Cooperative Program gifts topped the $30 million mark, exceeding the basic budget requirement of $29.9 million by more than $300,000. Total Cooperative Program receipts totaled $30.22 million, an increase of $1.98 million from 1996 when the total was $28.34 million. Three plans of giving are available to the churches, plus exclusions of any dimension of Baptist life are possible within each of the plans.

Plan A -- the traditional plan in which 68 percent of the funds remains in North Carolina and 32 percent is sent to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) -- totaled $25.25 million. Of that amount, $23.48 million had no exclusions. The largest exclusion was the SBC -- $1.37 million -- in which all the funds remain in North Carolina.

Plan B -- the plan where 68 percent of the funds remains in North Carolina, 10 percent is sent to the SBC, and the remaining 22 percent is allocated to theological education in the state Baptist universities, special mission projects and Baptist agencies -- totaled $3.12 million. There were no exclusions in most of the funds -- $2.8 million.

Plan C -- identical to Plan B except that 10 percent is sent to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) instead of the SBC -- totaled $1.85 million. The no exclusion amount totaled $1.66 million.

The N.C. Missions Offering almost reached $2 million against a goal of $2.13 million. The total, which was $1,172 short of $2 million, was an increase of $242,690 from the 1996 offering. The state missions offering funds the work of Woman's Missionary Union and Baptist Men of North Carolina, in addition to special mission allocations.

State Baptist leaders were encouraged by the increase, even though the goal was not met. The 1998 goal is $2.26 million.

Gifts for international missions reached $9.84 million, up $310,584 from 1996. Home mission gifts totaled $4.7 million, up $207,793 from 1996. World hunger and relief gifts totaled $784,928, up $8,539 from the previous year.

Other designated gifts, primarily for the SBC and/or its agencies, totaled $793,675 in 1997, down $56,042 from 1996. The largest amount in this category was $764,733 for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Total contributions for all mission causes -- state and worldwide -- totaled $51.93 million, an amount believed by most Baptist leaders to be the largest amount in the history of the Baptist State Convention.

(EDITOR¼S NOTE: All figures given in this article are unaudited and are the earliest reports from the computers at the Baptist Building, Cary.)