Your Church & The Budget

by   T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                   Vol. III, No. 8, December 1990

Every church of whatever persuasion should recognize that the 1991 BGAV budget decisions voted Tuesday, 13 November, change some very basic rules. It is a new ball game. If you are going to play the game (and every Southern Baptist church in Virginia must play), you had better understand the rules, or you will get whopped. Specifically, in this case your donations will go to causes your church may not support.

There are two basic changes in the 1991 BGAV budget. First, instead of one giving plan plus the right to specifically designate as we have always had previously, there are now TWO giving plans plus the right to specifically designate. One plan is called the 62/38 plan because after a deduction for the staff annuity/protection plan 62% of the remainder stays in Virginia and 38% is sent on to the SBC Cooperative Program undesignated. This is the plan Virginia has used with minor variations for some years. The other plan, known as the Virginia Plan, contributes only 17.03% of the total donation to the SBC Cooperative Program, and the state controls the rest either for use here in state or for designated causes out of state.

The second basic change is that IF A CHURCH DOES NOT SPECIFY OTHERWISE, all its contributions will go into the Virginia Plan. So there is no way your church can avoid a decision: not to make a conscious decision between the Virginia Plan, the 62/38 plan, and specific designation is in itself a decision to support the most liberal of the three, the Virginia Plan.

So what can a conservative church do?

Keep in mind that BGAV fiscal 1991 begins 1 December 1990. If your church cannot reach an orderly decision before that date, I suggest that your church simply not send in any checks to the BGAV until after your church meets and votes. Obviously that decision should not be unnecessarily delayed. Both the state and the SBC have ongoing expenses, and it would not be right to wait until May or June to send in your funds. However, under the circumstances it would be understandable if a church did not reach a decision until sometime in December or January and held its funds until then.

Also, be aware that a church may change its decision at any time. All it takes is a vote of the church followed by a letter of instruction to the state treasurer. The only limitation is that such changes may not be retroactive. For example, you could not send in a letter in April saying to divide all your gifts a certain way beginning the previous December. That is a perfectly reasonable limitation. After all, the money contributed in December has already been spent by April.

What can we say about the choices facing conservatives now in Virginia? It seems clear that there will be a number of moderate and liberal Virginia churches which intentionally select the Virginia Plan. Considering human nature, it is also likely that there will be some sound churches which through lack of information or inertia neglect to make a specific decision and so allow their donations to flow into the Virginia Plan. We do not know how much money will be lost to the Cooperative Program as a result, but for every $100,000 in the Virginia Plan (after the annuity/protection amount) the SBC Cooperative Program loses $21,000. Clearly loyal Southern Baptists will want to balance off those losses to the extent we can.

The only apparent way conservatives can protect the Cooperative Program is through designated giving. A church has the right under the BGAV constitution and bylaws to designate its giving in any way it decides by vote at a church business meeting.

To balance losses to the Cooperative Program caused by the Virginia Plan, a simple and straightforward solution would be to simply reverse the percentages. Thus a church could decide to allow the state to keep 17.03% and instruct the treasurer to send 82.97% to the SBC Cooperative Program undesignated. Following this approach, every $100 sent in by a conservative church would balance $100 sent in under the Virginia Plan by a liberal or "don't care" church.

All money sent this way through Richmond qualifies messengers from your church to the state convention.

Remember that should your church choose to bypass Richmond entirely and send money directly to Nashville, (1) none of that money helps qualify your state convention messengers, and (2) with any money sent direct to Nashville you must send a letter saying not to return any to Richmond or 62% will automatically be returned.

Theoretically a church need only send one letter of instruction a year to either the SBC or the BGAV. Practically, however, it is very easy to type the initial letter, make 12 copies, and send one each month with your check as a reminder to make it easy for the person receiving your checks to distribute them as you wish.

There is a separate issue to be considered by each church: whether the congregation is willing to support all the state budget causes. Many conservative churches choose not to support The Religious Herald, the University of Richmond, the School of Pastoral Care at so-called Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg, Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Virginia Intermont College. Other churches include additional line items to which they take exception.

The letter of instruction to the state treasurer does not have to be long or elaborate. All that is necessary to the BGAV is: "......... Baptist Church has voted that its donations be distributed 17.03% to state missions causes and 82.97% to the SBC Cooperative Program undesignated. Our state funds are to support all line items except:" (then list those items which you do not wish to support).