February 26, 2001
SBC budget proposal calls for $10 million increase
___NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Southern Baptist Convention leaders expect budget income to grow--not decline--according to the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
___The SBC Executive Committee approved a $178.3 million budget recommendation for 2001-02, during its winter meeting in Nashville Feb. 19. The proposal calls for a $10 million increase over the current budget.
___The budget was presented "in gratitude for the unprecedented growth of our missions and ministries, as well as the increase in our seminary enrollment and in acknowledgement of God as Jehovah Jireh," a biblical reference to "the God who provides."
___The proposed $178,298,879 budget is the same as the receipts for the last budget year of record, 1999-2000, which is a policy the Executive Committee follows in setting a budget cap.
___The proposal counters claims by SBC leaders that a recent Baptist General Convention of Texas action could damage the national convention financially, resulting in reduced receipts.
___Last fall, the BGCT approved a "Texas preferred" option in its giving plan that enables churches that so choose to reduce funding for the six SBC seminaries, defund the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and almost eliminate funding for the Executive Committee. The "Texas preferred" option does not change funding formulas for the SBC's International and North American mission boards.
___If every BGCT-affiliated church opted to use the "Texas preferred" option and the convention met its budget, funding for the six SBC seminaries would be reduced from $5.3 million to $1 million, and funding for the Executive Committee would be decreased from $746,291 to $10,000. The difference in the funds would be reallocated to support Hispanic Baptist Theological School, Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University, Truett Seminary at Baylor University, Hispanic ministries, human welfare ministries and moral concerns.
___However, the BGCT provides the churches with the final say in how their Cooperative Program budget contributions are allocated, and BGCT officials never have predicted the entire amount would be reallocated.
___At the end of January, Roger Hall, the BGCT's chief financial officer, reported the majority of BGCT-affiliated churches still divide their CP allocations by the traditional method, with 67 percent allocated to BGCT causes and 33 percent channeled to SBC causes. The amount allocated to the SBC through this method is not capped, so that SBC causes, including the seminaries, theoretically could receive more money from BGCT-related churches than they did last year.
___Art Toalston of Baptist Press contributed to this story
The Baptist Standard
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