In Southern Baptist life in 2011, state convention leaders found themselves making various ministry and funding decisions following the previous year’s Great Commission Resurgence push.
The North American Mission Board (NAMB) transitioned to a church-planting focus and began outlining partnership changes with state conventions. State convention leaders struggled to understand how the resulting NAMB relationship would look. And while re-evaluating ministry efforts and dollar figures, many conventions also made steps to increase the percentage of Cooperative Program (CP) receipts forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“I think 27 of the 42 state conventions have either approved or are in the process of considering moving toward a 50–50 split in their CP giving,” said SBC President Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga.
Messengers in many of the state conventions adopted budgets that will send the SBC a greater portion of CP receipts that will then be used to fund the International Mission Board (IMB) and NAMB, as well as six SBC seminaries, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and SBC operations by the Executive Committee.
Alabama Baptists voted to increase CP giving to the SBC by a half-percent and will split any funding coming in above the base budget 50–50 between the state convention and the SBC.
The state convention’s annual meeting theme of “Great Commission Ministries Together” underscored a partnership strategy that begins in 2013 to connect IMB and NAMB missionaries from Alabama with other Alabama Baptists. (TAB, BP)
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