CP giving almost 5 percent behind ’08 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 4.97 percent behind the same time frame at the outset of 2008. As of Dec. 31, the year-to-date total of $47,257,976 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $2,473,746 below the $49,731,723 received at the same point a year earlier. For the month, receipts of $14,073,778 were 14.67 percent, or $2,419,957, below the $16,493,736 received in December 2007. Designated giving of $11,000,512 for the same year-to-date period is 4.03 percent, or $461,579, below gifts of $11,462,092 received at this point last year. The $3,335,204 in designated gifts received last month is $1,340,441 below the $4,675,645 received in December 2007, a decrease of 28.67 percent. For the SBC Cooperative Program allocation budget, the year-to-date total of $47,257,976 is 91.89 percent of the $51,429,208 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The SBC operates on an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year. During the last fiscal year, Southern Baptists topped the $200-million mark for the third year in a row and overall giving to national causes surpassed the $400-million benchmark for a second straight year.
Southern Seminary eliminates 35 positions
Southern Baptist Seminary, in response to the national economic downturn, has reduced its administrative staff by 35 positions: 20 full-time and 15 part-time, effective Jan. 30. Each person will receive a severance package, including placement assistance, according to a Jan. 15 news release from the seminary. No faculty members were included in the staffing reductions. The workforce reduction, combined with budget cuts made in December, are designed to close a projected $3.2 million shortfall in the seminary’s $30 million budget, the news release stated, and will “place the seminary in a stronger financial position for 2009.” Tuition for the 2009-10 academic year will increase by just under 10 percent according to current projections, SBTS president Albert Mohler Jr. wrote in an e-mail to the Louisville, Ky., seminary community.
Pro-life policies top ERLC ’09 agenda
The defense of pro-life policies is the most urgent of the “substantial challenges” facing Southern Baptists and other social conservatives in the new Congress, leaders of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission say. Writing on the Southern Baptist entity’s Web site, ERLC President Richard Land and Vice President Barrett Duke said they expect much of their focus this year to be on preventing the overthrow of laws protecting unborn life, marriage and free speech. “Our greatest concern is the likelihood that many pro-life advances under President Bush’s administration will be rolled back,” Land and Duke wrote. “President-elect Obama’s pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act would do that very thing.” The ERLC and other pro-life organizations, they said, will need to resist efforts to overturn such bans as those on federal funds for destructive embryonic stem cell research, Medicaid-backed abortions and organizations that perform or promote abortions in foreign countries.
Glorieta operations will shrink in October
Vowing to remain a viable ministry in a tough economy, LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center will implement a new operational model Oct. 1. The center will continue to offer the same facilities and level of service from mid-May through September. From October through mid-May, only New Mexico Hall and Hall of States will be in operation, with a focus on more effectively serving smaller off-season groups. The only planned exception to the smaller groups will be Fuge Winter Camps, which will continue to be offered four times during the winter months. The new operational model will result in a reduction of full-time staffing by roughly one-half (from 44 to 21) by Oct. 1. Severance packages will be offered to employees whose positions are being eliminated.