Baptist Press
NASHVILLE (BP) — Contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee in October were 0.18 percent above last year’s opening month of the convention’s fiscal year and 3.26 percent above the projected budget for the first month, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Page.
As of Oct. 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget totaled $16,048,439.92, or $29,259.07 above the $16,019,180.85 received in October 2014.
“We are tremendously grateful that for the second year in a row Cooperative Program receipts received by the Executive Committee exceeded the previous October’s gifts and surpassed our projected budget goal for the first month of the fiscal year,” Page said.
“We continue to work at helping our cooperating churches see the vision of what we can accomplish when we work together — sustaining a global missions and ministry enterprise to the glory of God by going, sending, planting and training laborers for the harvest.”
The October total of $16,048,439.92 is $506,773.25 above the $15,541,666.67 monthly allocation budget projection to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America.
The CP is Southern Baptists’ channel of giving, begun in 1925, through which a local church can contribute to the ministries of its state convention and the missions and ministries of the SBC with a single monthly or weekly contribution. Monies include receipts from individuals, churches, state conventions and fellowships for distribution according to the 2015-2016 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
The convention-adopted budget for 2015-2016 is as follows: 50.41 percent to international missions through the International Mission Board, 22.79 percent to North American missions through the North American Mission Board, 22.16 percent to theological education, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Meanwhile, designated giving of $3,396,759.63 during October was 0.19 percent, or $6,450.52, below gifts of $3,403,210.15 received last October. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities.
Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist Global Hunger Relief and other special gifts.
State and regional conventions retain a portion of church contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist national and international causes. The percentage of distribution is at the discretion of each state or regional convention.
Month-to-month swings reflect a number of factors, including the timing of when the state conventions forward the national portion of Cooperative Program contributions to the Executive Committee, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions, the number of Sundays in a given month, and the percentage of CP contributions forwarded to the SBC by the state conventions after shared ministry expenses are deducted.
