Before we get sidetracked, let's celebrate Lottie Moon's big year

Our International Mission Board is reporting a spectacular increase in the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions. The total for the 2015 offering is $165.8 million, an increase of $12.8 million over last year. 

Here are the Lottie Moon totals for this century:

Lottie Moon Offering

Year                Received

2000                 113.2
2001                 113.7
2002                 115.0
2003                 136.2
2004                 133.9
2005                 137.9
2006                 150.2
2007                 150.4
2008                 150.4
2009                 148.9
2010                 145.7
2011                 146.8
2012                 149.3
2013                 154.1
2014                 153.0
2015                 165.8

Lottie Moon's really big year was 2003 when the total received was a staggering $21.2 million greater than the previous year. That was a mammoth 18.4% increase. Lottie had a big year in 2006 just prior to the economic meltdown when $12.3 million more was given than the previous year, a healthy 8.9% increase. The record offering just announced falls short of both the dollar and percentage increases of those two previous stellar years but we thank God for the $165.8 million that Southern Baptists gave and for the fact that that is 8.3% greater than 2014. 

The $12.8 million is big money but only about 4.6% of the IMB total 2016 budget. With reduced expenses through the voluntary personnel reductions and increased revenue through the greater LMCO and slightly greater revenue through Cooperative Program giving, the IMB is on a more stable footing and should be able to plan for the future with greater confidence and without an immediate fiscal crisis.

Oddly, some voices in SBC life are squawking about IMB having too much money, having cut too deeply. I say, let's be realistic. IMB has been in poor financial condition for the past number of years and is much healthier now. Now that they are not compelled to sell overseas real estate or spend down financial reserves just to pay current operating expenses, they can have more felxibility in planning for the future.

It is sadly ironic that it took a plan to drastically reduce IMB personnel to motivate SBC churches and individuals to give more. Nothing like a crisis to motivate some of us into doing what we should have done in the first place. 

How about for now, we declare a party and celebration day for Southern Baptists who gave generously to reach the world for Christ and leave the griping for later? We deserve a time of undiluted thanksgiving for God's goodness and grace. 

Big Lottie Moon increase; modest but encouraging Cooperative Program increase

The benchmark for the general financial health of the Southern Baptist Convention has always been Cooperative Program giving. It is certainly the measure of state convention financial health, not so much for the mission boards and seminaries. Regardless, the recent SBC Executive Committee report of giving through May, 2016, two-thirds of their fiscal year, shows a notable CP increase and indicates a spectacular Lottie Moon Offering increase.

CP 6.13% ahead of budget projection

As of May 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget through the first eight months of the Convention's fiscal year totaled $131,956,900.93. This total is $7,623,567.60 above the $124,333,333.33 year-to-date budgeted amount to support SBC ministries globally and across North America and is $3,405,282.76 more than the $128,551,618.17 received through the end of May 2015.

Designated giving of $170,515,243.82 for the same year-to-date period is 9.02 percent, or $14,107,608.63, above gifts of $156,407,635.19 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities. Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist Global Hunger Relief and other special gifts.

The figure to note about CP giving (and this is only the part of CP revenues received by the Executive Committee, less the majority share that is kept by state conventions) is that it is about $3.4 million more than received for the same period last year. Absent some kind of meltdown, when the fiscal year ends on September 30th this year, the CP will be up two to three percent from last year.

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions looks to be substantially above last year's total. Designated giving to the Executive Committee is up over nine percent, about $14.1 million from last year. The IMB will disclose the total LMCO offering at or around the SBC annual meeting. I've predicted a record offering of over $161 million. I may be too low. It will be a record offering, considerably beyond anything previously seen. Thank God for that.

Just for contrast, consider the two increases (and I'm extrapolating and projecting the CP increase for a full year): $5.1 million CP increase and an estimate of a LMCO increase of $10 million over last year.

Because of the most robust giving year recently for the Cooperative Program IMB will receive about $2.6 million more from it this year than last. That less than 1% of their annual budget. Not chump change but not significant in their future planning and budgeting.

The additional $10 million from Lottie Moon, about 3.5% of the IMB budget, arrives in Richmond undiluted. For the Cooperative Program to put another $10 million into international missions, SBC churches would have to increase CP giving by about $50 million. No one expects that to happen.

The Cooperative Program is our primary giving program and almost every single SBC church devotes some part of their budget to the CP, an average of over 5% of undesignated church giving per congregation. It provides almost all state convention revenues and a solid base of revenue for the mission boards and seminaries (roughly one-third of their budgets). Simple math explains why any expansive plans for the future on the part of the seminaries, NAMB, and IMB will be based on designated giving, not CP giving.

Nonetheless, we should all feel better that the CP is showing a modest increase rather than being flat or decreasing, but look for some level of denominational lamenting come October this year when fiscal year totals show designated giving considerably above CP giving.

Lottie Moon: records, deficits, projections

The chart below shows the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal, receipts, and projected income from the offering as used to prepare the IMB budget.

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions (in millions of dollars)

Year          Goal     Received      Budgeted    Under Budget

2010          175          145.7           175              (29.3)
2011          175          146.8           175              (28.2)
2012          175          149.3           175              (25.7)
2013          175          154              175              (21)
2014          175          153              180              (27)

Total          875          748.8           880              (131.2)

 Obviously, the decision was made to keep goals high after the recession, to continue to spend as needed, to budget as if the goals were met, and to make up the deficit by using reserves and by using income from overseas property sales.

It wasn't a bad plan in 2008, 2009, and 2010 but it was apparent that Lottie Moon receipts, the bulk of the IMB budget, were not going to recover anywhere near the goals. In fact, receipts would not recover to previous levels until the best LM year ever, 2013.

Recent IMB statements put the total deficit spending since 2010 as $210 million.

The Black Thursday announcement by IMB that 600-800 personnel must be cut, immediately, to stanch the hemhorraghing of red ink and put the organization on a solid, stable footing for the future was the cumulative result of years of overspending. Others may analyze previous decisions as to fiscal propriety.

Consider, though, the reflexive response of the many Southern Baptists in the pulpits and pews of our almost 50,000 churches: Let's give to Lottie Moon as never before. Let's not wait until Christmas but start right now.          

While some leaders trot out the old whips ("we only give about $18 per person to the LMCO," "Southern Baptists give less than 2% of their income to their church," "state conventions keep too much money," etc.) and flail away, I'll just look at the possibility or probability of the Lottie Moon offering being bumped up enough to stave off massive personnel cuts from our overseas force.

Lottie Moon's biggest year was 2013, $154 million. Three other years (2006, 2007, and last year) were above $150 million. The LM goal has been $175 million since 2009. We haven't met a goal since 2003. That was the year that LM receipts increased over $20 million from the previous year.

We are a weaker convention of churches now. We are more divided now. We baptize less these days. There are bright spots in our convention but most would say that we are less vigorous and healthy.

The Great Commission Resurgence Report called on Southern Baptists to set and reach a $200 million Lottie Moon Goal. We didn't set that figure. We haven't met any goals. But the GCR group had the number about right if we are to put IMB on solid financial footing. We need another $50 million annually. Unless we drop a couple of seminaries and the state conventions drop their take of the CP dollar to forty cents, neither of which have a snowball's chance in Gehenna of happening, the CP revenues for IMB are not going to generate much in additional dollars.

That leaves dear old Lottie, where a dollar for Lottie is a dollar, the full 100 cents, for the IMB.

I'm of the opinion that we could have another big year for Lottie Moon, one where receipts skyrocket up $20 million, $30 million or more. It can happen. Southern Baptists can make it happen.

I am not of the opinion, nor do I know of any Southern Baptist who is of the opinion that this can be done year-after-year-after-year, which is what would have to happen to avoid the deep missionary cuts that begin shortly.

IMB sailing through an ocean of red ink

I knew things were tight at our International Mission Board. I didn't know that the extent of the financial shortfalls.

The Board puts out their plan to balance the budget here.

The Board has a helpful series of FAQs, here.

A bit of optimism is in order. We will soldier through this as a convention. Things are tight and things are tough but the one SBC entity that cannot fail is our venerable flagship IMB. We could lose a couple of seminaries and not miss a beat in theological education. NAMB has lurched through several crises the past decade or so but slogged on before straightening things out. State conventions have dealt with severe reductions in revenues the past seven years or so, have cut jobs and programs but have survived without churches noticing a lot of difference.

There is no entity that can do what IMB does. Churches cannot come close to matching the overall strategy and levels of support for overseas work. Independent organizations do not have the resources to do what the SBC does nor would they act in accord with what Southern Baptists believe is necessary and proper in reaching the world for Christ.

Our IMB has to succeed. The Cooperative Program will provide almost $100 million for the IMB and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions will fund at a level of around $150 million annually. These are not insignificant nor are they expected to disappear. The trajectories for these two major funding streams are slightly declining in regard to the CP and flat or possibly slightly increasing in regard to the LMCO. In my book a quarter billion dollars is a huge sum. Let's be thankful for that as we adjust for the future.

Absent a significant new source of revenue the IMB will have to adjust to a reality of fewer traditional, fully-funded, overseas personnel; hence, the plan to balance the budget and prepare for the future.

A few observations:

1. The previous IMB financial plan is a failure, a statement of the obvious. The press releases admitted as much. It was overly optimistic to expect to cover tens of millions in budget shortfalls by cannibalizing and selling assets overseas and by using reserves.

2. I recognize that the Board has been through the retirement of a long time leader, a short term caretaker leader, and the global recession and recovery. The severe shortfalls probably should have been addressed more seriously earlier but hindsight is a great thing. We need all our energy for the future.

3. The reduction from a high of 5,600 missionaries to the goal of a sustainable number of 4,200 is severe and depressing but reality isn't always pleasant. We do what we can and must. Thank God for the ability to put 4,200 in places where the Gospel is needed and where we can provide a permanent and secure presence.

4. The Board indicates an intent to appoint 300 new personnel annually and I trust the leadership to decide what this number should be. It would be foolhardy to close off new appointments completely and allow resignations and retirements to reduce the number to the proper level. Shut off new appointments for a several year period and the stream of new personnel would dry up.

5. The offer of incentives to motivate retirements is the proper route. Whether or not it will work is not known. I can see some unpleasantness down the road in this regard. Since 80% of the Board's expenses are for personnel, Sutton's Law applies. There's no other way to get to stability than to cut personnel.

6. The Board self-insures and provides benefits for retirees. One might see increasing burdens in this. It may be that with the changes in national health insurance policies and options that the Board will be pushed towards providing retirees an allowance to obtain their own health care.

7. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the Board could have and should have spent more time communicating with Southern Baptists on the depth and extent of the financial problems. I'm seeing longtime SBC insiders express surprise at the severity of the IMB financial crisis.

8. The Great Commission Resurgence had a marginally positive impact on IMB revenues. Those who now say the GCR movement of state conventions keeping less of a CP dollar and sending more is a failure just don't understand the math involved. Moving state conventions from 63% to 50% (if they ever get there and I don't think they will) is a good thing but would not come close to generating enough additional revenue for the IMB to cover their deficits.

David Platt has a tough job. The money part is easy: you take actions that must be taken to balance the budget, accumulate reasonable contingency reserves, and secure the future of the work. The hard job is in keeping IMB personnel away from debilitating anxiety and focused on their tasks and in keeping Southern Baptists informed.

I'd say to Platt, the IMB trustees, and all IMB people: It is imperative that you succeed. I want you to succeed in the tasks assigned. You have my prayers and support.

10 things you probably didn't know about Lottie Moon

Lottie Moon, missionary to China from 1873 to her death in 1912, is the most famous person in Southern Baptist history. Our largest offering, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, is named for her.

In time, her life came to be mythologized by Southern Baptists and her name invoked in order to raise money for missions. To counter this, here are ten things you probably did not know about Lottie Moon:

1. When funding from the Foreign Mission Board was not sufficient to provide additional workers for Moon's lonely and arduous mission in Pingtu, China, Lottie loaned the Board $1,000 to help support a new missionary. The sum is equivalent to about $25,000 today.

2. Moon's home in the seaport city of Tengchow was once hit by a shell from a Japanese warship. Moon was not home at the time. The bombardment was part of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905.

3. At the 1890 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Ft. Worth, Texas, it was said Lottie Moon: "She is the greatest man among our missionaries."

4. The Christmas offering later named for Lottie Moon was an idea copied from the Methodists.

5. Miss Moon was the first single female missionary woman sent out by the SBC Foreign Mission Board. No, not Lottie but her sister Edmonia (Eddie) who was one two single ladies appointed in April, 1872. Lottie followed soon thereafter in 1873. Eddie was often sick and left China for good in 1876.

6. Lottie Moon's uncle once owned Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation, post Jefferson, of course.

7. When Moon arrived in China in 1873, she found that there was serious personal conflict among missionaries in the mission. This would cause difficulty for decades. She had to contend with and endure this constantly; whereas, the wars, famines, and plagues were just sporadic.

8. Among other things, Lottie endured at least two outbreaks of bubonic plague. She would simply close the school she was operating at the time and wait for the plague to pass.

9. When a new missionary asked Lottie in 1909 what the secret was to her long success in China (she had been in the country for 36 years at that point), Lottie answered, "Early to bed and do not worry."

10. Since she died while on a ship in a Japanese harbor, Lottie was cremated. The ship's captain was concerned that an embalmed body would not be allowed entry into the United States.

____________

These are from "Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History and Legend" by Regina D. Sullivan.

The photo of Lottie Moon is from the WMU. Although not the first to do so, Lottie was among the first to dress and live in the custom of the Chinese.

Top SBC Good News Stories of 2014

Bah humbug! Bad news all around...but...here's my list of the top good news stories for SBCers in 2014:

1. Lottie Moon hits record total, $154.1 million.

Southern Baptists may be giving less to the Cooperative Program and less of their disposable income to churches and mission causes, SBC entities may be mired in retrenchment mode because of flat or declining giving, but the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions is at its highest level ever (but I am not allowing anyone to recalculate this in real dollars, adjusted for inflation, so as not to rain on good news).

2. Messengers elect a president who has greatly increased his church's Cooperative Program giving.

OK, so Ronnie Floyd's church is still below the average percentage and Baptist Press didn't report what that percentage was but he did lead his church to give substantially more to the CP than in earlier years. The CP has no chance of any increases if messengers elect leaders who show no interest in supporting it and most megachurches are not heavy CP supporters. This year, the election of a megachurch pastor was a positive move relative to the Cooperative Program.

3. Our housing allowance is safe from federal constitutional challenges.

At least it is safe for now, the previous federal district court's ruling that it was unconstitutional having been overturned on appeal.

4. IMB trustees show a willingness to embrace the 21st century.

With the election of thirty-six year old David Platt as the new IMB leader, replacing his seventy-year-old predecessor, trustees demonstrate that they recognize that some new thinking is in order for our flagship institution. Younger Southern Baptists are encouraged thereby.

5. Southern Baptist leaders and entities recognize mental illness as a grave problem.

The SBC, it's leaders and entities, have been AWOL on the serious business of mental illness among us. While leadership cannot force change at the local church level, at least there has been a steady stream of sensible initiatives from our folks. Regretfully, this has come as a result of the suicides of two children of high profile SBC leaders.

6. At various levels, the SBC is showing engagement on racial issues.

The response to racial turmoil of Ferguson, Missouri and of the death of Michael Brown in New York has generated sensible commentary from our leaders and mostly civil and profitable discussion among us. This is a change and is good news.

7. NAMB's church planting initiative, Send North America, is continuing to thrive.

While some critics snipe about it, SNA is engaging large numbers of younger Southern Baptists who are interested in church planting and large numbers of SBC churches who wish to partner in planting churches in North America. One is hard-pressed to name any other national SBC initiative that shows success.

8. Great Commission Giving is up.

Southern Baptist churches gave $777 million in Great Commission Giving for 2012-2013, an increase of $23 millions from the previous reporting period. GCG is the aggregate of giving to all SBC causes. Although these figures are somewhat soft in that churches self-report as they choose, any increase is good news. Critics of GCG will have to explain why it is not good to give to SBC causes and why such should not be celebrated.

9. The key Cooperative Program percentage increased.

That would be the percentage of undesignated church offering plate dollars given to the CP. We moved up ever so slightly from 5.414% to 5.5%. This makes two years straight there was a tiny, tiny increase. Frank Page concludes that the CP has reached its "nadir". An increase of 0.086% isn't much...but it's something.

10. Average SBC clergy salaries are up.

The 2014 LifeWay Compensation Study revealed that total "package" compensation for senior pastors was up 1.8% from 2012. Not much but up is up and not down...has to be good news. Senior pastors are advised to thank God for this and not to complain that the average pay for non-senior pastor staff positions were up by a good bit more than for senior pastors.

Top SBC news of 2014, Part One

Here is my list of top news stories of interest to Southern Baptists for this year, with insightful and witty commentary. I am presuming that all SBCers will be focused on football the next few days and will not be making any significant news between now and the end of 2014.

My ranking is completely subjective.

1. David Platt elected president of the International Mission Board

At the tender age of 36 David Platt was picked to succeed 70 year old Tom Elliff as head of our flagship entity, the IMB. The Board has the largest budget, the most employees, and arguably does the most important work. Platt was quickly criticized for his weak Cooperative Program giving and, by those who keep score for such things, his supposed Calvinistic beliefs. His young age, his lack of international mission experience (he is an outsider in that he has never served overseas as did his predecessors) raised Southern Baptist eyebrows. The change at the IMB was generational and has the potential to bring the IMB into the 21st Century in many ways.

It is the nature of these high profile hires that trustees who do the hiring appear to come down off the mountain after meeting with God and being handed a name on a stone tablet; that is, trustees are secretive, non-transparent, and feel not the least compunction to explain their process or thinking and always, always exclaim that they have "God's man".  I think so. I hope so. He has my support.

Platt has been a visionary pastor with a record of accomplishment and is held in high regard among younger Southern Baptists. The IMB is a venerable institution in need of fresh organizational thinking and acting. I like David Platt. If he fails or if his leadership is stifled by the unwieldy trustee board of older Southern Baptists, nearly one hundred of them, there could be consequences for years. Thus far, the IMB has managed well in a time of retrenching. Lottie Moon is at a record level. Platt has my prayers for the challenges ahead.

2. The Housing Allowance is upheld by a federal appeals court.

A federal district judge struck down the cash Housing Allowance (but not the HA that pertains to parsonages) in 2013. The federal appeals court overturned the decision on a technical matter. I rank this second in importance because SBC clergy pay attention to their paychecks and the Housing Allowance income exclusion permits us to avoid paying thousands in income taxes. Don't get too excited because this will be challenged again...and again...and again.

3. Ronnie Floyd elected SBC president.

Ah, another megachurch pastor, the latest in a long string of such, elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention. There is nothing new about this except that in Floyd's case he was easily defeated back in 2006 primarily on the basis of his extremely low (less than 1%) Cooperative Program giving. In the intervening years he led his church to raise the percentage considerably, though his church is still below the SBC average.

Thus far, Floyd is exhibiting the typical megachurch pastor style as SBC president in that he is serving as an inspirational leader. While this is what megapastors do best in their megachurches, such have never shown any effectiveness in the Convention at large. We appreciate calls for prayer and revival from our leaders and these are to be expected but the tens of thousands of SBC churches and millions of members have never responded in any measurable way to this.

4. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions reached a record level.

The offering for 2013 (reported in June, 2014)  was over $154 million, almost $4 million above the previous record total. Giving to the LMCO is the brightest financial news for Southern Baptists in a time when most of the financial indexes for us are flat or declining. Even then, the increase is just over 3%, welcome but not really enough to do much more in overseas missions other than tread water.

5. The SBC Executive Committee proposes a constitutional change.

Only those who eat and breathe SBC stuff will not glaze over here, but the changes proposed to the SBC Constitution by our Executive Committee were quite significant. The change in messenger qualifications is just an update and no big deal. The linking of the Baptist Faith and Message to what is considered to be a church in "friendly cooperation" with the Convention is a potential trap. My read on it may be seen here. If the change is confirmed this June it will best be left to die of disuse.

6. Golden Gate Seminary closes big real estate deal.

Money talks in SBC life and GGBTS has something to talk about. They closed the sale of their prime property in Mill Valley, CA for a tidy $85 million, plus some incentives. The sale provided an instant endowment increase of $50 (more than doubling the present $21 million endowment total), a smooth relocation, and assures the seminary's continuance in a time when the old seminary model is failing and other institutions are dealing with significant challenges. We will see if having a substantial endowment on which to draw operating funds makes GGBTS less nimble and more stultified. Let's hope not.

Some positive, if infinitesimal, increases in CP giving

Here's a couple of fractions for you. These are fractions of a percentage point:

.007

.086

The important thing about these two fractions is that they are black.

Another important thing about these two is that they are positive increases in the percentage of church offering plate dollars given through our Cooperative Program for the past two years.

Cooperative Program giving as a percentage of church undesignated receipts

2011          5.407

2012          5.414   + .007

2013          5.500   + .086

The Executive Committee's CP VP has a story about it carried by Baptist Press:

Good News! 2 years of Cooperative Program gains

So, no more writing that the Cooperative Program is in this long, slow, steady, relentless slide downward? Nope. If we have had two years where the percentage has ticked upward, even the tiniest fraction upward, it is not sliding downward.

I don't think we're ready for a party with fried chicken and Baptist confetti just yet...but we will take any good news.

Membership is down. Baptisms are down. We are starting churches at the glacially slow rate of about two churches, net, per state convention. Weekly worship attendance is down. The number of church-type missions are down. The number of associations are down.

But the Cooperative Program percentage is up just the tiniest bit. All the figures have not been released but I'm guessing that the CP percentage is up primarily because total church receipts declined. Sort of a back door increase. We will take whatever we can get here.

There are a few things that are up: Lottie Moon had a record offering and, to the chagrin of those who wish not to see such statistics, Great Commission Giving is up, about 4.5%. 

How does a record Lottie Moon offering sound?

Sounds pretty good to me.

The 2013 total for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions has been released:

$154,057,852

That is the most ever exceeding last year's offering by about $4.8 million, a 3.2% increase. Forget the goal of $175 million that has been the same since 2009. It is a meaningless figure.

Baptist Press has the story: Lottie Moon offering hits record $154 million

In a time when many Southern Baptists would welcome a flat result for the Cooperative Program, baptisms, churches or other stats, it is great to see that churches and individuals are placing a higher priority on the direct offering for international missions and increasing the offering. The LMCO has gone up each of the last four years and not many SBC statistics will be able to demonstrate that.

Most churches and individuals can do better. All you have to do is ask. There's no clutter of percentages, allocation formulas, diversions, shared expenses, and the like with the Lottie Moon offering. All of it goes to the International Mission Board. It is much easier to convince folks to give here than to the market basket of legacy institutions, ministries that make up the Cooperative Program. You will notice that when the CP is promoted international missions figures prominently even though the IMB receives only about 30 cents on the CP dollar. Missions is the money word for SBC fundraising. CP promoters know it, and use it.

But I digress.

I'm extremely pleased with the LM increase. As a pastor, even after the economic meltdown I always asked the church to do just a little more on the Lottie Moon offering. They always did.

God is good. Jesus is wonderful. Bless His holy name.

Good news: Lottie Moon Offering expected to be an increase over last year

The International Mission Board will announce the 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions at the convention next month but is "estimating a $3-5 million increase" over the $149.3 million offering for 2012. This would mean the largest Lottie Moon offering in history, something around $153 million. In 2006 and 2007 the LMCO went above $150 million but not since and never above $150.4 million.

While the offering is short of the $175 million goal, the unrealistic goal that was set in 2009 and kept each year since, it is a healthy increase and one that should be celebrated by Southern Baptists who are concerned about sharing the Gospel around the world.

Let's be candid here. There has not been much financial news in Southern Baptist life lately that is positive. A Lottie Moon offering of $153 million, an increase of a few million over the previous year, is not breathtaking (the LMCO increased by over $12 million in 2006 and by almost $21 million in 2003, both pre-economic crisis years) but it is significant. It shows a greater degree of commitment to international missions than to other parts of Southern Baptist life.

With Cooperative Program receipts flat or declining and LMCO receipts increasing only slightly (a $4 million increase over 2012 is about 2.5%) the IMB is looking at different methods of funding international missions. More on that later.

The Cooperative Program we have...not the one we had or dream about.

The SBC as we know it would not exist without our venerable and beloved Cooperative Program. Without it, there would certainly be a Southern Baptist Convention. It just wouldn't look like what we see today.

Alas, our flagship denominational giving program is in this slow, steady, relentless decline. As a percentage of offering plate dollars, it has declined from over ten percent 35 years ago to about 5.4%. There is no SBC statistic that is as consistent as this one. Even annual baptisms show an uptick occasionally but not the Cooperative Program percentage.

Frank Page is hopeful for a Cooperative Program uptick.

A couple of things about our Executive Committee leader. First, he is brutally honest, a virtue not found in all SBC leaders most of whom know how to finesse or ignore unpleasant news in hopes that no one will notice or that it will go away. Page noted candidly that charitable giving has increased, most of our churches report increased revenues; however, the Cooperative Program continues to decline. I would add that the stock market is at a record level as well. There is more money around to be given. It's just not being put in the CP.

Second, Frank Page is relentlessly and unashamedly aspirational about the CP. The one percent increase plan shows some success. He promises to continue to work at it saying, "I supported [the CP] before I was paid to support this. As a pastor, I strongly supported over 10 percent of our church's undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program." God bless him.

I am venturing here some rank conjecture about the future of the Cooperative Program. Take it for what it is worth.

Forget the ten percent days. They are gone forever and are not going to return. 

I hear state convention folks and denominational leaders and staff speak with wistful nostalgia about those days. "Ah, they say, what could we do if churches gave 10 percent rather than 5 percent. Brethren, wait until you are safely settled in a retirement home to let yourself get carried on by such memories. They are gone. Kaput. Life has changed. Churches have changed. We have changed. Better to work at maintaining a threshold percentage, say five percent.

Aspirational SBC leaders like Frank Page and SBC Voices contributor Rick Patrick (whose "Pick a Number" article advocates adopting a 10% CP figure to suggest to churches) are the kinds of people I want to cooperate with in the SBC. We always do a little better when challenged. I just don't see the least chance of rolling back the clock and rolling up the percentages to double digits.

The Cooperative Program will not be revived by any attempt to cajole churches or shame churches into giving larger percentages.

We have demonstrated over the past 35 years that we seldom find a mega church pastor whose congregation gives in the low single digits whom we are unwilling to elevate to our highest denominational elective office. Check the percentages of SBC presidents over this period.

I get it, brethren. Smaller church pastors resent the fact that their church gives CP percentages that are double or triple the SBC average and often many multiples of some megachurches. Some speak of the "fair share" that should be expected of churches. There is no such thing and if I know Southern Baptist churches and pastors, there aren't many who will sit still and be lectured on what they owe the convention.

Wise convention leaders express appreciation for whatever level of support the CP gets from churches. This is right and proper, since the convention serves the churches and not vice versa. There is no reason, however, that we cannot find some threshold figure of CP support before we elect officers and trustees. This has to be done informally in a grassroots fashion. No one can pick the number and dictate it.

There is nothing present, nor anything on the SBC radar that promises to increase CP percentages.

We should elect leaders whose percentages are exemplary but I would not be optimistic that the giving example of any leader shows itself in any overall increase. There are too many factors working against it.

State conventions, many of them, have heard their churches call for a greater proportion of CP revenues to be forwarded to the Executive Committee and then to the mission boards and seminaries. We're talking about fractions of percents annually on this. We're looking at five and ten year plans that, if implemented, will move state conventions from 60 or 65 percent to 55 percent or so. This is good. It is positive. But it isn't a substantial enough change to translate into changing church behavior. This will not stop state executives from saying, "We did our part. How about you churches doing yours" but it doesn't matter. They work for the churches, not the churches for the various levels of convention life.

The pressures in the convention work against the Cooperative Program.

Calvinism/Traditionalism or any of the assorted other issues that swirl around the convention all have a price. At the moment we have some prominent pastors who designate around certain seminaries who are seen to be too Calvinistic. We have others who are displeased with NAMB for their church planting policies which are also seen as too Calvinistic. We have state Baptist colleges who are plainly not comfortable places for Calvinistic students and faculty. All this mitigates against any unity in expanding and increasing the CP.

Think of it on a local church level. All that has to happen for a church to decrease their CP giving is for one of any number of gripes to bubble up in the pastor's or church leadership's thinking. Perhaps my fellow pastors would tell me if I am wrong, generally, that decreasing the CP percentage in a local church budget meets with much less resistance that it did thirty years ago. Contrast that to what might happen for a church to increase their CP giving. While possible and while many churches have responded positively to Frank Page's One Percent CP increase plan, churches will make opportunity cost decisions with their funds and many will conclude that there are other, better uses for their missions giving. The CP simply isn't presenting an attractive enough appeal to score high on that comparison for most churches. 

More churches, and even state conventions, are taking a more direct funding route.

Check the figures. The Executive Committee received more last fiscal year in designated funds from the states than they did in Cooperative Program funds. That old, archaic term societal giving, well it are us these days. We never left it and now it looks more popular than ever. At the SBC level we are a mostly societally funded orgainzation.

Not much has been said about it but one state convention (South Carolina, perhaps others also) is sending some funding directly to the IMB. Their thinking is that they can get to the level of support they wish to give international missions by taking a portion of CP gifts from the churches and bypassing Nashville than they can by submitting their national portion of CP revenues to the SBC Executive Committee's allocation plan. The math works for them by this method; whereas, it works against them through the traditional route. 

The two major mission offerings, Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong, have fared much better than the Cooperative Program recently. In fact, unless trends change, within a decade the Lottie Moon offering will be greater than the portion of the CP received by the Executive Committee. 

The Cooperative Program desperately needs a makeover.

Oh, we tried that with the Great Commission Resurgence, one of those grand eruptions where we clamor for change and recommitment to our main purposes of missions and ministry. Here's the result of that: NAMB came out better, IMB got a tiny increase, the seminaries successfully protected their slice of the CP pie, and state conventions were expected to shoulder all the costs. 

Nothing much about that makes the CP look better than it did before.

We might keep doing the same things and just manage the CP as a declining but still substantial funding mechanism, a legacy brand that has seen its best days. Not a bad idea. Be positive about it, recognizing the realities, adjust to leaner state conventions, try and consolidate some seminary expenses, while keeping NAMB and IMB our main entities robust and vigorous in their work.

Anyone have a better idea?

There are days where I do pessimism quite well. And there are days where I do realism extremely well. You choose which you prefer. I'm thinking there is a convergence on this subject.

Scintillating predictions for 2014

 2014

What will Southern Baptists do in 2014...besides serve the Lord, share the Gospel, minister in Jesus' name and perhaps fuss and fight a bit? Here are a few predictions:

1. SBC Presidential Election; When the SBC meets in annual session in Baltimore June 10 & 11, your humble hacker and plodder blogger plans to attend. I have no idea who will run for president but allow me to make the safe prediction that there will be a megachurch pastor, perhaps an ethnic candidate, and maybe someone involved in the Calvinist/Traditionalist business. If I am able to vote, I will not vote for any candidate whose church does not give a minimum percentage to the Cooperative Program. That threshold percentage will be the subject of a later blog article. To be candid, I'm a bit tired of the megachurch superstar candidates (though I admit I happily voted for Bryant Wright a few years ago).

2. Calvinist/Traditionalist Stuff; Frank Page's informal, ad hoc Calvinist study group is history, pretty much forgotten history at this point. Peering down the months of 2014, I see a renewal of conflict on the macro level and continuing church acrimony on the micro level in regard to Calvinist doctrine and Calvinistic pastors. The best we can hope for is for the year to be quiet in this regard. If there are any major SBC entities who change leadership this year, expect for them to receive keen scrutiny on their Calvinism as well as their connections to Southern Seminary and Al Mohler. Sorry, it's just where we are.

3. Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings; The Lottie Moon offering goal is the same $175 million that we have had since 2009. We haven't been close to reaching the goal but will do better this year than last and will end up above $150 million. Kevin Ezell and the North American Mission Board have actually presented a vision that has registered with Southern Baptists and the Annie Armstrong offering is increasing. I predict another increase for 2014.

4. State conventions; No level of SBC life has suffered as much as state conventions. I predict continued financial shortfalls. One might take the macro view that state conventions have been caught in a major technology and attitude shift that leaves them having to do the very hard work of convincing churches of the value of their mission and vision.

5. Cooperative Program; The CP showed yet another decline last year and that after the tiniest of increases the previous year. I see no shift in long term trends and predict another small CP decline. It is becoming increasingly apparrent that SBC pastors and churches are placing more emphasis and energy in specific, dedicated spending than in our grand market basket cooperative pool. I remind my astute readers that at the SBC level we are now mostly a societal giving denomination with more revenues going directly to SBC entities than to the Cooperative Program.

6. Housing Allowance; Rank speculation here, but I predict that the federal court decision that struck down the laws allowing cash housing allowances to ministers will be appealed and there will be no further decision this year.

7. Plagiarism; My sense is that plagiarism - bold, shameless stealing of other pastor's entire sermons and illustrations and preaching them as if they are one's own - is rampant among pastors. People widely known among Southern Baptists will be confronted with their sins in this regard.

8. Personal predictions; Plodder will once again replenish his pathetic looking wood pile. Although I was rather lazy about it in 2013, I jumped all over it yesterday. I will preach more in 2014 than I did in 2013 and will preach exactly zero sermons with silly alliterative outlines. With no effort at all from me, my total of grandchildren will increase by 50%.

I admit to a paucity of predictions for this year. Sorry.

2003: Lottie Moon's phenomenal year

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions is our most important Southern Baptist offering and the best money that can be put in the offering plate. Most of the people who need Christ are across the oceans, not in North America. The LMCO, used for overseas needs, is critical to our main task as Southern Baptists.

We have hovered around $150 million for the last seven years. The offering hasn't hit the $150 million total since 2007 but last year was less than one million short of that figure. I expect that it will be surpassed when all of the 2013 offering is in and figures released. Two of the last five years have seen the offering decrease.

But let's be positive.

Consider what happened ten years ago, 2003.

2002    $115,015,216

2003    $136,204,648

                               Increase    $  21,189,432

The increase was an astounding 18%. We haven't approached that in dollars or percentages since. To achieve an 18% increase over last year's offering, Southern Baptists would have to give an additional $27 million and surpass the rather unrealistic $175 million goal we have had since 2009. 

While I don't see anything that indicates such an increase is probable, it is certainly possible. My feelings here in the SBC hinterlands is that Southern Baptists are prioritizing their giving as never before and Lottie Moon is very high on the priority list.

While the Cooperative Program continues its long, slow slog downward as a percentage of offering plate dollars, the LMCO is increasing. We can do much better on both but the contrast is plain for all to see.

Many churches and even state conventions are sending gifts directly to the IMB, bypassing the Executive Committee and their state convention. One may like this, dislike it, or be ambivalent about it but it is a trend.

As a pastor, I always tried to increase our church's LMCO, even in the tough years. My wonderful congregations always did their best and gave just a little more. 

2013 could be a phenomenal year.

It's up to you.

Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon: Converging lines

Check the crude line graph below. The red line is the Cooperative Program giving received at the Executive Committee and the green line is the Lottie Moon offering. (SBC geeks will find some slight differences in the figures due to slightly different calendars and how the Executive Committee reports figures). 

The Cooperative program is $14.6 million less than five years ago. These have been tough years. In contrast, the Lottie Moon offering has almost recovered to the giving amount of five years ago.

Southern Baptists have increased their giving to the LMCO for three of the past five years while gifts to the Cooperative Program showed decreases each year except for one where there was a very slight increase.

Any reasonable projection of the trend lines comparing these two offerings would have them growing closer and closer together. The Cooperative Program is declining. The Lottie Moon offering is increasing.

Here's a striking factoid: At the SBC level giving is now distinctly more designated than cooperative. While the total for Cooperative Program gifts and designated gifts have been about equal for some years, at the close of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, designated giving was $2.7 million greater than Cooperative Program giving.

It seems clear that Southern Baptists are having to prioritize their giving and North American and international missions are being increased, though slightly, while the Cooperative Program continues is slow, steady slog downward.

It's a lot tougher to promote a market basket of ministries than it is to zero in on church planting in North America or reaching the billions who need Christ around the world.

I see nothing on the horizon that will change these trends. I expect when the Lottie Moon 2013 figures are in next June that it will have surpassed $150 million again.

It's official: Southern Baptists prefer societal giving to cooperative giving.

The SBC Executive Committee closed their fiscal year books the other day and has reported the results:

• Cooperative Program gifts: Down   $3,677,719
• Designated gifts:                   Up        $2,361,345

Note that these are the Cooperative Program and designated gifts that are received and channeled through the Executive Committee, not total CP gifts (most of which stay with the various state conventions), nor gifts given directly to our entities. Most of the designated giving would be the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings. 

The figure are self-explanatory. 

• Southern Baptist churches are giving less to the Cooperative Program, a decrease of 1.92% from the previous year.
• Southern Baptist churches are giving more in designated funds, an increase of 1.24% from the previous year.

Here's something to chew on: Southern Baptists gave more through the Executive Committee in designated giving than they did in Cooperative Program giving and thereby demonstrated that in support of our SBC entities, we prefer societal giving. I didn't check if this is a historic first or not. I suspect it is a first in our lifetime.

Cooperative Program         $188,001,275
Designated Giving              $193,106,285

Commentary?

While the Cooperative Program languishes, Lottie Moon flourishes

Various Southern Baptist Convention entities make announcements and reports just prior to the annual meeting and it was good to hear our International Mission Board announce that the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions totaled almost $150,000,000 for 2012.

The final total, $149,276,303, was the third highest ever received and was the second consecutive year the offering showed an increase. The 1.7% increase over 2011 might not seem impressive but the additional $2.45 million will pay a lot of mission personnel costs. Dollars still pay the bills, not percentages.

Contrast the increase for international missions with Cooperative Program's continued languishing. CP receipts are accurately reported by the Executive Committee who have generally found it positive to state CP giving as keeping up with budgeted goals. The CP was down about 4% compared to the same period for last year but slightly above budget. I have no problem with positive spin, which is what that is.

In my state, Georgia, there is a marked contrast between what is happening with the Cooperative Program and with the two major mission offerings, Lottie Moon and the North American Mission Board's Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

The CP was up in Georgia for 2012 by 1.67%, very good news here in light of the fact that it has dropped by millions over the past few years. However, offerings to NAMB were up 6.88% and offerings to the IMB were up a lusty 9.22% over the previous year.

Plodder's conclusions, a statement of the painfully obvious: Southern Baptists have far more enthusiasm for North American and International missions than they do for the catch-all Cooperative Program.

While each has great value among us, when pastors and churches look at where they wish to spend their mission dollars they are eschewing some CP giving in favor of direct giving to the two mission boards.

The math likely reveals why: a dollar to the CP yields one dime to NAMB and about two dimes to IMB. A dollar to Lottie or Annie yields a dollar to that mission cause without dilution.

I do not think this trend is unhealthy. Quite the opposite. Neither do I think that there is anything much Frank Page or any other SBC or state convention executive can do to make the CP more appealing to the churches.

Good work Southern Baptists. Lottie would be pleased.

Lottie Moon: $175m or bust

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, in millions, for the last 13 years.

The goal has been kept the same, $175,000,000, for the past four years in spite of the fact that receipts have been nowhere near the goal, not even in the neighborhood.

I think we are in a mode where lowering the goal (something that was done last in the year 2000 when it was dropped from $125m to $115m making it attainable) is seen as failure. It is not.


I admit to a bit of statistical persnicketiness in regard to goals and achievements. A goal becomes meaningless when it is unattainable. Our present LMCO goal is unattainable. It is therefore meaningless. At the current rate we will make another LMCO goal in about 25 years, assuming we do not raise the goal from its present $175m figure.

A considerable jump in LMCO receipts will likely come one of these years. I don't see it on the horizon for 2012 but, who knows? I would be pleased if we hit the $150m threshold for 2012, something that was last done before the economic meltdown.

Any way you look at it, the LMCO provides a lot of funds for international missions about 46% of the IMB's total budget.

I support it wholeheartedly.

Maybe it would help if the IMB used the "stern" Lottie Moon photograph below. One can hear Lottie saying, "Write the check! Make it large! People are dying here!"

...instead of the ridiculous "school girl" photograph that Lottie herself asked the board not to use:

What Mission Offering Do SBCers Value More?

Southern Baptists value Annie and Lottie more than the Cooperative Program, a fact shown by their behavior over the last few years since the economic meltdown.

While revenues for our two major mission offerings, Annie Armstrong for our North American Mission Board and Lottie Moon for our International Mission Board, have declined significantly since 2007, their losses have been markedly less than that of the Cooperative Program.

The graph above shows Annie, Lottie, and the Cooperative Program receipts of the SBC Executive Committee for the years 2007-2011. The reporting for these offerings is on different schedules so the time periods represented are slightly different. Of the three offerings, only the Cooperative Program has shown no material increase in any of the past five years.

One can make their own judgments as to the reasons why, but it seems to be a statement of the obvious to conclude that Southern Baptists and Southern Baptist churches see more value in putting their mission dollars into the giving channels which focus on North American and international missions.

Sure, the CP does contribute significantly to the budgets of the two mission boards but when churches and individuals have to choose, they have chosen to maintain giving levels of Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong as best they can in difficult times rather than the Cooperative Program.

Whenever there is a discussion of the Cooperative Program, some contributors will comment on their displeasure with the proportional division of the CP which puts less than twenty cents on the CP dollar in the IMB and less than a dime for NAMB. The understanding that Lottie and Annie bypass this reduction is an incentive for churches to put relatively more emphasis on the mission offerings than on the Cooperative Program.

Regardless, it will be good when we can go back to black ink on all three of them.

$146,828,116.05

IMB int'l missions offering: $146.8M in 2011, up $1.1M

Of course you knew what the amount in the title was.

Calvinism/schmalvinism, traditionalist/schmaditionalist...can we continue to give more, go more, pray more for the billions who aren't saturated with the Gospel as we are here?

Less than one percent increase.

We will take it, thank the Lord for it, and be happy about it.

I rather like the 'stern' photo of Lottie Moon shown above. It's the one the IMB never uses.

Lottie Moon, SBC's most heroic figure

Because of the offering in her name, Charlotte Digges Moon, Lottie Moon to all of us, is the SBC's most heroic figure.

If SBCers would take an excursion away from the usual Christmastime abstract of her life found in International Mission Board materials and repeated in church Lottie Moon Christmas Offering promotional stuff and read her biography, they would probably join me in my assessment.

Regina Sullivan wrote the latest biography of LM (cover image is shown here). A previous biography, 1980, was written by Catherine Allen. I bought the former and was generously sent a copy of the latter by Wanda Lee, WMU president. I read Sullivan's but haven't had time to read Allen's.

Moon was an inspiring example, serving in China. Pioneering work, alone, in some parts of the interior. Living through the Boxer Rebellion. Vigorously contenting for the faith, pleading for support. Read the book.

One of the popular blog sites interviews prominent SBCers and always asks them who some of their heroes are. I think my memory is correct when I say that Lottie's name has yet to be mentioned. The current SBC is manifestly gender-sensitive, a euphemistic way of putting it. Serious gender issues are meant to be subsumed under the sterile vocabulary of "complementarianism" and "egalitarianism" issues for another day on my blog.

I wouldn't have any hesitation in naming Lottie Moon as one of my heroes in Christian ministry.

One side note. Why the IMB continues to use the unattractive "schoolgirl" photograph of jut-jawed Lottie in their promotional materials is beyond me. , Regina Sullivan told me that she saw a letter from LM to the board asking that they not use that photograph. There are certainly others available. You would think that they would use a photo of Lottie from her time in the field. The "schoolgirl" photo is almost certainly prior to her time in China.

I'm praying that the LMCO shows an increase this year.