Baptists scale back budget

Baptists gathering for their annual convention today will vote on a more modest 2010 budget - one that reflects not only the chastening effects of the recession but also the contraction of a once formidable organization.

The nearly $35 million budget proposed for 2010 represents an 11.4 percent reduction from this year's budget, as churches pass on fewer dollars to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina - the state's largest religious group.

"We're basically at the budget we were in 2001," said John Butler, executive leader for business services.

But the state convention, with nearly 3,500 participating churches, also has been cutting its contractual ties to many of the institutions it once supported: the Baptist retirement homes, the five Baptist colleges and universities and the Women's Missionary Union.

The changes come as the state convention aligns itself more with the larger conservative direction of the national Southern Baptist Convention with which it is affiliated. This week's meeting will be the first time in nearly 20years that the state convention will not allow churches to support a rival, more moderate Baptist group with their donations - the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Nor will it channel donations to moderate groups such as the Baptist World Alliance or the Associated Baptist Press.

Instead, if adopted, the 2010 budget will funnel more money to the Southern Baptist Convention, or about 34.5 percent of the total budget. For the past five years, that amount has increased by a half percentage point, or 2.5 percent in all.

That move is at odds with larger trends. Nationwide, churches are diversifying their giving among different ministries and keeping more money at home.

"People are distancing themselves from larger denominations," said Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University and a Baptist scholar. "They're more apt to find local ministries where they can see a direct connection with their resources."

Baptists also will elect a new president, first vice president and second vice president. No one is expected to challenge the presidency. The Rev. Ed Yount, a Conover pastor, is the only announced candidate. The Rev. Mark Harris, a Charlotte pastor, is the only announced candidate for first vice president.

Pastors Ray Davis of Winston-Salem and C.J. Bordeaux of Durham are running for second vice president.

Perhaps the most obvious sign of the state convention's downsizing is its choice of meeting places. For the past several years, the convention has met at the Greensboro Coliseum, which can accommodate 23,000 people. This year, it meets at Greensboro's Joseph Koury Convention Center, which accommodates 6,000.

Twenty-three hundred people are expected.

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