Texas adopted budget gaining momentum each mont

May 28, 2001

Texas adopted budget gaining momentum each month
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--The percentage of churches embracing the adopted budget of the Baptist General Convention of Texas continues to grow each month, BGCT Treasurer Roger Hall told members of the BGCT Executive Board May 22.
___For the period from Jan. 1 through May 18, 20 percent of all Cooperative Program gifts sent through the BGCT were given in the adopted budget, Hall reported. For the month of May, that had increased to 26 percent of all gifts.
___The adopted budget is the plan approved by messengers to last fall's BGCT annual session that significantly reduces funding for the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, defunds the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and gives only a token amount to the SBC Executive Committee. The money diverted from SBC entities is earmarked for three Texas seminaries, Hispanic ministries, human welfare needs and Texas moral concerns.
___Even though the convention adopted this as an official budget, the BGCT has allowed churches to choose between three giving plans, with the adopted budget presented as the preferred option. Another option is the 67 percent/33 percent split between Texas missions and worldwide missions previously offered. The final option allows churches to create customized plans.
___Use of the new adopted budget started slowly in January but has gained momentum each month, Hall said.
___Nevertheless, the dramatic funding changes in theological education envisioned when the BGCT adopted the budget have not been enacted on a large scale.
___Hall projected the three Texas Baptist schools intended to benefit from the new budget would get a combined total of about $940,000 in new funds this year. That's less than one-fourth of the $4.3 million they potentially could have received.
___Based on current trends, Hall said, a conservative estimate would predict $250,000 in new funds going to Hispanic Baptist Theological School this year and a combined total of $690,000 in new funds going to Truett Seminary at Baylor University and Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University.
___Gifts to the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, which were targeted for funding cuts by the report of a BGCT Seminary Study Committee last year, have continued to flow freely, according to a document distributed by Hall at the Executive Board meeting.
___During the first quarter of this year, the six SBC seminaries received $977,657 in funding from the BGCT. That includes $38,978 in funds from the BGCT adopted budget and $938,679 in other church-directed funding through the BGCT.
___However, as of April 2, the $1 million funding cap for SBC seminaries included as a part of the Texas adopted budget was met, meaning no additional money from the Texas adopted budget will go to the SBC schools this year. Nevertheless, designated gifts and gifts to the traditional SBC Cooperative Program model will continue to flow to the SBC schools.
___As predicted, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth has received the majority of funds given through the Texas adopted budget to SBC schools. This budget allocates funds to SBC schools based on enrollment of Texas students. This year, 86 percent of Texas students attending SBC seminaries are at Southwestern, meaning Southwestern has received $33,599 in gifts from the Texas adopted budget--in addition to the $272,573 sent in the first quarter from church-directed BGCT funds.
___Additional funds intended to be redirected this year from two other SBC entities toward Texas missions causes also have been slow to transition.
___Based on current trends, Hall projected Hispanic ministries in Texas will receive about $115,000 in new funds through the Texas adopted budget this year. Human welfare needs in Texas will receive about $50,000 in new funds, and the Texas Christian Life Commission will receive about $45,000.
___This $210,000 in redirected funding is about one-fifth of more than $1 million that could have been taken from the SBC Executive Committee and SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
___Although Cooperative Program giving through the BGCT has been down slightly during the first quarter, things appear to be picking up in May, Hall said. "We anticipate reaching and surpassing budget."
___As of April 30, gifts to the Cooperative Program were 1.6 percent below budget, and funding for the Texas portion of the Cooperative Program was 8.1 percent below budget.
___Undesignated allocations from the BGCT to the SBC for April continued to decline, as more Texas churches embraced the adopted budget or created customized budget plans. Funds forwarded from the BGCT to the SBC in April were $6.74 million. That is $1.8 million or 21.3 percent less than the SBC received through the BGCT in the same month last year.
___According to SBC financial reports, the alternative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention sent $731,134 to the SBC Cooperative Program in April. While that is a 468 percent increase for the new state convention, it accounts for less than half of the decrease in funding to the SBC through the BGCT. When gifts from the two Texas conventions are considered together for the month, the SBC received $1 million less in undesignated gifts from Texas this April than in April of the previous year.
___That is tempered, however, by increases in designated giving to the SBC from both the BGCT and Southern Baptists of Texas. Apart from gifts to the Annie Armstrong Offering and Lottie Moon Offering, the BGCT increased its designated gifts to SBC causes in April by $2.5 million. That presumably is due to the number of churches using the Texas adopted budget, which funds SBC entities selectively.
___The bottom line is that the SBC received $1.26 million more from the BGCT in April than it did the previous April.

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