JEFFERSON CITY—The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Board voted without opposition April 10 to approve a budget goal for 2013 of $14.6 million, which is slightly up from the current budget, and to embark on a “50-50 by 2020” plan that would balance state and national giving for Cooperative Program (CP) causes in the next seven years.
Board members voted to extend their recent practice of 1/4 percent increases for Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) causes and 1/4 percent decreases for MBC causes, setting the new ratio at 371/2 to 621/2. When MBC Executive Director John Yeats announced he had the 50-50 target in his sights, board members who have long wanted this done broke out in applause.
“We can do this,” Yeats said.
MBC Chairman John Marshall, pastor, Second Baptist Church, Springfield, said he has never been more excited for Missouri Baptists.
“I am watching leadership personified in our new executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention,” Marshall wrote on his blog. “For three hours this afternoon I watched him unveil page by page, step by step, a blueprint for the future of our state convention that is nothing short of brilliant.
“I have the spiritual gift of teaching, not leadership. But I know good leading when I see it, and I saw it today. We should be thanking God for sending our state convention a man of vision, and a man who can articulate specific methods to achieve that vision.”
The actual 2013 budget goal is $14,645,000. It factors in a slight increase in CP receipts, according to MBC Associate Executive Director Jay Hughes. Despite a sputtering economy, the collection pace for this year is up to $14.7 million.
Ten years ago, the MBC budget stood at $19.2 million. Down through the 2000s, board members, staff, and messengers chose to lower it into the $16-17 million range. The last one of those adjusted budgets was $16.3 million in 2009.
It was then determined that “reality based” budgeting was needed based on the actual intake of CP funds. Those budgets were $15.05 million in 2010, $15.1 million in 2011, and $14.5 million in 2012. The 2013 goal reflects that philosophy.
Yeats will try for 50-50 minus shared items. He wants it done incrementally through a “legacy approach” to budgeting that the SBC approved in the 1950s. Back then six items went in a “shared” funding category (meaning they would not count toward 50-50). Within those parameters, he said the MBC would now focus on annuity protections and The Pathway. Special status is warranted in both cases, he said, because the ministry flows back to the churches.
The other four budgeting areas that could be included in the legacy category are the executive director’s office, the Woman’s Ministry Union (WMU), CP promotion, and accounting. Other state conventions have stretched these exemptions to the point where achieving 50-50 budgeting seems hollow, but Yeats said the MBC will strive to maintain discipline and strict fiscal accountability in the years to come.
Under the new budget, approximately $297,250 will go toward The Pathway as it transitions from a paid subscription newspaper to one that is distributed for free to upwards of 30,000 home units.
“The Pathway is our No. 1 direct mail piece that goes to our households,” Yeats said.
While financing the delivery system will be different, the content side of The Pathway will still be provided by CP funds, Yeats said.
Projected budgets for the 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering of $4 million, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering of $1.75 million, the World Hunger Offering of $250,000 and the Missouri Missions Offering (MMO) of $700,000 were largely kept the same as 2012, with the Annie Armstrong fund goal dropping $250,000 and the MMO objective rising $25,000.
Part of the ongoing fiscal picture concerns the legal action to recover five breakaway agencies. A bridge loan of $150,000 out of reserves was authorized in 2010, and $25,000 of that was repaid. Board members voted to increase the amount available to $225,000 for the purpose of satisfying the ongoing Agency Recovery Fund cash flow requirements, with the loan to be paid back when the lawsuits are over. Currently the MBC has about $2.9 million in reserves.
Board members also heard a report on the collecting system for the litigation, with dollar amounts for Plan A (churches designating for legal expenses) and Plan B (churches opting out) settling in at a 45-55 percentage rate.
In other business, Executive Board members:
• Voted to set aside funds for staff pay raises up to 3 percent;
• Heard an appeal from Support Services for prayer as the staff begins to compile a new MBC database; and
• Passed a recommendation for messengers that beginning in 2013, any CP budget receipts above the set goal be allocated 50 percent to SBC causes and 50 percent to MBC causes. “This means that our churches who are making great sacrifice for cooperative missions know that our passion is to reach the heartland of our nation and the ends of the earth with the gospel,” Yeats said. “This action says that once our CP budget is received, we reallocate and send 50 percent to SBC mission causes.”
