New process yields $642 million spending proposal
Members of the United Methodist Council on Finance
and Administration and the Connectional Table open a budget session with
worship and prayer.
UMNS photos by Marta W. Aldrich.
|
May 30, 2007 | NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS)
By Marta W. Aldrich*
Economist Don House talks about the apportionment formula.
|
The 2008 General Conference will receive a proposed four-year budget for
The United Methodist Church requesting $642 million to support
denominational ministries centered around four newly defined mission
initiatives.
Approved by church leadership on May 24 – Aldersgate Day – the
proposed spending plan is designed to fund the church’s 21st century
mission initiatives of leadership development; building new
congregations and revitalizing existing ones; ministry with the poor,
especially children; and combating the preventable diseases of poverty,
such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
The budget recommendation will be presented to General Conference
when the church's top legislative body meets next April in Fort Worth,
Texas. It was developed during a three-day joint meeting of the
governing board of the General Council on Finance and Administration
with the Connectional Table, a churchwide leadership entity responsible
for coordinating the denomination’s mission, ministries and resources.
The proposed budget for the 2009-2012 quadrennium is 4.8 percent
higher than the $612.5 million budget for the denomination’s current
four-year cycle. However, it is about 6 percent less than the overall
amounts requested by church entities to meet ministry goals. The budget
also represents a 6.6 percent spending increase for nine program
agencies that collectively had asked for 16.6 percent more. Program
agencies range from large ones, such as the Board of Global Ministries
and the Board of Discipleship, to smaller ones, such as United Methodist
Men and the Commission on Religion and Race.
Bishop Lindsey Davis, of the North Georgia Area, said the proposed
budget "represents a lot of shared pain – a lot of give and take."
The plan was approved unanimously by the GCFA board and by a vote of 27-7 from the Connectional Table. The Book of Discipline requires that both bodies agree on a budget proposal to be brought to General Conference.
Apportionment-based budgeting
Connectional Table member Daniel Ivey-Soto listens to budget discussions.
|
The four-year budget would be funded with $642 million in requested
apportionments from 34,000 United Methodist congregations, which
represents about 2.25 percent of projected local church income. However,
the plan was developed based on projections of receiving 87 percent of
that amount, or $558 million, as some churches do not pay 100 percent of
their requested apportionments.
Budget planners readily acknowledge that the process includes a payout buffer. Apportionment payouts
have varied over the years – from a low of 84 percent in 1993 to a high
of 91 percent in 2000. In the most recent budget year, 88.5 percent of
all apportioned amounts were received during 2006. Only 17 of the
church’s 63 U.S. conferences paid 100 percent of their requested
apportionments.
Local church spending has increased more rapidly than spending by the
denominational structure. Thus, the denomination has gotten a
decreasing share of the total funds received in the local church – a
downward trend that has accelerated since 1995.
GCFA staff and board member Don House, an economist, acknowledged
that coming up with a reasonable "bottom line" apportionment request is
an inexact science and is based on many economic factors. "We have to
keep the local churches and annual conferences in good health," he told
the joint session. "But we also strive to fund the mission and
ministries the best we can. The question is, ‘How do we strike that
balance?’"
Lisa King, a GCFA board member and treasurer of the Wisconsin Annual
Conference, told the groups that – while the agency requests would fund
"exciting and wonderful" ministries – financial realities must be
considered. "What we’ve been hearing in our conferences and other
conferences is that churches are struggling financially. They are
cutting budgets, cutting staff, cutting ministries," she said.
Members head to small group budget presentations at Simpsonwood
Conference and Retreat Center.
|
The Rev. Carl Schenck, a Connectional Table member from the Missouri
Conference, responded that apportionments are not the "plumb line" that
measures faithfulness. "In setting the bottom line for apportionments,
we are not limiting what God will do through us," he said.
New processes
The joint budget-building session was the first time the two entities
had worked together on a proposed spending plan. Previously, the GCFA
board was solely responsible for developing a recommendation to General
Conference. However, the 2004 General Conference created the
Connectional Table (comprising bishops, staff executives, agency
officers, and representatives of ethnic caucuses and annual conferences)
and mandated collaboration with GCFA so that "ministry and money are
brought to the same table to coordinate the mission, ministries and
resources of The United Methodist Church."
This also was the first time that spending requests were submitted on
an outcome-based model rather than by line item. "This is a more
business-based model and is seen as more meaningful and easier to
interpret to the General Conference, annual conferences and local
churches," said the Rev. Terry Bradfield, a top executive with GCFA. "It
gives the greater church a better sense of what the money is going for
and how it is expected to make a difference."
The compromise spending plan puts the church budget process about
five months ahead of schedule and strikes a balance between
denominational and local church resources and ministries, according to
Sandra Lackore, chief executive and treasurer of GCFA.
"It's a level budget that is a true reflection of a common table," says Sandra Lackore.
|
"It’s a level budget that is a true reflection of a common table," she
told United Methodist News Service. "… This is a budget that enables the
agencies to do the mission and ministry that the denomination wants,
while also allowing our local churches to do their mission and
ministries by not burdening them disproportionately."
The budget process included times of worship, prayer and dialogue
asking for God’s guidance throughout the number crunching and
negotiations.
"It is always difficult to come together and talk about money as a
Methodist. But it is always a joy to come together and talk about
mission," said Garlinda Burton, chief executive for the Commission on
the Status and Role of Women.
Serving as worship leader, retired Bishop Woodie W. White asked God
to bless the bodies’ work. "We give what we’ve done – and everybody did
our best and everybody had to give up something – and we give it now to
God."
*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Marta Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Article
Unprecedented unity builds for mission initiatives
Resources
Details of Proposed Budget
General Church Apportionment Payouts
Connectional Table
Council on Finance and Administration
2008 General Conference |