An editorial writer once said he didn’t like to research a story because the facts often failed to support his conclusions. That can be a problem. For example, it is true that total Cooperative Program (CP) receipts supporting missions and ministries across the nation and the world are off about $48 million from five years ago. It is also true that the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) portion of those CP dollars are down, falling from about $205.7 million to $191.7 million.
Those two facts seem to support the argument that SBC-related missions and ministries are in dire circumstances. Who would disagree with that conclusion? With a lost world that needs the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, fewer dollars for missions and ministries is a tragedy.
The Great Commission Resurgence is part of the response of Southern Baptists to this need as Baptists across America see what can be done to reach more people for Jesus Christ in this nation and around the world.
Additional research through information provided by the SBC Executive Committee puts the sliding number of CP dollars for SBC causes in a different light. Looking only at this information, one could conclude that CP causes have seldom had it so good, because their portion of the SBC pie is almost a record portion.
The SBC’s first reliable records indicate that in 1930, five years after missions giving for state and national causes through the CP was adopted, the SBC received 32.03 percent of all CP receipts. That year cooperating Baptist churches gave $2,890,587 in missions giving through CP with the SBC receiving $925,722. Just for comparison, for the last year of record, cooperating churches received $8,911,796,522 in undesignated receipts. Total CP giving is reported at $500,410,514 with the SBC receiving $191.7 million.
For the 80 years on record the average percentage of CP receipts underwriting SBC causes has been 36.45 percent. Today the percentage is 38.32.
It is enlightening to follow the percentage from year to year and remember world events. For example, one can see a slide in the percentage of CP funds for SBC causes during the Great Depression but by 1940, the figure was up slightly from its 1930 mark to 32.77 percent. At the end of World War II, the SBC portion of CP receipts jumped to an all-time high of 40.51 percent in 1950 only to begin a 25-year downward slide. Ten years later, the percentage was 34.83. By 1975, CP funds for SBC causes stood at 33.24 percent of the total, a modern-day low and only slightly above its beginning point.
From 1975 the graph turns upward for almost 20 years. In 1980, SBC causes received 35.60 percent of all CP funds. A modern-day high was reached in 1987 when 39.12 percent of CP funds went for SBC causes. The percentage stayed above 38 until 1991.
It is also remarkable that this climb occurred alongside the Conservative Resurgence, which brought strife and conflict to Southern Baptist life for more than a decade.
From 1991 statistics show a drop of almost four percentage points by the year 2000 — down to 34.75 percent. This was during the years when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed and subsequently became a separate Baptist body distinct from Southern Baptists.
The SBC portion of CP receipts regained lost ground during the first decade of the 21st century and closed in 2010 at 38.32 percent.
The gain for SBC causes is more remarkable because it occurred while CP giving by the churches fell. The Great Recession, which began in 2008, caused a drop in undesignated giving to the churches by nearly $200 million. That resulted in a nearly $50 million drop in total CP giving for state and national causes. Despite this downturn the percentage of CP receipts for SBC causes grew, which meant smaller declines in total dollars for national ministries while state conventions lived on fewer dollars and a shrinking percentage.
Alabama Baptists provide an example of the increased emphasis on SBC causes. Alabama Baptists began the decade giving 42.3 percent of all CP funds to SBC causes. We ended the decade giving 43.5 percent. When one looks at these facts of history, the situation for national and worldwide missions and ministries might not be as dire as it could be.
But there is still more research to consider. Even though the CP remains the preferred means of supporting missions and ministries at home and abroad for Southern Baptists, churches are giving a smaller and smaller percentage to missions and ministries through the CP.
For the last two decades missions giving through the CP has failed to keep pace with the growth in undesignated receipts by the churches. In the 1990s undesignated giving in the churches grew by 4.91 percent, according to SBC Executive Committee statistics. Total CP income (state and national causes) grew by 2.68 percent.
For the first decade of the new century, undesignated giving grew 4.82 percent while total CP giving grew less than half of that — 2.23 percent.
During the last five years church undesignated receipts grew 2.51 percent. Total CP giving decreased 0.8 percent.
In the 1980s total CP missions causes received 10.5 percent of undesignated receipts of cooperating churches on average. That fell to 8.73 percent during the 1990s and was at 6.80 for the first 10 years of this century.
More telling is the percentage of the last three years — 6.08 percent for 2008; 5.87 percent for 2009; and 5.62 percent for 2010.
The research shows church members giving tithes and offerings to God through their churches. From 2006 to 2008, undesignated gifts grew from $8.3 billion to $9 billion. When the Great Recession hit, giving for 2009 declined only slightly to $8.96 billion and dropped to $8.9 billion in 2010. The research also shows churches giving less and less to missions and ministries through CP.
If that trend continues the percentage of the CP pie going to SBC causes or to state causes may not matter. Both may die from financial hunger. That is a conclusion the research does support.
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