The executive committee of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention board of directors narrowly approved a budget proposal Aug. 16 that retains direct funding for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, but could also limit representation from churches that choose to give all or the majority of their national missions offering through the moderate group.
The two-year budget proposal for 2006-07 calls for an additional 1 percent of budget receipts to be forwarded to national bodies supported by the convention's four giving plans. Both the Southern Baptist Convention-funded by Plans A, B and D-and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-funded by Plan C-would receive one-half of 1 percent more in 2006, and an additional half-percent increase in 2007.
For Plan C participants and churches in other plans that designate funds away from the SBC and substitute the CBF, however, the portion forwarded to the CBF would no longer count as “Cooperative Program” receipts for the purpose of determining the number of eligible messengers to the convention.
The issue of whether CBF contributions should count as Cooperative Program giving has been a major sticking point for those who oppose Plan C.
Greg Mathis, pastor of Mud Creek Baptist Church near Hendersonville and a member of the budget committee, said he suggested the proposal after talking with many conservatives across the state who are bothered that money going to the CBF is counted as Cooperative Program gifts-a term that historically applied only to money shared between the state conventions and the SBC.
The budget will now be forwarded to the full board of directors for consideration at its Sept. 27-28 meeting. If approved by the board, the budget will come before messengers to the convention's annual meeting on Nov. 16. Messengers can then vote to approve or amend the budget.
Associated Baptist Press