DALLAS (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board has granted the state convention’s treasurer permission to tap up to $2.5 million in emergency-reserve funds this year.
Chief Financial Officer Jill Larsen reported Texas Cooperative Program receipts in January totaled only $4.3 million — 78.9 percent of budget requirements and 88.2 percent of the same month’s receipts last year.
According to board policies, Larsen said, the emergency funds are set aside from previous years’ receipts for use in times of severe economic disruption or depression.
“While February receipts appear to be stronger, we are very concerned about the effect of the recession on our churches and their giving,” Larsen wrote in a memo send to the board prior to their Feb. 24 meeting.
The balance in the reserve fund — invested with the Baptist Foundation of Texas — at the end of December was $7.895 million.
If the reserves are tapped, those funds will need to be repaid, Larsen noted.
“I don’t really think the sky is falling,” she told the board, adding she believes the convention is “well-positioned for the economic downturn.”
BGCT investments dropped $40.9 million in 2008, with $34.2 million of the decrease due to market decline, Larsen reported.
Larsen commended BGCT Executive Board staff for their efforts in controlling expenses and living within resources, noting actual budget expenditures for 2008 totaled $44.7 million — well below both the originally approved $49.8 million budget and the $45.6 million adjusted budget.
However, she also reported a customer-relations management system approved for purchase last year at about $1.49 million significantly exceeded budget. At the end of December, total costs were $2.14 million.
The system enables the BGCT to track church information such as giving records, contact information for staff members and statistics reported annually by churches to the convention. When fully implemented, it also will provide workflow management for church-starting projects, allow online registration for events and track product sales and inventories for resources.
Nestor Menjivar, pastor of Iglesia Principe de Paz in Austin, asked how the system could have gone more than 50 percent over budget, adding, “It doesn’t sound like we did a very good job of controlling costs on this project.”
Larsen noted several cost overruns — $100,000 in licensing fees, $42,000 in imaging software and, primarily, $484,000 in consulting fees. Both Executive Board staff and consultants “underestimated the complexity” of the task, and it consequently “took a great deal more time” than originally projected, she said.
Fred Roach of Richardson, chairman of the board’s finance subcommittee, noted the original projection included only basic equipment costs, and the board was told to anticipate some additional costs. The project actually exceeded anticipated expenses by about 20 percent, rather than 50 percent, he said.
Twin themes — concern about the current economic situation and an urgent desire to share a message of hope — continued to emerge throughout the board’s meeting in Dallas.
“The economy is bad and could get worse,” BGCT president David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon, acknowledged.
“We know our convention, our state and our nation are facing significant challenges. But if we are not a people of hope, how can we share hope?” he asked.
God may use times of economic instability to remind people of their need to trust in him rather than in material resources, he suggested.
“Bad times may be the best of times for the kingdom of God,” he said.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.