From the Desk of the President - May 2016
When our convention gathered together last November at our annual meeting at Jersey Baptist Church in Columbus, a task force comprised of godly men and women from across Ohio were commissioned to examine our current Cooperative Program (CP) funding ratio. Their task, clear, concise, and difficult, was to bring a recommendation to the July 2016 Mission Council regarding the urgency of changing our CP funding ratio from 59.75/ 40.25 to 50/50. Currently, for every dollar given to the Cooperative Program from Ohio churches, almost 60 cents stays within the state. Moving to a 50/50 ratio would increase our state funding to the Cooperative Program and would increase our funding to the Southern Baptist Convention and all the ministries it supports.
This increase in our funding ratio would position Ohio Southern Baptists to become a leader in seeing the world come to Christ (IMB and NAMB ministries), Christian leaders trained for ministry (our 6 SBC seminaries), social issues addressed with biblical clarity (ERLC ministry), and the poor helped through food distribution and disaster relief (Hunger Funds and DR ministry).
Our 50/50 task force committee gathered together in April and May to prayerfully consider how to both move forward in faith and fiscal wisdom. This committee was bathed in prayer as hundreds, if not thousands of believers from across our state and the country were praying for us. I am happy to share with you that on May 5th, 2016, the task force committee voted and will be recommending to the July Mission Council that we move forward in faith and shift to a new CP funding ratio of 50/50 beginning with our 2017 budget!
As your President, I wholeheartedly believe that as we march toward our annual meeting in November at FBC Vandalia, this God impacted moment will stir a movement within Ohio Baptists. I have been encouraged by so many of you these past 6 months as I have met with you personally, and I sense an excitement about this shift in funding and the future of our State Convention, local associations, and individual churches! Great days are ahead for Ohio Southern Baptists!
In closing, I want to personally take this opportunity to invite you to attend our annual state convention. It is being held at FBC Vandalia, Wednesday November 2nd. The day before, Tuesday November 1st will be a new event, the 2016 Pastors Conference. In the coming months, we will be announcing our guest speakers and worship team for both meetings. Please don’t miss this historic moment that I pray will ignite a movement of God within Ohio and in the nations around the world.
