Trustees of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) approved a $40 million Cooperative Program (CP) budget for 2017 during their meeting at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega on Aug. 12.
The budget proposal will go to convention messengers in November for final approval.
While the dollar amount is the same as what was set for 2016, the breakdown between Alabama Baptist ministries and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) ministries changed by 1 percent.
The proposed percentages for 2017 are 52 percent for Alabama Baptist causes and 48 percent for SBC causes. The percentage for 2016 was 53/47.
The 1 percent adjustment remains in line with Alabama Baptists’ “parity plan” publicized in 2015, said SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance.
“We are moving more and more to the point of parity by 2020 with the Southern Baptist Convention,” Lance told state convention messengers in November 2015. He also noted that the effort to move in that direction actually started in 2010 with specific staffing and budgeting goals.
SBOM staff has been granted two 2 percent salary increases since 2010 while the SBC percentage has increased each year. No salary increase is anticipated for 2017.
67 full-time employees
SBOM staff has decreased in size from 121 in the late 1990s to the current 67 full-time employees, or a decrease of 45.5 percent.
Since 2012, Alabama Baptists have adopted budgets that increase the SBC allocation by an average of 1 percent annually and will continue until parity with SBC is reached.
All allocations proposed for 2017 remain the same for state convention entities and SBOM’s ministry efforts with the exception of Samford University in Birmingham. The largest of the three Alabama Baptist schools will give up $400,000 of CP funding.
“All of that is going toward the SBC parity,” Lance said.
And all gifts coming in above the $40 million goal will go directly to SBC causes.
SBOM trustees also approved 2017 special offering goals of $22,200,000:
- Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — $11,600,000
- Annie Armstrong Easter Offering — $6,100,000
- Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $2,700,000
- World Hunger Offering— $800,000
- Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering — $1,000,000
Bobby DuBois, SBOM associate executive director, assured trustees that those working in SBOM ministries recognize their dependence on the churches to do their work.
“On Jan. 1 of every year we go to zero of what we know we are going to receive from churches,” DuBois said. “This works because of the missions spirit and commitment of our churches. We are grateful for that and thankful for that and always try to be good stewards of what you send us.
“We promise to do the very best we can to stretch these dollars as far as we can,” he said.
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