State Funds Now Available For Missions?

In this article, we are told that the Executive Board has taken their proposal for the 2008 overage (if there is one) and actually started it for the overage from 2007. So in that allocation $526,884 goes to the National CP and the other $526,884 is split 55% to IMB 25% to NAMB and 20% for “South Carolina mission trip scholarships (20 percent) $105,377″

My questions are simply;

1. How does one apply for these scholarships? Is there a board, a panel, a person that makes that decision?

2. Where are the guidelines for what the scholarships can be used for?

3. Is there a percentage that a church must give before they can receive funds?

4. Where will priority go? Overseas, National, SC, equally? Small churches, Medium churches, Large churches? Pastors, laypeople?

I pray the SCBC leadership and the Executive board has thought of these things, I am quite sure they have, it would just be nice for the common folk to know.

Now most telling in the article was this line, “With this newly approved allotment of funds, the final Cooperative Program percentage sent to the Southern Baptist Convention for 2007 totals 41.57 percent.” WAIT A SECOND! Did I miss something? I was under the impression that if we increased our national giving by a 1% a year that all the SCBC institutions would shut down. But we just increased it by 1.57%! We can’t afford that! That will cause all work in SC to grind to a halt.

Now what they don’t tell you. That 41.57% is not 100% undesignated. No that is the 40.34% (roughly) undesignated gift to the SBC and 1.23% designated to the IMB and the NAMB. But it is as they say in Football, “Forward Progress”.