Virginia Budget Giving Plans,

Do You Know How YOUR Church Gives?

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                               Vol. VII, No. 5, June 1994

Virginia's conservatives and moderates/liberals may not agree on much, but on at least one point they can: The Virginia state budget is complex, so complex that if a pastor or church treasurer or finance committee member or person in the pew has not given it a great deal of study, it is highly unlikely that he will know where his church's dollars go or should go. In short, the state budget is a mess!

Let me try to simplify it as much as possible. Before 1990 there was only one Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) budget track, and that budget only had two sections: (1) the State Missions Budget and (2) the SBC Missions Budget. 62% of all the money your church sent in was kept by the BGAV; 38% was sent to Nashville for the SBC budget. Simple.

We will skip the various steps by which the BGAV budget was moved over the last five annual budgets from pre-1990 simplicity to current complexity, and just describe the present situation.

Description

In the 1994 BGAV budget there are four sections: (1) The Annuity/Protection Plan (A/P Plan) for church staff and other denominational employees. This is a "priority" item, which means it is fully funded no matter how far below budget receipts may fall. Thus, if receipts are below the budget goal (as they have been for several years) other budget sections will be cut, but not the A/P Plan. (2) "Cooperative Missions in Virginia" which is pretty self-explanatory. This section gets 62% of the money your church donates after A/P Plan portion is deducted. (3) "Partnership Missions" gets 2% of what's left after the A/P Plan. Before the 1993 budget this program was included in the state section. And (4) "World Missions Causes" (WM) which receives 36% after the A/P Plan is paid.

It is within the WM section that most of the confusion centers. First, notice that always in the past up to and including the 1990 budget this section was titled the "SBC Missions Budget." In 1991 it was changed to "World Missions Budget." In the 1994 BGAV budget there are three different tracks within World Missions: WM1, WM2, and WM3.

WM1 is the closest to the pre-1990 budget. Under WMI the slightly-less-than 35% of your church's gifts that go to this section are sent to Nashville and distributed according to the Southern Baptist Convention budget. The advantage of this track is that it is the most familiar to Virginia Southern Baptists. The disadvantage of this track is that it does nothing to balance off what liberal/moderate churches do under WM2 and WM3, described below.

WM2 sends half the WM money (approximately 17.5% of the total a church donates) to the SBC budget and divides the other half among 17 causes. Eight of these are SBC agencies: the Foreign Mission Board, Home Mission Board, Annuity Board, Southwestern Seminary, Southern Seminary, New Orleans Seminary, Golden Gate Seminary, and Midwestern Seminary. The other nine organizations are non-SBC and are all affiliated with and/or attractive to those of liberal persuasion. They are: three BGAV "World Missions Initiatives," the very liberal Richmond seminary, the Baptist Center for Ethics, the Baptist World Alliance, The Baptist Joint Committee for Public Affairs, Associated Baptist Press, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. From the conservative perspective there are no advantages to WM2. There are three important disadvantages: First, WM2 sends to the SBC Cooperative Program less than half the money that historically went to the SBC budget (17.5% vs. 38%). Second, WM2 funds the liberal causes listed above. Third, when WM2 was initiated, every church was automatically placed in it. Unless your church has specifically instructed the state treasurer to use your gifts differently, your money is still going to WM2, even though your church did not choose to change.

WM3 directs the entire 35% to the socalled "Cooperative Baptist Fellowship" (CBF), the new – though undeclared – denomination set up by those folks unhappy about the return of the Southern Baptist Convention to the full authority of God's Word. Another complication is that the CBF also has three budget tracks; the most extreme is their "Vision 2000 Plan." If a church contributes under Vision 2000, not a penny goes on to the SBC. All contributions under the BGAV WM3 track go to the CBF Vision 2000 Plan; those churches contribute nothing to the SBC.

Dealing with the Problem

Every church has the right to select any one of the three "WM" tracks or to decide on its own division of its Cooperative Program gifts. Each church receives every month from Richmond a form on which to report its CP gifts. At the bottom of that form are four blocks labelled "WM1 „ "WM2," "WM3," and "Other." If your church decides that sending about 35% of its gifts to the SBC is enough, your treasurer can just check the WM 1 block. If your church decides that sending some 17% to the SBC budget is what it wants to do, check WM2. If you do not want to send anything to the SBC, check WM3. As of April 1994 247 churches were contributing under WM1, 950 under WM2, and 121 under WM3.

But don't forget about "Other." As of April, 233 churches were giving according to "other" plans: 31 strongly moderate or liberal churches were giving less than 35% to the SBC; 202 conservative churches were giving more than 35% to the SBC. Of the latter group 70% (141 churches) were designating 20% or less to the BGAV and sending the rest to the SBC. The reason for giving more to the SBC, less to the BGAV is to protect the SBC and its vital worldwide mission activity from the financial pressure being applied by liberal churches which send little or nothing to the SBC.

The general recommendation among conservative Southern Baptists in Virginia is that like-minded churches should take a church vote, check "Other" on the treasurer's form, and instruct the state treasurer to keep 15 % for the BGAV and send 85 % to the SBC.

Once you understand the procedure, it is not too complicated. Just a one or two sentence letter of instruction to the state treasurer, sent along with the form, is all that is needed. Remember, if your church has not yet made a specific decision as to how your dollars will be spent, they are being divided according to WM2. Your church was put in WM2 without being asked, but you have the right to make a church decision regarding the use of your money.

I believe that once the great majority of Virginia Southern Baptists understand the system and how simple it is to place your church where your congregation wants it, they will rally in support of our beloved Southern Baptist Convention, our 4000 foreign missionaries, the more than 37,000 Baptist churches overseas that the SBC cooperates with, our thousands of home missionaries, our six seminaries, and all the other SBC activities which witness so effectively to the glory of God in the United States and around the world.

Your church can send its decision Richmond at any time. You do NOT have to wait until the beginning of the next state fiscal year. Won't you help inform your church to members and seek to move your church to the 15/85 plan, or whatever conservative division your church decides is best for you?