LYNCHBURG, Va. — The Baptist General Association of Virginia will consider in November a slightly reduced overall budget for 2013 which significantly decreases allocations for most of its partner agencies while increasing by about 6.5 percent funding for ministries of its Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
The $12.1 million proposal — a decrease of $300,000 or 2.4 percent from 2012 — was presented Oct. 9 during the fall meeting of the Mission Board at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center near Lynchburg, Va.
If adopted during the BGAV’s annual meeting Nov. 13-14 in Roanoke, it would be the third consecutive reduction in the state association’s annual budget goal. Receipts from its 1,410 congregations have been declining since 2008 and BGAV budget committee chair David Washburn said 2012 receipts are expected to be about $12 million — $400,000 less than the goal.
“When we began this process we had to find a realistic goal for 2013 but also one that showed our faith,” Washburn told the Mission Board. “We could have said receipts are declining and gone with $11.7 or $11.8 million, but we decided to hold the line and have an element of faith.”
Washburn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Va., said evangelism, discipleship and starting new churches “are at the forefront of what we are trying to accomplish.”
“You will see an infusion of funds in those areas,” he said. “The difficulty is trying to give life to something new and exciting in the midst of declining revenues. … That means we face tough decisions.”
Those hard choices are “not fun,” said BGAV treasurer Eddie Stratton. “If you can tell me and give me instructions on how to do it better, I’ll listen. But we’ve got to do something if we want to grow the Kingdom. We cannot fund more ministries with fewer receipts.”
Stratton displayed graphs indicating a $2,301,131 drop in BGAV receipts between 2007 and 2011 — a nearly 16 percent decline.
In the proposed 2013 budget, allocations for Mission Board ministries total $6,467,134, about $391,000 more than current funding. In the 2012 budget, the Mission Board was reduced by more than $460,000 from 2011 in conjunction with cuts made to all items in the budget.
Allocations for all other partner agencies but one are reduced in the proposed budget, with decreases ranging from nearly 3 percent to more than 77 percent.
Left unchanged was a $2,000 allocation to Averett University, added last year when the BGAV renewed ties to the school. The Baptist Extension Board, which no longer needs BGAV funding, was reduced from $11,662 to $1 — just enough to meet a bylaw requirement that it remain a budget item.
Other decreases:
- The Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies, by $43,656 or 46.61 percent;
- The Virginia Baptist Historical Society, by $16,668 or 40 percent;
- Bluefield College, by $55,612 or 57.56 percent;
- Fork Union Military Academy, by $2,506 or 55.61 percent;
- Hargrave Military Academy, by $6,704 or 77.02 percent;
- Oak Hill Academy, by $14,639 or 22.65 percent;
- Virginia Intermont College, by $1,000 or 50 percent;
- The John Leland Center for Theological Studies, by $50,588 or 49.98 percent;
- Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia, by $12,097 or 2.89 percent;
- HopeTree Family Services, by $56,097 or 52.87 percent;
- Virginia Baptist Homes, by $54,943 or 52.35 percent;
- The Chaplain Service Prison Ministry of Virginia, $16,955 or 25.32 percent;
- The Religious Herald, $107,675 or 49.92 percent;
- The Virginia Baptist Foundation, by $25,730 or 72.01 percent.
In 2013 $8,712,000 would be allocated to BGAV ministries and $3,388,000 to world mission causes. The proposed budget continues to offer churches three pre-set giving tracks and a fourth customized option, all of which divide funds between BGAV ministries and national and international causes.
The percentage divisions in two pre-set giving tracks remain unchanged:
• The World Missions 1 track provides 66 percent for Virginia ministries and 34 percent for Southern Baptist Convention ministries.
• The World Missions 3 track provides 72 percent for Virginia ministries and 28 percent for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ministries.
Three items in the World Missions 2 track, which provides 72 percent for BGAV ministries and 28 percent for a combination of Virginia, SBC, CBF and other ministries, are reduced: Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond by 50 percent; Associated Baptist Press, by 35.26 percent; and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, by 4.31 percent.
Items in the world missions causes section of the WM2 track are percentage allocations; each percentage point in that track is expected to be about $12,100 if the 2013 budget is fully funded. That makes reductions for BTSR about $73,143, for ABP about $12,662 and for the BJC about $917.
Increased items in the WM2 track are Kingdom Advance New Mission Initiatives, by 2.44 percent; Missions Relief, by 57.14 percent; and the Ministerial Education Fund, by 70.28 percent.
Historically, Virginia Baptists get their first glimpse of proposed budgets each year in October, when the documents are presented at the Mission Board’s fall meeting. This year, in a break with the past, the budget was posted on line prior to the meeting, though Washburn declined to comment on the proposal until it was presented to the Mission Board.
The Mission Board does not approve BGAV budgets — they come as direct recommendations to the state association from the budget committee — but bylaws require the budget to be presented to the board for “information and counsel.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.