First-quarter Cooperative Program
giving in Texas shows mixed report
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___A funny thing happened on the way to implementing historic budget changes that affect the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention--the United States economy hit the skids.
___Recent downturns in the Texas economy and U.S. stock markets have obscured any easy assessment of how recent budget changes are affecting both the BGCT and the SBC, according to BGCT officials.
___SBC officials, meanwhile, say it is too early to identify any change in trends at all, due to the lag of at least one month between when Cooperative Program gifts are processed by state conventions and when they are passed on to the SBC.
___For the first three months of this year, total Cooperative Program giving through the BGCT is running slightly ahead of budget but below the same period last year. The $17.43 million given in January, February and March represents 102 percent of the projected giving goal but is 9.7 percent less than was given in the same months last year.
___The portion of Cooperative Program contributions going to Texas causes, however, is both slightly below budget goals and below last year's pace. To date, gifts to BGCT-directed initiatives total $937,283, which is 4.7 percent below budget goals and 7.6 percent below the same period last year.
___"This is not totally unexpected. We anticipated a downturn early this year, and the BGCT Executive Board staff has been operating at 90 percent of budget since January," said BGCT Treasurer Roger Hall. "We will live within our resources."
___Part of the change in contributions through the BGCT Cooperative Program is clearly due to changing denominational affiliations among Texas churches. At least 93 churches have left the BGCT to become uniquely aligned with the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and several hundred other churches have become dually aligned with the two state conventions. SBTC itself reports 700 affiliated churches.
___Most of the defections are due to perceptions that the BGCT no longer is aligned closely enough with the SBC, which has undergone a dramatic shift to the right in its theology and politics over the last 20 years. These concerns were cemented when the BGCT last fall adopted a new Texas "approved" budget that directs money away from the six SBC seminaries and two other SBC entities to fund theological education, Hispanic ministries and Christian ethics initiatives in Texas.
___Throughout the fall, predictions ran rampant across the state about how many churches and how much financial support the BGCT was likely to lose due to staking out a position divergent from the national convention. Some predicted financial and affiliated-church losses of 20 percent to 50 percent.
___The known defection of churches to date equals less than 2 percent of all churches affiliated with the BGCT. The total number of churches reported to be affiliated with the BGCT's rival convention either uniquely or dually represents about 12 percent of all churches affiliated with the BGCT last year. However, not all those churches can be assumed to be former BGCT churches.
___On the financial side, BGCT contributions in the first quarter of this year have indeed dropped, but not to the level some had predicted. And at the same time, the rate of growth in giving the SBC has been experiencing over the last eight years has slowed significantly.
___Total undesignated Cooperative Program contributions to the SBC were up 1.8 percent at the end of March, halfway through the SBC's fiscal year. While still an increase, this rate of growth is less than one-third of the pace at which SBC contributions have been gaining in recent years.
___And as with the BGCT, designated contributions to the SBC are increasing as more churches give to specific causes or agencies of their liking.
___Jack Wilkerson, vice president for finance with the SBC Executive Committee, said it's far too early for him to project any impact the changing times in Texas will have on SBC funding. "This thing is still moving," he noted.
___The one thing he sees clearly is an increase in the number of Texas churches seeking information about how to send money directly to the SBC without going through any state convention, he said.
___Through the first quarter of this year, the BGCT has registered a 19 percent decrease in the amount of Cooperative Program money it has forwarded to the SBC. That percentage decrease is more than double the loss the BGCT itself has experienced in gifts for Texas ministries.
___Yet an unidentified portion of the funds no longer flowing through the BGCT to the SBC is still making it to the SBC through other means. Data is not yet available to adequately analyze this issue.
___Aside from the shifting denominational identities, several other factors have muddied the waters of church finances, according to the BGCT's Hall. He points to the sluggish economy as a wild card influence.
___"We have some good Texas people in churches around this state who are losing their jobs, and that is having some impact," he said.
___Another factor is escalating health-care-insurance premiums for church staff members, Hall said. Within the limited confines of a typical church's budget, paying for heavy increases in vital staff benefits such as health insurance often takes a toll on increases in missions giving, he suggested.
___Amid this uncertainty, some designated missions offerings handled by the BGCT have made significant gains. Gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions, for example, are running 28 percent ahead of the same time last year.
___Likewise, gifts to the SBC's Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions are showing an 8.3 percent gain over last year, and gifts to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Global Missions Offering are running 36 percent ahead of last year.
___Two other special offerings, however, are posting decreases. Texas contributions to the SBC's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions are down 4 percent for the year, and contributions to the Texas World Hunger Offering are down nearly 8 percent.
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