Updated Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Giving plans study committee launches survey

From staff reports

The giving plans study committee chaired by Ed Yount is seeking input from North Carolina Baptists.

"We simply must hear what is on the heart of our Convention as we study the numbers and prayerfully deliberate about our financial stewardship as citizens of the kingdom of God," Yount said at a recent meeting of the committee.

A survey has been posted at http://www.ncbaptist.org/index.php?id=1308 to register opinions.

Board of Directors President Allan Blume appointed the giving plans study committee to look yet again at the unique options North Carolina Baptist churches can employ in their Cooperative Program giving. Blume asked Yount, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Conover to chair the committee.

"We have heard the current giving plans can be quite confusing," said John Butler, Baptist State Convention of North Carolina executive leader for business services. "But we are committed to assisting this study committee in any way possible to further develop a sound and steady assessment of where we are and where we need to be in the future."

The survey will be available online April 9 through April 30 only. The committee would like to bring an initial report in May to the Board of Directors.

For a paper copy if you do not have access to the Internet call the BSC at (800) 395-5102, ext. 5678. Each director of missions will be mailed a paper copy to use as needed.

Of the churches that contributed to missions through the Cooperative Program in 2007, 59.2 percent gave through Plan A; 9.3 percent through Plan B; 4.9 percent through Plan C; 18.2 percent through Plan D; and 8.2 percent utilized more than one plan, according to the BSC.

The Cooperative Program

The Cooperative Program grew from in large part from the work of North Carolina native George W. Truett, when he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. A 1919 effort to raise $75 million in five years failed to reach its goal, but Truett's leadership on the committee latched onto the cooperative spirit for missions among Baptists and laid the groundwork for what would later be known as the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Writing in the South Carolina Baptist Courier on Sept. 11, 1924, M.E. Dodd, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Shreveport, La., stated that the purpose of the Future Program (later to become the Cooperative Program) was to "put our denominational work on a substantial, permanent, and continuous basis."

By almost every measure, the Cooperative Program has accomplished that objective for Southern Baptists, said Douglas Baker, public relations director for the Baptist State Convention. In the initial agreement among state conventions and national agencies, the state conventions acted as the agent so collection of funds would reside as close to the local churches as possible.

The Cooperative Program has remained a key vehicle for churches to participate in world missions, church planting, education, pastoral preparation and benevolence. The prerogative always remained with local churches to designate various funds for specific projects or initiatives they deemed important. Most congregations, however, have participated in a unified giving plan whereby they contribute through their state conventions to the SBC agencies and institutions.

Options and Realities of the 20th Century

The late 20th century introduced change and options for Cooperative Program giving in the state of North Carolina, which resulted in almost 80 combinations available to North Carolina Baptists.

Prior to 1991 only one giving plan existed, and it was known as the Cooperative Program giving plan. However, churches have always retained the right to negatively designate a limited number of ministries within the Cooperative Program budget and still have their contribution "count" as Cooperative Program giving. This financial structure allocated funds to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and to the Southern Baptist Convention.

In 1991, however, the BSC established an optional giving plan which reduced by two-thirds the portion of funds disbursed to the Southern Baptist Convention and re-designated funds toward theological education in North Carolina, special missions and to a special fund for annuitants.

With the optional giving plan, the existing plan became known as "Plan A" and the new plan as "Plan B." By 1995, a third plan, or "Plan C," was created which allocated the funds disbursed to the Southern Baptist Convention in Plan B to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In 1999, a fourth plan was implemented as "Plan D." This structure reduced the percentage of funds allocated to the BSC by about one-fourth, maintained the same sum to the Southern Baptist Convention as Plan A, decreased giving to the theological education at universities and increased giving to Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute.

"It is our hope that many North Carolina Baptists will take time to answer this short survey," Yount said. "It is comprehensive in scope and takes less than ten minutes to complete from start to finish. We want to hear from the churches of this Convention as they prayerfully communicate to us their hopes for the financial investment in the kingdom work of the Lord Jesus Christ."

(EDITOR'S NOTE - Douglas Baker, public relations director for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, contributed to this story.)