(William Thornton, the SBC Plodder, shares another of his articles with us.)
Our wonderful CP, an eminently sensible concept, is shrinking and churches have dropped from over ten percent to the CP to around six.
One complaint about the CP is that state conventions keep too much of each CP dollar.
SBC Executive Committee statistics show that the percentage of CP dollars kept by the states is around 63% and in the last 50 years has ranged between roughly 61% and 67%. There seems to me to be a growing criticism that more of each CP dollar fails to get out of the states.
Bryant Wright has pointedly said that states ought to cut their share in half.
But when I look at my state’s explanation of the use of CP dollars, I see this graphic:
The caption to this reads “Georgia Baptists share every mission dollar equally with the Southern Baptist Convention.”
The caption to this reads “Georgia Baptists share every mission dollar equally with the Southern Baptist Convention” and what is meant to be conveyed is that the GBC’s share is “really” only 40% of each CP dollar.
Huh? If we share every dollar equally, and if 40% is the GBC take, how is it that the GBC forwards to Nashville only 40 cents on the dollar?
It has to do with an accounting, actually a presentation, wrinkle. Not all state conventions do it this way but the GBC has a budget category called, “Shared Causes.” The middle 20 cents in the dollar graphic above represents this.
If you could read the fine print on that dollar “Shared Causes” include CP promotion, WMU, Church-Minister Relations, The Christian Index, and Financial Services. Actually, that 20% includes the expense of not a few staff members, a total of $8.7 million, including a catch-all category of $3 million, most of which is the communications department and debt service. I haven’t asked but I’m guessing that far more than 20% of GBC employees are charged to this “Shared Causes” category.
The explanation is that the state convention, by promoting and collecting money from churches for the mission boards, seminaries, etc, the SBC stuff, should be “compensated” for expenses in doing this. So, the GBC says one-third of what is kept in state out of a CP dollar is actually “shared causes” with the SBC.
Sorry, this is not a realistic and reasonable way to explain the CP budget here in GA. State convention executives recently met and agreed to limit to 10%, half of what the GBC is doing, these “shared expenses.” Good for them.
I’d say to my GBC colleagues, folks whom I respect (our CEO, Robert White, is tops among all the states in my opinion), let’s drop this stuff. Tell it like it is. Stop with the byzantine accounting. Move to a genuine 50/50 split, not an artificial one.
The amount of each CP dollar kept in the states is lower now than in previous years and is in line with what it has been for scores of years. But I perceive that part of why the CP lacks the appeal to churches is that they see more value in having a greater proportion of their CP dollar make it to Richmond and Alpharetta, to Nashville, and all the seminaries.
I commend the state executives for recognizing something is amiss and correcting it.
If you read the ‘fine print,’ the article from State Convention Execs about all of them agreeing to try and move to 50/50 says “50/50 with shared items.” And yes, the whole thing is nuts: a church sends money to the state, which then applies some to “shared items,” clearly keeps some, and forwards the rest to Nashville. Nashville then takes a cut, spreads the rest between NAMB, IMB, ERLC, and the Six. NAMB then turns around and sends money back to states for some things. So, even if you’re sending 50%, are you really sending 50%? Not if some… Read more »
The whole elephant in the room is that with the internet today and this unbelievable connectivity we all enjoy through it – we don’t really need this three tiered system that our Great Grandfathers put in place back in the 1800’s.
A National Convention + A State Convention + A Local Association = More organizational redundancy than is needed in our present SBC world.
Jim, I don’t know if I’m ready to completely overhaul the system yet, but I think you bring up a great point.
I certainly believe we could use the Internet to enhance our connectivity and to promote greater participation regardless of how many tiers we have.
Couldn’t agree more William! The idea of calling these expenses “Share Causes” or in many states “Preferred Items” is a poor plan, in my opinion, which almost looks deceitful, although I understand that deceit is not the intent. Let’s be honest with the folks in our state conventions. How many dollars are the state conventions spending internally, and how many are they sending on? That’s the ultimate question. Once that is understood, let’s then move to a genuine split of 50/50 (this should be the minimum split, in my opinion. Truthfully I’d like to see it more like 35-65%).