SBC Annual Meeting News

by   Herb Hollinger                                                                             Vol. X, No. 4, April 1997

            The 1997-98 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget to be voted in June in Dallas is a “transition” budget due to the restructuring of SBC agencies now underway. For its first full year of existence the new North American Mission Board (NAMB) will receive 22.79% of the total budget. Also, the six SBC seminaries and the Christian Life Commission (CLC) will receive substantial increases.

            NAMB is replacing the Home Mission Board, the Brotherhood Commission, and the Radio & Television Commission whose combined budgets equal 24.15 during the current budget year. The seminaries will receive a one percent increase over their 20.4% of the past two years, and the CLC will move up from 0.99% to 1.49%.

            The proposed 1997-98 budget is 3% larger, so agencies such as the Foreign Mission Board which receive no percentage increase will still be allocated more dollars. The FMB will continue to be given 50% of the total budget but with a larger base figure will actually get some $1.5 million more.

            Another annual SBC meeting matter of interest is that SBC President Tom Elliff has announced his selection of Barry McCarty, SBC chief parliamentarian from 1986 to 1994 as chief parliamentarian for this June’s meeting.

            Among other SBC Executive Committee actions, a request from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to produce a new quarterly publication, The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, was approved. Also, the Christian Life Commission presented a progress report on a study referred from the 1996 SBC proposing CLC-coordinated proxy voting of SBC agencies’ investments “so that Southern Baptists’ moral views can positively impact corporate America.” CLC President Richard Land reported that it is “feasible and doable,” and the Executive Committee voted to ask the CLC to complete the study and present a report at the 16 June Executive Committee meeting just before the annual meeting in Dallas.