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CP giving 4.97% behind ’08 pace


REVISED 1-6-09 to reflect an additional $6,670 in Cooperative Program receipts in the report by the SBC Executive Committee’s business and finance office for December 2008. The story below now contains the needed corrections.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 4.97 percent behind the same time frame at the outset of 2008, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Morris H. Chapman.

As of Dec. 31, the year-to-date total of $47,257,976.70 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $2,473,746.72 below the $49,731,723.42 received at the same point a year earlier. For the month, receipts of $14,073,778.90 were 14.67 percent, or $2,419,957.36, below the $16,493,736.26 received in December 2007. Designated giving of $11,000,512.35 for the same year-to-date period is 4.03 percent, or $461,579.91, below gifts of $11,462,092.26 received at this point last year. The $3,335,204.76 in designated gifts received last month is $1,340,441.20 below the $4,675,645.96 received in December 2007, a decrease of 28.67 percent.

For the SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget, the year-to-date total of $47,257,976.70 is 91.89 percent of the $51,429,208.50 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The SBC operates on an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year.

During the last fiscal year, Southern Baptists topped the $200-million mark for the third year in a row and overall giving to national causes surpassed the $400-million benchmark for a second straight year.

The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ method of supporting missions and ministry efforts of state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Cooperative Program total includes receipts from individuals, churches, state conventions and fellowships for distribution according to the 2008-09 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and other special gifts.

State and regional conventions retain a portion of church contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist national and international causes. The percentage of distribution is at the discretion of each state or regional convention.
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Compiled by Baptist Press staff.

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