Cooperative Program giving from South Carolina Baptist churches continues to decline, dipping to nearly 6 percent below budgeted needs for the year.
Through the third quarter of 2013, CP receipts were $20,099,620, or 5.97 percent, under needs of $21,375,000 for the period, according to information released by Pam Carroll, chief financial officer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
The deficit grew by 1.39 percent from the previous month.
Adopting a budget for 2014 will be one item of business that messengers will deal with when they gather in Columbia Nov. 12-13 for the SCBC annual meeting.
At the national level, the Southern Baptist Convention met its Cooperative Program goal of $188 million, but ended its fiscal year 1.92 percent below last year’s contributions.
The SBC received $188,001,275 in CP gifts during the fiscal year Oct. 1, 2012-Sept. 30, 2013, or $3,677,718 less than the $191,678,994 received the previous fiscal year. This year’s giving was 0.00068 percent above the budgeted goal of $188,000,000.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ channel of giving, begun in 1925, through which a local church can contribute to the ministries of its state convention and the missions and ministries of the SBC with a single monthly or weekly contribution.