For SBCers: CP support question

[Jonathan]

The thread on the potential split over calvinism got me thinking about CP funding.

I'm interested in the level of support that your church gives to the Cooperative Program in terms of % of your church's annual budget.

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

The thread on the potential split over calvinism got me thinking about CP funding.

I'm interested in the level of support that your church gives to the Cooperative Program in terms of % of your church's annual budget.

Why are you interested in it. We give 10%, if my memory is correct from the last budget report I read...Calvinist Pastor...eclectic congregation.

Joseph Botwinick

 

[Ed Edwards]

Non-Calvinistic church - 12% to CP and 3% to the local Association

 

[PastorSBC1303]

11% to CP

4% to Assoc

4.5% to Local Missions

 

[Baptist Believer]

The church I grew up in gave approximately 22% of undesignated receipts to the CP, which amounted to about $180,000-$225,000/year back in the 1970s-1980s.

Then in 1984, our church called a pastor who is now a very big name in the SBC. He constantly complained to our congregation's leadership and the deacon body that we were giving too much to the denomination, and should spend more money at home. Gradually, the church reduced our giving down to about 15%, although he was still very unhappy about that up to the day he left.

After the so-called "Battle for the Bible" (actually, battle for control), my home church gives very little. I received their newsletter yesterday that included the proposed budget, and I was very surprised to see that they are only giving to about $20,000 each to the NAMB and IMB, and completely bypassing the Executive Committee, the seminaries, etc. I can only guess that they are tired of funding an SBC where the leadership aren't interested in leading their churches to give. And I'm pretty sure it also had quite a bit to do with the last SBC election, where the "chosen one's" church, was exposed as giving almost nothing to the Cooperative Program. That presidential candidate was the one who originally led our church to reduce our giving when he was our pastor.

 

[Jonathan]

Why are you interested in it. We give 10%, if my memory is correct from the last budget report I read...Calvinist Pastor...eclectic congregation.

Joseph Botwinick

I'm interested in the data. Just for those who don't know, a church sends CP funds to the state convention which, in turn, keeps a percentage and then forwards the rest to the SBC Executive Committee. Each state determines its own percentage to keep.

I understand arguments both pro and con CP giving. Some folks lead conservative churches in not-so-conservative state conventions. And where those not-so-conservative conventions take a significant percentage of the CP offerings forwarded by the church, some churches have chosen to forward monies directly to the SBC ExCom but these fund are not considered part of CP giving.

Other churches, like Ronnie Floyd's present church (Baptist Believer's "bBig name") have chosen to publicize all that they do regarding Baptist work (mission support and otherwise), which can be quite substantial, and minimize their CP percentage.

I believe that it is within the bounds of local autonomy for churches to determine how they wish to contribute and relate to local associations, state and national Baptist entities.

But as long as the national SBC agencies rely upon the CP monies forwarded by the states, and the general decline in CP giving in inflation adjusted dollars, the financial future of the SBC is at significant risk....much greater risk than the doctrinal squabble du jour.

FWIW, I attend a very conservative SBC church that has had an historical reformed tradition regarding the "doctrines of grace". We are probably now closing in on 3% of our budget going to CP with a former goal of moving up by a % point per year to get to 10% (under a former pastor). The present pastor is leading in a time of church transition (meeting in a temporary location but soon to be moving into a new building). There is no CP emphasis from the pulpit but a great deal of mission (Lottie Moon offering and otherwise) emphasis.

I think that we need to give more than we do to the CP especially since we have several seminary students as members/attenders, but we do live in a state with a less than a conservative convention (getting more conservative slowly).

FWIW, I was quite surprised at the nomination speech for Ronnie Floyd this past summer. The nominator claimed that (paraphrasing from memory) Floyd would lead the SBC to significantly increased CP giving. More of the "do what I say, not as I do" methodology increasingly common among SBC leadership.

 

[SBCPreacher]

Our church gives about 10% to the CP, 8% to the association (we've got a strong association!), and about 3% to other mission efforts (including sponsoring a church planter in Armenia).

 

[Jack Matthews]

When this church was started, sponsored by one of the most supportive, traditional congregations in both the Tennessee Baptist Convention and SBC, the missions committee suggested we start right away with 10%. After being told that we would not receive assistance from church planting funds because we didn't qualify as a plant (and wouldn't endorse the BFM 2000 as our church doctrinal statement) we cooled off to that. We formed a special committee to study the matter, and they reported to us that the average giving of the churches which either are currently or have been pastored by the men elected president of the SBC in the past two decades is 1.9%. So we decided to round that up to 2%.
We compensate for that by making a 5% contribution to both Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong in addition to what the members give, and 5% to the local association.