RICHMOND — Churches affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia funded 98 percent of the BGAV’s 2012 budget, the group’s chief finance officer announced Jan. 8.
Contributions to the BGAV’s Cooperative Missions budget totalled $12,163,511 last year, just shy of the $12.4 million goal, treasurer Eddie Stratton said at the first meeting in 2013 of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee
In another bright spot, Stratton also said that Cooperative Missions contributions in 2012 were more than $22,000 higher than the $12,141,422 received in 2011.
In addition, total receipts for the year — a combination of CM budget, annual mission offering contributions and designated gifts — were $18,494,214, an increase of almost $241,000 over 2011’s $18,253,400.
Those figures bode well for 2013, when the BGAV’s Cooperative Missions budget is $12.1 million.
Stratton said the financial statistics are in marked contrast to the past decade, when contributions from the BGAV’s 1,410 churches have generally declined.
“We have turned the corner,” he said. “Virginia Baptists are connecting to these ministires in a way that is very positive.”
Earlier, BGAV president Carl Johnson announced he has reappointed David Washburn to serve as chair of the BGAV budget committee this year. Washburn is pastor of First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Va.
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.