Cover Story for November 10, 2005
By Robert Dilday
Associate Editor
Virginia Baptist churches will be asked to provide $14.1 million next year for ministries in their state, if a proposed Cooperative Program budget is adopted by messengers attending the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia in Woodbridge this week.
As has been the pattern for years, those churches may choose a variety of giving tracks in sending their contributions through the BGAV.
Although the BGAV is not the only state Baptist convention to give churches options in giving, it likely has gone further than any other state in allowing its affiliated churches the greatest freedom to give money while remaining “in cooperation.”
BGAV churches may give through one of three pre-packaged giving tracks or may craft a plan of their own.
• World Mission 1 provides 66 percent to Virginia ministries and 34 percent to national and international causes, all of which are distributed through the Southern Baptist Convention, which determines how they are divided.
• World Mission 2 provides 72 percent to Virginia ministries and 28 percent to national and international causes. Those causes are selected by the BGAV and include ministries supported by the SBC, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and others.
• World Mission 3 provides 72 percent to Virginia ministries and 28 percent to national and international ministries, all of which are distributed through the CBF, which determines how they are divided.
Of the 1,423 churches that had given money through the BGAV through 10 months of the 2005 fiscal year, almost half (710 churches or 49.89 percent) chose WM2 as their giving track, according to the BGAV's treasurer's office.
WM1 was the choice of 320 churches (22.49 percent) and WM3 was selected by 103 churches (7.24 percent). Another 290 churches (20.38 percent) chose to develop their own giving plan.
Although nearly half of the the BGAV's churches are giving through the WM2 track, less than a third of the total receipts are given through that track. And though less than a quarter of the churches craft their own giving plan, those congregations provide nearly a third of the contributions.
Of the $11,254,041 received by the BGAV treasurer's office by the end of September, $3,576,156, or 31.78 percent) came through the WM2 track. Those churches that crafted their own giving plan gave nearly as much-$3,547,871, or 31.53 percent.
Churches giving through WM1 gave $2,917,171, or 25.92 percent, while WM3 churches gave $1,212,843, or 10.78 percent.
Contributions to the Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions follow closely the pattern of Cooperative Program giving.
In 2004 (the last year for which figures are available), 868 churches contributed to the offering. Of those, 198 (22.81 percent) were WM1 churches, 402 (46.31 percent) were WM2 churches, 99 (8.64 percent) were WM3 churches and 193 (22.24) crafted their own giving plans.
Of the $976,304 given last year to the Alma Hunt offering, WM1 churches gave $198,671, or 20.35 percent; WM2 churches gave $411,180, or 42.12 percent; WM3 churches gave $78,655, or 8.06 percent; and churches developing their own plans gave $287,797, or 29.48 percent.