OSAGE BEACH – Meeting at the Lake of the Ozarks, the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) executive board approved a $14.8 million budget goal for 2017 and tended to the business of the Lord’s work April 11 and 12.
“The Cooperative Program is doing quite well,” MBC Executive Director John Yeats told the board. “Lottie Moon [offering for international missions] did well last year and is looking to advance this year. Annie Armstrong [offering for North American missions] looks to be be strong and the Missouri Missions Offering (MMO) absolutely knocked the top out of our goal. We are very grateful for that!”
Yeats also lobbied for the board to do what they could to encourage attendance and participation at the Southern Baptist Convention, which meets in St. Louis this June, and with Crossover, the evangelism push preceding the annual meeting.
Joe Uveling, support services group leader for the MBC, reported that as of the time of the meeting, giving to the MBC through the Cooperative Program was 2 percent ahead of budget.
“None of this would happen without the faithful giving of churches and individuals,” he said.
If approved by a vote of messengers during the Oct. 24-26 MBC annual meeting in St. Charles, the 2017 budget goal is a slight decrease – less than one tenth of a percent – from the 2016 budget. Cash Reserves are strong, with approximately five months of expenses in the bank.
The budget reflects the path to “50-50 by 2020,” a balance between state and national giving for CP causes in the next four years. The recommended 2017 split is 55.5 percent Missouri, 44.5 percent Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The 50-50 split follows a pattern in the SBC since the 1950s, in which certain “shared” expenses such as GuideStone’s Annuity Program and The Pathway’s budget are taken off the top before the split.
The board also approved budgetary goals for various missions offerings, including: Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, $4 million; Annie Armstrong Offering, $2 million; World Hunger Offering, $235,000; and Missouri Missions Offering, $725,000.
In other business, the board:
• approved an invitation from the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home allowing it to host the MBC Executive Board’s July meeting at its campus in Bridgeton.
• approved a recommendation to distribute underspend from 2015 according to the following split: 10 percent to the scholarship funds of Hannibal-LaGrange and Southwest Baptist Universities, $8,300 to GuideStone’s Mission Dignity annuity program, and the remainder in an account to be used for capital projects. The current underspend is $97,673.11.
• approved a recommendation to distribute funds received above the 2017 budget goal 50-50 between MBC and SBC causes.
• approved the potential for up to a 2 percent salary adjustment for executive board staff.
• tabled discussion on a simplified and updated form required to vet an outside-the-Southern Baptist Convention speaker for an MBC event or the MBC Pastors Conference. They will take up the question again in at the July board meeting. ν