When interim Executive Committee CEO Augie Boto made his report at #SBC18 he shared the graph below. While the subject is arcane to most Southern Baptists it is critical to leaders at the state and national level and what the graph shows is no surprise to those who must watch their revenue streams to maintain employment levels and ministries.
Here is the way Boto put it in his report (this excerpt from my state paper, The Christian Index):
Boto then explained that the statistical information shows that in the last 18 years “our national receipts have improved by just over $17 million while our state ministry support has shrunk by over $41 million.”
The EC’s interim president continued, “During this time how has our Cooperative Program fared? Our total Cooperative Program receipts have declined by over $13.5 million. What should we take away from all this?
“I believe that we could take away that Southern Baptists are a sacrificial people – that we willing to try to do more with less. But I think that we also need to understand that while national ministries are being well funded, state ministries are not. Our total CP giving is not doing well at all.
The simple way to look at this is
- The national CP revenue stream for IMB, NAMB, the six seminaries and a couple of smaller entities is flat, up by $17 million over the past 18 years and probably not staying level when inflation is factored in. This slight actual dollar increase over time is insignificant to our entities. This flat (or slightly declining in real dollars) is a long enough trend that the mission boards and seminaries aren’t counting on increased CP revenues when they make future plans.
- The state conveniton share of the CP revenue stream has declined considerably, the 42 state conventions having $41 million less to spend on their state ministries and staffing.
Graphs are an easy way (if accurate and presented properly) to understand stuff at a glance.
Anyone in touch in their state will have noticed the results – less staff, various ministry cutbacks.
The economic problems of a decade ago account for most of this, although CP as a percentage of church offerings has consistently declined for several decades.
A secondary but important factor is the push in the Great Commission Resurgence Report, adoped by the convention in 2010, which called for the state conventions to cut the percentage of CP receipts that they keep in-state for their own use. The call was for movement towards a “50/50” split. Since then the percentage kept by the states has declined from 62.33% to 58.51%. While this is less than four percentage points, it is significant to the states, especially the large states. The “lost” revenues would be in the millions; hence, cuts in employees, etc.
A few editorial observations from this hacker and plodder in the SBC hinterlands:
- I doubt the CP decline can be reversed but I certainly hope it can be stopped. We’re slightly under 5% (CP percentage of undesignated church offering plate dollars) and that’s seems like a good floor to me. It looked like the decline had flattened out but then this past year the percentage declined from 5.16 to 4.86. That bit of news was lost in the other noise of #SBC18.
- No one is forcing state conventions to cut their “take” of the CP…except their own constituent churches. The SBC GCR might have called for movement towards 50/50 but no state convention had to go along. If states want to jack it back up and keep more money, thereby giving less to the seminaries and mission boards, they are free to do so, unless their churches rebel against such a retrograde movement.
- Informed people are asking if state conventions are even necessary. I think they are but if their fit and function in SBC life isn’t obvious to churches and pastors, then maybe the state leaders need to do some serious self-examination.
- Older SBC leaders, and I’m referring to folks my age and thereabouts, 60 and up, sometimes appear not to have grasped the changes in reality of 21st century denominational life. The CP is almost a century old. The simple appeal of it is lost on many younger leaders, pastors, and SBCers.
But, this is mostly my opinion. The declining revenues are hard facts.
I’d be interested in your take on all this.
The national SBC is better known within the church walls than the state conventions. Most of this is due to Lottie and Annie. The churches I pastored in TX, NC, PA all saw the CP as mission dollars and when I spoke of the other entities getting CP funds, they were a bit surprised and wanted to know why.
Though I was blessed by the CP help during my seminary days (500.00 matriculation fee then books), my church during those years had no clue I was being helped by their CP dollars. They didn’t complain, just didn’t know.
I seemed to always have a problem in my relationship with state conventions. I accept that much of it may have been me. What I did not get and sought to get was them to show interest in us (as a small church) beyond letters seeking us to up our giving. When I pastored a larger church with better funds in El Paso, there seemed to be a more reaching out to me as an individual. This was true also in PA, where most churches were bi-vo and little funds to send. We were not such. We did end up splitting our state convention between them and VA (the conservative group) – which did not go over very well in PA.
What church did you pastor in El Paso? That’s where I live and minister now (apologies if we have already discussed this and I have forgotten).
Several years ago I was part of a discussion with Clyde Meador, then the Executive Vice President of the IMB. He stated that the IMB did not expect an increase in receipts from the Cooperative Program, but they did expect to receive more from the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. As you and Augie have explained above, he was spot on in his analysis. I know from teaching seminary students that most of them have a low opinion of state conventions and local associations. They are “pro” missions, but they don’t see the value in state conventions and associations. The leaders of those entities need to do a better at educating the young pastors about their ministries.
William, good observations and conclusions.
I wonder if there are statistics showing how many churches are bypassing some (most, all?) of the State convention and sending directly to SBC or its various entities. We hear of churches doing that, seemingly some of the mega churches and younger pastors. I have heard of some churches using a 50-50 split between states and national. This could certainly be disastrous for the state conventions if this is a trend and increases any at all.
I am in the older crowd as well. However, I am becoming less and less convinced that I want approx. 65% of my church’s CP staying in my state.
Thanks, William.
The church percentage is tough since that’s a self-reported number. Sometimes I feel like we are comparing apples to oranges when comparing ACP numbers from year to year. The percentage is likely much lower since churches that don’t fill out the ACP are probably more likely to give lower percentages to the CP.
Regarding declining state convention revenue, I have a hard time feeling sorry for state conventions that are still keeping 60% of CP revenues. Anecdotally, it seems to me that the state conventions doing the best are those that are streamlined and doing a good job of showing their value to the churches. I’d love to see numbers on that.
As a younger pastor, I am 35, I love our state convention and I am thankful for it. But our state has thousands of churches and hundreds of associations who are performing ministry in the state. Let churches do ministry and send as much as possible of our CP dollars to the national convention and the IMB. We have a limited missionary force of 3,500 and we need to expand it. The SBC cannot expand that force with the majority of money staying in the states.
My personal opinion is that a lot of churches and pastoral ministries would be reinvigorated (is that even a word?) due to direct involvement in church planting and ministry
I, for one, am incredibly thankful for our state conventions. Like Jon above, since coming to rural Missouri, we have not received much reaching out from our state level people and it had been disheartening. But, they have been invaluable when we have reached out to them, replying sometimes in minutes. When there’s a need, they’re there. The larger churches may be able to resource themselves, and the urban associations may be able to do so as well, but when they (the large churches and urban areas) are willing to cooperatively fund state conventions with the rural churches, they help to provide a vital service for the rural brothers and sisters that we have great need of and would not be able to sustain on our own.
Thanks for the comment, Stephanie. I would say the same thing. May I ask what needs has your church had that the SC was there to help you with?
Historically, Indiana was terrible at ministry; I am unsure how they are now, but at one time, it was seriously bloated and totally ineffective
I do think that Churches could step in and easily replace state conventions (JMO) and be more effective with less overhead costs. I could easily see groups of churches banding together.
If churches would band together to do ministry, I could see Assoc’s shrink in size as well
Glenn, those are good points. I think we are already seeing that on the associational level. I was leader of a small association that decided to go to a volunteer leadership model, place our office in a church, and eliminate almost all administrative expenses. We were able to go from 70% of budget going to administrative costs to about 75% of funds coming in going directly to missions. I think we are seeing more of a move in that way as churches are striving to run leaner as well. It’s just good stewardship.
In a related note, the function of Associations has to change. No longer are they the distributor of information that’s coming from the SBC as they were years ago. We have instant access to information and resources. We aren’t checking out study courses from the Associational office anymore. The associations that will survive will be those that are missional networks, operated on more of a volunteer model, patterning churches together for Great Commission work like missional efforts and church planting. It is, and will continue to, filter up through the state convention as well.
It’s really a question of stewardship, fundamentally.
I think that this goes back to a fundamental question of the purpose for state and local associations AND where CP dollars should be used. For instance, in my own state (Indiana), we currently give 8.8% of state CP dollars to our campground and only 6.2% to church planting. For me, that’s the issue in a nutshell.
Miles. Those are the exact kinds of issues that I had when I was there
Sadly, it looks the same
Where in Indiana do you live
Very good observations/analysis. I’m guessing there is a great deal of variation from state to state and association to association in terms of the quality of ministry they do. I benefited greatly from Baptist Campus Ministries, and I’m sure there are other valuable ministries that happen at the state and association level. But I do wonder how much overlap and bloat exist.
As someone pointed out above, the effectiveness of any state convention depends on that convention, but I do believe We’re going to see a trend away from the states take. I actually believe We’re going to see a trend towards local associations. In a state like SC where I am with nearly 2400 SBC churches, a state convention can help, but smaller churches won’t get much attention. A good local association however is far more available and responsive; has the pulse of that particular area; and can personalize things in a much more effective way. Associations obviously differ as well, and it may be because the associations I’ve been blessed to serve in have been outstanding. But local, for ministry, especially in a smaller church, is invaluable from my perspective
And to clarify I do know associations are not CP. But I think we’ll see churches give more there
Associations or CP?
Glenn, my gut tells me many associations will begin getting some money that has been going to CP