One of the big questions being asked in relation to the Great Commission Resurgence is “How much money is staying within any given state convention versus how much is being sent on to Southern Baptist Convention causes?” We live in a very lost world and Southern Baptists are legitimately wanting to make sure their missions dollars are doing the most possible good in fulfilling the Great Commission.

I don’t profess to have the exact answer to the question of the ideal assignment of missions resources. That is certainly one of the questions that the national Great Commission Task Force will certainly wrestle with and Baptists in each state convention will also have to develop their own answers as we move forward. I do know that the situation in each state convention is somewhat different though and that it’s unlikely that a “one size fits all” approach is likely to provide the answer.

For instance, as the division of Cooperative Program funds given by the churches is discussed, the conversation is often framed in terms of how close any given convention comes to having a 50%-50% split between the SBC and the state convention. What many don’t think about, however, is that while in some states the CP pie really is divided only two ways, in other states — especially in those that are known as the “old line SBC states” – the pie is really sliced three ways. This is certainly the case in Kentucky where Cooperative Program dollars are shared among the Southern Baptist Convention, the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board and a group of 10 additional Baptist entities.

The process for developing the CP allocations in Kentucky is driven by Kentucky Baptists themselves through their elected members of the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board. (Kentucky has one of the most representative mission boards of any state convention with some 170 members from churches of all sizes representing all associations and regions of the state.) The allocation formula and CP budget goals are first approved by the Mission Board’s Business and Finance Committee which then makes a recommendation to the full Mission Board before going to the messengers for approval at the Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting.

Based on the budget allocations approved by messengers at this past November’s KBC annual meeting, here are the numbers for the upcoming 2009-2010 budget year that begins Sept. 1:

• Southern Baptist Convention — $9,136,887 (37.32%)
• Kentucky Baptist Mission Board — $9,015,276 (36.83%)
• Christian Education and KBC Entities — $6,327,837 (25.85%)

If you add the numbers up, you’ll see that the total Kentucky CP goal for 2009-2010 is $24,480,000. This goal was set before the national economy tanked, however, so unless the Lord intervenes, we may not actually see that amount this coming year. Kentucky Baptist Mission Board budgets have been put together based on total anticipated CP receipts of $23 million.

In the next post I’ll provide more detail on the allocations within each of these three areas.