Revisiting budget projections within Cooperative Ministries

When the 2007 congregational commitments to Cooperative Ministries (shared and designated) were tallied, the bottom line revealed both good and not so good news. Total giving by churches in support of our shared ministries is up by 2.4 percent over 2006 giving. However, congregational dollars designated for CM is $109,518 short of what was anticipated by Leadership Council, based on historic giving patterns by congregations, and subsequently approved by GCB for 2007.

Strong giving by individuals toward Cooperative Ministries, coupled with an extra contribution from the Canadian Conference in support of the General Church’s communications program, is helping bridge the budget gap. In addition, CFO Gene Blessing has identified about $15,000 in savings already projected for 2007. Taken together, these reduce the shortfall to just over $58,000.

At their May meeting, Leadership Council will revisit the General Church’s budget, looking for possible additional cuts that can be made with the least amount of negative impact to ministry priorities. However, with our 2010 vision plans in front of us, we dare not cut too deep without stemming the momentum of recent years.

At this point, we are nearing the summit of the steep climb to which we Brethren in Christ committed ourselves at the beginning of this decade.

We started with 250 congregations and we now have 298 toward our goal of 325 healthy churches in Canada and the U.S.
We began the decade with 50 full time equivalent missionaries, and we now have 71 toward our goal of 100.
And within the last few months, we have launched a four-year initiative focused on church health.

Who could have thought, seven years ago, that we could climb this high? Who could have imagined all the ways the Lord has blessed us?

But the final stretch to the peak of a mountain is often the steepest of all. The only way we can attain the summit is to climb together. Just as mountaineers climb in teams, we can only fulfill our shared vision by advancing together, and that includes congregational involvement in Cooperative Ministries.

We are deeply grateful for the generous commitments from all our churches to CM for 2007,and especially for the 50 or so U.S. churches that have committed 10 percent or more to CM. We could eliminate the anticipated deficit if every BIC church whose commitment is less than 10 percent to CM would be able to increase their giving by even another 1 percent. This kind of cooperation and mutual support has long been a characteristic of our BIC family of churches.

Please pray with us that ministry priorities of the Brethren in Christ will be fully funded and that God will be glorified through our cooperative efforts.

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