Budget on hold for called meeting (updated Sept. 27)

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

Adoption of a 2008-2009 Baptist State Convention budget will wait another month for final approval to give the budget and finance committee longer to evaluate receipts to the North Carolina Missions Offering (NCMO).

The executive committee and full board will meet with the budget and finance committee in special session Oct. 29 at Caraway to make final recommendations.

NCMO receipts trail 2006 by 10.9 percent or $87,000 and could finish a half million dollars behind, according to Convention leadership.

The board of directors affirmed the two-year budget presented for consideration at their Sept. 26 meeting, with the reservation that the NCMO giving level may require reevaluation and adjustments.

NCMO giving is "critical, critical," to the work of the Convention, said Executive Director-Treasurer Milton A. Hollifield Jr.

Budget committee chair Larry Burns said "We still do not have a clear picture" of NCMO receipts, so he was "not very confident we can give an accurate report." That's why he asked for another month, and opportunity for more informed consideration.

Executive committee member Jesse Croom expressed concern "that it appears we're going to try to make a decision based only on economics, instead of whether we are doing the right thing."

Program expenses for Baptist Men and Woman's Missionary Union actually are funded during the year through Cooperative Program receipts, which are reimbursed by NCMO gifts when they are received at year end.

"If we don't use the economics, and spend through Cooperative Program all year based on reimbursement from NCMO, and the NCMO is short, we're not being fair to the Convention," Burns said. "Our hope is that we come to (the called) meeting and we're two percent over or 10 percent over. We're trying to be prudent."

JC Bradley said the deeper issue is establishing "principles by which we make decisions." He said relationships are changing and the budget process needs to avoid "entitlements," which he said "poisons relationships."

Budget detail

Burns presented a budget that significantly increases funds for church planting in the midst of small overall increases.

The $38.95 million budget for 2008 calls for a 3.13 percent increase and the $39.28 million budget for 2009 is a.79 percent increase.

Funds for church planting increase from $865,000 in 2007, to $1.3 million in 2008 to $1.43 million in 2009. More than half the entire budget increase goes to church planting.

"That's a big increase and it's an increase in what we've said we're about," said Burns. "We're about planting churches and reaching people. This is an investment, not an expense. When we invest in the Kingdom, God is going to take care of us in other areas."

As presented, the new budget retains giving plans A, B, C and D with small adjustments in each. It includes Woman's Missionary Union as the largest NCMO recipient.

Plans A and D, which provide over 80 percent of BSC income, increase the amount forwarded to Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) causes by one-half percent each year for two years.

By the end of this budget the BSC/SBC division of North Carolina Cooperative Program receipts will be 66/34. The two percentage point raise to SBC since 2006 could provide an additional $784,000 annually to SBC missions.

Plan B decreases money to SBC causes by one-half percent each year in favor of the BSC. Plan C decreases by one-half percent each year funds going to national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, in favor of BSC. National missions agency recipients in Plans B and C had risen to 11 percent on the same tide that lifted giving to SBC levels in Plans A and D.

"Plans B and C were always designed to have 10 percent going to national missions organizations," Burns said. "This gets them back to that.

Plan D increases funds to both the SBC and BSC by one half percent each year and decreases special national and international projects by one percent each year.

A challenge budget divides receipts over the regular budget one half to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for International Missions, and one half to church planting in North Carolina.

The budget to be finalized for presentation to messengers Nov. 14 assumes passage of the proposal concerning the future relationship of the five institutions of higher education. Consequently, the money going to the schools in 2008 decreases by one-fourth in 2009.

In Christian social services, Baptist Children's Homes receives a $219,000 increase in general operating funds, and a $164,000 increase for its developmentally disabled adult ministry. BCH has had no significant increase in its Cooperative Program allocation since 1989.

Allocations for Baptist Retirement Homes disappear in the new budget. The $948,000 budgeted for 2007, but being held in escrow, is instead raised to $950,000 in 2008 and designated for "ministry for aging adults."

That does not mean, it was explained, that BRH would not receive the money, if current issues are resolved. It does mean that the Baptist State Convention is committed to ministry among senior adults even if that avenue is not BRH.

The area of "convention and board operations" is budgeted for a $318,000 decrease in 2008, reflecting, Burns said, "significant savings realized in '06 and '07 due primarily to changes in Medicare supplemental drug coverage plans and adjustments to the Convention's health care plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina."

At the called meeting Oct. 29, the entire budget will be up for final review before final recommendations are packaged for messengers Nov. 14. So information listed above is not final, although any changes most likely would be in relation to NCMO.