Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Southern Baptist Convention could face a financial crisis within a few years unless churchgoers start giving more money to the denomination, according to an internal report.

Giving by Southern Baptist church members decreased steadily from 1968 to 1998 as a percentage of their earnings, down to 2.03 percent, according to the Champaign, Ill.-based Christian research group empty tomb inc., which provided some of the statistics used in the report.

Baptist churches traditionally ask members to tithe -- giving 10 percent of their income.

More than 2.6 million Southern Baptists live in Texas, although the moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas has had increasingly strained relations with the conservative-led national group.

The report also said the percentage of donations forwarded from churches to the SBC's Cooperative Program -- which funds missions, seminaries and state Baptist convention ministries -- has dropped from 10.5 percent of church income in the 1980s to 7.4 percent last year.

The lack of Cooperative Program funds already has forced postponement of 100 missionary deployments, job eliminations at mission boards, and tuition increases at the six Southern Baptist seminaries, according to the report by the SBC funding study committee. The document was adopted by the denomination's executive committee on Tuesday.

"It is the opinion of the committee none of the entities are in a financial crisis at present," the report said. "However, all of them are experiencing trends in their fiscal health that could degenerate into a crisis in very few years."

In addition to the sluggish economy, the report cited several possible causes for the downturn in Cooperative Program support: increased local church expenditures and greater emphasis on their own missions; the belief that Convention ministries have enough money; and concerns Cooperative Program funds aren't spent efficiently and effectively. Another theory is that "political infighting has led to decreased satisfaction with the denomination."

In 2001, gifts to the Cooperative Program totaled $487.2 million.

Many denominations are struggling with similar financial challenges, with less giving from younger generations.

But the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, has also been beset with internal strife as conservatives have taken over the positions of power, alienating some moderates.

"Historically, the fundamentalists who have now risen to power have not been strong Cooperative Program supporters," said the Rev. L. Joseph Rosas III, pastor of Crievewood Baptist Church in Nashville. Conservatives didn't approve of how the money was spent or trust such a large bureaucracy, he said.

Nancy Ammerman, a sociology and theology professor at Boston University and author of the book "Baptist Battles," said that "after 20 years of telling their congregations that (the Cooperative Program is) a bad system and doing bad things, in some sense they've reaped that harvest."

Bill Merrell, a spokesman for the Nashville-based SBC, said some that while moderate churches left the denomination, that caused only a one-time drop in funding.

However, he said that "some of our Southern Baptist leaders, particularly in mega-churches, have developed a relationship to denominational giving that is unhealthy for them and the denomination. ... It is absolutely crucial those pastors not fail in their responsibility as leaders."

The report said the convention must better educate its members about the Cooperative Program, which was created in 1925 to prevent the various ministries and missions from having to appeal directly to each church for money. The Southern Baptist Convention has 42,000 churches and 16.2 million members.

"CP's image must be re-envisioned from a `necessary but stodgy bureaucratic finance system' to a `dynamic, comprehensive, effective missions strategy for Southern Baptists,'" the report said.

The report included seven recommendations, which center on using the convention's vast resources to better educate churchgoers about why the Cooperative Program is important.

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