Texas Baptists drop funding cap on seminaries

WACO, Texas — Two years after slashing funding of Southern Baptist seminaries, the Baptist General Convention of Texas has adopted a new budget that restores that financial support.

Messengers to the annual meeting in Waco voted Nov. 11 to remove the $1 million funding cap on the six seminaries of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Their vote also restored funding to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and increased funding of the denomination’s Executive Committee.

Ken Camp, spokesman for the state convention, said the majority of churches aligned with the state convention did not follow the previously approved giving plan and took their own approach.

While removing the funding stipulations, these Texas Baptists also opted to change the percentage of their budget that goes to state and wider causes. The 2002 budget called for 72.3 percent of donations to go to missions and ministries related to the state convention and 27.7 percent to worldwide missions. The 2003 budget will increase the percentage remaining in the state to 79 percent and 21 percent will be used elsewhere.