BGAV & SBCV giving to SBC

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                          Vol. XVI, No. 7, August 2003

Readers may recall two fairly recent articles in which I compared giving to the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program by the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia state conventions. I have just received from the SBC Executive Committee the official report of giving by all state conventions for the first eight months (1 October 2002 to 30 June 2003) of the SBC fiscal year. Here are the figures for the BGAV and SBCV.

Cooperative Program giving:

BGAV:   $1,818,664.05, a decrease of 6.78% from same period last year.

SBCV:   $2,263,569.88, an increase of 21.10% above the same period last year.

          – This is the more remarkable because the BGAV has approximately 1450 churches aligned with it, while the SBCV has 396.

Designated giving:

BGAV: $4,610,354.53, a decrease of 9.18% from the same period last year.

SBCV: $2,377,594.01, an increase of 10.03% above the same period last year.

There are the current fiscal facts, folks. Draw your own conclusions about the direction of the two state conventions.