NASHVILLE (BP) — Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are $174,276,734.99, or 1.13 percent above the year-to-date budgeted goal, and are 1.42 percent ahead of contributions received during the same time frame last year, a news release from SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page reported. The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals for distribution, according to the 2014-15 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
As of August 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget represent 101.13 percent of the $172,333,333.33 year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The total is $2,434,843.37 more than the $171,841,891.62 received through the end of August 2014.
The convention-adopted budget is distributed 50.41 percent to international missions through the IMB, 22.79 percent to North American missions through NAMB, 22.16 percent to theological education, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget, and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. If the convention exceeds its annual budget goal of $188 million dollars, IMB’s share will go to 51 percent of any overage in Cooperative Program allocation budget receipts. Other ministry entities of the SBC will receive their adopted percentage amounts and the SBC operating budget’s portion will be reduced to 2.4 percent of any overage.
Designated year-to-date giving of $191,161,942.22 is 0.40 percent, or $752,910.23, above the $190,409,031.99 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the EC through close of business on Aug. 31 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.
August CP allocation receipts for SBC work totaled $15,417,216.61. Designated gifts received during August amounted to $5,551,127.74.
The totals include money received by the EC from 42 cooperating state Baptist conventions as well as contributions from churches and individuals through the last business day of August.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ channel of giving through which a local church is able to contribute to the ministries of its state convention and to the missions and ministries of the SBC with a single contribution to its state convention.
State conventions retain a portion of church contributions to CP to support work in their respective states and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist national and international causes. The percentage of distribution from the states is at the discretion of the messengers of each state convention through the adoption of the state convention’s annual budget.
Month-to-month receipts often reflect significant swings based on a number of factors, including the percentage of CP contributions forwarded to the SBC by the state conventions after shared ministry expenses are deducted, the timing of when cooperating state conventions forward the national portion of CP contributions to the Executive Committee, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions, and the number of Sundays in a given month.
CP allocation budget receipts received by the EC are reported monthly to the executives of the entities of the convention, to the state convention offices, to the state Baptist papers and are posted online at www.cpmissions.net/CPReports.