Members of the State Board of Missions (SBOM) unanimously adopted a $40,427,126 Cooperative Program (CP) base budget for 2004.
The goal is the same as the 2003 CP base budget goal. Alabama Baptist SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance told board members current CP receipts indicate Alabama Baptists will miss their CP goal for the first time in 10 years.
Approval for the budget came during the July 25 meeting of the state board in Montgomery. The budget now goes to the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention Nov. 18–19 for final action.
Contributions through the CP for the first six months of the year equaled 97.56 percent of the goal or $493,303 under the goal of $20,213,740.
“It is possible,” Lance told board members, “that Alabama Baptists may give more in the second half of the year than they have in the first half, but we cannot budget on that possibility.”
Lance said the conservative budget philosophy he uses dictates that budgets be realistically reachable. “That is why we are coming to you with a flat budget,” he said. “The Cooperative Program base budget for 2004 provides the same level of support as this year for every State Board of Missions ministry and every Alabama Baptist entity,”
In addition to the base budget, board members also approved a challenge budget of $41,427,480, exactly $1 million more than the base budget. Any CP receipts above the base budget will be divided on the same percentages as the base budget.
The proposed budget maintains the current division between Alabama Baptist causes and SBC causes — 57.7 percent for Alabama and 42.3 percent for SBC.
A majority of all funds
However, Lance pointed out that when one considers all funds flowing through the state office, SBC receives 54.77 percent of receipts while Alabama uses 45.23 percent.
Lance shared that in 2002, the last year of record, Alabama Baptists channeled $57,546,619 through the Montgomery office for missions causes. That amount included funds for CP, special offerings and designated causes. SBC causes received $31,517,386 of that amount, Lance reported. Alabama ministries received $25,737,150.
In other business, board members approved a proposal for a new student center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and received word that Jake Duke had been employed as campus minister for the University of West Alabama. He also will serve as director of missions for Bigbee Baptist Association.
Duke returns to the University of West Alabama where he entered as a college student. He holds degrees from the University of Alabama and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Duke, a native of Sumter County, has extensive experience in campus ministry work.
The new student center at UAB will be located about two blocks south of the current site. Board members approved swapping land with the university as well as receiving an amount provided by UAB as difference in cost and for other considerations.
Bobby DuBois, associate executive director of SBOM, told board members that about $300,000 will have to be financed. That amount would fall under a current $1 million line of credit already in place and would not impact demands on the budget.
UAB has agreed not to take possession of the current student center until the new center is completed and ready for occupancy. This recommendation will also be presented to the Nov. 18–19 meeting for final approval.
Board members learned as well that pastor’s salary assistance has been approved for Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Eastern Hills in Montgomery.
Also, Bethel Baptist Association is receiving financial assistance for its new director of missions, Bobby Hopper, according to state board policy.
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