NASHVILLE (BP) — Tennessee Baptist Mission Board (TBMB) directors will recommend a Cooperative Program (CP) allocation budget goal of $35 million for the sixth consecutive year.

During their meeting Sept. 10 at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville, TBMB directors also approved a change in how CP gifts will be distributed between the Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC) and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Board members will recommend to messengers at the state convention’s annual meeting (aka “The Summit”) in November a percentage allocation of 55% for the TBC, 40% for the SBC and 5% for the International Mission Board (IMB). The budget requires approval of convention messengers.

In 2010, the TBC kept 60% of CP gifts for missions and ministries in Tennessee while forwarding 40% to the Southern Baptist Convention for national ministries, according to information provided to the directors.

Since then, the TBC has incrementally increased its percentage to the Southern Baptist Convention each year with the goal of getting to a 50-50 distribution of funds with the SBC. For the past four years, the SBC percentage has been at 47.5%.

Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, informed directors that as a result of that move, $19 million more dollars have gone on from Tennessee to Southern Baptist causes “because we did not stay where we were. That should be celebrated and appreciated,” he said.

Tennessee Baptists made significant strides in the past 10 years in reaching the current allocation of funds because they wanted more money to go to global missions, he noted.

Davis also pointed out that the move to a 50-50 distribution of CP funds was dependent upon churches increasing their contributions through the Cooperative Program so ministries in Tennessee would not be impacted. That has not happened, Davis said. While Southern Baptist churches gave about 10% through the Cooperative Program in the 1980s, that has dwindled to 4.4% nationally and 5.2% in Tennessee, he added.

Daniel Jerkins, chair of the Budget and Ministry Committee and associate/executive pastor of Hickory Withe First Baptist Church in Eads, Tenn., reiterated Davis’ remarks as he presented the budget.

In keeping the total budget at $35 million, Jerkins noted that “our CP giving has been consistently between $34-35 million for the last 10 years.”

He added that because the convention has given “clear support” for the Acts 2:17 Initiative, the committee recommended that the SBC allocation be split into two separate allocations — 40% to SBC and 5% to IMB.

“With this extra allocation to the IMB, our missionaries working to reach the unreached with the gospel will receive the same amount of funding that they would have if the TBC sent 50% to the SBC,” Jerkins said.

“This extra allocation seeks to honor the original intent behind reaching 50/50. This budget allocates more dollars for reaching the nations than ever before in the history of the TBC.”

Reducing the total SBC allocation is necessary because “we have to find new dollars to fund” Acts 2:17, Jerkins said.

While CP giving has remained steady, inflation “has robbed those funds of the value they used to hold,” he added. “It has been the TBC that has taken the brunt of the inflation hit. The TBMB has sacrificed in terms of not filling open positions and decreasing events.”

Jerkins said the new budget includes “$100,000 less in compensation that it did last year and the plan is to reduce the full-time equivalency staff by 10-15% during the first part of next year.”

According to the background information given to directors, both Union University and Carson-Newman University “voluntarily offered to round their allocations down to 5% each and move the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes to 5% so they can help with the Acts 2:17 Initiative priorities of adoption and foster care.

Jerkins stressed that the reductions to the two universities were not due to a lack of trust in or dissatisfaction with the two institutions.

Union University President Dub Oliver said the same thing during his report. “We will adapt … because we want to advance the work of the kingdom of God in Tennessee,” Oliver said. “What we cannot do without is the churches of the Tennessee Baptist Convention — your belief in us, your trust in us and your promotion of us.”

Jerkins said, “The bottom line is that the SBC is stronger when the TBC is stronger. I believe these changes are a step in the right direction while still honoring the heart of the intent to move to 50/50.”

Both Jerkins and Davis agreed that as Cooperative Program funds increase in the future there will always be the opportunity to again move towards a 50/50 distribution.

In addition to the $35 million goal, the recommendation also included two other parts — the TBMB budget of $19,222,000 and the Convention Operations budget of $1,675,000.

A motion was offered to vote on each of the three parts of the budget separately, but it failed in a show of hands vote.

There was limited discussion about the budget. Dani Bryson of First Baptist Church, Dickson, who also is a member of the SBC Executive Committee, was not in favor of separating the SBC allocation. “I understand the intent of a line item for the IMB but I don’t think it is the example that we want to set,” she said.

The budget passed by a show of hands vote with about seven dissenting votes.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Lonnie Wilkey is editor of the Baptist and Reflector, news journal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. This article originally appeared in the Baptist and Reflector.)