aging: 3.16 percent (down from 3.80 percent of current budget)
— South Carolina WMU: 1.75 percent (down from 2.11 percent of current budget)
— The Baptist Courier: 0.61 percent (down from 1.12 percent of current budget)
— The Baptist Foundation of South Carolina: 0.00 percent (The foundation voluntarily began phasing out its dependence on CP funding after the adoption of the Great Commission Resurgence report in November 2011.)
The report calls for SCBC institutions to “reduce or eliminate” their need for CP funding in the future. Smith praised the Baptist Foundation for phasing out its CP allocation. The Foundation, under a goal set by its president, Barry Edwards, has reduced its dependence on CP funding steadily since 2012 and will receive no CP support beginning in 2016.
The new budget guidelines stabilize expenditures for Executive Board (Baptist building) ministries at 33.5 percent within five years. The report noted that Executive Board ministries have taken cuts over the last four years and have absorbed any budget shortfalls during that time, resulting in CP allocations that have become “increasingly skewed in favor of the ministry partners,” some of which received steady funding during the five-year GCR period.
The report calls for 33.5 percent of Cooperative Program receipts to be directed to Executive Board ministries and 21 percent to be allocated to the institutions (ministry partners) and South Carolina WMU. Under the new spending guidelines, the SCBC would continue to forward an additional 4.5 percent of CP receipts directly to the International Mission Board, a move that ensures that IMB will receive the same amount it would if the SCBC budget reflected a true 50-50 split with the SBC.
In addition to the funding proposals, which were referred to the board’s Budget, Finance & Audit Committee, the Future Vision Committee urged the adoption of a new SCBC theme: “Helping Churches Fulfill the Great Commission.” Executive Board chairman Dwight Easler said the board will ask SCBC messengers to approve the theme at the annual meeting in November.
The Future Vision Committee also offered the following recommendations for action by the Executive Board Properties Committee and convention staff:
— Recommend a plan in regard to the White Oak Conference Center that would reduce the need for CP funding. (See related story.)
— Recommend a plan to facilitate the establishment of shared ministry initiatives and endeavors with ministry partners.
— Study the pattern of relationships existing in other state conventions regarding the WMU, state missions offerings, and CP support of the WMU, and bring recommendations to the Executive Board if appropriate.
— Study the need for and efficacy of the Office of Public Policy, and make recommendations to the Executive Board if appropriate.