Half of the educational costs for the effort come from the Cooperative Program, the historic vehicle for funding missions in the KBC and Southern Baptist Convention.
“The Cooperative Program means the institute is a reality, not just a dream,” said Director Twyla Hernandez. “It means our Hispanic ministers will have a deeper theological basis and we’ll help train leaders for our churches.”
Despite CP’s importance in ministries such as the Hispanic Baptist Bible Institute, giving has remained slightly behind budget through the first half of the 2007-2008 fiscal year. Record January and solid February receipts helped recover much of that deficit, but the remaining months will also need to be strong in order to meet budget, noted Steve Thompson, KBC’s assistant executive director.
Prior to January, CP had slipped to its lowest percentage of budget in six years. As of Dec. 31, gifts for the first four months of the fiscal year were 11.3 percent behind budget, a deficit of nearly $904,000. That is the lowest level since 2001-02, when gifts ran 12.6 percent behind for the same period, though that year ended only 1.4 percent in the red, Thompson recalled.
According to KBC Business Manager Lowell Ashby, churches gave $2,794,763 in January and $1,950,880 in February, to bring giving totals for the fiscal year to $11,842,040, narrowing the deficit to 1.3 percent.
History-making totals
The January contributions were the most ever given in any month throughout the history of the Cooperative Program, Ashby added.
The annual budget for CP during the 2007-2008 fiscal year is $24 million. Ashby said $12,157,960 would be needed for the remainder of the fiscal year to meet budgeted projections. For that to be achieved, slightly more than $2 million would need to be received in each of the remaining six months.
“Even though we are working on what we call a ‘spendable budget’ because of a shortfall in CP gifts earlier in the year, we’re hoping for a full funding of the CP budget by year’s end,” Thompson said. “We are extremely grateful for a record January, which went a long way toward making that possible.”
CP funds come from the percentage of undesignated offerings forwarded to the state convention by more than 2,400 Southern Baptist churches in Kentucky. The KBC invests 63.3 percent in missions and ministry efforts in the state, and forwards the rest to the SBC’s Executive Committee to help fund missions agencies and seminaries.
The Cooperative Program percentage of the KBC churches’ undesignated gifts has declined steadily, from just more than 10 percent in 1996 to 7.2 percent in 2006.
“Most notably, more of our churches are doing hands-on mission programs on their own,” Thompson explained. “So they’re keeping some of the missions money they have been giving through the Cooperative Program.”
Another trend that Thompson said he cannot document, but knows is occurring, is an increasing number of churches are giving a set dollar figure through CP instead of a percentage of total undesignated receipts from the congregation.
“That is of particular concern because it doesn’t let CP rise and fall with donations,” Thompson pointed out. “If a church uses a set figure to control costs, CP can’t rise when giving goes up.”
One way the KBC is addressing the decline is by adding Billy Compton to the staff as executive associate for Cooperative Program and resources.
On the job since early January, Compton has already spoken in numerous venues about the Cooperative Program’s value in fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.
“One of the foundational pieces is to remind our churches and leaders to make sure they get information and understand what CP is and does,” Compton said. “Not only what it does now, but what it has done in the past and will continue to do in the future.”
He encourages pastors across the commonwealth to use bulletin inserts and other informational pieces available through the KBC to inform Kentucky Baptists about where such donations go. Those resources include DVDs with short testimonies that can be shown prior to taking offerings or during special giving campaigns.
“Not only can pastors do this, but directors of missions are on the front lines too,” Compton acknowledged. “We need to encourage what they’re doing while they use tools to inform the churches they minister with in the local area.”
Raising awareness of CP
At the national level, CP gifts rose 1.25 percent for the first six months of 2007-2008. Bob Rodgers, vice president for the Cooperative Program with the SBC Executive Committee, attributes that to increased promotional efforts by state conventions.
In order to promote awareness of CP’s role in Kentucky Baptist life, the KBC has designated April as Cooperative Program Month. In addition, April 13 has been declared Cooperative Program Sunday.
Rodgers noted that one CP effort in Oklahoma has been so successful, he said he is considering adapting it to the national level. Promotion is one key to reversing the decline in giving because, according to Rodgers, awareness of the program had faded in recent years.
“We have tried to change our promotion to better articulate CP and what we provide,” he explained. “Every number has a story. The story is very important. At the end of that story is the value of the Cooperative Program.”
In Kentucky, that story includes 66 Hispanic churches and missions welcoming an average of 1,500 worshippers each week, many of them recent converts.
“We are growing and growing because we are part of this Baptist family,” said Carlos de la Barra, KBC’s ethnic associate for the new work and associational missions department. “Without cooperation, Baptists are not Baptists,”
“If we believe we’re supposed to reach the world with the Good News of Christ, there’s no way we can ignore the Hispanics who have come to Kentucky,” Hernandez added. “Planting churches is important to seeing people come to Christ.”
And those congregations are being planted and nurtured in Cooperative Program soil.
Western Recorder issue date: April 8, 2008
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