By Editor Bob Terry
Budget discussion was brief during the Aug. 12 meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega. After all, the budget goal for 2017 will be the same as the current year — $40 million.
For the first seven months of this budget year receipts are running at about 98 percent of the goal so it is touch and go about whether Alabama Baptists’ 2016 Cooperative Program (CP) budget goal will be met.
Even though the budget goal for 2017 is the same, the internal structure is significantly different. Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) causes will receive $19,191,762 or 48 percent of the budget. That is up $400,000 over the current year.
That change was made possible when Samford University in Birmingham offered to reduce its CP funding by $400,000 in order to increase funding to SBC. A similar reduction is anticipated for the 2018 budget as Alabama moves toward the goal of evenly dividing all CP receipts between SBC causes and Alabama Baptist missions and ministries.
The SBC portion of CP receipts from Alabama Baptist churches has been steadily rising for the past few years — up from 43 percent a few years ago. That change has not come without a cost. For example SBOM staff has been reduced from a high of 121 to its current 67.
Adjusting to declining budgets
SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance said some of that reduction was purposeful and planned. Other reductions were the result of raising gifts to SBC causes during a period of declining budgets.
Even those staff members who remain have paid a price. Associate Executive Director Bobby DuBois told SBOM members this will be the fifth time in seven years staff members received no raises of any kind. The two times raises were given amounted to 2 percent each time.
In addition, benefits have been reduced. Staff members now have higher copays on medical insurance and higher deductibles.
“It is hard to budget partnership money for church planting and other ministries” in that kind of financial environment, DuBois said in an interview.
That is why the new Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering is vital to the future of funding missions and ministries in Alabama.
Until 2016 the state missions offering has supported the work of Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). The offering provides about half of WMU’s annual budget.
Offering to expand
Now the offering will expand from a WMU-sponsored offering to a statewide offering adding Disaster Relief (DR), church planting, church revitalization and global partnership missions to the causes it supports. The previous February offering for DR has been rolled into this new state missions offering and the 2016 goal is $750,000.
The offering will go first to Alabama WMU ($550,000), then to DR ($200,000) and anything above those amounts would be divided among the other three areas based on needs at the time.
None of the SBOM portion will go for salaries or benefits. All of the funds will be earmarked for missions and ministries.
It appears Alabama Baptists will increasingly rely on the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering to help fund missions and ministries in the state.
The 2017 goal for the offering approved at the Aug. 12 meeting is $1 million — a 25 percent increase in the goal.
SBOM has an aggressive church planting program that is producing encouraging results. But it is hard to find money for training church planters given the declining resources, DuBois explained. And money for partnerships in church planting is difficult to find.
When it comes to funding for DR, SBOM is not able to carry money forward as a DR reserve for emergencies, DuBois said. These funds would allow quick responses when disasters happen.
SBOM leaders are approaching the new offering cautiously; not in promotion but in spending the money. No training events are set with the expectation that Myers-Mallory funds will pay for them.
Instead Lance and others are widely sharing the needs and opportunities for funding missions and ministries in Alabama through the offering.
CP remains the primary channel for funding missions and ministries. Funds channeled through CP support all Baptists do together on a state, national and international level.
Some Baptists want to make additional offerings to special needs. That is why Southern Baptists have special missions offerings.
Special offerings for international missions and missions in North America are well established and annually promoted in most cooperating Baptist churches.
For the first time Alabama Baptists have a state missions offering that will only grow in importance for funding SBOM’s missions and ministries.
Just as Baptists in the state have three missions boards — the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board and the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions — we now have three special missions offerings.
Over and above
Giving to a special missions offering is designed to be over and above what one gives through CP. That is why it is called a “special” missions offering.
For those moved by God’s Holy Spirit to go beyond their regular level of giving and to make special offerings for work in Alabama, the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering is a new and exciting opportunity.
The Week of Prayer for State Missions is Sept. 11–18. Pray and then respond as the Lord leads concerning funds for missions and ministries in Alabama.
Share with others: