Notwithstanding a nearly 16-percent drop in state convention revenues over the last three years, South Carolina Baptists will invest significantly more dollars in global missions in 2012.Despite the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s nearly $1 million budget shortfall in 2011 – marking the third consecutive year of dwindling receipts from the convention’s 2,100-plus churches – SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin says he is “hopefully optimistic” better days are ahead.
As evidence, Austin said the rate of decrease over the three-year period has slowed (from 7.25 percent in 2009 to 3.84 percent in 2011), and giving for 2012 “is off to a pretty decent start,” with gifts running ahead of budget as January was winding toward month’s end.
Austin also pointed to South Carolina Baptist messengers’ adoption last November of the report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, which reduced funding for in-state ministries, universities and benevolent institutions, and paved the way for channeling as much as $400,000 in additional resources directly to the International Mission Board. The GCR report also calls for a 50/50 division of Cooperative Program funds with the Southern Baptist Convention within five years.
Austin said the report’s missions-centric initiatives are creating enthusiasm among South Carolina Baptists who “desire to impact lostness and to get more money to reach unreached people groups.”
Integral to the success of GCR, however, is increased Cooperative Program giving, Austin said. “If we are serious about reaching our country and our world with the gospel, we must not just sustain our giving, we must increase our giving,” he said. “And the Cooperative Program is the key financial element in that.”
| By the Numbers
? Gifts from churches to the SCBC have declined by 15.7 percent since 2008. ? The high-water mark for the SCBC budget was $34.25 million in 2009. ? With planned expenditures of $28.6 million in 2012, the state convention is operating at near-2000 budget levels. ? The 2012 budget includes cuts to SCBC ministries and institutions and designates an additional $400,000 (an increase of 22 percent) to the International Mission Board. ? The Great Commission Resurgence report encourages pastors to lead churches that are not giving at least 10 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program to increase their giving by at least 1 percent. The GCR report calls for a 50/50 division of SCBC Cooperative Program receipts with the Southern Baptist Convention within five years. |
A section of the GCR report calls for developing a plan to approach pastors about growing their churches’ CP giving. The report noted that the average church gives less than 6 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program, and if every church increased CP giving by as little as 1 percent, an additional $5 million per year could be realized.
Gary Anderson, director of the state convention’s church health and Cooperative Program office, told the Courier in an email that his office will have information to share about a plan for promoting CP growth in time for the April meeting of the SCBC Executive Board.
Calling Cooperative Program support “crucial” to expanding South Carolina Baptists’ missions reach, Austin said there are “some great CP advocates” across the state. “Many of our pastors really have a vision not just to buy into CP, but to even rededicate themselves to CP giving,” he said.
Reengaging South Carolina Baptists in supporting the Cooperative Program will require education, he said, adding that no amount of promotional material from Nashville will be an adequate substitute for the “personal involvement and initiative of pastors going to other pastors” to encourage them to increase their CP support. “I know of many of our pastors already doing that,” he said. “I encourage others to take up the same mantle.”
In the months leading up to the adoption of the GCR report, 31 SCBC churches made pledges to increase their Cooperative Program giving by at least 1 percent, representing approximately $320,000 in new support.
Keith Davis, pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Spartanburg and chairman of the SCBC Executive Board, said that while South Carolina Baptists shouldn’t be alarmed by a three-year slide in giving, they should be aware that “adjustments” – both financial and spiritual – may be called for.
Davis said “all churches” have been impacted by the current economic recession, and most churches have been forced to fine-tune their ministries. However, “it’s never a bad thing to reevaluate what we’re doing and how we’re prioritizing our monies,” he said. “The same thing has to occur [at the convention level], and it’s good to do that.”
“Adjustments will be made – and I’m talking about our faith as much as our finances,” Davis said. “It’s business, but it’s God’s business. It’s not just about numbers, but about God’s hand in all of this. We want a God-consciousness even in our business.
“God’s work is never in jeopardy when he is in control,” Davis said. “We have to make sure that in our lives, our churches and our convention, God is in control, and then what we’ll see is less dependence on us and our resources, and greater dependence on God, despite our limitations.
“I’m not rejoicing that we have less [money], but the ship is not going down because we have less,” he said. “We’re in tough economic times, but there are God’s people around the world who have much less than we do, and and they’re still making a great impact for the kingdom.
“Whatever the future holds, God can still work through his people, and South Carolina Baptists can continue to have great impact,” Davis said.