RICHMOND, Va. -- In order to keep expenditures in line with anticipated income, 37 home office staff members of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) will lose their jobs, Baptist Press reported.

Both management and support positions will be affected. A total of 61 full-time and part-time positions will be eliminated. That number included some vacancies that will not be filled.

The cuts were the second measure the IMB took in the past week to reduce expenses and prevent deficit spending, BP reported. On June 5, IMB leaders announced limits on the number of new workers that will be sent overseas in 2003 and 2004.

Both steps were taken after the 2002 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering fell almost $10 million short of its $125 million goal. (See related story, Southern Baptists set giving record, fall short of goal.)

"The decisions to reduce staff and hold back new missionaries were extremely difficult to make," IMB President Jerry Rankin said. "This has been a painful process and every effort had been made to minimize the impact of budget reductions."

Rankin said many of the employees leaving have given many years of service to the IMB.

"It hurts to lose people who are not only colleagues and co-workers, but friends with bills to pay and families to feed," he said. "We are like family, every one passionately committed to the cause of reaching our world for Jesus Christ."

Employees losing their jobs will receive outplacement assistance and severance packages, according to the news service. IMB had about 500 employees prior to the cuts.