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Portraits Magazine
CP drops, ASBC revises budget
By Elizabeth Young
At the end of the first quarter of 2009, Arizona giving through the Cooperative Program is showing the strain of the national recession.
Arizona Southern Baptist churches gave $783,470 through the Cooperative Program in the first quarter of 2009. This was $91,010, or 10.4 percent, below the budget requirement and $153,699, or 16.4 percent, less than the amount given in the first quarter of 2008.
"Since the overwhelming majority of our churches give to the Cooperative Program on a percentage basis, our decline in giving is a direct reflection of the churches' decline in financial support," said ASBC State Missionary Steve Bass. "The bottom line? When our churches' giving is down, we are down."
The ASBC staff is working to reduce the budget to be in line with the present giving level. The 14 staff members in Phoenix have accepted voluntary salary reductions of 7 percent for the state missionary, 5 percent for the facilitators and 3 percent for the support staff.
"In times of difficulty, as well as in times of blessing, we want to lead the way," Bass said. "It's unfair to ask anyone else to take the lead through these economically challenging times."
For now, some "fixed" items -- including other salaries, salary support, equipment leases, and some facilities expenses -- are not being reduced. These other salaries and salary support affect about 70 people, excluding the ASBC staff in Phoenix. The 70 include church planters, associational church planter strategists, directors of evangelism/missions, Christian Challenge staff and others.
"At our current rate of decline, we have committed ourselves to continue our funding to field personnel at 100 percent," Bass said. "Our commitment is to continue our support of these missionaries."
The ASBC staff has been asked to reduce the budget in their areas by 35 percent. A final revised budget was still being developed in mid-April.
Beyond the fixed items, "we are committed to 'look again' at new ways to get things done," Bass said. "Our program funds will now be limited."
The ASBC is not alone in dealing with reduced income. At a national level, six months through the fiscal year, Cooperative Program giving was 3.72 percent below the same time frame last year and 2.17 percent below the budget for 2009.
An article in Baptist Press in March summarized the SBC financial picture:
--The North American Mission Board staff has been instructed to operate at 90 percent of approved budgets this year.
--The International Mission Board announced in January it would tighten its 2009 budget, cut administrative costs, reduce travel expense and forgo any salaried wage adjustments -- steps designed to avoid eliminating overseas missionaries.
--Three of the SBC's seminaries, LifeWay Christian Resources and Woman's Missionary Union also have announced budget cuts, while GuideStone Financial Resources has announced a 10 percent workforce downsizing and hiring freeze.
Bass said he hopes the budget cuts in Arizona are temporary. "We believe when the economy turns around and our people again return to their past levels of giving that our churches will also bless missions through the Cooperative Program," he said. "In that sense, I believe this downturn is a short-term challenge."