April 29, 2002
Budget shortfall cutting into BGCT's ministries
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Eliminate one faculty position at Hispanic Baptist Theological School.
___Close two cottages housing 16 boys and girls at South Texas Children's Home.
___Reduce the number of young ministerial students receiving tuition assistance at Texas Baptist universities.
___Eliminate funding for discipleship materials used in a Texas prison ministry.
___These are the real decisions Texas Baptist churches are making when they choose to reduce or eliminate missions giving through the Baptist General Convention of Texas, according to leaders of BGCT ministries statewide.
AT SOUTH TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOME in Beeville, Texas Baptists are reducing their ability to care for children like this boy by reducing giving to the BGCT Cooperative Program, according to President Jerry Haag.
___A financial shortfall in Cooperative Program receipts and gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions means real needs either go unmet, or institutions and ministries must seek other sources of income.
___Last year, church gifts to the BGCT Cooperative Program fell 14.1 percent below budget as some churches were wooed away to a competing state convention and others simply adopted a more inward focus.
View a chart comparing the ministries that the BGCT and the SBTC support through Cooperative Program giving. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader, available here. (For best results, view at 200%).
___Those decisions by local churches have direct consequences on children, families, students and others who otherwise would have been touched by the ministry of Texas Baptists.
___Theological education suffered, according to Royce Rose, director of theological education for the BGCT. Last year, Texas Baptist schools received about $350,000 less than anticipated in ministerial tuition assistance through the BGCT. Schools grant student scholarships for ministry students during a given year, and the BGCT reimburses institutions the following year.
___That means the funds the BGCT did not send to the schools are funds the schools already have spent on students. Consequently, the schools cannot cut those expenses, and they must absorb those funds in income lost from their operating budgets, Rose noted.
___The budget shortfall also resulted in special projects in theological education being scratched. These included plans to involve ministry students in extracurricular missions and ministry experiences, to help ministry students with unusual financial needs and to provide a way for ministry students to attend special events such as the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference.
___Hispanic Baptist Theological School especially was hit hard, Rose added. "They are in a critical time in achieving accreditation. They had to add several faculty positions this year so they could meet the needs of the growing student population and the demands of accreditation.
___"They had counted on the money budgeted by the BGCT and the redirected funds (from Southern Baptist Convention seminaries) to help them take this giant step into the new century. The redirected funds fell way short of expectations, and then they lost 16 percent of the budget money as well. That amounted to one faculty position."
___Hispanic Baptist Theological School is "between a rock and a hard place" in trying to meet the standards for accreditation as a Bible college at a time when financial resources are being cut, confirmed President Albert Reyes.
___"We've recently gone through the budgeting process for this next year. We had planned for three new faculty, and we had to eliminate one," he said.
___Because many churches did not immediately embrace the BGCT Adopted Budget, which redirects some Cooperative Program funds from SBC seminaries to Texas causes, the $600,000 in anticipated additional revenue for Hispanic Baptist Theological School actually was about $225,000, Reyes noted.
___South Texas Children's Home in Beeville depends on the BGCT Cooperative Program for about 23 percent of its budget. Last year, the children's home received $124,500 less than the previous budget year.
___"The result of the decrease in giving to the Cooperative Program this past calendar year means the South Texas Children's Home received less this year than we did six years ago," explained President Jerry Haag. "Coupled with the increased number of children and families in our care and the tremendous need of children throughout the state, it has made our ministry more difficult."
___This year's BGCT budget was set at 90 percent of the previous year's budget. That means $120,605 less for the Center for Strategic Evangelism, $142,660 less for the Church Starting Center and $410,373 less for Bible study and discipleship ministries.
___The reduced budget also means $1.7 million less for educational institutions, $392,500 less for child and family services, and $185,000 less for health-care institutions.
___And those losses are based on the assumption that this year's receipts will meet budget requirements. Year-to-date BGCT Cooperative Program receipts at the end of the first quarter of 2002 were 6.7 percent below the same period in 2001.
___As a result, South Texas Children's Home is projecting a loss of up to $200,000 this year, Haag said.
___"What a $200,000 decrease in giving to the South Texas Children's Home means is two less cottages of children that we will be able to care for. The result is 16 little boys and girls who will go without a loving home provided by Texas Baptists."
___So the BGCT ministry is seeking alternate funding sources to keep those cottages open.
___"We are absolutely committed to our children and families, and there is no way we can allow these decreases to cause another tragedy in the lives of our children," Haag said. "Through God's provision, we will keep those two cottages open and those 16 children cared for."
___Meanwhile, another important support system for Texas Baptist missions is lagging as well.
___First quarter 2002 gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions were $844,874, an 8.1 percent decline from the same time last year. Texas Baptists gave $5 million to the Mary Hill Davis Offering in 2001, a drop of 6 percent from 2000. The 2001 giving goal was $5,750,505.
___Because Texas Baptists fell short of the goal, ministries that received no funds from the 2001 offering include the Women Reaching Texas evangelism emphasis, community ministries for families in crisis, and churches of refuge for ministers and their families who experience forced termination.
___Decreased funding from the offering is severely hampering other ministries, BGCT leaders warned. A new ministry providing youth evangelism and discipleship teams for Hispanic Baptist churches could suffer, according to Rick Davis, director of the Center for Strategic Evangelism.
___Another victim of the shortfall is Inmate Disciple Fellowship, a partnership between the BGCT, Texas Baptist Men and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The ministry provided discipleship materials for more than 30,000 prisoners in Texas. Of the $45,000 in anticipated revenue from the Mary Hill Davis Offering, the ministry received only $3,000 last year.
___"What will happen? Our people will continue to go and attempt to disciple prisoners," said Jim Furgerson, executive director-treasurer of Texas Baptist Men. But local churches and individual donors will have to pick up the cost for the ministry. And it will cease to be a ministry that all Texas Baptists share in supporting.
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