Texas Baptist giving to SBC causes shifts channels but slows overall

April 7, 2003

Texas Baptist giving to SBC causes
shifts channels but slows overall
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Texas churches sent 16 percent more money to the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program through the Baptist General Convention of Texas in the first half of the SBC's fiscal year than in the same period last year.
___However, total giving from Texas Baptist churches through the BGCT to the SBC is down 10 percent for the period. While undesignated Cooperative Program dollars have increased, designated contributions have decreased at a greater pace.
___For the six months ended March 31, the BGCT forwarded $5.55 million in undesignated Cooperative Progra

For the year to date, Texas Baptist churches have sent a combined total of $17.15 million to the SBC in undesignated and designated giving, down from $19.07 million in the same period last year.

m gifts to the SBC, up from $4.78 million in the same period last year. At the same time, the BGCT forwarded to the SBC $11.6 million in designated gifts, down 19 percent from the $14.3 million given in the same period last year.
___Beginning in January, the BGCT changed the conditions of its Adopted Budget for Cooperative Program giving, the giving plan through which about one-third of BGCT offerings are channeled. In the Adopted Budget, the BGCT removed previous funding caps on select SBC agencies, including six seminaries. At the same time, the percentage of undesignated funds kept for ministries in Texas increased.
___About two-thirds of Cooperative Program money flowing through the BGCT is allocated according to other distribution formulas requested by the churches. Those church-directed giving plans sometimes give more money to the SBC and sometimes nothing to the SBC.
___The net result of this year's changes overall, however, could be an increase of more than $1.5 million in traditional undesignated funding for the SBC, if the current trend holds throughout the year. That could be offset, however, by a reduction of nearly $5 million in designated gifts, if current trends hold.
___For the year to date, Texas Baptist churches have sent a combined total of $17.15 million to the SBC in undesignated and designated giving, down from $19.07 million in the same period last year.
___The increase in undesignated giving and decrease in designated giving are explained partially by the giving-plan changes enacted by the BGCT. Under the previous Adopted Budget, the SBC counted large portions of BGCT contributions as designated, since certain agencies were excluded.
___Although the spotlight has been on the BGCT because of political and theological tensions between Texas Baptists and SBC leaders, the BGCT is not alone among the largest state Baptist conventions in posting giving declines. Many of those drops are believed to be related to the national economic downturn. For example, Georgia, the largest contributor of undesignated Cooperative Program funds to the SBC, decreased its giving 4.6 percent for the first half of the year and its designated giving by 2.5 percent. With the exception of Oklahoma (which was up 13.5 percent in undesignated giving), most other old-line state conventions posted only modest gains or decreases in giving.
___The SBC took in 1.5 percent more Cooperative Program money in the six-month period than it received the year before, up from $91.7 million to $93.1 million.
___However, the SBC's net gain of $1.4 million in undesignated giving was more than offset by a net loss of $3.4 million in designated giving for the first half of the year. When undesignated and designated giving are combined, giving to the SBC from all sources fell $2 million for the period.
___Growth in giving to the SBC by the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention also appeared to slow in the first six months of the year. SBTC Cooperative Program giving posted a 6.9 percent gain, up from $3.87 million last year to $4.14 million this year. In recent years, the new convention had posted double- and triple-digit percentage increases in giving.
___Designated giving to the SBC through the SBTC dropped 24 percent for the six-month period, from $4.6 million to $3.45 million.
___On the home front, the BGCT continues to post below-budget receipts for use in its Texas ministries. Although final numbers were not available late last week, the trend in the first three months of the BGCT's fiscal year has been for giving to fall about 10 percent below budget.
___However, giving to BGCT ministries in Texas is posting total-dollar gains over the same period last year. This year's BGCT budget is larger than the previous year's.
___

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