Trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) adopted a $290.1 million budget for 2003 during an Oct. 31–Nov. 3 meeting in Dallas that included the appointment of 95 missionaries — the second-largest group of long-term workers appointed in one service.
Trustees also announced their personal pledges to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions (LMCO), passed resolutions of appreciation for two missionaries who died in service and learned about a new way to speed up Bible translation.
While the 2003 Fiscal Resources Strategy Plan is the IMB’s largest budget ever, it also represents a serious tightening of expenditures to free every possible dollar for support of the growing number of missionaries, said David Steverson, IMB vice president for finance.
The basic budget of $268.8 million represents an increase of $5.89 million over 2002; the $21.3 million challenge budget represents an increase of $4.3 million.
The budget anticipates a $6.5 million increase in giving through the Cooperative Program, the Southern Baptist Convention’s unified budget. It also plans for a $21.3 million increase in LMCO receipts.
‘God-sized challenge’
Those numbers represent “a God-sized challenge” for Southern Baptists because gifts from Southern Baptist churches are not keeping pace with the amazing numbers of people answering God’s call to overseas missionary service, said IMB President Jerry Rankin.
“It is very, very challenging to match the unprecedented growth we are experiencing in the missionary force and new opportunities we are having around the world with the giving patterns of Southern Baptists and the Lottie Moon Offering falling short of its goal in 2001,” he said. The record $113.7 million Southern Baptists gave to the offering in 2001 fell short of the $120 million goal. The offering’s basic goal this year is $125 million, with a challenge goal of $10 million. Offering receipts will have to increase 18.7 percent ($21.3 million) to meet the need created by the surge of new missionaries.
On top of that, the budget provides for a net increase of only 150 new missionaries in 2003, but IMB leaders expect that number to be 400 or more, said IMB Executive Vice President John White.
The 2003 financial plan is a “faith projection,” Rankin said.
“We find ourselves for the first time having to consider restricting the flow of missionaries to the field because Southern Baptist going,” he said.
In a separate presentation, Rankin provided a breakdown of IMB’s reserve funds. He explained the more than $300 million in IMB reserve funds represents “$38 million obligated to mission budgets that are on their way to the field, $42 million in global capital through which [IMB provides] housing and cars for more than 5,000 missionaries without impacting limited operating budget resources or missionary support.” It also provides $18 million in self-funded medical coverage, he noted. Also coming out of the fund is “$26 million in life insurance provisions and $109 million as the actuarial value of post-retirement benefits required.
“It represents $50 million in contingency funds, less than 20 percent of our annual budget for crises and emergencies and $34 million in endowment restricted by donors to specific designated purposes,” he continued.
“We have spent more than $60 million over the last four years from reserves to expand our Missionary Learning Center, provide for technological needs into the 21st century, and to continue sending out more new missionaries than the [LMCO] and our allocation from the Cooperative Program would cover,” Rankin said. “With these expenditures, and the current decline in the stock market, the [IMB] has no margin of reserves that is available for any purpose beyond a $10 million operating reserve maintained by board policy.”
Trustees also heard a report that employees in the board’s Richmond, Va., home office had pledged $164,719 to the LMCO, an average gift of $455 each. Trustees responded by making their own pledges on the spot, totaling $64,875, and average of $954 each.
Spread out among the 6.4 million families of the Southern Baptist Convention, the average gift to the 2001 LMCO was $17.76, said Billy Hoffman, IMB director of development.
The climax of the trustee meeting was the appointment of 95 new missionaries in a Sunday evening service at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. The new workers were the second-largest group in the board’s 157-year history — the largest group being the 118 appointed a year earlier in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The astounding growth in career missionary appointments is directly related to the large numbers of Southern Baptists serving in shorter-term assignments, said Lloyd Atkinson, vice president for missions personnel.
“In fact, 51 percent of those appointed in the service had already served with the IMB for at least two years,” he said.
The International Mission Board is moving to a higher level of partnership with Wycliffe International, which has about 5,000 missionaries working on Bible translation projects in more than 1,400 languages, trustees learned.
In other business, trustees adopted resolutions of appreciation for two missionaries who died in service. The resolutions expressed “deep appreciation for faithful service to God through this board” and pledged “special prayer support for the family during the days ahead.”
One resolution was adopted for R. Lee Pursley, 39, a missionary videographer who died July 20.
A native of Atlanta, Pursley is survived by his wife, Nancy, and their two children, Kathryn 4, and Matthew, 10 months.
The second resolution praised a missionary who served as the strategy coordinator for one of the world’s toughest-to-reach people groups. The missionary, who died this past summer at age 60, was not named publicly because of security concerns.
Hunger and relief projects
The trustees also learned about the release of $1.3 million that funded 59 hunger and general relief projects that included emergency food packets, aid for malnourished mothers and children, agriculture training, seed packets, materials for house reconstruction, job skills training for refugees and water purification. Hunger and relief projects are funded by gifts from Southern Baptist churches. Every dollar given goes 100 percent to ministry expenses.
In personnel matters, trustees approved the transfer of four missionary units (eight people) to new fields and longevity salary increases for two units (four people). They granted emeritus status to two missionaries: Rosanne Branan (32 years in the Philippines) and Alma Rohm (53 years in Nigeria).
Trustees also voted to accept the resignations of 19 missionary units (32 people) and terminated three missionaries.
Three of the unit resignations cited the board’s request last January that they affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as a factor in the decision to reign. That brings the total of BF&M-related resignations to 16 units (32 people). A total of 5,480 missionaries currently are serving. (BP)
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