The SBC's Most Important Number: 5.41%

The latest data show that SBC churches give 5.41% of their undesignated offering plate dollars through the Cooperative Program.

This is the 2011 figure and it continues a slow, steady decline that is decades long. When I began my pastoral ministry in the 1980s the figure was over ten percent.

Even at the current percentage, the Cooperative Program is a mammoth denominational funding mechanism, providing hundreds of millions of dollars almost all of which goes to the mission boards, seminaries, and state conventions.

There may be evidence that the decline is approaching a floor. The most recent Cooperative Program survey showed that about one in seven pastors had either already led their church to adopt Frank Page's "One Percent Challenge," the latest CP increase program by the Executive Committee, or plan to do so this year.

The One Percent Challenge is a simple plan that merely asks churches to give more and it is about the only basis for a CP emphasis, absent any substantial changes given to the allocation formulas of the CP.

The graph below shows the percentage of offering plate dollars given through the CP that get to denominational entities, mainly the six seminaries and two mission boards.

While most SBC churches give directly to our International and North American Mission Boards and would increase the tiny slice of the pie above thereby, one could say that our churches seem to find far more local priorities for their funds.

Nonetheless, that tiny slice means hundreds of millions of dollars to educate clergy and to send missionaries to North America and the world.

Better get it right in your church's giving acknowledgements

Some of the political discussion these days is on eliminating loopholes to the tax code and thereby raising revenues. Want to read about Richard Land waxing indignant? Try this:

Charitable deduction cap would be 'devastating'

"This [idea of capping the amount of charitable giving that could be deducted by rich folks] would be catastrophic in its impact, particularly on those large gifts that many religious organizations, colleges, universities and ministries, as well as churches, depend upon for continuing operations," Land told Baptist Press Thursday (Nov. 29). "Everything we know from past experience tells us if they cap deductions it will seriously erode charitable giving."

I think Dr. Land also said that the barbarians were at the ecclesiastical gates, churches would die by the thousands, preachers would be begging on the street corners but that did not make it into the Baptist Press article.

But all that is speculation and may not come to pass.

Here is hard reality: If you and your church fails to provide the correct documentation for charitable gifts of any size, then your members may have them disallowed by the IRS.

How about that? You give your money. The church gets it and may even thank you for it but it doesn't count with the IRS unless the church gives you the correct giving acknowledgement.

Donors must receive a contemporaneous acknowledgement along with certain explicit wording. Take it from a CPA who, in this link ( Churches and other NFPs need to send better acknowledgments), covers the case of a donor who lacked the proper explicit wording from the church:

The substantiation requirements for charitable contributions are strict.  How strict ?  Stricter than you probably thought.  You must get a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the donee for donations over $250. [In another forum someone pointed out to me that the rule is $250 or more, not more than $250].  The acknowledgment needs to detail the value of any ..The acknowledgment needs to detail the value of any goods or services you received in exchange for the donation or explicitly state that you received none (Intangible religous benefits do not count. 

Ticky. Ticky. Ticky, you say?

Costly. Costly. Costly...if your church fails to follow the rules on this.

My state convention says the same thing in this article: 'Church Contribution Credit'

I don't know but would guess that many smaller SBC churches are not providing the necessary documentation to their members for their gifts. I would also speculate that not a few of our church members knowingly or unknowingly are counting as gifts that money paid to their church for books, suppers, study courses, camp fees, etc. Sorry, you don't get to deduct for those fun church camps that cost you so much or for the fried chicken fingers on Wednesday night at the church supper.

Heads up here. You have about a month to straighten out your church's mess on this.

[And I'd bet that most pastors have a story about some church or member working some funny business on giving. Feel free to share it in a comment here.]

Great Commission vs Cooperative Program Giving

When the SBC approved the new giving category, Great Commission Giving, an aggregate category that includes giving to the Cooperative Program, state convention, local association, plus any direct gifts to any SBC entity, great weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued in some quarters. Dire predictions of negative effects on the Cooperative Program were made.

2011 was the first reporting year for GCG but I don't know that much can be learned by it, since nothing can be viewed comparatively; nonetheless, here are some figures for the top giving churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention:

First Woodstock (Johnny Hunt's megachurch):
Total gifts   $1,194,200
Total CP            866,170
Total GCG      3,144,120   

Woodstock is the top Cooperative Program giving church in the GBC. Their CP gifts were 27.5% of their total Great Commission Giving meaning that they gave a lot more directly to SBC causes than to the CP.

Hebron, Dacula (formerly Larry Wynn's megachurch):
Total gifts    $902,640
Total CP         840,905
Total GCG      944,882

Only Woodstock gave more to the CP than Hebron last year. Hebron's CP gifts were 93.1% of their total Great Commission Giving indicating that their main channel for SBC giving was the CP.

Johnson Ferry (Bryant Wright's megachurch):
Total gifts     $566,079
Total CP          566,079
Total GCG       793,315

Johnson Ferry's CP gifts were 71.4% of their total Great Commission Giving.

Clearly, Woodstock and Hebron have different giving philosophies.

Local church autonomy at work.

I haven't asked but it looks like Johnson Ferry chooses to report differently than the other two. Fact is, the Great Commission Giving total for any church would be a voluntarily reported figure supplied by the church that is comprised of components that could not be easily checked. I'm not alleging anything here about JFBC, just saying that a simple comparison of GCG statistics may not be valid.


I first heard Adrian Rogers make the statement that "Dollars pay the bills, not percentages," an assertion made to counter the complaint of megachurches giving smaller percentages to the Cooperative Program than other churches. Of course he was right and that assertion is manifestly true.

Here in Georgia, Woodstock First is the top CP giving church in total gifts - $866,170. That amount is over six times larger than the aggregate Cooperative Program giving of the top five churches in the GBC in percentage Cooperative Program giving (and who average giving 39% of their total undesignated giving to the CP).

All deserve praise for their support of missions through the Cooperative Program. None deserve criticism.

My view has been that the new Great Commission Giving category will merely reflect the reality on the ground rather than generate any new giving trends. While it may be useful for comparison of candidates for SBC offices, it is beginning to look like it may be a fuzzier figure than originally thought.

But, for SBCers who are numbers junkies, here's something to chew on.

Asking the church for money: How much is too much?

How many offerings does your church take up?

Secondary question: How many is too many?

Here’s a list of offerings we do or have done in my church:

1. Regular budget offerings, every Sunday, without fail. It's part of worship, of course.
2. Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions; runs roughly for the entire months of December and January. Our largest and most important 'special' offering.
3. Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions; I promote it for a single Sunday in March or April but people give over a period of 3-4 Sundays. NAMB just about lost my trust with the recent debacles but is doing much better now.
4. World Hunger Offering; usually in October and usually not just a ‘give us a check or cash’ offering but some kind of promotion.
5. Local crisis pregnancy center; February, usually like the WHO.
6. Gideons; not annually but occasionally when we host a Gideon speaker we will receive an offering for the group.
7. Local drug/alcohol rehab facility; similar to the pregnancy center.
8. Golf tournament for local rehab unit; church members receive letters asking for donations from our golfers but not a direct offering.
9. Church mission trip; usually not a cash offering.
10. Local benevolence need; as needed love offering for someone or some family need
11. Disaster relief; as needed, Alabama tornadoes this year
12. Children’s Home; usually a food pantry type, although this year they asked for Wal-Mart gift cards.
13. Love offering for pastor and staff. I'm all for this one. I did insist that 'Pastor Appreiciation Sunday' be changed to 'Staff Appreciation' when we called another full time staff member.
14. Associational Special Mission Offering. We don't do this one annually but our association started a mission offering, complete with special envelopes and named for a former long term Associational Missionary.

We don't participate in the state mission offering, any hospital, seminary, or Baptist senior ministry.

I'm thinking that it is soooo easy to go to the well too often and that budgeting for some of these ministries is easier but then our church doesn't object to occasional promotions for the causes they are familiar with.

What I haven't been able to do is have a perspective from the pew. Are folks thinking, 'Not another one,' or 'Enough is enough.' Looking at my list, it just looks like too many, too often. Everyone wants to pass the plate one more time for their pet cause.

Enough is enough.

Solving the problem of shrinking church offerings

Note: I am acquainted with several state convention folks who work in the area of stewardship. I like these people. I appreciate their expertise. They have a genuine concern for the Lord's work in and among the churches. The following is offered tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be harsh or critical of them.

Plodder hopes that his pastor brethren who are just starting out understand that our denominational servants spend a lot of time sitting around thinking about the problems we all have in our churches. Oh yeah, they do a lot of that.

Like how offerings are down and the world is lost and headed to gehenna in a hand basket if we don’t get them back up.

So I was at a meeting recently with other fellow soldiers of the Lord and denominational servants whose grave expressions and ominous words conveyed the dark future of SBC churches with respect to giving, or, if you prefer a more accurate term – receiving.

The issue came up about how we are going to help cashless and checkless twenty/thirtysomethings make their offerings.

“Brethren,” my cutting edge colleague intoned, “this is a very serious problem. These people don’t carry cash. They don’t use checks.”

Indeed, I thought. Our technically advanced Busters and Gen-Xers, who can navigate without maps, get all their news without ever holding a paper, and read books without turning a page. These are people whose dexterity with their thumbs on a tiny keypad is little short of astonishing and who are so socially networked they know what all their friends eat for breakfast each day. But...they can’t find a way to give to their church, where they worship and serve?

And we sixtysomethings need to rescue them from such stewardship woes?

Plodder has always presumed that folks who love the Lord and want to give to their church can find a way. He also has great faith in committed followers of Christ supporting their congregation with their resources even if it is moderately inconvenient to give.

But just in case some of my younger brethren/sistren are mired in angst over the matter here are a few things churches can do to alleviate this giving anxiety:

1. Install debit and credit card readers on backs of pews. No joke. This technology is available. Sit and swipe. It's done.

2. Put kiosks in the foyer (narthex for you high church Baptists). Kind of like the airport. You go to church you ‘check in’ at the kiosk and give your money. Kiss the kiosk might be a good slogan for this.

3. Put electronic readers at all doors. When someone walks in they get automatically debited – like a toll road. Is it nothing to all ye who pass by here? Oh no, it's something all right. Money. No fuss. No muss. No line. No PINs. Boom! We’ve got your money.

4. Cajole the folks into giving the church their bank routing numbers. Automatic, for the Lord.

5. There are, of course, apps for this. They are going to text in church anyway. ‘Text’ that tithe from your iphone, ipad, droid or whatever.

Or, tell them to just write a doggone check, take it with you to church, put it in an envelope, and when the offering plate is passed, drop it in the plate. And when they do that tell them that the act of giving is an important part of worship. Tell them that they give to the Lord because He has blessed them. Tell them to be happy, joyful when doing it. Tell them it is a time to rejoice, and participate in worship of God on the Lord’s Day by doing this.

App, schmapp. Kiosk schmiosk. Giving is worship. You love the Lord. You want to worship. So find a way to worship by giving when the congregation meets and those ancient offering plates are passed. It's not just about the money or the convenience.

Hope this helps.

When church offering plates talk: Cooperative Program or Mission Offerings?

There is good news of a sort concerning Southern Baptists and mission giving.

The Cooperative Program has dropped like a rock, about 50% since 1978, going from 11.13% of the undesignated offerings of churches to around 6% today; however, what churches have been giving to the International and North American Mission Boards through their special offerings (Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong, respectively) has declined at only about half that rate.

Sort of backhanded good news, I guess, if you love missions.

I don’t have exactly comparable statistics but consider the following:

Percentage of Undesignated Giving 1987
Lottie Moon/Annie Armstrong....... 2.276
Cooperative Program.................10.323

Percentage of Undesignated Giving 2009
Lottie Moon/Annie Armstrong.......1.725
Cooperative Program (2007-8)......6.082

Percentage decline of CP 1987-2008......... 41.08
Percentage decline of LM/AA 1987-2009......24.2

The latest comparison may show an even greater contrast between what churches give to CP as compared to LM/AA, since 2009 actually showed an increase compared to the previous year of LM/AA gifts as a percentage of undesignated church offerings.

One result of the 2007 LifeWay Research survey on Cooperative Program was that “70 percent of responding pastors agree that CP allocates contributions among state, national, and global ministries, missions, and entities appropriately.”

The great majority of pastors are happy about the allocations, right?

Maybe so, but when churches make decisions about their own offerings, they have chosen to devote more of their offering plate dollars the mission boards than to the Cooperative Program.

This isn’t brain surgery. Churches have drastically reduced their CP percentages but have not chosen to decrease their special mission offerings nearly as much.

The Cooperative Program is vitally important to the Southern Baptist Convention. It makes no sense to try and massage the statistics to present a more pleasant picture. Southern Baptists may respond to a survey and sing the praises of the CP but when their offering plates talk, you hear a different story.

Pastors and church members are 'saying' that they want a greater proportion of their dollars get to the two mission boards.

Maybe someone should listen.

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Notes on the figures: I am not a statistician but know that the better comparison would be between LM/AA/CP and total giving, in comparable time periods. I just didn't have time to do it. Readers are welcome to challenge me on this.