Fellowship reports record donations, led by large gifts to missions

by Greg Warner                                                                                                                                      Vol. XVII, No. 9, Nov/Dec 2004

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship finished its 2003-04 fiscal year June 30 with revenues of $24.26 million, the highest-ever annual total. The record total included undesignated contributions of $8,869,883, designated gifts of $8,709,160, and a global missions offering of $5,738,222 -- each one an all-time high.

The Fellowship spent $19.6 million of that revenue during the fiscal year and was left with a revenue overage of $4.7 million, most of which is designated for global missions.

However, the undesignated contributions -- which fund partner organizations like seminaries and CBF's own non-missions programs -- were $136,876 below budget expectations. Cost-cutting allowed the Fellowship to end the year with revenues $5,845 above expenses, however -- finishing in the black for the first time in three years, the council was told.

Rusty Brock, a pastor from Ardmore, OK, and chair of the council's global missions team, said the Fellowship spent $12,255,636 on global missions in 2003-04, including designated and undesignated funds. The Fellowship benefitted from several large donations designated for missions -- including anonymous gifts of $5 million and $1.8 million -- but those funds will be depleted in 2006 and must be replaced in order to maintain the same level of missions activity, Brock said.

Fellowship CEO Daniel Vestal told the council that CBF's recent acceptance into membership of the Baptist World Alliance, an international fellowship of Baptist bodies, "is a very important moment for us."

The Southern Baptist Convention, historically BWA's largest member, pulled out the group in June largely because it granted membership to the Fellowship, which is composed mostly of moderate former Southern Baptists.

Vestal pointed out there are 16 million Southern Baptists but 17 million other Baptists in North America. He called for a revitalization of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of the BWA's regional organizations, which he said could be the focal point for "a new day for Baptists in North America." [BP]