Despite a “slight dip” in Cooperative Program giving in the month of July, the executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention believes giving from churches will rebound as summer ends.
“We believe South Carolina Baptists will be catching up in their giving as vacation season draws to a close,” said Jim Austin.
Giving through July was $16,489,864, or $135,136 below budgeted needs, marking the first time this fiscal year that receipts have dropped below budgeted needs.
(For a detailed report of giving from the churches, visit www.scbaptist.org/givingreports.)
Austin, who expressed thanks to South Carolina Baptists for “faithfully giving,” said the convention’s next phase of church revitalization efforts have begun in eight regions throughout the state and are “seeing significant results.”
SCBC messengers adopted a $28.6 million budget last November, which was nearly $1 million less than the previous year and reflected a change in spending priorities, directing more money to international missions and church planting while reducing funding to in-state ministries and to the state convention’s seven affiliated institutions.
Nationally, year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist missions and ministries are 3.7 percent above budgeted needs and 0.4 percent ahead of 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.
“I am grateful to the Lord and Southern Baptists that our CP contributions have continued to keep pace over the course of this year,” Page said. “They are the lifeline of our collaborative missions and ministries.
“After rebounding from a huge deficit in the first quarter of our fiscal year to a break-even point by early spring, our churches have continued to share the sacrificial gifts of their people with the convention’s ministry entities.”