The Executive Committee of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) voted to transfer $250,000 to the N.C. Baptist Foundation to support the Luther H. Butler Scholarship for N.C. Baptist Students during a meeting held Fri., March 2 at Caraway Conference Center.
The funds will come from a BSC reserve fund that receives payments from church loans that were previously managed by the state convention.
In 2015, the BSC Board of Directors voted to transfer oversight of the convention’s scholarship program to the N.C. Baptist Foundation, which resulted in the establishment of the Luther H. Butler scholarship program. The transfer in oversight meant that Cooperative Program funds would no longer be used to fund scholarships, so as part of the decision, the board agreed to provide funding as available from existing reserves to help grow the scholarship endowment.
The endowment provides funding for the Luther H. Butler Scholarship for N.C. Baptist Students, which offers merit and need-based scholarships to students of N.C. Baptist churches attending one of the universities historically affiliated with the convention, which include Campbell, Chowan, Gardner-Webb, Mars Hill and Wingate.
In other business, BSC Board President Marc Francis, pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Durham, re-appointed board member John Compton as chairman of the Articles and Bylaws Committee and board member Jeff Isenhour as chairman of the Budget Committee.
Compton serves as pastor of Mountain View Baptist Church in Hickory, and Isenhour serves as pastor of Arran Lake Baptist Church in Fayetteville.
Francis also appointed Gregory Shaver, executive pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Monroe, to the Articles and Bylaws Committee, and board member Terry Stockman to the Budget Committee.
Stockman serves as director of missions in the West Chowan Baptist Association.
Convention bylaws allow the board president to appoint the chairmen of the Articles and Bylaws Committee, and the Budget Committee, respectively, as well as appoint one board member and one non-board member to each committee.
Beverly Volz, BSC director of accounting services, also provided a financial report to the Executive Committee.
Through the end of January, the convention had received slightly more than $2 million in Cooperative Program (CP) receipts, which is about 16 percent behind the 2018 budget to date. Volz explained that CP giving totals are lower so far in 2018 because of how the convention bylaws stipulate that end-of-year funds must be received.
The bylaws stipulate the funds for the previous calendar year may be received up five business days following the last Sunday of the year.
Since Dec. 31 was the final Sunday of 2017, the convention was required to count any funds received during the first week in January 2018 toward 2017 giving totals.
Both Volz and John Butler, BSC executive leader for business services, said they expect CP giving to even out as the year goes on.
“As we get into the next few months (the budget) should even back out,” Volz said.
Butler added: “It’s just the way the calendar fell this year. … This is not unusual, and we were expecting this. We are still less than one week of typical receipts behind budget, so I’m not concerned at this point since January’s receipts really only reflected three full weeks of church contributions.”
The Executive Committee’s next regularly scheduled meeting is April 12.
The next meeting of the full BSC Board of Directors is May 21-22.