The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBF-NC) Mission Resource Plan was growing even before the Baptist State Convention decided to stop letting churches send money to the national CBF through its giving channel.
It may take off even more after messengers voted Nov. 12 to kill an amendment to a proposed giving plan that would have provided a convenient way for churches to give to CBF while supporting missions through the Cooperative Program.
CBF-NC Coordinator Larry Hovis said 71 churches gave about $1.2 million through the plan in the first 10 months of 2008. In all of 2007, 51 churches gave about $776,000, he said.
Fourteen more churches have indicated they expect to start using the plan in January, Hovis said.
CBF-NC retains 30 percent of the money given through the basic Mission Resource Plan, while CBF national gets 20 percent. The other 50 percent is divided among N.C. Baptist institutions and agencies and other Baptist causes.
The CBF-NC plan allows churches to change any of the percentages. Hovis said about half of participating churches use the basic plan, with the others making changes.
Hovis said CBF-NC officials started the Mission Resource Plan in 2004 and two churches gave about $24,000 through the plan.
The next year, six churches used the plan to give about $66,000.
In 2006, CBF-NC started actively promoting the plan and 20 churches used it to give about $212,000.
Some churches support CBF-NC without using the plan, Hovis said.
“This (Mission Resource Plan) is not all the money we get,” he said. “There are other churches that give us money and CBF national money.”
Overall, CBF-NC receipts are about $613,000 through the first seven months of the group’s fiscal year, a 17 percent increase over the same period last year. So far, CBF-NC receipts are below budget, which increased about 19 percent this year, but Hovis expects that to change.
“We’re projecting that we will exceed our budget based on previous giving patterns,” he said. “Our biggest months are ahead of us.”