ASHEBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Leaders of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention have approved a budget that no longer counts gifts to a moderate group as “Cooperative Program” funds.
The convention's board of directors voted Sept. 28 to approve a budget that changes the definition of gifts through the convention's “Plan C,” through which churches can choose to fund both the state convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship instead of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The convention currently refers to such gifts as “Cooperative Program” gifts, using the term employed to describe the program by which Southern Baptist Convention-related state conventions fund their own ministries and those of the national denomination.
However, many pro-SBC conservatives in North Carolina have been rankled by that designation, contending that the moderate CBF is a breakaway group from the SBC and the state convention has no right to define the meaning of “Cooperative Program” for itself.
Plans A and D send 32 percent of a church's state convention contributions to the SBC, and Plan B sends 10 percent to the denomination. Plan C sends 10 percent to the CBF. In both 2006 and 2007, the amount forwarded to both national bodies is slated to increase by a half of a percent.
An amendment that would have retained the Cooperative Program designation for CBF gifts failed on a 40-35 vote. Then the board approved the budget proposal on a non-recorded vote.
The proposal was recommended by the board's executive committee, which approved it Aug. 16 by a 9-8 margin.