Board proposes cutting ’09 MBC budget

By Allen Palmeri

Associate Editor

JEFFERSON CITY—In the face of flat Cooperative Program (CP) giving, the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Board voted without opposition April 15 to set a budget goal for 2009 of $16.3 million, down from the current $16.5 million budget.

Reductions were spread across the board. The Executive Board budget fell from approximately $7 million to $6.9 million, the amount earmarked for institutions and agencies slipped from $3 million to $2.9 million, Christian higher education operations fell from $2.2 million to $2.18 million and reserves dropped from $261,360 to $161,778. A budget item setting aside one percent ($165,000) off the top for CP promotion in 2008 is also being proposed as a cut to .75 percent ($122,250) in 2009.

Hovering over the budget process is the ongoing cost of the MBC’s legal effort to recover five breakaway agencies. MBC Interim Executive Director David Tolliver, who has served atop the organization for more than a year, is being asked to factor in a potential expense of $140,000 as litigation in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, plays out for the rest of 2008 and likely into early 2009. Board members unanimously approved a bridge loan in which the Executive Board makes itself a loan from its budget to help the MBC satisfy the immediate debt owed in legal fees and with the anticipation that the Agency Restoration Fund within 12 months will provide sufficient funding to pay back the loan. Tolliver said if Missouri Baptists for the final eight months of the year keep contributing to the Agency Restoration Fund at their average rate of giving of $17,000-$18,000 per month, the plan will be a success.

“I am pleased and I am confident that many Missouri Baptists are pleased that the Executive Board found a way to keep from using Cooperative Program dollars,” Tolliver said. “Because of cash flow issues, some monies were borrowed immediately following the Executive Board meeting, and if monies are needed down the road, we are authorized to borrow again, but I am really hopeful and believe that we will not even have to do that anymore.

“Any monies taken out of reserves to pay for legal expenses will be returned to reserves promptly. Therefore, CP dollars are not being spent for the lawsuits.”

The projected budgets for the 2009 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering of $4 million, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering of $2 million, the World Hunger Offering of $325,000 and the Missouri Missions Offering of $800,000 are identical to 2008.

The giving goal for Southern Baptist Convention causes in the 2009 budget is up slightly to 36.5 percent of the estimated total CP budget of $16,177,750, with the goal for Missouri Baptist causes falling slightly to 63.5 percent.

Financing the move of the MBC headquarters to California, Mo., was mentioned in the context of an announcement that $89,700 under-spent from last year’s budget has been placed in a new building fund. Tolliver said that he and Jody Shelenhamer, an Executive Board member from Bolivar who chairs the Relocation Study Committee, are hoping to visit soon with Kenny Vaughan of Vaughan Construction Company of California and request that the MBC be allowed 3-5 years to make the move.

“We need to raise some money, and the truth is we’re not currently in the best climate to do that,” Tolliver said.

Meanwhile, other business addressed by the Executive Board included:

• The desire to remain separate from the Acts 29 Network of church plants and the need for more MBC policy statements on alcohol use continue to be hot topics, with Tolliver delivering a final report on Acts 29 that summarized months of discussion and culminated with an Executive Board vote not to provide MBC CP funds to any Acts 29 church plant. He touched on how Acts 29 congregations speak of their freedom to hold barroom ministries—a practice that does not fit with Missouri Southern Baptist tradition and belief.

“There are problems with many, and I would go so far as to say most, Acts 29 churches, and the common thread seems to be alcohol,” Tolliver said. He acknowledged that local church autonomy may lead to some MBC-affiliated churches working with Acts 29, but that the Convention would not. He said he felt no ill-will towards Acts 29 and considers the matter closed.

The board voted, with opposition, to recommend to the MBC Continuing Review Committee to study a series of changes to the MBC Bylaws that would require new committee members to agree to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs.

Hannibal-LaGrange College also finds itself addressing the alcohol issue. HLG President Woodrow Burt issued a statement explaining that there has been no change in the college’s “strong position of abstinence with regards to its alcohol policy.” Burt acknowledged a “recent misunderstanding” of the policy that has prompted him to restate and reaffirm “our long-held position of abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages by our students, whether on or off campus.”

• The Ad Hoc Theological Review Committee, which examined among other matters the issue of alcohol use in Acts 29 church ministries, was part of another Executive Board debate concerning the implementation of its vetting policy for MBC staff and the partners they choose to use in ministry – particularly conference speakers.

Executive Board Member Michael Knight, pastor, First Baptist Church, Viburnum, contended that the will of the board is not being carried out concerning the committee he chaired. He said the set of guidelines that are now in place must be applied to any potential speaker or conference partner. Tolliver responded that the present practice, requiring Convention staffers to fill out a form detailing a possible speaker’s theological views if they are not Southern Baptist or Missouri Baptist, is working well under his watchful eye.

Chairman Gerald Davidson reminded the board that the Theological Review Committee’s report, minus a minority report, was received, not adopted, at the Executive Board’s December meeting.

“The greatest (United States) president in my lifetime said we ought to trust but verify,” Knight said. “It worked for him and it will work for us.”

Weighing all of these considerations, Executive Board members voted, with opposition, to back the current implementation of the policy under the leadership of Tolliver.

• Administrative Committee Chairman Jeff Purvis, pastor, First Baptist Church, Herculaneum-Peveley, announced that the preliminary process of an MBC staff structure review has begun. The idea is to give the new executive director a head start on whatever restructuring he may undertake. Some of the areas involved are: Researching other state convention staff sizes and ministry areas; researching what percentages of other state convention budgets go for staff salaries, benefits and expenses, as well as ministry areas, and examining what percentages go on to the SBC; evaluating the possibility of networking and using volunteers as well as paid consultants to avoid bureaucracy; and discovering ways in which we can better utilize the resources of SBC agencies to get the most out of the ministry effectiveness of the MBC.

• The search for a new executive director continues, but the chairman of the search committee indicated that it may be nearing an end. James Freeman, laity, Country Meadows Baptist Church, Independence, said the Holy Spirit is at work.

“We are at a point where we may conceivably have a recommendation by the July meeting,” he said. “However, don’t be surprised if it’s December.”

A reporter for Word & Way attempted to cover the Executive Board meeting and it appeared Davidson was going to break rank with previous MBC presidents and allow the reporter to stay. Purvis, however, made a motion directing the reporter to leave as has been customary since the legal fight between the MBC and Word & Way began. Purvis’ motion passed without opposition and the reporter left.

• Other action taken by the board included:

• Voting to extend the existing partnership with the Colorado Baptist General Convention for one more year;

• Receiving another update by the Legal Task Force;

• Agreeing to allocate up to 3 percent for 2009 pay increases for MBC staff with a maximum of 5 percent per employee;

• Adjusting the salary of Ken McCune retroactive to his start date of Feb. 16 which would amount to his former salary on Feb. 15, 2007 plus a 3 percent increase; and

• Choosing to hold its July 2010 meeting at the Truman State University Baptist Student Union.