By Bob Allen
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted Nov. 11 to trim its annual budget by $1 million, citing a decline in giving of about 7 percent.
“While it is true that the receipts of many churches are down due to unemployment, underemployment, it cannot be ignored that biblical stewardship is at a historic low,” Milton Hollifield, the group’s executive director-treasurer, said in a report on the Nov. 11-12 state convention meeting in the Greensboro News & Record.
A 2015 budget of $29 million reduces funding for North Carolina causes including Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina, the Biblical Recorder newspaper and student scholarships. It increases percentage going to the Southern Baptist Convention by half a percent to 37 percent.
According to a press release, as recently as 2006 the annual budget of the statewide affiliate of the SBC stood at $36.4 million.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, an organization that offers alternative missions and ministry programs to moderate churches and individuals dissatisfied by the conservative tilt of the state convention, took in more than $4 million in total receipts in 2013-2014.
BSCNC employees will receive a 2 percent raise, after taking on additional responsibilities from about 40 positions eliminated since 2003.