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.
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.
