Meeting at White Oak Conference Center Oct. 7-8, the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s Executive Board approved a 2014 convention budget of $28.6 million, which represents no total increase from the 2013 budget.
The budget will be presented to messengers at the annual meeting of the convention, Nov. 12-13 at Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia.
Board members also affirmed a new convention-wide theme that will be recommended to the messengers at this year’s annual meeting.
While the 2014 total convention budget is the same as 2013, the board’s Budget, Finance & Audit Committee identified year-to-year increases and decreases within the budget that reflect the convention’s approval of the Great Commission Resurgence report in 2011 and subsequent final approval to the convention bylaws in 2012.
South Carolina Baptist institutions (three universities, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, Ministries for the Aging, The Baptist Courier and the Baptist Foundation) received fix amounts as specified by the GCR approval.
While 59 percent of the budget is designated for use by the state convention, 41 percent will be forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention.
The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention will receive $761,813 directly from the state convention if the budget goal is met.
The Executive Board ministries portion of the budget will be reduced by $90,000 from 2013 as part of the GCR plan to send more money to support global missions. Executive Board staff will receive a 2 percent increase in salary, and staff insurance premiums reflect a 13.9 percent budget increase.
The Executive Board ministries portion of the budget expands funds for church revitalization and church planting.
The budget reflects a $16,000 increase in scholarship money for those attending college or seminary, pursuing a Christian vocation.
The Budget, Finance & Audit Committee reported that 2013 Cooperative Program giving from churches is $1.2 million behind budgeted needs for the year and noted that approximately $750,000 received in the first week of 2013 was included in 2012 giving. It was also reported that convention spending is dictated by receipts, meaning the convention is operating in the black for 2013.
New convention theme
At the 2012 annual meeting in Columbia, then-president Brad Atkins appointed a Seeking The Kingdom Task Force charged with discerning a new convention-wide theme for messengers to approve at this year’s annual meeting.
The Empowering Kingdom Growth theme of 1992-2002 was ultimately used by the Southern Baptist Convention. South Carolina Baptists have embraced multiyear themes that call attention to the Great Commission, serving churches, and Kingdom living. The current theme, Experiencing Kingdom Life, concludes this year.
Sonny Holmes, past convention president and pastor of Northwood Baptist Church, North Charleston, was appointed as chairman of the Seeking The Kingdom Task Force. Holmes presented the task force’s proposal to board members and received unanimous affirmation. The theme will not be announced until the annual meeting.
Following Holmes’ presentation to the board, members saw a preview of the My Hope America with Billy Graham video, and a time of worship followed.
Bylaw considerations
The convention’s standing Bylaws Committee briefed the Executive Board on a recommendation to be made at the 2013 annual meeting that adds a president-elect position to the convention’s annually elected officers. Messengers will only consider a first reading of the recommendation at the 2013 annual meeting and then vote on the recommendation in 2014.
The Bylaws Committee, it was reported, recommends the new officer position so that the convention president has a year to understand the office and its responsibilities so as to better plan the annual meeting at which he will preside. The year will also allow the president-elect the opportunity to network with statewide Baptist leaders before assuming office.
If the measure is approved in 2014, messengers would elect a president and president-elect during the first year of approval and then only a president-elect in succeeding years. Should a sitting president be unable to finish a term, the first vice president would step in to finish the term. The office of first vice president would not be affected by the election of a president-elect.
The committee did not favor a two-year presidential term, with reelection in the middle, expressing the opinion that the two-year commitment might strain an elected pastor’s service to his church and deter some candidates from interest in serving at all.
The convention’s Bylaws Committee also reported that it would not act on a recommendation from the 2012 annual meeting mandating that the Executive Board, institution boards and convention committees better reflect the entire state and limit the number of leaders from specific churches. The committee felt the issue of diversity among churches and regions would best be accomplished more organically by requesting sitting presidents be more diverse in appointments to the Committee on Committees each year. Also, the Bylaws Committee recommended that more diligence occur in communicating the work of the Nominating Committee through churches and associations.
Executive Board members approved a recommendation from the Planning & Ministries Committee asking the Bylaws Committee to consider changing the convention bylaws to specify that a “bonafide contributor to convention work means giving specifically to the Cooperative Program with the option to also give to other SCBC causes.” The current bylaws identify a contributor to convention work as a church that “gives to convention causes” without defining convention causes. The Planning & Ministries Committee reported that 200 churches no longer support the Cooperative Program.
In other action, the Executive Board:
— APPROVED a recommendation from the Planning & Ministries Committee to change the name of Anderson University’s board of trustees to a “board of trust.” Anderson University President Evans Whitaker requested the change, which, he said, signals that the school’s board has the “institution in trust.”
— APPROVED a recommendation to the 2013 annual meeting that rescinds a 2009 ban on the use of consultants by the Executive Board staff in Columbia. The board felt the use of consultants, especially in areas like property, finance and human resources, might actually save the convention money in the long term.
— APPROVED a recommendation from the Properties Committee, designating SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin and SCBC chief financial officer Pam Carroll as executors of documents for a lease agreement with American Tower for the placement of a cellular service tower at Camp McCall Royal Ambassador Camp. The lease will improve cellular service at the camp as well as generate income to the convention.
— HEARD from the Properties Committee that the Baptist Foundation of South Carolina will pay for improvements to the convention building sign in Columbia, allowing the addition of the foundation’s name to the sign. The foundation is a tenant within the convention building.
— HEARD from the Properties Committee that the new $2.2 million Baptist Campus Ministry building at Clemson University is finished and in use on Highway 93 in Clemson. This facility came about with a property exchange with no cost to the convention. Also, a new roof is almost complete at the convention building in Columbia.
— APPROVED upon recommendation from the board’s Administrative and Budget, Finance & Audit committees, that annual reports on church giving will be communicated through the convention’s website rather than the Baptist Courier due to publication schedules and costs, and written copies of the report will be provided to South Carolina Baptists who request a written report from convention staff.
— APPROVED, upon a recommendation from the Budget, Finance & Audit Committee, new language regarding the convention’s contingent reserve fund. Current policy limits the reserve to an amount equaling one-fourth of the convention budget, to be held in reserve on an annual basis. The clarification is that one-fourth the South Carolina portion of the annual budget is the maximum limit of the contingent reserve fund.
— HEARD reports from Anderson University, North Greenville College and Charleston Southern University.
— HEARD from convention president Ralph Carter about plans for the annual meeting in November.
— HEARD from the board’s Scholarships Committee that 178 students received college and seminary scholarships toward Christian vocation, totaling $131,850. While the total number of scholarships is the lowest in five years, the total amount of scholarships is the highest since the 2009-2010 academic year.
— HEARD that 35 prayer hubs have been organized around the state in support of the My Hope America with Billy Graham emphasis scheduled for November.
— HEARD a mission report from SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin that South Carolina Baptists are sending more volunteers than any other convention to assist with North American Mission Board church planting in Atlanta. He also reported that the SCBC has opened a partnership with Cleveland, Ohio, called “The I-77 Partnership,” and that volunteers will be going to Cleveland, where there is only one SBC church for every 45,000 people. NAMB has asked South Carolina Baptists to adopt Halifax, Nova Scotia for mission volunteer work. Teams are already going to serve in South Asia, India as part of the SCBC partnership through the International Mission Board.