Members of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) approved a record budget for 2008, agreed to sell 13.79 acres of land the SBOM owns on Taylor Road in Montgomery and employed two new staff members during the board’s Aug. 17 meeting in Montgomery.
Board members approved a $44,585,000 base budget for 2008, which represents a 1.5 percent increase over the 2007 budget. The new budget maintains the breakdown of 57.7 percent for Alabama Baptist causes and 42.3 percent for Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) causes.
Executive Director Rick Lance praised the stewardship efforts of Alabama Baptists. He said Alabama Baptist churches give an average of 8.15 percent of undesignated receipts to missions causes beyond the local church through the Cooperative Program (CP). The SBC average is 6.66 percent.
For the first seven months of the year, CP giving is 3.4 percent ahead of budget, Lance explained. But historically more than half the annual CP receipts come in during the first half of the year. Lance said that meant the new budget had to reflect cautious optimism to allow agency and entity leaders to plan on receiving the amount of money budgeted for the various ministries.
New land options, new staff
Lance said the largest single percentage of CP receipts goes to SBC causes. The SBOM receives about 28 percent. Alabama entities and auxiliaries also share about 28 percent of the budget. The ministers’ retirement plan claims 2 percent of the budget. “Some newer conventions say they give 50 percent of their receipts through the Cooperative Program. I wonder why they do not give 70 percent or 75 percent since they do not have any entities which they support,” Lance said.
In addition to the base budget, the SBOM also approved a CP state causes budget of $500,000. These funds support only ministries of the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC). Also approved was a challenge budget of $45,585,000. The budget recommendation now goes to the Nov. 13–14 meeting of the ABSC for final action.
Board members also approved the sale of 13.79 acres of land at the southwest corner of Interstate 85 and Taylor Road in Montgomery. The state board purchased the site in 1986 for $1,050,000.
As part of the recommendation, board members authorized Lance to pursue purchase of property along the Interstate 65 corridor in Montgomery should the time come that leaders decide to relocate the state office building. Proceeds from the sale of the Taylor Road property would pay for the new site with remaining funds being invested and used for a new building, should that decision be made.
Two new staff members were elected by the SBOM executive committee the night before the meeting. James W. Pruett was elected associate in the office of associational missions and church planting. Sean N. Thornton was elected Baptist campus minister for the University of Montevallo.
Pruett has been pastor of Concord Baptist Church, Bessemer, in Bessemer Baptist Association since 2002. Prior to that time, he served as a missionary for the SBC International Mission Board (IMB). He also has served on the staffs of Loveless Park Baptist Church, Bessemer, and Wilkes Baptist Church, Midfield, both in Bessemer Association.
Pruett currently serves as a trustee for the IMB and is moderator for Bessemer Association. He is a graduate of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham and Mobile College (now the University of Mobile). He and his wife, Ashleigh, have three children.
Thornton is a native of Wetumpka and holds degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and Auburn University. Most recently, he served as a collegiate ministry intern at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. He previously served as a US/C2 missionary for the North American Mission Board, serving two years in Waterbury, Conn. Prior to that time, he was youth and children’s minister for Waverly Baptist Church in East Liberty Baptist Association. Thornton is married to the former Reagan Garrard.
In other actions, the board:
- voted to extend the missions partnerships between the ABSC and its two international partners — Guatemala and Ukraine — from 2008 to 2011.
- approved financial support for the director of missions for Judson Baptist Association.
- learned that three churches had received grants to help with the purchase of property and that three new churches had been approved for pastor’s salary assistance.
- approved goals for 2008 special offerings
Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — $10,500,000
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering — $5,500,000
Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries — $2,475,000
World Hunger Offering — $875,000
Disaster Relief Offering — $100,000.
Share with others: