BGCT budget proposal reflects change in reporting

Posted: 10/12/07

BGCT budget proposal
reflects change in reporting

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

The proposed 2008 Baptist General Convention of Texas operating budget looks different than in past years—and not just because the total is smaller.

The $50,126,400 recommended operating budget includes $43.3 million in anticipated Cooperative Program receipts and $6.8 million from investment earnings—but not any funds made available through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board or fees received to defray the cost of specific events or ministries. Those three categories totaled 896,500 in the 2007 budget.

The $43,326,400 in projected Texas Cooperative Program receipts represents about a 2 percent increase over the $42,441,000 budget for 2007. Chief Financial Officer David Nabors characterized the increase as “somewhat of a challenge but not an unreasonable challenge.”

The proposed 2008 operating budget relies less on investment earnings—$6.8 million in 2008, compared to $7,262,500 in 2007, a drop of $462,500.

“The proposed operating budget comes from the BGCT Executive Board and will be voted on by messengers at the BGCT annual meeting. Other sources of BGCT income are not presented in the operating budget because they are designated to specific ministries as designated by Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, NAMB and others who make designated gifts,” according to a document released by the BGCT Executive Board staff administration.

The new approach “will enhance reporting and accountability regarding the various funding sources,” the document asserts.

Funds from the Texas missions offering, NAMB and fees “will be allocated to the specific ministries for which they have been designated, with none of the funds paying for BGCT staff salaries,” the document says.

Revenue from NAMB in 2008 is estimated at anywhere from $635,000 to nearly $700,000.

Elaborating on the change in reporting, Nabors explained the rationale that Mary Hill Davis Offering funds and NAMB dollars are designated funds, and Texas WMU and NAMB define the designation.

“In addition, these monies are subject to change each year by these entities, so it does not lend itself to a consistent BGCT budget treatment,” he said. “The bulk of fees and revenues have always been reported net in the budget, since these are revenues that offset various events or programs. Bottom line, what results in the approved budget are gifts required from the churches, and gifts—or wills and trusts earnings—from individuals that support BGCT ministries/infrastructure.”

The $50.1 million 2008 proposed budget includes:

• $4,726,062 for congregational strategists and related ministries.

• $1,471,055 for congregational leadership.

• $4,364,045 for missions, evangelism and missions.

• $876,892 for the service center.

• $867,918 for research and development.

• $19,984,879 for institutional ministries.

• $4,165,748 for collegiate ministries.

• $2,627,641 for communications.

• $676,494 for the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.

• $1,071,777 for the Christian Life Commission.

• $552,923 for associational missions.

• $329,661 for the chief operating officer’s office.

• $5,528,560 for financial management.

• $995,284 for the executive director’s office.

• $782,862 for Texas Baptist Men.

The 2007 budget figures provided to the Executive Board differed somewhat from the amounts approved by messengers to the 2006 BGCT annual meeting in Dallas, a matter Nabors attributed in part to organizational changes during the year.

Also, the budget presented to messengers showed merit increases in salary concentrated in a couple of areas within administration, but the operating budget the board used for comparison purposes showed how the raises were disbursed.

Compared to 2007 budget figures given to the board, the missions, evangelism and ministry area appeared to show a $505,813 reduction—the largest cut of any section. Congregational strategists who provide field services to churches appeared to suffer a $109,372 cut, part of a larger apparent reduction of $188,321 in the congregational relations section.

The document released by the BGCT administration explained $248,390 that appeared in the 2007 budget for those areas represented promotion costs such as printing, postage and advertising. Those costs were transferred to the communications budget for centralized management.

Factoring out the transferred promotion money and the removal of NAMB dollars from the operating budget, the actual reduction in missions, evangelism and ministry was $85,183, and congregational relations increased by $266,069, according to the document.

The Christian Life Commission budget shows an apparent $102,610 increase, but it does not reflect the shift from reliance on investment earnings to total dependence on the Cooperative Program budget.

“Actual CLC spending will be down $36,781 because the CLC historically has been the recipient of investment earnings from endowment gifts that did not appear in the budget. That is no longer the case,” the explanatory document says. “All CLC operating funds, including those from investment earnings, are now included in the budget.”

The communications budget, which appears to show a $412,593 increase, actually drops $189,407 when the $602,000 is considered that was moved to communications from the promotional budgets of individual program areas, the document explains.

The apparent $461,171 jump in the financial management budget reflects a new $200,000 internal audit function mandated by the BGCT Executive Board in the wake of the investigation into misused church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.

It also includes $174,000 in property tax increases, $103,000 to print the quarterly report of receipts in the Baptist Standard—an expense previously paid from supplemental income—and required building maintenance and information technology equipment.

The document produced by the BGCT Executive Board administrative staff also highlights several “new expanded initiatives enabled by the 2008 operating budget,” such as six regional evangelism conferences, a website in Spanish and an initiative to educate churches and staff about clergy sexual misconduct.