By Staff, Baptist Press
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Cooperative Program ended its fiscal year 3 percent over budget and at 99.41 percent of last year’s contributions.
Church giving hopefully has dipped as low as it will from the U.S. economic downturn and may be ready to stabilize or climb, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank Page said.
“Those who research these things tell us that church giving usually lags one to two years behind the general economy,” Page said. “God’s people are not immune from the hardships associated with this life. ... It should come as no surprise, then, that church giving has been deeply affected by the nation’s four-year recession.