CBF $ Shortfall

                                                                                                                                                                          Vol. X, No. 3, March 1997

            Receipts of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are falling short of the group’s 96-97 budget by some 10%. Ed Vick, CBF finance committee chairman, said, “Where we expected some $14 million in revenue, we are probably going to get some $12.5 million.” Surprised Fellowship officials have had to dip into reserves and cut expenses to deal with the problem. While CBF financial support in dollars and in the number of churches sending checks has continued to increase, the rate of grow has been slowing as shown in the following table:

  CY            #                    #            %                $ to CBF            $                                %

            Churches Increase Increase        & Affiliated          Increase            Increase

                                                                       Organizations

1992         841                                                $ 3,109,974

1993       1225              348        28.4%           7,243,791        $4,133,817           132.9%

1994       1377              152        12.4%           9,113,861          1,870,070              25.8%

1995       1450                73          5.3%         10,918,888          1,805,027              19.8%

1996       1592              142          9.8%         12,231,154          1,312,266              12.0%

              It is difficult to track exactly how CBF is doing financially because the figures can legitimately be broken down in various ways. CBF accepts and forwards donations to a number of liberal “affiliated organizations” such as the seminary in rebellion at Richmond, Associated Baptist Press, and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Further, CBF forwards designations to state conventions, and before the SBC voted to cease receiving money flowing through CBF, the Fellowship sent checks to various Southern Baptist organizations. The dollar amounts in the above table represent funds contributed to CBF for its own ministries and for affiliated organizations.

           One further explanatory note: The number of churches shown above includes every church which sent in a check, no matter how small. Thus, if one member of a congregation designated, say, $25 of his gifts to be sent to CBF, the church is counted by CBF. This is not to imply skullduggery by CBF; after all, how are they to know whether the church has them in its budget unless the church so informs them? It is to point out the softness of the numbers of churches cited above. In the March 1996 Fellowship News, the then national Coordinator, Cecil Sherman, “noted that 202 churches gave about 70% of the Fellowship’s [1995] income.”

           Faced with a projected shortfall of 10.8% CBF’s Coordinating Council, meeting in Atlanta 29 January- 1 February, revise this year’s budget downward 1.69% to $13,982,244, anticipating drawing down reserves to meet that figure. The Council’s decision means CBF will spend $1.4 million more than expected revenue. According to a CBF finance officer, the CBF’s Global Missions Fund has reserves of about $9 million with other reserves of slightly less than $1 million.

           Among the impacts, CBF-supported theological institutions such as the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond will receive $132,500 less than the budgetted $1.3-plus million. CBF “friends,” such as Associated Baptist Press and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs will receive $57,300 less than the $527,000 budget.