Executive Committee proposes $178 million budget

It was more than a budget recommendation; it carried a note of celebration. In proposing a $178 million SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget for 2001-2002, the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee said it was doing so “in gratitude  for the unprecedented growth of our missions and ministries, as well as the increase in our seminary enrollment and in acknowledgement of God as Jehovah Jireh,” a biblical reference to the God who provides.

The proposed SBC budget- a $10 million increase over the current year- will be voted on by messengers from local Southern Baptist churches at the June 12-13 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

The Feb. 20 executive committee recommendation is part of the budgeting process each year for the Southern Baptist Convention and its entities.

The current percentage distribution to SBC entities is maintained in the proposed 2001-2002 budget, including 50 percent for the work of the International Mission Board and 22.79 percent for North American Mission Board outreach.

Other percentage distributions in the budget are: 21.64 for theological education, encompassing the SBC’s six seminaries (which are funded according to a complex formula based primarily on full-time-equivalent enrollment) and the Historical Library and Archives; Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, 1.49 percent; Annuity Board, 0.76 percent; and the SBC Operating Budget, 3.32 percent.

Included under the SBC Operating Budget of $7,099,505 are support for the multiple ministry assignments of the executive committee and its management and operation of the SBC annual meeting, along  with $425,000 for the Baptist World Alliance.

The proposed $178,298,879 budget is the same as the receipts for the last budget year of record (1999-2000), which is a policy the executive committee follows in setting a budget cap. The SBC budget year is Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. Two SBC entities, LifeWay Christian Resources and the Woman’s Missionary Union auxiliary, receive no Cooperative Program funding from the SBC budget.

(BP)