The Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, meeting Dec. 13 in Columbia, elected new officers for 2019 and approved a change in how budgeted funds will be divided among the SCBC’s three affiliated universities.
Last November, SCBC messengers approved a $28 million Cooperative Program budget for 2019 that included nearly $4 million in disbursements to the convention’s three affiliated universities — $1,212,400 each to Anderson University and North Greenville, and $1,526,000 to Charleston Southern.
Under the Executive Board’s new disbursement formula, which goes into effect in June 2019, 60 percent of the amount set aside for the three universities will be divided equally, and the remaining 40 percent will be disbursed based on student enrollment numbers.
The change takes into account varying rates of growth at the schools over the past 20 years. Enrollment at Anderson and North Greenville universities has grown significantly during that time, said Evans Whitaker, president of Anderson University, where the student enrollment today is near that of Charleston Southern University.
Whitaker said all three schools use their Cooperative Program allocations to provide “much-needed” scholarships for Baptist students.
He noted that historically Baptist schools in some states are no longer “spiritually yoked” to their state conventions but said South Carolina’s three universities “are among the most loyal and rightly focused Southern Baptist-related universities in the nation.”
SCBC executive director-treasurer Gary Hollingsworth said the new funding plan came to the Executive Board as a joint request from the university presidents. He stressed that the total amount set aside in the SCBC budget for the universities has not been changed; however, the share for each school will be calculated each year according to the new formula.
“This has been a point of discussion for many years, about the inequity of funding between the three schools, which had not been reviewed or adjusted for some time,” Hollingsworth said.
“Our Executive Board felt it was within their ability to make an internal allocation change without needing to go back to the convention for a vote next November. We studied our bylaws carefully and did not seen any prohibition that would not allow this.”
“Of course, if someone wants to challenge that position at this year’s convention, we could always go back and make adjustments for the few months since it took place and would gladly bring a recommendation to the floor for consideration and affirmation.”
In other business, the Executive Board elected the following officers for 2019: Zach Little (chairman), pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Abbeville; Albert Allen (vice chairman), pastor of First Baptist Church of Newberry; and Cindy Sanders (secretary), a member of First Baptist Church of Varnville.
Talmadge Tobias, chairman of the Budget, Finance & Audit Committee, reported that his committee approved $70,000 to be sent to the California Baptist Convention to assist victims and churches in areas affected by recent wildfires.
The Executive Board also recognized outgoing member Landon Williams, pastor of Hillview Baptist Church in Graniteville, and his wife, Megan, who are leaving to serve as International Mission Board missionaries to Chile. Hollingsworth led the board in a commissioning prayer for the couple.
“I don’t know that there is anything more significant or important when it comes to having a kingdom vision that we can do as South Carolina Baptists than to do what we are doing right now, which is sending our very best to the nations, to take the gospel to places that are underserved, under-reached and lack a gospel witness,” said Jay Hardwick, SCBC associate executive director and chief strategist.
In his report to the board, Hollingsworth said that 11,782 salvations were reported as a result of South Carolina Baptist ministries in 2018, and he highlighted the state convention’s disaster relief response as well as assistance received from other states following last year’s devastating storms and flooding across South Carolina.