Nashville, Tenn. | On its final day of meetings, members of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) approved a recommended $190,250,000 Cooperative Program allocation budget for the upcoming 2024–25 fiscal year. The proposed budget is down $5 million from the current 2023–24 budget year. Budget recommendations will go to messengers for approval at the SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis in June.
EC and SBC operations budget
The proposed SBC EC and SBC operations budget also was approved at $10,235,000 and will go to messengers in June for final approval. This is an increase of nearly $2 million over the current budget year and is an acknowledged deficit budget due to current financial realities.
EC trustee leaders applauded the EC staff for continued efforts to live within the current financial restraints and noted the budget is working related to the EC’s ministry assignments. It’s the uncontrollable expenses, especially legal expenses related to the Guidepost indemnifications and the DOJ investigation, that are creating the difficulties, leaders explained.
The EC had a negative change in net assets of $2,877,942 following the 2022–23 budget year, according to Mike Bianchi, interim EC CFO, reporting during the EC meeting. But the first quarter of the 2023–24 fiscal year (October through December 2023) shows a positive change in total assets $407,736,000, he noted.
The full details of the financial report were not made public.
Churches recommended for disaffiliation
The four churches approved for a recommendation of disaffiliation are:
- Grove Road Baptist in Greenville, S.C. based on “lack of intent to cooperate in resolving a concern regarding the pastor’s mishandling of an allegation of sexual abuse.”
- Immanuel Baptist in Paducah, Ky. for not closely identifying with the Convention’s statement of faith, which is “having a female lead pastor.”
- West Hendersonville Baptist in Hendersonville, N.C. regarding sexual abuse as “demonstrated by their retaining as pastor an individual who is biblically disqualified.”
- New Hope Baptist in Gastonia, N.C. due to no financial participation for at least five years and its “lack of intent to cooperate to resolve a question of faith and practice.”
The churches have until 30 days prior to the SBC Annual Meeting to appeal the recommendation, which would allow them to address convention messengers and would leave the decision up to messengers. Churches choosing not to appeal are automatically removed from the SBC database.
EC staff don’t report the number of inquiries currently pending at any given time but did confirm that 80% are related to sexual abuse concerns. Fewer than 20 churches have been disaffiliated since the Credentials Committee was established at the approval of messengers in 2019, EC staff noted.
Discussions about the churches and updates on legal matters, personnel, and additional financial items took place in a nearly three-hour executive session.
The EC tabled until their June meeting, two motions brought by messengers at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville which would require SBC entities to print information for public viewing and transparency from Form 990. According to IRS.gov, “Form 990 is the IRS’ primary tool for gathering information about tax-exempt organizations, educating organizations about tax law requirements and promoting compliance.”
In other business, the EC:
— approved the referral from SBC messengers to form a work group to study the missional impact of the 2027 SBC Annual Meeting to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
—declined a referral related to providing clarity to the Baptist Faith and Message on whether it requires closed communion. The referral was declined because “historically, the SBC Executive Committee does not offer interpretation on the Convention’s consensus statement of faith.”
—reviewed and received the 2022–2023 audit report, which came with an unmodified opinion. “We are grateful to the work of the staff to maintain that financial status, there’s been a lot of work and intentionality to help bring that to pass,” EC chair Philip Robertson said.
—approved meeting hall expenses for the 2024 Pastors Conference, with the understanding that the conference would reimburse $100,000 used for meeting space to help offset cost.
—approved 3.4% cost-of-living salary increase in the EC salary structure effective Oct. 1.
The SBC EC met in Nashville from February 19- 20.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This article is a joint effort with reporting by Lonnie Wilkey of Tennessee’s Baptist and Reflector, Shawn Hendricks of The Baptist Paper and Jennifer Davis Rash of The Alabama Baptist. With additional reporting from Lisa Misner of the Illinois Baptist.