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NASHVILLE—The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) presented $500,000 from its financial reserves Thursday (May 20) to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to support national and international missions.
SBC EC President and CEO Ronnie Floyd expressed appreciation for the gift, which was approved by the SBTC Executive Board and presented by retiring SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards and Executive Director-elect Nathan Lorick.
“Since the inception of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, they have demonstrated a strong commitment to our Great Commission mission and ministries across America and the world,” Floyd said. “Above and beyond their ongoing generous support of forwarding 55 percent of all their Cooperative Program receipts to our national SBC ministries, this over and above gift of $500,000 is truly amazing and appreciated.
“Thank you, SBTC churches, for your generosity and testimony of advancing the Gospel throughout America and around the globe. The missional leadership of Jim Richards all of these years will live on through his successor Nathan Lorick. Thank God for these two godly men.”
More than 50 percent of the gift to the SBC EC’s allocation budget is designated for the International Mission Board, and 45 percent is tagged for North American Mission Board missions and theological education.
“It is a joy for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to be able to give more towards advancing the Gospel at home and across the world,” Lorick said. “The generosity of SBTC churches giving through the Cooperative Program provides us the opportunity to support our SBC entities and their ministries to see the world won for Christ.
“It is our prayer the Lord will multiply our gift to see people come to Christ, churches strengthened, churches planted and pastors cared for. It is an honor to walk hand-in-hand and heart-in-heart with our SBC partners.”
The gift is among $2.4 million in grants the SBTC approved in April, including grants to support the work of Southern Baptist state conventions located outside the South, and donations to Jacksonville College, the Montana Southern Baptist Convention and Yellowstone Christian College, the Southern Baptist Texan reported.
The grants were awarded despite 2020 SBTC receipts that were $2.3 million under budget. The necessity of moving events online during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed SBTC to underspend the budget by $3 million, SBTC Chief Financial Officer Joe Davis said at the April executive board meeting. Davis reported SBTC reserves of more than $10.3 million as of February.
Lorick began April 1 as SBTC executive director-elect after Richards, SBTC’s founding executive director, announced his retirement. Lorick will transition to executive director July 1.
