Through February, Cooperative Program giving from South Carolina Baptist churches was slightly behind budgeted needs for the year.
In the first two months of 2013, churches had forwarded $4,624,608 in CP gifts, $125,392 short of budgeted needs for the period, according to information released by Pam Carroll, chief financial officer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
In January, CP giving was 10.7 percent ahead of budgeted needs; February giving fell 16 percent short of monthly needs. For the year, the SCBC budget is 2.6 percent behind needs.
“February’s CP giving was slightly below par of our budget expectation,” said Steve Cartin, chairman of the SCBC budget, finance and audit committee. “We’ve got 10 months and a God who can do a thousand years’ work in any one of our days. I’m trusting and confident that continued fiscal responsibility and trusting God are the keys to accomplishing what he has given into our hands to accomplish.”
At the national level, year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist missions and ministries are 3.15 percent above the year-to-date budgeted goal, but 1 percent behind contributions received during the same period last year.
“We continue to monitor the economy and its impact on our cooperating churches,” said SBC Executive Committee president Frank Page. “We have set a reasonable, yet challenging, Cooperative Program budget goal for this year, given how hard many Southern Baptists have been hit by the recession,” Page said.
“I am pleased to see that the precipitous drop in CP contributions of the previous three years has slowed, and am optimistic that we are seeing positive signs of an economic recovery for our people and churches,” he said. “As our people get on better footing financially, it will allow our ministries to begin planning for increased numbers of missionary appointments and church-planting assignments.”