My guess is that my church is not the only one in the South Carolina Baptist Convention that has had to make some very difficult decisions in these tough economic times.
During the current budget cycle, every minister on our staff at North Trenholm Baptist Church, Columbia, has received a reduction in compensation, as has each member of our support staff. Furthermore, reductions have had to be made in the budget of virtually every area of our church’s ministry, while the needs of our congregation have continued to grow exponentially.
Suffice it to say that I could not believe what I was reading in the April 29 issue of The Baptist Courier. I find the implication by Dr. Jimmy Epting (“What All Southern Baptists Should Know About Our Convention Funds”) that churches should give an additional percentage of their budgets to the Cooperative Program to be disconcerting.
The current state of our economy is one reason that I cannot support increasing the percentage of our church’s budget that is designated for the Cooperative Program; increasing the percent that goes to the state convention would obviously necessitate further salary reductions for our staff and deeper cuts in our local ministries. A second reason I cannot support increased giving to the state convention is that I do not have confidence that the state convention is handling its revenues prudently. For example, the expenditures (totaling more than $2 million, including $530,000 alone for 163 bunk bed sets) for “renovations and improvements at White Oak Conference Center” lead me to believe that there is a huge and growing disconnect between the leadership of our state convention and our local congregations.
While I remain enthusiastic about our denomination’s mission efforts and our ministries, I cannot support increased giving to the Cooperative Program at this time. And, unless policies and practices are established to ensure that all current resources are spent wisely, I cannot support continuing our contributions even at the current level.
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