Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are $4,122,100.78, or 5.32 percent, above the year-to-date budgeted goal, and are 1.53 percent behind contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee president and chief executive officer Frank Page.
The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals.
As of Feb. 29, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program allocation budget totaled $81,622,100, or 105.32 percent of the $77,500,000 year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The total is $1,270,968 less than the $82,893,069 received through the end of February 2011.
The convention-adopted budget is distributed 50.2 percent to international missions through the IMB; 22.79 percent to North American missions through NAMB; 22.16 percent to theological education; 3.2 percent to the SBC operating budget; and 1.65 percent to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
If the convention exceeds its annual budget goal of $186 million, IMB’s share will go to 51 percent of any overage in Cooperative Program allocation budget receipts. Other ministry entities of the SBC will receive their adopted percentage amounts, and the SBC operating budget’s portion will be reduced to 2.4 percent of any overage.
“Given the state of the economy the past several years, we set a conservative convention budget goal for this fiscal year,” Page said. “I am delighted that for each dollar we receive over the annual budgeted goal, a higher percentage will end up on the international fields through the ministry of IMB.” – BP