Registered participants in the virtual Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly approved a 2022 budget based on $14,575,891 in projected expenditures.
The approved budget is about $123,000 less than the total originally anticipated for 2021 but in line with spending and actual receipts for the year.
It is based on a conservative $14,595,606 in projected revenue, compared to $14,723,483 for the 2021 budget.
Global missions makes up the largest single area of expected expenditures at $6,226,453, based in part on a $3 million goal for the CBF Offering for Global Missions, and $421,804 for the expansion of Together for Hope initiatives in some of the nation’s poorest counties.
Ministries personnel and support—including state and regional fellowships, outreach and growth, racial justice and leadership, advocacy, church renewal, partnerships and chaplaincy—accounts for $3,958,218.
The 2022 budget includes $1,639,314 for advancement and communications, and $2,330,102 for administration.
Budgeted travel and in-person expenses—curtailed for most of the current fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic—are restored in the 2022 budget. The budget includes a 1 percent across-the-board pay increase for staff and field personnel, and it includes funding for an anticipated increase in the cost of their health insurance.
Pastors recognized and affirmed
Rosalio Sosa, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso and founder of a migrant shelter network, was one of three pastors who received the Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award from CBF.
Others honored with the award this year are Preston Clegg of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., and Cheryl Adamson of Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church in Conway, S.C.
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Carol McEntyre, pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbia, Mo., told the general assembly she never anticipated her entire term as CBF moderator would be carried out within the context of a global pandemic.
At the same time, she affirmed ministers serving CBF churches around the country for the creativity and flexibility they exhibited throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and for the courage many demonstrated in a time of racial reckoning and a toxic political environment.
“You have done good work,” said McEntyre, a graduate of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.
She encouraged ministers to practice self-care while bearing “a heavy pastoral load.”
“Please, take care of yourself,” she urged. “Be a good pastor to yourself.”
Patricia Wilson, a professor at Baylor Law School, assumed the moderator’s role at the end of the 2021 general assembly, having served a year as moderator-elect.
Board and council members elected
General assembly participants affirmed Debbie McDaniel, a lay leader from First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., as moderator-elect. McDaniel, a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, has served on the CBF Ministries Council for five years and is a past chair of the council.
As recommended by the Fellowship’s nominating committee, general assembly participants approved two Texans for the CBF Missions Council—Anyra Cano, youth minister at Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth and coordinator of Texas Baptist Women in Ministry; and Hannah Coe, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco.
Two Texans were elected to the nominating committee at the recommendation of the CBF Governing Board—Isa Torres, pastor of Cliff Temple en Español and pastor resident at Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas; and Patty Villarreal, co-founder of the Christian Latina Leadership Institute and member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio.
Chris Adcox, a certified public accountant and member of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, was named to the CBF Church Benefits board.
In his report to the general assembly, CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley asked if—in the midst of a global pandemic, a divisive political environment and racial injustice—the Holy Spirit might bring about renewal among God’s people.
“We do not lose heart,” Baxley said, pointing to the “risk-taking sacrificial service” of CBF chaplains and pastoral counselors during a pandemic, field personnel offering hope and help in difficult places, and congregations responding with creativity and agility in changing times.
CBF Texas conducts business
During a virtual meeting of CBF Texas, participants elected Matt Walton from South Main Baptist Church as moderator-elect for the state organization and Amy Wilkins from Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell as recorder.
Participants elected Israel Loachamin from First Baptist Church in Waco to a two-year term on the governing board and five individuals to three-year terms on the board—Carlos Valencia from Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, Kan’Dace Brock from The Message Church in San Antonio, Christopher Mack from Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Jake Maxwell from Second Baptist Church in Lubbock and Kevin Pranoto from Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas.
CBF Texas participants approved a $251,760 budget for 2022 and also voted in favor of a bylaw change that shuts down CBF Texas regional teams and replaces them with ministry/mission affinity teams working through Fellowship Southwest.
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