Work:

 

In the United States and Canada, presently today it is board policy  to help churches to become self-supporting, to help branch churches grow into independent churches, to establish new groups in every area in which there is sufficient interest and need. God’s Holy Spirit in sovereign freedom seems to prepare certain places at certain times for maximum receptivity to the gospel and evidence of this is given by the fact that the church is growing in service and numbers. Our response should be to cooperate with the action of God by concentrating missionary resources at this point while the fruitfulness continues.

Assistance in funds and workers is thus given usually on the basis of making a full-time ministry possible, matching funds supplied locally to provide a minimum salary that will enable he worker to give his full leadership and service in such ministry. Realizing that a trained and equipped ministry is usually most effective, workers receiving aid from the Board shall be accredited by the General Conference o actively working toward meeting those standards in cooperation with the Council on Ministry.

In national churches abroad, it is board policy to correspond with those writing for information about our denomination, requests for names of contacts closest to them, and other information we can furnish them. We encourage them to contact the General Secretary or Executive Director of the conference of their own country when one is available. Otherwise we offer them help in the organization of a conference in their country. We help them understand the polity and beliefs of Seventh Day Baptists. We also offer them help in the development of the conference they would start.

When funds are available we offer to send the Executive Director, or a designated substitute, to the new field to teach these principles and doctrine. It is our desire to see all conferences succeed. We feel that the work of the members in a new conference will bring about the success of the conference.

Another responsibility of the Missionary Society is to receive and evaluate requests for financial help for projects. These requests will then be presented in the Focus articles of The Sabbath Recorder or in the Missions insert of the WWW.WOW., bimonthly publication of the denomination, and/or the Keyworker Missions Report, sent out from the Missionary Society office. The donations resulting from these articles are collected as Gifts For Special Purposes and then sent to the designated country or projects. Since these funds are not used in any budgetary applications, the Gifts For Special Purposes are not part of the Missionary Society Budget and do not get reported as monthly income credited to any church.

 Finances:

The work of the Society is supported solely by the gifts of Christians directly, through the denominational budget, or deferred giving made possible through gifts and bequests that form an investment fund that affords regular income. The Society treasurer or the Trustees of the Seventh Day Baptist Memorial Fund hold such funds. While some support is designated for particular workers’ support, some specific item within the budget, or to a certain field or type of ministry, most income is given undesignated and is thus used for the total program.

An operating budget is adopted for the current year at the October Board meeting. This finalizes the estimates put forward the previous year and tentative budget in process of adjustment during the previous quarters. Upon its review and approval by General Conference, it becomes a part of the Denominational Budget for the calendar year. In recent years the Board’s share has fallen below 30% participation in this budget. And, even with a set budget, giving has often failed to reach the goals set.

Annuities established by cash amounts, have been another way of limited support.

Owing to the fact that contributions are smaller some parts of the year than others, and that the workers must be paid regularly, it seems impossible not to have a deficit certain portions of the year; but in as much as a debt increasing and hanging over from year to year can only menace the work, the Board shall hold strictly to its policy of not creating an appreciable indebtedness except under extraordinary pressure, such as evangelization of new and needy fields. When the Board finds itself unable to secure contributions sufficient to meet the expenses of the work for a series of months, a policy of retrenchment shall be adopted without delay.

Detailed audited financial reports are presented to the Society in the Annual Report and are published as part of the Seventh Day Baptist Yearbook.