The Cooperative Program is the SBC’s primary giving plan, described by the Great Commission Task Force Final Report as “the central and preferred conduit of Great
Commission funding.” It may still be described as “central” although for a number of years designated gifts to the Executive Committee have been greater than Cooperative Program giving. It is still the “preferred conduit” although slightly less preferred on average by local churches than last year.
A few things relative to the Cooperative Program from the Annual Meeting:
1. The benchmark figure for assessing Cooperative Program giving from cooperating SBC churches is the average percentage of undesignated offerings. The average of all SBC churches is calculated by the Executive Committee at 5.16%, down slightly from 5.18% last year. This percentage was over 10% when I started in ministry 35 or so years ago and has steadily declined. Three years ago it was 5.5%. Fred Luter and Frank Page have been the only two SBC presidents in the recent past whose churches gave above the average CP percentage. Let’s be positive here: there isn’t a denomination in the country that wouldn’t swap percentages of voluntary contributions from their churches with the SBC.
2. The six seminaries received $42.8 million in Cooperative Program revenues. Southern Seminary received the largest amount, about $9.6 million and Gateway Seminary the least, about $4.1 million. The funds are distributed by a formula generally based on some version of a student head count. Looking at Cooperative Program income as a percent of total seminary total income, the seminaries ranged between 20% (Southwestern) and 35% (Midwestern).
3. For the first time since 1950-1951 the state conventions retained less than 60% of the Cooperative Program dollars collected in church offering plates. This is a big deal to the state conventions, though it doesn’t impact the bottom line of the mission boards and seminaries greatly.
4. Tommy Green head of the Florida Baptist Convention presented a Cooperative Program gift of $3,136,500 to the Southern Baptist Convention during the annual meeting. The money came from the sale of the Florida convention’s former building. The two states where I have served as pastor both have valuable, and underutilized, headquarters buildings. It would be a one-time CP infusion but if Georgia and South Carolina did what Florida did, you would see CP revenues jump up significantly for the first time in years.
5. The Cooperative Program allocation budget for 2017-2018 is conservative at $192 million.
6. It’s old news but the only two major state conventions that sent less CP revenues to the Executive Committee in the most recent fiscal year were Louisiana and Arkansas.
7. The Executive Committee has a partnership now with Dave Ramsey that focuses on individual stewardship. I attended their free breakfast. The program costs money. A free short program (It’s a New Day) is available from the Executive Committee. Both are aimed in part at increasing individual giving to churches and CP giving indirectly through that. My impression of the thinking of denominational leaders and the CP decline is that they see it as a function of declining personal giving to a church.
8. There are limited options in CP promotion but what I’m seeing the last few years is a positive development.
At some point in time the SBC must accept its ‘New Normal’, CP giving fluctuating a little around 5%. This means the only way major increases in Missions giving can be made is if the SBC goes back to its roots, throws off the excess baggage and becomes a mission sending organization once again. If the SBC got rid of (or at least quit giving CP $$ to) NAMB, ERLC and 2-4 Seminaries there would be plenty of $$ for Intl Missions. Then the State Conventions and local Associations could once again be in charge of partnering with local churches… Read more »
I’ve got a bet with Adam that this scintillating article will generate more comments than his piece on the atonement.
If a certain few commenters get involved, you’re likely to succeed. 😉
I hope the bet was not for lots of money. Ed and Jim Poulos are on moderation now.
Ha!
I think Adam’s would have over 300 if you count the ones in the trash bin.
For three years my wife and I were members at Bellevue Baptist Church, where Steve Gaines is pastor. While we were there, more than 3,000 members took Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University course. My wife and I participated, also. It is a good program. One thing we learned is that many younger church members give little to the church because they are burdened with student loans and credit card debt. One young couples class in the church included 30 couples. Their combined unsecured debt (not including house and car) was over one million dollars. If we want our members to… Read more »
Mark, I think that you are correct in your understanding of my generation when it comes to giving levels. Many of my generation (35 and under) have bought into the current cultural climate of big college debt, big house, and debt spending through credit cards. We are immersed in marketing that stresses the value of such efforts and the appeal of the new. This in my view is an aspect of where discipleship in our churches has failed and continues to fail. We fail to disciple people in all areas of their lives, which includes financial stewardship. This is something… Read more »
William, you said #6 was old news, but I was unaware of that information. Can you share your source and/or any related discussions to shed light on what is causing that decrease?
“Contributions by State” table in the 2017 Book of Reports, p. 28. May be some online link but I haven’t looked for one. The comparison is between 2014-2015 and 2015-2016; October 1 to September 30 of each fiscal year. The decline in Arkansas is very slight, 0.34%, about $30k. The decline in LA was 1.31%, about $100k. The only large state convention with a significant increase was Florida with a mammoth 25.23%, a good bit of that being the chunk from the sale of their building. As for causes, I didn’t try to chase those down but, generally, states who… Read more »
Do you mean less in percentage or less in total dollar or both? BGAV budget is in a yearly nose dive. Perhaps the figures you cite combine the two VA conventions.
I didn’t count the two split states where there is a mod oriented convention. Both the BGAV and BGCT showed declines in CP contributions to the XComm. The BGAV’s total doesn’t reach the level I’d consider for a major state convention. My parameters are subjective.
AR must be either an overall drop off or something else, because the percent went up. A minuscule amount, for certain, but the percent division was increased. There was an extra gift the first year of the RF SBC Presidency, I believe, through CP in Arkansas that I think helped the state and tipped prior year’s giving a bit out of whack. I’d have to check. Next year AR should start to swing more rapidly to SBC, they put forward an accelerated plan on the percentage shift. But I am curious what happened with that–if it’s an overall slide here… Read more »
William,
Forgive me if I am asking a question that you have already answered or that is moot based on the given information, but is the one time Florida gift (#4 above) actually considered an increase? Then will next year’s (presumed) return to ‘normal’ be considered a decrease in giving? Or is there a line item that can account for one time donations which are over and above the normal giving but will be non-recurring?
Thanks!
Florida has been the most aggressive of the large state conventions in moving to 50/50. I believe they are 49/51. Since the additional CP money from the building sale was a one time thing, their overall giving will perhaps drop. Were I a pastor in Florida, I’d be highly inclined to increase CP giving in light of the actions of my state convention.
This is limited information about the situation in Louisiana, but I think the trend is accurate, please feel free to correct if anything I have here is incorrect. This file shows the actual 2016 budget compared to the proposed 2017 budget. https://louisianabaptists.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/LBC-CP-Allocation-Budget-2016_2017-Approved.pdf The CP allocation stays the same (36.7%) but the projected income is lower. Another article I read with comments by the state exec seems to confirm that as a trend, that income has been decreasing, but not the CP allocation. It forecasts a $202,000 drop from 2016 to 2017 because of the lower total budget projection (from 7,566,150… Read more »
Love the basket category “state mission services,” $8.3m. Not my state. None of my money. But I wonder if pastors there get more detail.
Regarding the summary that Brent linked (thanks, Brent!), it would seem that State Mission Services is a more diplomatic, or perhaps Christian-ese, way of saying “Administration”. In other words, 41.5 percent of the total budget goes to administration, and of that, 50+ percent likely (based on the surveys by the Society of Human Resource Management) goes toward salary, not including benefits.
Appreciate you keeping us apprised of all this info. It’s there for all of us, but when you take the time to organize it, it helps.
In terms of Louisiana we are on a multi year trajectory of a decrease in CP giving. Some of that is attributed to churches like mine that are now send 50% of our CP through the state and 50% directly to Nashville. We passed a number of years ago a motion that essential states, “LA will split with national CP 50% of any dollars that are in excess of our budget.” In terms of pastors or church members being able to receive documentation giving details of the State Missions Services budget it is very difficult. I did an analysis concerning… Read more »
do you have the figures for the last 3 or 5 years for income through churches? I’m curious as to what the trend is and how drastic. Also is it the case as I listed above that CP % has remained constant through that time period?
For the portion that has stayed in Louisiana here are the numbers from 2014:
2014 – $13,611,663
2015 – $13,173,978
2016 – $12,946,608
2017 – $12,768,093
Lewis, your church is very unusual in sending some CP money direct to the Executive Committee. You get that counted as “designated” since the state convention is cut out of it. Local church autonomy. You said that it was voted that “LA will split with national CP 50% of any dollars that are in excess of our budget.” Many of the states do this but the key is “excess of our budget.” CP budgetary overage is more often nonexistent and if there is excess it is a small amount. Thus, the state gets to throw out the 50/50 split but… Read more »
William, there is not plan in the State to move to a 50/50 split other than what I stated above. You and I both know that is a farce. We’ve done the math and for us to get to a true 50/50 split LA Baptists would need to give an additional $10,000,000. For me this is a larger conversation for our State than just a 50/50 split. It has to do with stewardship of the dollars we are actually giving. In my opinion it is unconscionable that we give more money to automobile reimbursements than we do to the Children’s… Read more »