Posted: 1/20/06
Texas Baptist giving a mixed bag in 2005
By Ken Camp
Texas Baptist Communications
Texas Baptists gave in an unprecedented way to help victims of natural disaster in 2005, but state missions and ongoing world hunger ministries paid the price.
Even so, while Texas Baptists seemingly reallocated their designated offerings last year, they apparently continued to tithe to their churches, since the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program totaled $40,069,624, an increase over $39.86 million given the previous year.
Churches generally contribute a percentage of their undesignated receipts to the convention unified budget through the Cooperative Program.
Total Cooperative Program gifts were $55,702,823, a decline of less than 1 percent from 2004. The total includes the portion of Cooperative Program gifts directed by churches to worldwide causes beyond the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
David Nabors, BGCT treasurer and chief financial officer, reported more than $5.8 million in disaster relief gifts in 2005.
Texas Baptists gave $1,486,328 to aid victims of the tsunami that hit South Asia and $4,373,921 to support relief and recovery following Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina.
The designated gifts to disaster relief were in addition to $1 million the BGCT Administrative Committee appropriated from other sources to help Baptists in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions suffered. Receipts totaled $4,374,921, down close to 9 percent from 2004 gifts and far short of the $5 million goal.
“I believe that's nearly all attributable to Katrina and Rita, since they hit right about the time churches emphasize the Mary Hill Davis Offering,” Nabors said.
The Texas Baptist Offering for World Hun-ger–which also is emphasized particularly in the last quarter of the year, usually around Thanksgiving–posted a decline. Gifts totaled $681,887, compared to $746,714 given in 2004.
Texas Baptist gifts to the two Southern Baptist missions offerings each showed about a 6 percent drop–$10,892,897 to the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions and $4,456,694 to the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions.
Gifts to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions remained flat at $1,004,188, about $1,000 less than in 2004.
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