In the face of declining church gifts, members of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, meeting Oct. 12 at White Oak Conference Center, approved a trimmed-down budget for the coming year.
The $29.5 million budget, which must be approved by SCBC messengers in November, represents a reduction of more than 8 percent from the current $32.2 million budget adopted by SCBC messengers in November 2009.
The leaner budget reflects a continued decline in receipts from SCBC churches, down 5.37 percent through August of this year. Church gifts were down about 6 percent the previous year.
The Cooperative Program portion of the proposed budget calls for forwarding 41 percent of CP receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention (up from 40.4 percent) and retaining 59 percent for in-state ministries.
The proposed budget of $29,540,000 includes projected receipts of $29,400,000 through the Cooperative Program and $140,000 from cooperative gifts.