After rebounding in April, giving from South Carolina Baptist churches through the Cooperative Program slipped in May, falling 2.29 percent behind budgeted needs for the year.
Receipts for May were $2,278,956, pushing year-to-date giving to $11,603,316, according to information released by Pam Carroll, chief financial officer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Cooperative Program gifts from South Carolina churches provide funding for the SCBC’s $28.6 million 2013 operating budget.
Jim Austin, SCBC executive director-treasurer, encouraged South Carolina Baptists to “remember the biblical imperative of tithing to the local church” during the summer months. “A direct impact of such faithful stewardship will be the sustaining of multiple ministries supported through the Cooperative Program,” he said.
Nationally, year-to-date Cooperative Program contributions are 1.17 percent above the budgeted goal and 1.63 percent behind contributions received during the same time frame last year.
“We are especially grateful for the thousands of cooperating churches who continue to make CP a principal component of their missions giving strategy,” said SBC Executive Committee president Frank Page.
“I pray that thousands more of our existing churches, as well as hundreds of new church plants, will join us in impacting the nations with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”