BGCT budget proposal reflects reorganization, other changes

Posted: 9/15/06

BGCT budget proposal reflects
reorganization, other changes

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

The 2007 Baptist General Convention of Texas budget proposal the Executive Board will consider Sept. 25-26 not only reflects a comprehensive staff reorganization that occurred this year, but also includes incremental steps toward bringing into the budget items previously covered by discretionary funds and designated gifts.

The $50.6 million recommended budget represents about a 2 percent increase over the $49,437,000 budget for 2006. Of the total proposed budget, $42,441,000 would come from Texas Cooperative Program receipts.

But on top of the $50.6 million budget proposal, BGCT Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer David Nabors also will show the finance committee and then the full Executive Board how an additional $1.1 million from wills, trusts, interest income and some designated gifts will be used to fund operations in the coming year.

“We are trying to move as much into the budget as possible in the interests of transparency and accountability,” said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.

But the 2007 budget could not absorb the full amount needed to fund ministries, and it will take at least one more year to complete that process, he added.

Since the new organizational structure did not exist when messengers to last year’s BGCT annual meeting approved the 2006 budget, it makes simple side-by-side comparisons of the two budgets difficult.

Further complicating the picture, this year’s budget incorporates more—but still not all—of the programs funded by wills, trusts, interest income and some designated gifts that had, in the past, been allocated at the discretion of the treasurer’s office.

For instance, based on the budget proposal mailed to Executive Board directors, the recommended operations budget—excluding the executive director’s office, financial management and Texas Baptist Men—totals $42,218,838, a $1,122,393 increase over 2006.

It shows decreases for three areas in the operations segment of the proposed budget: missions, evangelism and ministry, down $700,667; institutional ministries, down $205,138; and the chief operating officer’s office, down $205,352.

But in terms of actual dollars available from other sources—and considering the shifting of staff and program assignments within the staff structure—missions, evangelism and ministry’s net loss actually is closer to $130,000 than $700,000, and institutional ministries will receive an amount roughly equal to the 2006 budget, Wade explained.

About $200,000 previously earmarked for church starters moved from the missions, evangelism and ministry area into the category with congregational strategists, he said.

An additional $370,000 in anticipated funding will come from discretionary and designated funds.

Within the recommended operations budget, the communications office shows the largest single increase in the comparative budget summary mailed to the Executive Board—up $437,389.

That apparent increase reflects the movement of most budgeted funds for publicity and promotion from individual program areas into the communications office, Wade explained. It also brings into the budget many expenses for the BGCT annual meeting previously funded through other sources. But the second-largest single increase shown in the proposal—$407,591 for theological education—represents a real funding increase, he added.

Based on the information mailed to the Executive Board and not considering additional funding from non-budget sources, other areas showing significant increases with the operations category include Christian ethics and public policy, up $282,217; the leadership team, up $245,124; research and development, up $242,153; congregational strategists, up $208,255; collegiate ministries, up $199,109; and the service center, up $115,053.

In other areas of the proposed budget, the executive director’s office shows a $216,673 decrease, most of it attributable to the elimination of a $199,644 line item for the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention.

“Minnesota/Wisconsin is being moved out of the budget and will be funded in a decreasing manner over the next few years of our partnership agreement,” Wade said.

The formal partnership ends in 2010, but Texas Baptist Men and Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas will continue to relate to the Minnesota/Wisconsin convention, he added. Financial support for the convention for the remaining years of the partnership will be allocated from designated missions offerings.

The executive director’s office also shows a $69,988 reduction in recommended budget allocation for WorldconneX.

Financial management receives a $202,314 increase over 2006, according to the recommended budget, and Texas Baptist Men’s proposed budget increases by $54,966.